"'I should have liked to see the end of the campaign and gone home to the dear ones once more, but it was so ordered.'
"'It is hard to leave the world just now, when success is so near, but God's will be done.'
"'Bear witness for me that I have tried to do my duty to man. May God forgive my sins for Christ's sake.' 'I go to my Father.'
"'My love to my wife; tell her my last thoughts were of her.' 'Lord, receive my soul.'
"These were his last words, and, without a sigh or struggle, his pure and noble spirit took its flight."
Thus, on the 12th of March, 1858, in his thirty-seventh year, closed the earthly career of one of the best and bravest of England's sons, one of her truest heroes, of whom it may be said,—"Quanquam medio in spatio integræ ætatis ereptus, quantum ad gloriam longissimum ævum peregit."
Great and irreparable as was his loss to his family and his friends, as a husband, a brother, and a friend, I believe that, at the particular juncture at which he was taken away, it was still greater, as a soldier, to his country. It would be difficult to overestimate the value of the services which he might have rendered, if spared, in the pacifying of Oude after the capture of Lucknow, or the influence which he might have had on the fortunes of the war. One of those best qualified to judge declared, that "Hodson with his regiment would have been worth 10,000 men." His peculiar qualifications for Asiatic warfare would have found an appropriate field for their display.
It is unnecessary, however, for me to attempt to pronounce his eulogium. This has been done by those more capable of forming an estimate of his rare excellence as a soldier, and of doing it justice by their words.
Sir Colin Campbell, in a letter of condolence to his widow, thus expressed himself:—
"Martinière, March 13, 1858.