sion, and ravaging the country of the Bári Doáb until he was, in 1716, captured with some thousands of his followers and carried a prisoner to Delhi. There he was put to death with every refinement of torture after having been compelled to kill his son with his own hands. After this crushing defeat, we hear little of the Sikhs until the invasion of Nadír Sháh, whose easy conquest of Delhi and plunder of the city so weakened the Mughal Government that the Sikhs took heart and again prepared for battle. All Muhammadans, whether Persians, Afgháns, or Mughals, were to them accursed, and with equal alacrity they attacked the scattered detachments of Nadír Sháh's army, or plundered the baggage of Ahmad Sháh Abdáli, who after the assassination of Nadír Sháh had become master of Afghánistán and invaded the Punjab in 1747. The conduct of this prince to the Sikhs was conciliatory, and he would have been glad to enlist them on his side, first against the Delhi Government and then against the Maráthás, whom he defeated in turn. But the Sikhs, although they hated the Mughals, bore no love to the Afgháns, and had no wish to build up at Delhi an empire stronger than that which had preceded it and bind the yoke more firmly on their own necks. The horsemanship, frugal habits, and rapidity of movement of the Sikhs made them formidable opponents, and although they received constant and severe defeats from the better armed and disciplined Muhammadan troops, they never lost heart and only
