The idea soon suggested itself (home being nearly exhausted) to look abroad for conquest and rapine. The most obvious and tempting prize for their cupidity was Hindostan. The wealth of Delhi, Agra, Benares, Calcutta, were proverbial; and the hateful Feringhees, what masses of rupees must lay hidden in their store-houses! The British troops were much scattered about the face of the country; many of the sepoys might probably be induced to desert by the promise of increased pay; and were not the Khalsas assembled together, ready for action, and irresistible? These reflections were carefully fomented by a representation that the governor-general was on his progress to the frontier, and had resolved to demand from the Sikhs a cession of all lands on the British side of the Sutlej. What could be more conducive to the interests of the Ranee and many of the sirdars than these projects? What easier than to write to the British authorities a lamentation of her inability to restrain the licentious soldiery? Should they be repulsed, the British government must place them in a tractable and organized condition, but could never deprive an inoffensive child, and the hereditary successor to the throne, of its rights, for acts unauthorized by his advisers. The moderation of the Indian government, in its successes against the native powers, warranted such a conclusion. On the other hand, should the Sikh army be successful, they must look to the Ranee in authority at Lahore for numerous requisites to be supplied for the army in the progress of the campaign, and in case of success how faithfully they would have been supplied. Does the matter admit of a doubt? Her faithful and confidential adviser, her more than friend, marched with the forces, as second in command, Rajah Lal Singh.[13] Of late, the Ranee had devoted herself much to intoxicating liquors, and had indulged so freely that, according to the accounts forwarded by the governor-general's agent, Major Broadfoot, she had lost much of the energy and intelligence which used to mark her character; nor was she by any means singular in this propensity, for the greater portion of the Sikh sirdars followed zealously in the steps of their mistress. The Shalimar gardens, a few miles distant from Lahore, have witnessed scenes of drunkenness and debauchery, unparalleled, perhaps, in any of the capitals of modern Europe. The letters from the governor-general's agent on the north-western frontier, from May 8th to August 10th, 1845, will throw as true a light on the occupation and morality of the court and army of Lahore as could be sought or desired.