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completely succeeded in his intention. He met Bhagchand and Lakshmichand there and under most solemn promises and assurances secured their consent to accompany him to Bikaner.
Decoyed with a fallacious guarantee of personal immunity and allured with the false prospects of the restoration of their old rights, the Bachchhavat brothers and their family started on their journey to their native place. They rejoiced over the idea that their days of banishment had come to an end and that they would soon be among their own people and in their own land. Their hearts were surcharged with feelings of gratitude and thankfulness towards their supposed benefactor. The ill-fated youths hardly dreamt that all the promises had been made only to be broken, and that they were being led to their doom. Sur Singh took more than ordinary care in concealing his deep-laid plot He dismissed his diwan and proclaimed to the world that he was going to restore the post to its rightful claimants. In course of time, they reached Bikaner and were apparently treated with great courtesy and consideration by the Raja. In fact, they had been lulled into fatal security. They had been there barely two months when one morning they awoke only to discover that their houses had been besieged by three thousand soldiers of Sur Singh. Now truth dawned on them in all its terrible reality They instinctively realised the situation and preferred a glorious death to an ignominious
