=Ummed Singh in Exile.=—Ummeda, once more a wanderer, alternately courting the aid of Mewar and Marwar, never suspended his hostility to the usurper of his rights, but carried his incursions, without intermission, into his paternal domains. One of these led him to the village of Banodia: hither the Kachhwaha Rani, the widowed queen of his father, and the cause of all their miseries, had retired, disgusted with herself and the world, and lamenting, when too late, the ruin she had brought upon her husband, herself, and the family she had entered. Ummeda paid her a visit, and the interview added fresh pangs to her self-reproach. His sufferings, his heroism, brightened by adversity, originating with her nefarious desire to stifle his claims of primogeniture by a spurious adoption, awakened sentiments of remorse, of sympathy, and sorrow. Determined to make some amends, she adopted the resolution of going to the Deccan, to solicit aid for the son of Budh Singh. When she arrived on the banks of the Nerbudda a pillar was pointed out to her on which was inscribed a prohibition to any of her race to cross this stream, which like the Indus was also styled _atak_, or ‘forbidden.’[10.4.7] Like a true Rajputni, she broke the tablet in pieces, and threw it into the stream, observing with a jesuitical casuistry, that there was no longer any impediment when no ordinance existed. Having passed the Rubicon, she proceeded forthwith to the camp of Malhar Rao Holkar. The sister of Jai Singh, the most potent Hindu prince of India, became a suppliant to this goatherd leader[10.4.8] of a horde of plunderers, nay, adopted him as her brother to effect the redemption of Bundi for the exiled Ummeda. =Malhār Rāo Holkar assists Ummed Singh.=—Malhar, without the accident of noble birth, possessed the sentiments which belong to it, and he promised all she asked. How far his compliance might be promoted by [491] another call for his lance from the Rana of Mewar, in virtue of the marriage-settlement which promised the succession of Amber to a princess of his house, the Bundi records do not tell: they refer only to the prospects of its own prince. But we may, without any reflection on the gallantry of Holkar, express a doubt how far he would have lent the aid of his horde to this sole object, had he not had in view the splendid bribe of sixty-four lakhs from the Rana, to be paid when Isari Singh should be removed, for his nephew Madho Singh.[10.4.9] Be this as it may, the Bundi chronicle states that the lady, instead of the temporary expedient of delivering Bundi, conducted the march of the Mahrattas direct on Jaipur. Circumstances favoured her designs. The character of Isari Singh had raised up enemies about his person, who seized the occasion to forward at once the views of Bundi and Mewar, whose princes had secretly gained them over to their views.