_September 24th._--The picture drawn from the usually mendacious reports at Simla, is not even founded on fact. The women of the palace had all escaped before the troops entered.
The troops have behaved with singular moderation towards women and children, considering their provocation. I do not believe, and I have some means of knowing, that a single woman or child has been purposely injured by our troops, and the story on which your righteous indignation is grounded is quite false; the troops have been demoralized by drink, but nothing more.
_September 25th._--... I miss Colonel Seaton terribly, we have lived in the same tent for months, and had become brothers in affection as well as in arms. I mourn deeply for poor Nicholson; with the single exceptions of my ever-revered Sir Henry Lawrence, and Colonel Mackeson, I have never seen his equal in field or council; he was preëminently our "best and bravest," and his loss is not to be atoned for in these days. I cannot help being pleased with the warm congratulations I receive on all sides for my success in destroying the enemies of our race; the whole nation will rejoice, but I am pretty sure that however glad ---- will be at their destruction, he will take exception to my having been the instrument, in God's hands, of their punishment. That will not signify, however; I am too conscious of the rectitude of my own motives to care what the few may say while my own conscience and the voice of the many pronounce me right.
A fuller account of the capture of the King will be found in a letter addressed to me shortly afterwards, and published by me in the _Times_, which I now reprint:--
"I have before explained to you what your brother's (Captain Hodson's) position officially was,--namely, that he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster-General and Intelligence Officer on the Commander-in-Chief's own Staff. His reports were to be made to him direct, without the intervention of the Quartermaster-General or any other person.
"For this appointment, which was then a most responsible one, as intelligence of the enemy's movements and intentions was of the utmost importance, his long acquaintance with Sikhs and Affghans, and his having been similarly employed in the Punjaub war, had peculiarly fitted him. Of course, there were always plenty of traitors in the enemy's camp ready to sell their own fathers for gain, or to avoid punishment, and he was invested with full power to promise reward or punishment, in proportion to the deserts of those who assisted him.