With the capture of the Moosabagh and the expulsion from the city of the Moulvie of Fyzabad and his band of fanatics, there terminated a series of operations which had extended over a period of twenty days. Sir Colin's plan of turning the enemy's defensive works, and thus promptly expelling many thousands of armed men from formidable positions prepared with great labour and no little skill, had been accomplished with a total loss of eight hundred of all ranks exclusive of the Nepaulese casualties, which were reckoned at about three hundred. To have achieved a success so great at a cost so small, was a result of which the most exacting commander might well have been proud.
In the course of the early operations against Lucknow Sir Colin had the gratification of receiving a letter from the Duke of Cambridge intimating to Sir Colin that he had recommended Her Majesty to confer on him the colonelcy of the Ninety-Third Highlanders. "I thought," wrote His Royal Highness, "that this arrangement would be agreeable to yourself, and I know that it is the highest compliment that Her Majesty could pay to the Ninety-Third Highlanders to see their dear old Chief at their head." By the same mail there reached the Commander-in-Chief a letter from the Queen written by her own hand. This lofty and touching letter is printed in full in Sir Theodore Martin's _Life of the Prince Consort_, but it is impossible to refrain from quoting here one or two extracts. Her Majesty wrote:--"The Queen has had many proofs already of Sir Colin Campbell's devotion to his Sovereign and his country, and he has now greatly added to that debt of gratitude which both owe him. But Sir Colin must bear one reproof from his Queen, and that is, that he exposes himself too much; his life is most precious, and she entreats that he will neither put himself where his noble spirit would urge him to be--foremost in danger, nor fatigue himself so as to injure his health.... That so many gallant and distinguished men, beginning with one whose name will ever be remembered with pride, General Havelock, should have died and fallen, is a great grief to the Queen.... To all European as well as native troops who have fought so nobly and so gallantly, and among whom the Queen is rejoiced to see the Ninety-Third Highlanders, the Queen wishes Sir Colin to convey the expression of her great admiration and gratitude."