232 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



Hod son was able to work everlastingly on very 

 little when necessary, at other times he took very 

 good care of the inner man. He seemed much 

 pleased with me during the day, and I slept that 

 night very tired and very happy." 



" Since the 23rd hardly a shot has been fired 

 here," says Hodson, writing on the 27th. "The 

 news-letters from the city mention meetings in the 

 market-place and talkings at the corners of the 

 streets, with big words of what they intend to do ; 

 but they (the people) are actually cowed and dis- 

 pirited, while their rulers issue orders which are 

 never obeyed." 



While regretting the absence of any leader with 

 a head to devise or a heart to dare some bold for- 

 ward movement against Delhi, he admits that "it 

 would require both a wise head and a very great 

 heart to run the risk with so reduced a force as we 

 have here now: 2200 Europeans and 1500 native 

 infantry are all that we now can muster." 



On the last day of July the Pandies made an 

 attempt on our position ; but nothing came of it, 

 except a long day's work in the saddle for Hodson 

 and his men, who had to watch the movements of a 

 rebel column threatening the British rear. " I have 

 just returned," he wrote that evening, " after some 

 hours of the heaviest rain I was ever out in, drenched 

 to the skin, of course, and somewhat tired, so judge 

 what a comfort a dry flannel shirt must be." 



In one of her letters to her husband Mrs Hodson 

 had insisted on the difference between doing one's 

 duty and running unnecessary risks. " But what 

 is one's duty?" asks Hodson in return. "Now I 



