At this period, also, Moozuffur Shah, King of Guzerat, with a large army arrived at D'har, and Sikundur Khan having again raised the standard of revolt, plundered the country. Medny Ray, aware that every thing depended upon his ex­ertions, directed Mullik Lado, the governor of Kuhndwa, to oppose Sikundur Khan, while he himself marched, accompanied by the King, against the forces of Guzerat, which had now arrived within a short distance of Mando; but being at­tacked and defeated, Moozuffur Shah retreated to Ahmudabad. Mullik Lado defeated Sikundur Khan; but one of his dependents, who had suffered from Mullik Lado, attacked him unawares, and stabbed him to the heart. Sikundur Khan, in con­sequence, rallying his troops, attacked and defeated the King's forces, who were now without a leader, and having taken six elephants, together with other booty, he returned to Seevas.

Sooltan Mahmood, deferring the punishment of Sikundur Khan for the present, marched against the forces under Bohjut Khan at Chundery. On the road to which place he heard that Sahib Khan had, at the instigation of the Chundery confe­derates, arrived near his army, and had assumed the title of king, supported by a force from Dehly under Imad-ool-Moolk Lody, and accompanied by Mahafiz Khan. This intelligence occasioned the utmost distress to Sooltan Mahmood; added to which, two parties of cavalry, the one under Sud-dur Khan, and the other under the Prince Mukhsoos Khan, deserting the royalists, joined the enemy. Sahib Khan now detached a force under one Mahmood Khan to occupy Sarungpoor; but that officer, alarmed at the approach of the King's army, fled disgracefully. Affairs were in this state when Imad-ool-Moolk and Syeed Khan, at the secret instigation of Medny Ray, recommended Bohjut Khan to read public prayers, and to coin money, in the name of their own master, Sikundur Lody of Dehly; a measure calculated, of all others, to separate the interests of the Dehly and Chundery chieftains. The proposal being made to Bohjut Khan, he spurned the idea of deserting the cause of Sahib Khan, which opened to him no advantage whatsoever, and he accordingly made an excuse to separate himself from the Dehly forces, the ob­ject of all others which Medny Ray desired. Mean­while an order arrived for the recall of the Dehly troops. It is stated that public prayers were ac­tually read, and coin struck, in the name of Sikun-dur Lody; but on hearing that Sooltan Mahmood of Malwa, with a large army, was on his march to oppose his small detachment, and being unable to spare more troops at the time, Sikundur or­dered his army to fall back on Dehly. At all events, Sooltan Mahmood, on the retreat of the Dehly troops, considering it a mark of the in­tervention of Divine favour, offered up prayers on the occasion, while, in the mean time, Ma-hafiz Khan and Khwaja Jehan, taking a cir­cuitous route, marched by order of Sahib Khan to invest Mando. The King, obtaining intelli­gence of this movement, detached Hubeeb Khan with a large force of Rajpoots to oppose the Prince; and in the neighbourhood of Nalcha an action took place, in which Mahafiz Khan was killed, and his force dispersed. The Prince Sahib Khan and Bohjut Khan, deprived of all hopes of assistance, now thought it advisable to make over­tures for peace; and one Sheikh Owlia was deputed as envoy to the King for that purpose. Sooltan Mahmood, who prayed for nothing more, gladly ceded the forts of Raiseen, Bhilsa, and Dhamony, to Sahib Khan for his support; at the same time presenting him with ten lacks of copper tunkas and twelve elephants; after which conciliatory letters were written to the different officers who had espoused the cause of Sahib Khan. On the King's return to his capital he was guided entirely by the advice of Medny Ray, who was daily employed in the destruction of one or other of the Mahomedan chiefs. They were frequently put to death without cause, their houses plun­dered, and their estates confiscated. At last the King evinced his dislike for all the nobles, and for Mahomedans in general, so that most of the officers who held situations under the late Nasir-ood-Deen and Gheias-ood-Deen were put to death, and their offices filled by Rajpoots. The very Mahomedan females who had been educated in the seraglio of Sooltan Gheias-ood-Deen now became the mistresses of Medny Ray and the rest of the Rajpoot officers. The guards at the gates were composed entirely of Hindoos, and the old system of government was completely subverted. Ghalib Khan, the late governor of Mando, became so offended at the ascendency obtained by the Hin-doos, that when the King was out on a hunting party with his infidel Rajpoots he shut the gates of the garrison, and refused them admittance. Sooltan Mahmood immediately proceeded to in­vest the fort. Ghalib Khan, unable to hold out against the royalists, escaped; but the King sent