Two such enterprising personages could not agree: and, until the princess’s death, there were constant disputes, sometimes the one, and sometimes the other, acquiring the ascendancy, and then confining or banishing their adversary. Yet it is alleged, that in times of reconciliation, marriage had been proposed between them, the custom of the lower casts of Hindus, at least, not only permitting, but requiring a younger brother to espouse his elder brother’s widow. That such a proposal should ever have been made, being contrary to the customs which at present prevail among the high casts, is rather improbable; and, perhaps, owes its origin to a desire of flattering Rana Bahadur, whose treatment of his uncle required an apology. The people of Palpa indeed allege, that, during the life of Singha Pratap, a more criminal intercourse had actually taken place between the two regents, and that it was to revenge the disgrace thrown on his family, that Rana Bahadur proceeded to extremities against his uncle. Were this true, the attempt to unite their differences by a marriage might be supposed possible: but I attribute the origin of such a story to the disappointed hopes of the Palpa family, which, after having entered into an iniquitous league with Bahadur Sahi, found itself in consequence reduced to a state of dependancy. I have already mentioned the manner in which Bahadur Sahi thus connected himself with the Palpa family, and the success that attended Damodar Pangre, the officer who was most judiciously employed, and who then held the office of Karyi. Except Palpa, and its share of the spoil, this officer speedily reduced the whole country from Gorkha to the boundary of the country called Garhawal, the capital of which is Srinagar. At the same time, the dominion of Gorkha was extended over the Sikim Bhotiyas of the east, as I have already mentioned; and several other chiefs of the Bhotiya nation towards the north were reduced to obedience.