History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v2.c27.80

v2.c27.80

∗ "Unscrupulous, unprincipled,...[Hodson] was a man without fear, if not without reproach....In slaying them as he did he was guilty of an outrage against humanity." Holmes's *Indian Mutiny* (4th ed.), 372, 377. "The spirit of the condottiere now came into play [in Hodson's mind.] A more brutal or a more unnecessary outrage was never committed....Not a single item of evidence had been adduced to substantiate the charge [that the princes had instigated the massacre of Europeans in May.]" Malleson's *Indian Mutiny* (ed. of 1879), ii. 77, 80. With their dying breath the princes vainly appealed to Hodson to make a *tahqiq* (investigation) into their conduct, before shooting them.