Such was the opening scene of the lengthened tragedy enacted in Shaikhavati, when Mahratta actors succeeded to Pathans and Moguls: heirs to their worst feelings, without one particle of their magnanimity or courtesy. But the territory of the confederacy was far too narrow a stage; even the entire plain of India appeared at one time too restricted for the hydra-headed banditti, nor is there a principality, district, or even township, from the Sutlej to the sea, where similar massacres have not been known, and but for our interposition, such scenes would have continued to the present hour. =Partāp Singh.=—Partap Singh, who succeeded his brave father in his share of the patrimony, was at this crisis with his mother at Sikrai, a strong fort in the hills, ten miles from Khandela. To save the town, the principal men dug up the grain-pits, selling their property to release their minor chief from further trouble. Having obtained all they could, the enemy proceeded to the lands of the Sadhanis. Udaipur was the first assaulted, taken, and sacked; the walls were knocked down, and the floors dug up in search of treasure. After four days’ havoc, they left it a ruin, and marched against the northern chieftains of Singhana, Jhunjhunu, and Khetri. On the departure of the foe, young Partap and his kinsman, Narsingh, took up their abode in Khandela; but scarcely had they recovered from the effects of the Deccani incursion, before demands were made by their liege lord of Amber for the tribute. Partap made his peace by assigning a fourth of the harvest; but Narsingh, in the procrastinating and haughty spirit of his ancestors, despised an arrangement which, he said (and with justice), would reduce him to the level of a common Bhumia landholder.