THE SECOND SIKH WAR. 87 



village adjacent to the fort a large body of the 

 enemy had been dislodged, wrote the brigadier, 

 "by the detachment of the corps of Guides in 

 good style, killing several." ^ " Since then," writes 

 Hodson, " we have been pursuing other parties, but 

 only came into collision with them to a very trifling 

 extent once. They had learnt how to run away 

 beautifully. The brigadier has grown quite active, 

 and very fond of me since that day at Kalallwala, 

 though he had the wit to see how very ' brown I 

 had done him ' by making him march two marches 

 in one." 



Hodson himself received the special thanks of 

 Brigadier-General Hugh Wheeler, "not only for 

 his services in the field, but for the information 

 with which he furnished him." 



In the letter from which we have already quoted 

 Hodson draws a lively picture of the duties devolved 

 upon him as a political oflicer in command of a body 

 of the Guides : " Item, fighting personally ; item, to 

 destroy six forts, and sell by auction the property 

 therein found ; item, to be civil to all comers ; item, 

 to report all the said doings daily to Government ; 

 item, to march ten to twenty miles a-day at a slow 

 pace ; item, to eat, drink, dress, and sleep, to rest 

 oneself from all these labours. In the above com- 

 pendious epitome of the work of that much-abused 

 and ill-used class called ' politicals ' in India, you 

 will, I trust, observe no vacant places or hiati in 

 which you would expect to see inscribed, ' Item, to 

 write to one's friends.' " 



Meanwhile several bands of insurgents continued 

 ravaging the country between the Ravi and Chinab. 



^ Punjab Blue-Book, 1847-1849. 



