Page:Ranjit Singh (Griffin).djvu/197

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LATER CONQUESTS
391

from Jehlam. When, however, the latter had reached the Pír Panjál range, Fateh Khán, thinking that enough had been done to secure the Mahárájá’s neutrality, pressed on by double marches with his hardy mountain troops, without giving Mokham Chand any notice of his intentions; while the Sikhs, never of much use in the hills, were unable to move owing to a heavy fall of snow. The Diwán saw the design of Fateh Khán, but he was not disconcerted. He promised the Rajáori chief a jagír of Rs. 25,000 if he would show him a pass by which he might reach the valley at the same time as Fateh Khán, which he contrived to do with a handful of troops under Jodh Singh Kalsia and Nihál Singh Attári. He was thus present at the capture of Shergarh and Hari Parbat and the reduction of the valley, which was a work of no difficulty, for the governor had fled and little resistance was offered; but his force was too small to be of much account, and Fateh Khán declared that the Sikhs were not entitled to their share of the spoil.

Sháh Shujá, the ex-king of Kábul, who had been detained a prisoner in Kashmír, was made over to Diwán Mokham Chand, and brought by him to Lahore, where the Mahárájá, much annoyed to hear that Wazír Fateh Khán refused to share the plunder, determined on revenge. He opened negotiations with Jahándád Khán, brother of the late governor of Kashmír, who held the fort of Attock commanding the passage of the Indus, and induced him to surrender it to a Sikh force. It was now Fateh