On November 3d he wrote to his sister from Umbâla:—
After nearly six months of separation, I was happy enough to get back here yesterday night, and find my wife well, and all but recovered from the effects of her frightful accident, the most wonderful escape, perhaps, from imminent peril ever recorded. I take the first holiday I have had since the 15th May, to write a few lines to you, my dearest sister, to say what deep and real pleasure and comfort your letters bring to me, amidst danger and toil and fatigue; and how cheering it is to feel that, come what may, I am sure of your loving sympathy and constant affection. I received yesterday your letter of the 4th May, and could not but be most forcibly struck with the contrast between my circumstances individually, and those of the country, then and now. No one will rejoice more than yourself at the sudden change, and at the tolerable success which has been permitted to my labors....
Nov. 15th.—Here my pen was arrested by the news that the mail was gone. In these days all regularity is set at defiance, and again we have been startled by a notice to send our letters within half an hour, and that, too, in the midst of preparation for a hurried return to Delhi and Meerut, to rejoin my regiment. We march at once to join Sir Colin Campbell and the army assembling at Cawnpore for the reconquest of Lucknow.
I am getting on famously with my regiment; men of good family and fighting repute are really flocking to my standard,[61] and before the end of the year I hope to have 1,000 horsemen under my command.
I had a letter the other day from ——, at Calcutta, from which I learn that at last the truth is beginning to dawn on the minds of men in power regarding me. They now say that my remonstrance will be placed on record for preservation, "not for justification, which it is fully admitted was not required," and that "no higher testimonials were ever produced."
How much I have to be thankful for, not only for restored position and means for future distinction, but for safety and preservation during this terrible war, and for my dear wife's escape.
You must not misunderstand my silence. I was compelled to leave the task of writing letters to Susie; I had barely time to keep her assured of my safety from day to day.
On the 2d December, "Hodson's Horse" were ordered to join a movable column under Colonel Thomas Seaton, C. B., proceeding down the country towards Cawnpore, in charge of an immense convoy of supplies of all kinds for the Commander-in-Chief's army. The convoy was calculated to extend over fifteen miles of road,—hackeries of grain, camels, elephants, horses,—and but 1,500 men and four guns to protect them all. At Allygurh the forces, marching respectively from Delhi and Meerut, united on the 11th. On the following day Colonel Seaton, leaving the convoy under the protection of the guns of the fort, proceeded by forced marches to look after some large parties of the rebel army who were encamped in the Doâb.
On the 10th, my brother wrote to his wife from