174 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



down with the Hodsons to Ambala. "At Lahore," 

 adds my informant, "he took me to see many of 

 the Sikh sirdars, who seemed devoted to him. Old 

 Tej Singh lent his four best mules to ' horse ' the 

 ghdri to Amritsar. On arriving at Ambala I left 

 them to join my regiment at Agra." Hodson him- 

 self made his way to the hill station of Dagshai, 

 and quietly resumed his place as regimental sub- 

 altern in the 1st Bengal Fusiliers. In passing 

 through Ambala he had been "much gratified by 

 an unexpected visit from Mr Charles Eaikes, one 

 of the Punjab Commissioners, who was passing 

 through Ambala on his way to take a high appoint- 

 ment at Agra. I had no personal knowledge of him, 

 but he came out of his way to call upon me, and 

 express his sympathy and appreciation of (what he 

 was pleased to call) my high character. 



" He said much that was encouraging and pleas- 

 ing, which I need not repeat. It served pleasantly, 

 however, to show that the tide was turning, and 

 that in good men's minds my character stood as 

 high as ever." 



It must not be supposed that a man of Hodson's 

 stamp would accept without a struggle the sentence 

 passed upon him by the Indian Government in re- 

 spect of the Khadir Khan affair. In the midst of 

 his efforts to clear himself from blame concerning 

 the regimental accounts of the Guides, he had con- 

 sulted one at least of his friends as to the best 

 means of obtaining redress for what he honestly 

 considered a grievous wrong. The answer he re- 

 ceived from Robert Montgomery in November 1855 

 was not encouraging : " I do not think you can do 

 anything regarding Khadir Khan's case. The 



