Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c42.s2.t1.244

v3.c42.s2.t1.244

Restoration of the Mahārāo.—These preliminaries being satisfactorily adjusted, it became important to inspire this misguided prince with a confidence that his welfare would be as anxiously watched as the stipulations of the treaty whose infringement had cost him so much misery. He had too much reason to plead personal alarm as one of the causes of his past conduct, and which tended greatly to neutralize all the endeavours to serve him. Even on the very day that he was to leave Nathdwara, on his return, when after great efforts his mind had been emancipated from distrust, a final and diabolical attempt was made to thwart the measures for his restoration. A mutilated wretch was made to personate his brother Bishan Singh, and to give out that he had been maimed by command [583] of the regent's son, and the impostor had the audacity to come within a couple of miles of the Maharao; a slight resemblance to Bishan Singh aided the deceit, which, though promptly exposed, had made the impression for which it was contrived, and it required some skill to remove it. The Rana of Udaipur no sooner heard of this last effort to defeat all the good intentions in which he co-operated towards the Maharao, to whose sister he was married, than he had the impostor seized and brought to the city, where his story had caused a powerful sensation. His indiscreet indignation for ever destroyed the clue by which the plot might have been unravelled; for he was led immediately to execution, and all that transpired was, that he was a native of the Jaipur State, and had been mutilated for some crime. Could the question have been solved, it might have afforded the means of a different termination of those unhappy quarrels, to which they formed a characteristic sequel: intrigue and mistrust combined to inveigle Kishor Singh into attempts which placed him far beyond the reach of reason, and the most zealous exertions to extricate him.