188 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



idea to undertake a journey of 2500 miles in such 

 weather (May and June), yet he said that I had 

 better wait till I heard again from him, for he 

 would write himself to Lord Canning and try to 

 get justice done me. 



"I do trust the light is breaking through the 

 darkness, and that before long I may have good 

 news to send you, in which I am sure you will 

 rejoice." 



It was fortunate for Hodson, and indeed for all 

 India, that by Anson's advice he waited on at 

 Dagshai until the answer from Calcutta should reach 

 the commander-in-chief. " I should undoubtedly 

 have been murdered at some station on the road," he 

 afterwards said. " The answer never came. It must 

 have been between Calcutta and Aligarh when dis- 

 turbances broke out, and was, with all the daks for 

 many days, destroyed or plundered." 



Hodson's opportunity had come at last : how 

 gloriously he rose to it the reader will learn in the 

 following chapters. 



