"The deep agony of this bereavement I have no words to describe," the father writes. "She had wound her little being round our hearts to an extent which we neither of us knew until we awoke from the brief dream of beauty, and found ourselves childless."
Another trial too is at hand. In the autumn of 1854, Sir H. Lawrence is removed from the Punjaub, and in October, charges are trumped up (there is no other word for it, looking to the result) against Hodson, in both his civil and military capacity. A court of inquiry is appointed; and _before_ that court has reported, he is suspended from all civil and military duty.
Into the details of the charges against him we will not enter, lest we should be tempted into the use of hard words, which his brother has nobly refrained from. All that need be stated is, that the sting lay in the alleged confusion of his regimental accounts. The Court of Inquiry appointed Major Taylor to examine these, and report on them. This was in January, 1855; in February, 1856, Taylor presented an elaborate report, wholly exculpating Hodson. Mr. Montgomery, (then Commissioner for the Punjaub, now Chief Commissioner in Oude,) to whom it was submitted, calls it the most satisfactory report he ever read, and most triumphant. This report, however, though made public on the spot, had not, even in May, 1857, been communicated to the Government of India; whether suppressed on purpose, or not, there is no evidence. But when at last fairly brought to their notice by a remonstrance from the accused, the satisfactory nature of the document may be gathered from the fact that the answer is, "his remonstrance will be placed on record for preservation, not for justification, which it is fully admitted was not required,--no higher testimonials were ever produced."
It is with the man himself that we are concerned. We have seen him in action, and in prosperity; how will he face disgrace and disaster?--
"I must endeavor to face the wrong, the grievous, foul wrong, with a constant and unshaken heart, and to endure humiliation and disgrace with as much equanimity as I may; and with the same soldierlike fortitude with which I ought to face danger, suffering, and death in the path of duty.... Our darling babe was taken from us on the day my public misfortunes began, and death has robbed us of our father before their end. The brain-pressure was almost too much for me.... I strive to look the worst boldly in the face as I would an enemy in the field, and to do my appointed work resolutely and to the best of my ability, satisfied that there is a reason for all; and that even irksome duties well done bring their own reward, and that if not, still they are duties....