room:

"With painful emotion, I communicate to His Majesty's Government the
news of a great reverse I suffered the day before yesterday at Lahore.
I have only to-day reached Delhi with the remnant of my army, which
has been pursued by the Russian advance guard. We had taken up a very
favourable position on the left bank of the Ravi and were on the
point of preventing the Russian army from crossing the river, when
unexpectedly a violent onslaught made upon our left wing at Shah Dara
compelled us to send reinforcements to this wing and thus to weaken the
centre. Under the cover of jungle on the river-bank, the Russian cavalry
and the Mohammedan auxiliaries of the Russian army succeeded in forcing
the passage and in throwing our sepoy regiments into disorder. The
troops of the Maharajah of Chanidigot traitorously went over to the
enemy and that decided the day against us. Had not all the sepoy
regiments deserted, I could have maintained my ground, but the English
regiments under my command were too weak to resist for long the superior
numbers of the enemy. The bravery of these regiments deserves the
highest praise, but after a battle lasting several hours I was compelled
to give the order to retreat. We fell back upon the city of Lahore, and
I contrived to convey a portion of my troops by railway to Delhi. This
city I shall defend to the bitter end. Reinforcements are being sent
from all military stations in the country. The extent of our losses I
am unable to give at the time of writing. I have been able to bring five
thousand troops intact to Delhi."

The reading of this terrible report was succeeded by a chilling silence.
Then the Minister of War arose and said:--

"This despatch certainly comes upon us as a staggering blow. Our best
general and his army, composed of the flower of India's troops, have
been defeated. We may rightly say, however, that our power is still
established on a firm basis, so long as England, this seagirt isle, is
safe from the enemy. No defeat in India or in any one of our colonies
can deal us a death-blow. What we lose in one portion of the world, we
can recover, and that doubly, in another, so long as we, in our island,
are sound in both head and heart. But that is just what makes me
anxious. The security of Great Britain is menaced when we have almost
the whole world in arms against us. A strong French army is standing
ready opposite Dover to invade us, and a German army is in Holland also