298 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



After a halt of three days at Patiali the column 

 returned to its former camping-ground at Suhawir, 

 On the 22nd it marched on to Khasganj. As it 

 neared that place Arthur Cocks, the active Com- 

 missioner, rode up to Seaton and told him that a 

 notorious traitor, Jowahir Khan, a pensioned risal- 

 dcir, who had fought against us at Patiali, had 

 returned to Khasganj with one of his sons, who 

 had been wounded in the previous fight. Calling 

 up Hodson, the brigadier sent him off with a troop 

 of his regiment to seize the traitor. 



" In five minutes that intelligent and energetic 

 officer was off" at a sharp trot, which he soon in- 

 creased to a hand-gallop. As the column neared 

 Khasganj Hodson came out to meet me. His 

 salutation was, ' I've got him, colonel. We rode 

 in at a gallop and surrounded his house, burst open 

 the door, found the son and killed him ; and the 

 traitor himself, trying to escape, jumped over a wall 

 into the arms of one of my men.' Jowahir Khan 

 was no ordinary traitor. He had served our Govern- 

 ment long, and was not only enjoying the pension 

 of a risalddr, but the emoluments derived from the 

 Order of British India, of which he was a member." 



On the next day he was arraigned before a mili- 

 tary court and condemned to death by being blown 

 away from a gun. The sentence w^as carried out 

 that evening. " Blowing away from a gun," as 

 Seaton remarks, " is an awful-looking death, but 

 it must be almost painless — one sharp pang and all 

 over. It makes a great impression, however, on the 

 spectators, and creates a greater thrill of horror than 

 any other mode of execution." ^ 



1 From Cadet to Colonel. 



