BEFORE DELHI. 239 



Nicholson, marclied into camp with bauds playing, 

 amid ringino- cheers from the force it had come to 

 succour in the nick of time. 



Among those who then greeted the war-worn 

 heroes of Trimmu Ghat, Hodson was not to find a 

 place. He had been out that morning on a fruitless 

 reconnaissance, and had hardly begun a hurried 

 letter to his wife when he got his orders to start 

 that night for Rohtak, where a party of mutineers 

 from Delhi were said to be planning fresh mischief 

 against our right rear. With 230 of his own horse, 

 100 of the Guide cavalry, 25 of the Jhind Horse, and 

 only six European officers, he set off on one of the 

 most daring enterprises which he was ever called 

 upon to carry through. At the end of a week he 

 was to reappear, unhurt himself, and happy in the 

 entire success of a hazardous errand, which delighted 

 Wilson and enhanced his own renown as a consum- 

 mate cavalry leader. 



How hazardous an errand he had undertaken, with 

 what skill, hardihood, and prompt resourcefulness he 

 had discharged it, may be gathered, in part at least, 

 from his own letters and his official report. By noon 

 of the 15th his little force had pushed on as far as 

 Kharkauda. 



"Havino; been informed that a number of ir- 

 regular cavalrymen, whose homes were in the village, 

 had arrived the day before from Delhi at Kharkauda, 

 I took measures for securing the several entrances 

 to it and attempting their capture, sending a small 

 party of the Guide Corps to surprise and arrest the 

 leading man, named Basharat Ali, a risaldar of the 

 1st Regiment, irregular cavalry. Both objects were 

 accomplished, only two sowars having had time to 



