256 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



Jehannum after the Pandies. I wonder how it will 

 end." I said to Gough Sahib, " Well, sahib, wher- 

 ever Hodson goes we'll all go " ; whereupon Gough 

 Sahib said, "Well, Man Singh, salaam; then we'll 

 all go to Jehannum too;ether."' 



" I cannot vouch for the strict accuracy of this 

 story, but one and all of us were prepared to follow 

 Hodson to the very death, and I am sure there was 

 not a desponding heart in the whole force." ^ 



The morning of that sultry 14th of September 

 dawned upon three columns of British and native 

 foot ready at all costs to fight their perilous way 

 inside the northern face of the g-reat rebel stronsj- 

 hold, which many of their number had been looking 

 at so longingly for more than three months past. 

 Every man there, from John Nicholson down to the 

 youngest private, knew how much depended on the 

 issue of what General Wilson mournfully regarded 

 as a gambler's throw. 



" If we fail, we fail ; 

 But screw your courage to the sticking-place, 

 And we'll not fail," 



was the feeling which braced every other heart in 

 Wilson's heroic force, emptying the hospitals of 

 men eager to share in the coming struggle, or at 

 least to relieve their healthier comrades from the 

 work of guarding a half- deserted camp. 



Meanwhile a fourth column, composed of Reid's 

 war-loving Gurkhas, the Guide infantry, and a few 

 score of white soldiers withdrawn for the time 

 from picket duty, aided on their right by Richard 

 Lawrence's Kashmir Contingent, was ordered to 

 advance against the Kishnganj suburb, where a 



* Gough's Old Memories. 



