that at their close, whatever the result, he might be left in possession of what he had actually conquered; and he cleverly kept the Envoy in his camp to weaken the resistance of the chiefs and to obtain some sort of official sanction for his enterprise.
After Mr. Metcalfe had left the camp, the Mahárájá continued his career of conquest; he seized Sháhábád and Ambála, and would have despoiled Patiála, but he knew that this would cause a breach with the English; so he contented himself with summoning the frightened Rájá Sáhib Singh to his camp, where he exchanged turbans with him and swore eternal friendship. He then returned to Amritsar, where he was rejoined by our Envoy on the 10th December.
Instructions had now been received from Calcutta. The impossibility of a French invasion was beginning to be realized, and a treaty with Ranjít Singh against so chimerical a danger was understood to be worthless, or, at any rate, not worth the concession of the authority of so strong and unscrupulous a ruler being extended over States which detested him and which had eagerly claimed British protection. The Mahárájá was accordingly informed that the Governor-General had learnt with great surprise and concern of his pretensions south of the Sutlej, and was still more astonished to find that he sought the assistance of the British Government in his designs. He was told that the Government was the successor of the Maráthás, whom they had defeated, and that during that contest the Mahárájá had himself suggested the Sutlej as a