a party of Rajpoots to seize him, by which he was overtaken in a few days and brought into Mando, where he was executed. After this, Medny Ray removed the few remaining Mahome-dans from their public situations, so that except­ing the personal servants of the King, amounting to about two hundred, the whole of the offices of government were filled with Rajpoots. Affairs had now assumed a very alarming appearance in the mind of the King, who, for the first time, began to reflect seriously on the situation to which he was reduced, and resolved to dismiss all the Rajpoots. It is customary in India, when a servant is discharged, for his master to give him a leaf of pân, as a token that he has received his formal dismissal, and that he bears him no malice; so Sooltan Mahmood having ordered forty thousand packets of pân to be brought him, he sent them in a basket by the hands of Araish Khan to Medny Ray, stating that it was his Majesty's pleasure to discharge the whole of the Rajpoot army, consisting of so many per­sons; and he directed Medny Ray to distribute the pân amongst them, and to disband them accord­ingly. The Rajpoots declared to a man that they were prepared to shed the last drop of their blood for the King; that they had always defended his person and kingdom with bravery, and were not aware of what they had been guilty, to be thus dis­charged at a moment's warning. But they went to Medny Ray, and proposed to remove Sooltan Mahmood and place Ray Rayan, the son of Medny Ray, on the throne. The wily statesman replied, “As to the government of Malwa, it has long been “in my hands; but if I were to usurp the crown, “the kings of Guzerat, of Kandeish, and of the “Deccan uniting, would very soon reduce Malwa “to their subjection, in spite of every effort on our “part: the best thing that can now be done, is to “go and beg the King to forego his intention of “discharging you.” Medny Ray succeeded in his wish, which was granted, on condition that the personal offices of the state should be filled by Mahomedans; that the old officers still alive should be replaced in their former situations; that all Mahomedan women should be released from the seraglios of the Rajpoots; and that no Hindoo should hold any civil office at court. These terms being acceded to by Medny Ray, he was more than ever assiduous in gaining the King's good will. But Salb'han, * a Rajpoot officer of rank, provoked him by repeated insults, till at last Sooltan Mahmood, who had only two hundred personal attendants, ordered them to waylay both Salb'han and Medny Ray, and to murder them. They were accordingly attacked: the former was killed, but the latter made his escape to his house, though covered with wounds. The Rajpoots who were devoted to both these officers, on hearing of the death of Salb'han, and the attack made on Medny Ray, proceeded to assault the palace. Sool-tan Mahmood, who though a fool in the cabinet, had not his equal in courage in the hour of danger, girt on his sword, and sallying forth with sixteen horse­men and a few infantry attacked the Rajpoots with desperate resolution, many of whom he slew with his own hands, and absolutely beat them back from the palace. After being checked, they collected at Medny Ray's house, and called on him to head them. He replied, that although the King his master had sought his life, he had no right to take up arms against him: he said, moreover, that he was ready, even now, to submit to any punishment which the King chose to inflict, rather than head an army against him. Medny Ray concluded this address by ordering the troops instantly to retire to their quarters; and sent word to the King, informing him that he was out of danger from the wounds which he had received from the King's servants, who had waylaid him for the purpose of putting him to death; that he was ready, for the good of the state, to lay down his life; and that if his Majesty was of opinion that his death was necessary for the promotion of that object, he was prepared to submit himself to exe­cution. Sooltan Mahmood, convinced of Medny Ray's fidelity, again received him into favour; but the latter being ever after suspicious of the King's intentions, went in future to the palace attended by an escort of five hundred men. This measure so greatly disturbed the King's mind, that one night leaving the fort of Mando with one horseman and a few foot-attendants, he did not draw rein till he arrived on the confines of Guzerat. * The officers on the frontier, after hearing his story, received him with the utmost respect, and wrote to Moozuffur Shah, who imme­diately despatched Keisur Khan and Taj Khan to put themselves under his orders for the present; and after his army was collected, the King of Guzerat marched thither himself, and placing Sooltan Mahmood on his right hand on his own throne treated him in every respect as an equal.