272 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



" was rather startled " on seeing the lifeless bodies 

 of the three princes lying exposed on the stone 

 platform in front of the Kotwali. On learning how 

 and why they had been thus treated he admitted the 

 justice of their punishment, but regretted that in 

 playing the part of executioner Hodson should have 

 " cast a blot on his reputation," and furnished his 

 detractors with a fresh theme for their invective 

 asainst a soldier at once so brilliant and so blood- 

 thirsty. " It must be understood," says Lord 

 Roberts, " that there was no breach of faith on 

 Hodson's part, for he steadily refused to give any 

 promise to the princes that their lives should be 

 spared : he did, however, undoubtedly by this act 

 give colour to the accusations of bloodthirstiness 

 which his detractors were not slow to make." ^ 



It may be taken for granted that no man with fine 

 feelings — such as Hodson was by birth and breeding 

 — would willingly offer himself for the post of a 

 common hangman. But there may be moments 

 when the best of men is called upon to choose 

 between his finer feelings and his apparent duty 

 to the State. That such a moment had come 

 in Hodson's career is hardly open to reasonable 

 doubt. Sir Hugh Gough, writing afterwards to 

 Hodson's brother, told him " that he heard both 

 from M'Dowell and the native ofiicers that it was 

 a 'touch-and-go' affair; that Hodson's own men 

 were wavering; and that nothing but his prompt 

 and decisive action could have saved them." " The 

 increasing crowd," wrote M'Dowell, "pressed close 

 on the horses of the sowars, and assumed every 

 moment a more hostile appearance. ' What shall 



' Lord Roberts's Forty-one Years in India. 



