flashed out fiercely. They captured Sirhind, the scene of the murder of the Guru's sons, massacred the inhabitants, and then ravaged the country up to Lahore, sparing only those who became Sikhs. The new Emperor, Bahadur Shah, took the field in person against them with a powerful army, called on all Mahomedans to rise in defence of their religion, and gave orders mercilessly to crush the revolt by slaying every Sikh to be found. The death of the Emperor and the usual conflict for the succession among the sons prolonged the anarchy and confusion in the Punjab for six years, during which Mahomedan and Sikh fought with ferocity. At last the Akalis among the Sikhs, a body of fanatical and uncompromising followers of Govind, established by him in the name of his youngest sons, turned against their fiendish leader, alienated by his excesses and attempts to subvert the tenets and commands of their great Guru to suit his Hindu proclivities. His death at the hands of the Moghuls in 1715
