The Lamanite king’s servants were attending him around 72 B.C. when Amalickiah, a Nephite dissenter who had risen through the Lamanite ranks, arranged the king’s murder to seize the throne. As the king came to meet Amalickiah, supposing he had carried out his orders, Amalickiah sent his own servants to bow before the king; when the king raised the first from the ground in the Lamanite token of peace, that servant stabbed him to the heart. The king’s servants fled, and Amalickiah’s men raised a cry blaming the king’s servants for the murder (Alma 47:20-24). Amalickiah feigned anger and ordered all who loved the king to pursue and slay them, and an army gave chase (Alma 47:28).
Frightened by the pursuit, the king’s servants fled into the wilderness, came over into the land of Zarahemla, and joined the people of Ammon (Alma 47:29). Years later one of them, a man named Laman and a descendant of Laman, was found among Moroni’s men. Moroni sent him with a small detachment to the guards holding Nephite prisoners in the city of Gid. Posing as a Lamanite who had escaped the Nephites, Laman offered the guards wine; they drank until they were drunk and fell asleep, and Moroni armed the prisoners within the walls and surrounded the army by night. The Lamanites awoke surrounded and surrendered, and Moroni took the city of Gid without bloodshed (Alma 55:4-26).