260 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



storming columns were making good the ground 

 they had won inside the city. " It certainly was 

 a critical time," says Sir Hugh Gough ; " but the 

 movement had the desired effect, and heavily as 

 our brigade suffered, it was satisfactory to know 

 that we had done our duty and had borne a good, 

 if passive, share in the day's fighting." 



That afternoon Wilson removed his headquarters 

 into that part of Delhi which the columns led by 

 Nicholson, Jones, and Campbell had already won 

 against fearful odds at the cost of many hundred 

 slain and wounded. Nicholson himself lay slowly 

 dying in the tent to which he had been borne 

 outside the city, — struck down, as Hodson wrote, 

 " at a time when his services were beyond expres- 

 sion valuable." It was there that on the following 

 evening Hope Grant found the hero whom he 

 *' had last seen upon the walls of Delhi the day 

 before, vigorous and animated, leading on his men 

 gallantly. . . . 



"He was like a noble oak riven asunder by a 

 thunderbolt. As I approached he looked towards 

 me, and in a deep sepulchral voice said, 'Who 

 are you ? ' I told him, and spoke some kind words 

 to him. He looked again, and after some time, 

 with great difficulty, said, ' I thank you,' and then 

 closed his eyes. It was the last words I heard 

 him speak, and the last time I ever saw him."^ 



On the night of the 14th Hodson's Horse 

 bivouacked about Ludlow Castle, between the city 

 and the ridge. On the 15th, while our troops 

 were making slow but steady progress within the 

 city, Hodson found time to assist at the burial of 



1 Incidents in the Sepoy "War. 



