THE OUTBREAK AT MULTAN, AND AFTER. 67 



and wrong ; but then to kill a cow is to break 

 a law, and to disturb the public peace — perhaps 

 cause bloodshed : so the law is vindicated, and one's 

 conscience saved." 



What spare time remained to him he employed 

 in finishing a map which he had begun at Dinan- 

 agar, in translating official documents, and attend- 

 ing the darbars. " When the Guides arrive on the 

 20th I shall have," he writes, " to assist in drilling 

 and instructing them, to say nothing of seeing that 

 their quarters are prepared, and everything ready 

 for them. I am not, therefore, idle, and only wish 

 I had time to read." 



Meanwhile a storm was bursting; which no one in 

 India appears to have foreseen. On April 26 Hod- 

 son writes to his father from Lahore : "I mentioned 

 to you that Sir F. Curries plan of sending me to 

 assist Agnew at Multan had been altered, and that 

 Anderson had gone with him in my stead. At the 

 time I was disposed to be disappointed ; but we 

 never know what is for our good. In this case I 

 should doubtless have incurred the horrible fate of 

 poor Anderson and Agnew. Both these poor 

 fellows have been barbarously murdered by the 

 Multan troops." 



After g-iving; a detailed account of their tragic 

 fate and of the treacherous part played by Mulraj 

 himself, he adds : " The Sikh Darbar profess their 

 inability to coerce their rebel subject, who is rapidly 

 collecting a large army, and strengthening himself 

 in the proverbially strong fort of Multan. One 

 cannot say how it will end. The necessary delay 

 of five months, till after the rains, will give time 

 for all the disaffected to gather together, and no 



