264 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



the first six weeks of the campaign know on what a 

 thread our lives and the safety of the empire hung, 

 or can appreciate the sufferings and exertions of 

 those days of watchfulness and combat, of fearful 

 heat and exhaustion, of trial and danger. I look 

 back on them with a feeling of almost doubt whether 

 they were real or only a foul dream. This day will 

 be a memorable one in the annals of the empire : 

 the restoration of British rule in the East dates from 

 the 20th September 1857." 



"We now ascertained," says Sir Hope Grant, 

 "that Delhi had been evacuated during the night. 

 India was saved ; and the fearful struggle which had 

 shaken the nation to its foundation was passing away 

 like a heavy thunder - cloud from before the sun. 

 There was no longer any danger to be apprehended 

 from the Punjab, and we heard that British troops 

 were fast pouring into Calcutta." ^ 



Delhi had fallen, and the Punjab was safe, but the 

 old king himself and all his family, many of whom 

 had taken part in the massacres of May 11, were 

 still at large, and their name alone might be a 

 rallying - point for fresh risings against our rule. 

 Hodson learned that the king had fled with a crowd 

 of followers and kinsfolk to the tomb of his ancestor 

 Humayun, about five miles from Delhi, on the road 

 to the far-famed Kutab Minar. Foreseeing the 

 trouble that might ensue from the unhindered 

 escape of Bahadur Shah, Hodson begged hard for 

 leave to ride after the fugitives and bring the old 

 king back a prisoner, on the only terms that could 

 be granted him, — the lives, namely, of himself, his 

 favourite wife, and her son, Jamma Bakht. 



1 Incidents in the Sepoy War. 



