ALP
36
cold it had gained all pight, a^ad so the nazim had sought shelter in the neighbouring villages. Presently two Europeans, attended by one or two sawars and They runners, were seen to pass within a few paces of the ndzim's tent. were challenged, and, as agreed upon, gave themselves out as belonging to a British cavalry regimen b, which, they said, was encamped in the neighbourhood. They were allowed to pass on one of the runners then pointed to a man under a tree, who was attended by one or two others, and said that that was Shiuraj Singh. One of the sawars then seized the outlaw by the hair, the latter swore an oath, and a scuffle ensued the sawars were cut down, Shiuraj wounded in the thigh, and the confusion was complete. The European officers threw themselves on the protection of the nftzim, who fortunately sheltered them. The wounded outlaw was carried off westwards by his now assembled followers, and, as fate would have it, fell into the hands of Captain Orr's outstripped escort, who decapitated him. Thus ended a brave, though rash, encounter but for the rain, Shiuraj Singh would have been attended, as usual, by his 200 desperadoes, and the result would have been different. Fateh Bahadur Singh was seized at Benares under disguise, and sentenced to transportation for life, but died the following day in the Jaunpur Jail, not without suspicion of having
had
to
be made.
The weather was
legions that followed the
poisoned himself. It will be seen from the details above recorded, that of the five sons of Zalim Singh of Meopur, the descendants of the first and third have absorbed the estates of the second, fourth, and fifth, while two of our great taluqdar houses have sprung from the first son, viz., 1st, Udresh Singh and Chandresh Singh of Meopur-Daharwa, and 2nd, Umresh Singh of Meopur-Bardgaon. Two great houses have also sprung from the third son, viz., 1st, Israj Singh, and 2nd, LaUu Sah of Meopur-Dhalla. When I allude to the two last-named babus as forming two houses, I must note that they hold under a joint sanad, but they have frequent disputes, and they have made a private partition of their holdings. They have now succeeded to the estate of the fugitive Eaghubirdayal Singh, through his widow who held it, and died childless. Eaghubirdayal left a second widow, but she was set aside on the plea of having been married when her husband was an outlaw.
At the time of, or shortly before, old Zalim Singh's dep-th, the Meopur property consisted of 289 villages, paying Rs, 48,420 to Government his offspring held no less than 548 villages at annexation, paying Rs, 1,45,356 per annum to Government.
Meopur-KMs.—This
is
the present village of the second great faction
was first inhabited by Rdjkumars ten generations ago, when Madhukar Sah crossed the Gumti and occupied it. The village contains 174 houses and 745 acres of land, and it is held in three portions by the three taluqdars whose estates have Meopur prefixed to their other names, and who cling to their respective ancestral portions, with much pride and pertinacity. There was formerly a mud fort here, the site of which is now marked by a much-reverenced mound of earth. But, although this was the parent village of this faction of the Rdjkumars, their great Stronghold was the fort of Dw^rka. This fort is in the south-east comer of the district, on the left bank of the Gumti, and overhanging it. of the clan.
It
