exchange for their silver, both sides parted well pleased, the
money-changers only grieving that they could not discover whether this
transaction was a final one, or merely a prelude to further business of
the same sort.

The military arrangements for the funeral were made by Gerrard and
Charteris, who were quite aware that they and their men, in the
character of sympathetic spectators, were in as great danger as Kharrak
Singh himself. The army must be entrusted with the duty of keeping the
ground, since it was necessary for the guard, with the exception of a
small detachment, to remain at the palace and garrison it in case of a
surprise attack, and had the army been ill-disposed, it could have
swept away both claimants and the small Ranjitgarh force with a single
volley. But the army remained unmoved, and Sher Singh walked behind
Kharrak Singh as mourner, and guided his hand when he set light to the
great pyre of sandalwood dripping with costly perfumes. It was the
first time that the body of a Rajah of Agpur had been burnt without the
accompanying self-immolation of a number of his women, and troops and
Brahmins were alike displeased, while the mob surging outside the lines
enlivened the ceremony with taunts and maledictions. The troops made
various raids into the crowd to punish the most outspoken of the
dissentients, and this may have served to assure the people that there
would be no change in the drastic methods of Partab Singh. At any
rate, when the dead man's two sons had watched the pyre burn down into
ashes, had performed the ceremonies of purification and were
returning--on separate elephants, for the Rani had insisted on this--to
the square before the palace for the proclamation of the new Rajah, the
mob acclaimed Kharrak Singh with ardour.

There was some approach to a riot when Partab Singh's will was made
known, appointing the Rani Gulab Kur regent for her son Kharrak Singh,
and begging Gerrard to undertake the office of protector to both, and
loud cries were raised for Sher Singh; but when it was announced that
Sher Singh had consented to refer the question of his appointment as
joint-regent to the arbitration of the Ranjitgarh Durbar, the popular
wrath was turned against him also. Both he and the Rani were equally
committed to what the Agpuris considered a traitorous and unpatriotic
reliance on Ranjitgarh and the English, and the stern unbending
advocates of independence were for getting rid of