The third attempt was not carried as far, and the exact date is not
ascertainable, but the incident is well remembered by the family and
occurred between 1853 and 1856. One day the Resident was crossing his
study when, for some reason or another, he looked behind a curtain
screening a recess. He then saw a man standing there with a large
knife in his hand. General Sleeman, who was unarmed, challenged the
man as being a Thug. He at once admitted that he was such, and under
the spell of a master-spirit allowed himself to be disarmed without
resistance. He had been employed at the Residency for some time,
unsuspected.

Such personal risks produced no effect on the stout heart of Sleeman,
who continued, unshaken and undismayed, his unselfish labours.

In 1854 the long strain of forty-five years' service broke down
Sleeman's strong constitution. He tried to regain health by a visit
to the hills, but this expedient proved ineffectual, and he was
ordered home. On the 10th of February, 1856, while on his way home on
board the Monarch, he died off Ceylon, at the age of sixty-seven, and
was buried at sea, just six days after he had been granted the
dignity of K.C.B.

Lord Dalhousie's desire to meet his trusted officer was never
gratified. The following correspondence between the Governor-General
and Sleeman, now published for the first time, is equally creditable
to both parties:

BARRACKPORE PARK,
January 9th, 1856.
MY DEAR GENERAL SLEEMAN,
I have heard to-day of your arrival in Calcutta, and have heard at
the same time with sincere concern that you are still suffering in
health. A desire to disturb you as little as possible induces me to
have recourse to my pen, in order to convey to you a communication
which I had hoped to be able to make in person.
Some time since, when adjusting the details connected with my
retirement from the Government of India, I solicited permission to
recommend to Her Majesty's gracious consideration the names of some
who seemed to me to be worthy of Her Majesty's favour. My request was
moderate. I asked only to be allowed to submit the name of one
officer from each Presidency. The name which is selected from the
Bengal army was your own, and I ventured to express my hope that Her
Majesty would be pleased to mark her sense of the long course of
able, and honourable, and distinguished service through which you had
passed, by conferring upon you the civil cros