the possessors of some magnificent jewels, he sent Bhai Rám Singh with one of his wives to search the house and even the zenána of Sháh Shujá and bring all the valuables that were found. This was done, and it is said that the lady even searched the persons of the wives and female attendants of the Sháh, and everything worth carrying away was kept by the Mahárájá.
The Koh-i-Núr remained at Lahore till 1849, when on the annexation of the Punjab it was surrendered as a token of submission to the Queen of England. To her, as the representative and successor of the Emperors of Delhi, it legitimately descended, quite apart from the right of conquest, on the termination of a war forced on the English by the Sikh army.
The story of the famous mare Láili can be briefly told. She was renowned for her beauty throughout Afghánistán and the Punjab, and Ranjít Singh, in 1826, sent to her owner. Sirdár Yár Muhammad Khán, governor of Pesháwar, to demand her surrender which was refused. Straightway Sirdár Budh Singh Sindhanwalia, one of the best of the Sikh generals, was sent to take possession of the mare, and at the same time to attack Khalifa Syad Ahmad, who was preaching a jihád or holy war against the Sikhs in the Peshawar hills. He defeated the enemy, with great loss on both sides, but when he reached Peshawar was informed that Láili had died. On his return to Lahore it was ascertained that this story was false, and another force, under the nominal
