156 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



formally attached, and the chief himself held for 

 several months in close arrest, pending his trial in 

 the Commissioner's Court. In spite of the evidence 

 which Hodson brought against him, the prisoner 

 was acquitted. Nevertheless, Hodson's belief in 

 Khadar Khan's guilt, a belief in which he did 

 not stand alone, remained unshaken. " Since 

 Khadar Khan has been out of jail," he writes, 

 " there has been a renewal of the former state of 

 uneasiness and excitement, and his people and 

 emissaries are most active in intrigue. Tell Godby 

 to look out for his friend, if he is really at Marri, 

 and to remember that whatever Major Edwardes 

 or any one else may say to the contrary, Khadar 

 Khan, and no one else, was the author of the attack 

 on him last December." 



Major Edwardes reported the case to Lord Dal- 

 housie as one of wrongful imprisonment, for which 

 he could see no fair excuse. Acting upon 

 Edwardes's version of the affair, the Governor- 

 General in the course of 1855 directed that Lieu- 

 tenant Hodson should not again have any civil 

 command in Yuzafzai. In reporting the matter to 

 the Court of Directors, Lord Dalhousie said : " Lieu- 

 tenant Hodson's case has been lately before me. It 

 is as bad as possible, and I have been compelled to 

 remand him to his regiment with much regret, for 

 he is a gallant soldier and an able man." In their 

 letter approving the Governor-General's decision the 

 Court of Directors decreed that Hodson should never 

 again be employed in any civil capacity whatever. 



As early as March 3, 1855, Hodson had been 

 made aware of the fate in store for him by a private 

 letter from the Chief Commissioner himself : — 



