61 



CHAPTER VL 



THE OUTBREAK AT MULTAN, AND AFTER. 1848. 



Among tliose wlio rejoiced in Hodson's appoint- 

 ment to the Guides was Captain (afterwards Sir 

 Herbert) Edwardes, himself a subaltern in the 1st 

 Bengal Fusiliers, who had lately been transferred 

 to Lawrence's political staff. Writing home to his 

 mother in the autumn of 1847, Edwardes thus 

 speaks of his brother officer : " Young Hodson 

 has been appointed to do duty with our Punjab 

 Guide Corps, commanded by Lieutenant Lumsden. 

 The duties of a commandant or adjutant of Guides 

 are at once important and delightful. ... In short, 

 it is a roving commission, and to a man of spirit 

 and ability one of the finest appointments imaginable. 

 I think Hodson will do it justice. He is one of 

 the finest young fellows I know, and a thorough 

 soldier in his heart." 



Some busy weeks, however, of 1848 were yet to 

 elapse before Hodson actually joined the Guides. 

 By the middle of January he was off again from 

 Kassur "like a steam-engine, calling at a series of 

 stations, puffing and panting, hither and thither, 

 never resting, ever starting ; now in a cutting, now 

 in a tunnel ; first in a field, next on a hill. ... At 



