THE STORMING OF DELHI. 275 



critics. I hope, at anyrate, that he will refrain from 

 branding a deed of stern necessity as "a stupid, 

 cold-blooded, threefold murder." ^ 



^ " The only time," says General C. Thomason, " I ever saw Hodson 

 otherwise than cheery was one day when I dropped in on him and 

 found him ' writing his defence,' as he called it, over the matter of 

 the capture of the King of Delhi and the execution of the three 

 princes. Poor fellow, he could not understand being called to account 

 for a feat which must ever stand out in history as unbeaten by any 

 Englishman, which is saying a good deal. . . . 



" No one knew better than Hodson all the details of the horrible 

 enormities of which these princes had been guilty in connection with 

 the massacre of the captured English women and children, some days 

 after the actual breaking out of the Mutiny on May 11. . . . 



" But why execute them with his own hand 1 is the question often 

 asked. ... I will give Hodson's own reply to this question as he 

 gave it to me. 



" ' The blood of the innocent women and children who had been the 

 victims of the ferocity of these scoundrels seemed to cry aloud to me 

 as their countryman sent by Providence to avenge their wrongs ; and 

 if I had hesitated for an instant in performing with my own hands 

 what I considered a sacred duty, I should never again have been able 

 to look an Englishman in the face.' 



" In common with the rest of us at Delhi, who had no reason to be 

 jealous of him, I have often wondeied at Hodson never having been 

 made a V.C'. for this, if for no other gallant action. The reply of 

 an old schoolfellow of mine, who knew Hodson well, was, ' I 

 suppose it was because he won it every day of his life.'" 



