282 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



historically most valuable. It was like parting 

 with my teeth to give up those I did to the general : 

 I should not have cared so much if he had done 

 anything towards the winning them. It will be 

 something hereafter to wear a sword taken from 

 the last of the House of Timour, which had been 

 girt round the waists of the greatest of his pre- 

 decessors." 



On the 6th he writes from Kewari that " Tulsi 

 Ram bolted yesterday, and left only an empty fort 

 and his guns behind him : in good hands it would 

 have given us considerable trouble, and he was 

 evidently a clever fellow, and had adroitly and 

 promptly contrived so as to be first in the field, 

 should our power have ceased. We found extensive 

 preparations, and large workshops for the com- 

 pletion of military equipments of all kinds, guns, 

 gun-carriages, gunpowder, accoutrements, and ma- 

 terial of all kinds. He had already done much, and 

 in a couple of months his position would have been 

 so strong as to have given him the command of all 

 the surrounding country, as well as the rich town 

 and entrepot of Rewari, close to the walls of his 

 fort. 



" At the same time he was prepared, if we won 

 the day, to profess that he had done all this solely 

 in our interests and to preserve the district yo?' us 

 from the Gujur depredators. This is now his line 

 of defence. Showers yesterday sent to tell him 

 that if he would come in and give himself up, as 

 well as his guns and arms, he should be treated on 

 his merits. This he would not do, and has eventu- 

 ally sealed his fate by bolting. The extent of his 

 warlike preparations is too obviously the result 



