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By Munshi Dhonkal Singh; originally written for the information of Ranjit Singh, Thakur of Bhartpur, about the end of the last century. Hal-i-Begam Sahiba. A little Persian memoir of Begam Sumroo, full of vagueness and error, written four years after her death, and from traditional sources.
Meanwhile, Begam Sumroo, who was with her forces operating against a fresh rising of the Cis-Satlaj Sikhs, hastened from Panipat and presented herself in the palace. Awed by this loyal lady and her European officers, and finding the Moghul courtiers unwilling to enter into any combination against them, the baffled Rohilla retired across the river, and remained for some time quiet in his camp.
It has even been doubted if any formal marriage-ceremony ever took place, for Sumroo had a wife living, though insane; and the fact was probably sufficiently notorious to prevent any Catholic clergyman in that part of the country from celebrating a bigamous alliance with the rites of the Church.
The enterprising minister returned at once to Dehli, where he was received with high outward honour. He was, on this occasion, attended by the condottiere Sumroo, who, in his usual fashion, had transferred his battalions to the strongest side soon after the battle of Barsana.
Najaf held viceregal state at Agra, surrounded not only by his faithful Moghuls and Persians, but by two brigades of foot and artillery, under the command, respectively, of Sumroo and of Medoc.
Asaf-ud-daulah, Viceroy of Audh, was recognized as titular Vazir; a trustworthy chief, Maulah Ahmad Dad, was appointed to the charge of Sirhind; Najaf Kuli Khan held the vast tract extending from that frontier to the borders of Rajputana; and Sumroo was placed in charge of the country adjoining Zabita Khan's lands, in the centre of which he fixed his capital at Sardhana, long destined to remain in the possession of his family, and where a country house and park, familiar to the English residents at Meerut, still belong to the widow of his last descendant.
Daulat Rao Sindhia Thomas adopted by Appa Khandi Rao Revolution at Sardhana Begam Sumroo attacked but delivered Begam Sumroo becomes a wiser Woman Movements of Afghans De Boigne retires General Perron Musalman intrigues Afghans checked Succession in Audh War of "The Bais" Afghans and British Rising of Shimbunath Thomas independent Revolt of Lakwa Dada Holkar's defeat at Indor Power of Perron.
Among the distinguished visitors to Hurdwar at this season of festivity was the noted Begum Sombre, or Sumroo, whose face the colonel compares to that of an old Scotch highlander, and her person to a sackful of shawls, and who declared "that the Duke of Wellington must be at heart a Catholic, because he emancipated the Catholics!"
It is not certain when she first entered the family of Sumroo, but she did not become his wife till some time afterwards.
The mausoleum of the Sumroo family is a handsome octagon building, surmounted by a low dome rising out of a cornice, with a deep drip-stone, something in the style of a Constantinople fountain. The inscription is in Portuguese a proof, most likely, that there were no French or English in Agra at the time of its being made.
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