Singh, a near connection, had given no provocation further than that he was too weak to resist.
The last of the great confederacies to fall before the Mahárájá was the Kanheya, of which his mother-in-law, Mai Sada Kour, was the head. It has been already related that this lady had presented him with two boys, Sher Singh and Tara Singh, as the children of her daughter, Mahtab Kour. The fraud was, for reasons recorded in the next chapter, diplomatically accepted by the Mahárájá, who determined to repay it when an opportunity occurred. It came not till Sher Singh was about twelve years old, and had been sent in nominal command of troops to Hazára in the unfortunate expedition in which the gallant Diwán Rám Dyál had been killed at Gandgarh by the Yusafzais. On this occasion the young Sher Singh was said to have behaved well, and on his return the Mahárájá suggested to Mai Sada Kour, who had already adopted the boy as her heir, that the time had come when she might appropriately give up worldly affairs, and resign in favour of her grandson.
The old lady had no wish to perform this act of renunciation, but she was encamped at Sháhdera, a few miles from Lahore, and refusal might have unpleasant results. So she temporised, and returning to her head-quarters at Batála, opened negotiations with the English, asking to be permitted to come under their protection, and live in Cis-Sutlej territory. The Mahárájá heard of these intrigues, and summoned the lady to his presence, where he repeated his orders
