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2 country. Teja Sing, whom I attended at Lahore, made to
3 me the candid confession, that, in circumstances like those to
4 which the country was reduced, no other remedy was left for its
5 salvation but to surrender it to the English. It is well known,
6 that on the 22nd of December, 1845, Teja Sing arrived on the
7 field of battle with a reserve of twenty-five to thirty thousand
8 regular troops, after the English had fought a whole day and
9 night, and consumed all their ammunition, on account of which
10 they had been obliged to retreat. But the Sikhs with whom
11 they had fought, believing themselves defeated, retired also, and
12 the English returned and re-occupied their abandoned camp.
13 That was the critical moment in which the reserve army, under
14 the command of Teja Sing, arrived; and he, being in corres-
15 pondence with the English, did what he could to check the ardour
16 of his troops by filling them with fear ; and he was the first who
17 turned his back in order to spare the English, he knowing their
18 critical position. The army followed his example, and retreated
19 also. That was the famous battle in which the confusion among
20 the British troops reached its highest pitch — to such a degree,
21 that they fired on each other. On this occasion, a Catholic
22 priest, the only one in the whole army, lost his life, his long
23 beard and turban causing the mistake. It is known, too, that
24 the Prince Waldemar of Prussia was in the English ranks as
25 a volunteer, and distinguished himself by his courage and
26 calmness. Although he luckily escaped the peril, he was much
27 afflicted by the sad accident of seeing his dear friend and travel-
28 ling companion, Doctor Hofmeister, fall by his side, having been
29 killed by a shot from the Sikh camp.
30 On the 10th of February, 1846, the battle of Sobraon took
31 place, which decided the fate of the country. Teja Sing, the
32 traitor, took to his heels, and, on passing the Sutlej, he ordered
33 the bridge to be broken down, leaving the greater part of his
34 troops behind in a helpless state. The betrayed soldiers cried,
35 with their hands folded and grass in their mouths, making
36 themselves emblems of their holy animals, the cattle. It is said,
37 that some of them exclaimed : “ We suffer only the just reward