318 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



On the morning of the 25th Hodson's Horse had 

 arrived at Alambagh after a " terribly dusty " march 

 of thirty-six miles. It was here, about five miles 

 from Lucknow, that a strong British garrison, com- 

 manded by the noble Sir James Outram, had for 

 three months past kept sleepless watch over the 

 movements of many thousand armed mutineers, 

 and had brilliantly baffled every attempt to cir- 

 cumvent, dislodge, or crush them by sheer weight 

 of numbers. Hodson's officers had hardly time to 

 swallow a cup of tea and a poached egg when the 

 order came to turn out against a large body of 

 rebels who were threatening the British flank and 

 rear. 



"This," says Sir Hugh Gough, "was my first 

 day in action with Hodson's Horse as a complete 

 regiment. . . . When I say a regiment, I might 

 almost call it a brigade, for by Hodson's influence 

 and the magic power of his name recruits from 

 the Punjab had come flocking in, and I should say 

 we were nearly a thousand strong. We were com- 

 plete in officers, and altogether made a brave show 

 as we advanced to our work." It was not lono: 

 before great masses of the enemy were seen moving 

 across our front — all of them mutineers, most of 

 them infantry arrayed in uniform. "Our rapid 

 approach," adds Gough, " had a great efi'ect upon 

 them. They seemed to make no efi*ort to rally 

 and stand, and as we advanced and charged we 

 got well into them, and the whole afi'air seemed 

 over. The rearmost gun was in our possession, 

 and the enemy, as far as we had encountered them, 

 in full flight." 



At that moment, however, owing to the fierceness 



