60 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



on sick-leave for two years to England. A few days 

 earlier Hodson had paid liim a farewell visit, and 

 received liis last instructions, "He is a genuinely 

 kind-hearted mortal, and has been a brother to me 

 ever since I knew him. I hope to see him back in 

 two years, invigorated and renewed, to carry out 

 the good work which he has so nobly begun." But 

 events were already working to cut short the hardly- 

 earned holiday of his noble-hearted chief. Henry 

 Lawrence sailed homewards in company with Lord 

 Hardinge on the 18th January 1848. The close of 

 that year was to find Sir Henry Lawrence, K.C.B., 

 back again in the Punjab with another Sikh war 

 raging around him. 



