[10]. Such was the question propounded, and answered as Pepin expected, regarding the deposal of Childeric III., the last of the Merovingian race. [Pope Zacharias (A.D. 741-52), by whose sanction Boniface crowned Pippin King of the Franks at Soissons.]
[11]. The overture for these supplementary articles, in all probability, originated not with the regent, but with the son. Had the Author (who was then the medium of the political relations with Kotah) been consulted regarding their tendency, he was as well aware then as now, what he ought to have advised. Whether his feelings, alike excited by the grand work in which he bore no mean part, would have also clouded his judgment, it were useless to discuss. It is sufficient, in all the spirit of candour, to suggest such reasons as may have led to a measure, the consequences of which have been so deeply lamented.
[12]. ['The Garden of Enjoyment.']
[13]. The details of this ceremony will be given in the Personal Narrative.
[14]. ‘Anointing’ appears to have been, in all ages, the mode of installation. The unguent on this occasion is of sandalwood and itr of roses made into a paste, or very thick ointment, of which a little is placed upon the forehead with the middle finger of the right hand.
CHAPTER 11
Banishment of Gordhandās.
About the close of 1821, permission was imprudently granted to the exile to visit Malwa, to fulfil a marriage-contract with an illegitimate daughter of the chieftain of Jhabua.[[1]] Scarcely had he set his foot in that town, when symptoms of impatience, in lieu of perfect tranquillity, began to be visible at Kotah, and a correspondence both there and at Bundi was hardly detected, before a spirit of revolt was reported to have infected the tried veterans of the regent. Saif Ali, the commander of the ‘Royals’ (Raj Paltan), an officer of thirty years’ standing, distinguished for his zeal, fidelity, and gallantry, was named as having been gained over to the cause of his nominal sovereign. This was looked upon as a slander; but too wise entirely to disregard it, the regent interposed a force between the disaffected battalion and the castle, which brought the matter to issue. The Maharao immediately proceeded by water, and conveyed Saif Ali and a part of his battalion to the palace; which was no sooner reported, than the blind regent put himself into his litter, and headed a force with which he attacked the remainder, while two twenty-four pounders, mounted on a cavalier, which commanded not only every portion of the city, but the country on both sides the Chambal, played upon the castle. In the midst of this firing (probably unexpected), the Maharao, his brother Prithi Singh, and their adherents, took to boat, crossed the river, and retired to Bundi, while the remainder of the mutinous ‘Royals’ laid down their arms. By this energetic conduct, the new attempt upon his power was dissolved as soon as formed, and the gaddi of the Haras was abandoned. Bishan Singh escaped from his brothers in the midst of the fray, and joined the regent, whose views regarding him, in this crisis, however indirectly manifested, could not be mistaken; but our system of making and unmaking kings in these distant regions, though it may have enlarged our power, had not added to our reputation; and the Agent had the most rooted repugnance to sanction the system in the new range of our alliances, however it might have tended to allay the discord [572] which prevailed, or to free the paramount power from the embarrassment in which its diplomatic relations had placed it, and from whence there was no escape without incurring the too just reproach of violating the conditions we had imposed. Common decency forbade our urging the only plea we could in forming the treaty, namely, our considering the prince as a mere phantom; and if we had been bold enough to do so, the reply would have been the same: “Why did you treat with a phantom?” while he would have persisted in the literal interpretation of the bond.