270 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



Before shooting the Shahzadas — two sons and 

 grandson of the captive king — Hodson had made 

 them strip off their outer garments, not, as some 

 kind people have argued, with a view to plunder, 

 but merely in order to crown the ignominy of their 

 doom. " No one ever thought out here," wrote Sir 

 T. Seaton, " of asking why he stripped the princes, 

 or rather why he made them take off their upper 

 garments. It certainly was not, as the French 

 stupidly assert, ' pour ne pas gater le butin ' ; for if 

 the upper corresponded with the nether clothes in 

 which the bodies were laid out, they would have 

 been dear at a shilling the lot. . . . Some people 

 ask, ' Why did he shoot them himself ? ' To this I 

 will reply by another question, ' What would have 

 been the effect on that vast crowd of a single 

 moment's hesitation or appearance of hesitation ? ' " 



It is hardly too much to say that the summary 

 execution of the guilty princes — for of their guilt 

 there was no shadow of a doubt — was hailed with 

 unquestioning approval by every Englishman in 

 Upper India. Sir Robert Montgomery's note to the 

 author of what has since been called " a stupid, cold- 

 blooded, threefold murder," may be said to have 

 voiced the general feeling of the day : — 



" My dear Hodson, — All honour to you (and to 

 your ' Horse ') for catching the king and slaying his 

 sons ! I hope you will bag many more ! — In haste, 

 ever yours, . R. Montgomery." 



" Three of the Shahzadas " — to quote from Wilson's 

 own despatch of September 22 — " who are known to 

 have taken a prominent part in the atrocities at- 



