WAITING FOR BETTER TIMES. 173 



It seems also clear that to the same cause may 

 be ascribed that further crop of stories which in 

 after-years represented Hodson as a past-master in 

 the art of enriching himself at other people's expense. 



In January 1856, while Hodson and his wife were 

 staying at Peshawar, they were cheered by a visit 

 from her son, young Reveley Mitford, now a retired 

 major-general, who had come thither on leave, pend- 

 ing the result of his application to be transferred 

 from the 9th Native Infantry to the 3rd Bengal 

 Europeans, then stationed at Agra. Hodson and 

 his stepson often acted as gallopers on field-days 

 to Brigadier (afterwards Sir Sydney) Cotton. On 

 one occasion, writes General Mitford, "Hodson 

 wanted to have a talk with the officer commandins; 

 Fort Michni, and I rode out with him and had 

 tiffin at the fort, where I myself commanded in 

 1877. We stayed rather late, and did not leave 

 till sundown. There was then only a track between 

 Peshawar and Michni, thirteen miles, frequently 

 crossing dry nullahs and running through tracts 

 of brushwood and scrub. We were approaching 

 one of these nullahs when I called Hodson's 

 attention to some sparks on the opj)osite bank ; 

 he at once said, ' Keep quiet and follow me.' We 

 turned off at right angles, and immediately three 

 shots were fired at us, and I heard for the first 

 time the ' ping ' of a bullet. ' That's all right,' 

 said Hodson, ' now we know where they are.' We 

 crossed the nullah lower down and regained the 

 track by a circuitous route. All he said about it 

 was, ' Don't tell your mother — it will only make 

 her anxious.' " 



In the spring of the same year Mitford marched 



