A SENTRY had already sent down word that two Afghans had approached carrying a white flag, and an officer appeared on the wall. "What do you want?" he asked.
"We want to come in, Thompson. I am Angus Campbell, and have escaped almost by a miracle."
There was a shout of pleasure, and a minute later the gate was opened, and Thompson ran out and warmly shook Angus by the hand.
"I am delighted to see you," he said. "We all thought you among the slain in the passes. What an awful time it has been since we left Cabul on our way, as we believed, to India! We can scarcely believe the terrible news even now. We have learnt but little from Brydon, who was, he thought, the only survivor, except the hostages who, he tells us, were given over a few days before the end came. He was desperately wounded, and could scarce sit his horse when he arrived, and has been too ill to give us any details."
"I can give very little, for I was not with the army. I started the evening before they left camp, on a mission from Pottinger to Sir Robert Sale. Pottinger did not think that any help could possibly come, but at the same time he thought[Pg 287] it right to make one more effort to communicate with your general, and to tell him that they were on the point of starting. I had gone but a short distance when I was captured. Fortunately the men who took me were followers of Sadut Khan. I was taken to his fort. He was absent at the time; when he returned he at once gave me my liberty, and escorted me to within a quarter of a mile of the wall, as a return for a service I had rendered him two years ago."
"That was a piece of luck indeed. Then you saw nothing of it?"
"Yes, I saw a great deal. My captors were, I suppose, anxious to see what was going on, and we followed the course of the army, keeping on the hill; and, except for the fighting at night, I saw almost the whole of the tragedy."
While they were talking they were approaching the head-quarters of the general. Angus was well known to Sir Robert, to whom he had often carried messages and notes from Burnes or Macnaghten. When their first greeting was over, he repeated the story he had told Captain Thompson. He thought it best to say no word of his escape being the result of a preconcerted plan on the part of Sadut Khan, as he felt that some might suspect that he was privy to the scheme, and had taken advantage of the friendship of the Momund chief to make his escape.
"I am not so surprised as I might otherwise have been," the general said, "since I received a letter from Pottinger yesterday. Akbar had allowed him to send it down, thinking that the information that Elphinstone, Shelton, Lawrence, Mackenzie, and Pottinger himself were all right might induce us to submit to terms. He said, 'I trust that before this you will have heard that we are about to start from Mr. Angus Campbell, who nobly accepted the desperate mission of penetrating through the passes and bringing you word of our intention. Should he have arrived safely, I beg to[Pg 288] recommend him most strongly to the authorities for accepting the mission, which seemed almost a hopeless one. He has rendered great service during the time the troops have been in cantonments, by aiding the commissariat officers in bringing in grain.' As you had not arrived we naturally feared that you had been murdered on your way down. I am glad indeed that you have escaped. You will now, of course, give your assistance to Macgregor, our political officer."
"If he cannot utilize my services, sir, and he can have but little political work to do now, I shall be glad if you will attach me to one of the regiments where you think I may be most useful."
"You had better talk it over with Macgregor first. You know him, of course; and if he does not want you, I will attach you to my own staff. With your knowledge of the Afghan language, your services might be invaluable in obtaining information; or, should we make a sortie—and we have already made one with effect—I should be glad, if you wish it, to attach you either to the infantry or cavalry, whichever you prefer. Now that you have told us about yourself, please give us any details you can of what you saw of the fighting?"
"It can hardly be said that there was any fighting, sir; until the last day the troops were so completely surrounded, and I may say overwhelmed by the camp followers, that they were practically unable to use their arms. General Shelton with the rear-guard fought nobly, and covered the retreat into Jugduluk, until the time when he was enticed with the general into Akbar's camp, and there held as a hostage. By what I heard, the handful of men left, only about a hundred and fifty all told, fought desperately to break their way through a barricade with which the Afghans had blocked the top of the pass. Only ten officers succeeded in breaking[Pg 289] through, and of these all but one were killed on the road. All the soldiers died fighting at the barricade, and many officers. The last Sepoy had fallen two days before."
"It has been a bad business," General Sale said, "bad not only in its terrible result, but in the manner in which affairs were conducted. We here received with astonishment the news that four thousand five hundred British troops were cooped up by a horde of Afghans without one single attempt being made to bring on a battle in the open. Officers and men alike were astounded when Pottinger's first letter arrived, saying that negotiations were continued after the murder of Macnaghten. However, all this is a matter for future investigation. And now a personal question. Can you tell me how it was that my wife, Lady Macnaghten, and the other ladies, escaped uninjured? I only know from Pottinger that the ladies and children were handed over to the protection of Akbar, and that those who had husbands were also accompanied by them."
"The ladies were always kept close behind the advanced guard, sir. As these showed an unbroken front, the Afghans allowed them to pass without opposition, falling upon the confused mass behind them."
"Do you think that Akbar was a sharer in this treacherous attack?"
"I think his conduct was doubtful in the extreme, sir. He certainly did try more than once to persuade the Ghilyze chiefs to allow the survivors to pass on unmolested, but by that time the passions of the Afghans were absolutely beyond control. I myself have great doubts whether he would have interfered had he not been well aware that his interference would be useless. But this is only my opinion, based upon the facts, that in the first place he himself shot Macnaghten, whom he had invited to a conference; in the second place, he took no step whatever to carry out the condition[Pg 290] to supply baggage animals and provisions; and lastly, because I know that long before the column set out on its march, he sent out orders to the Ghilzye chiefs to attack you."
"The case certainly looks very black against him," the general said; "but at least we may hope that, as his family are in our hands in India, he will protect the hostages."
"I hope, sir, that he will hand them over to the Nawab, who appears to me to be a thoroughly honest man. Undoubtedly he did his best to persuade the chiefs to agree to the treaty with us. He certainly did send in some provisions to the camp, and generally we formed a high opinion of his kindness of heart. Your fortifications are stronger than I expected to find them, from what I have heard, sir."
"Yes, the men have worked incessantly at them ever since we came here. The mud walls can scarcely be said to have existed when we marched in. There was no parapet, the ditch was filled in with rubbish, and the walls had so crumbled away that carts could cross over them at almost every point. Fortunately the men were in good heart, and all, Europeans and Sepoys, have worked with an energy beyond praise. The moat has been cleared out and filled with water, the walls have been scarped, and a parapet twelve feet high erected. The bastions have been put in order; and though, had we been seriously attacked at first, we must have retired to the citadel, we are now ready to withstand any assault."
Angus next went to Macgregor, who received him most warmly.
"I am glad indeed to see you, Campbell. Pottinger mentioned you in his reports as doing invaluable service with Boyd and Johnson. You will not find much in our line here. When the sword is once drawn, there is nothing for us to do until it becomes a question of our dictating terms, a contingency not likely to arise for some time."
[Pg 291]
"Had you hard fighting to get here?" Angus asked.
"No fighting at all. As we marched down from Gundamuck, the natives all supposed that we were on our way to Peshawur, and when we suddenly turned and marched towards the city, it was too late for them to think of resistance, and they simply bolted on one side of the town as we marched in on the other. We were bitterly disappointed when we saw the state of the walls, and it was a question for some time whether we should not content ourselves with holding the citadel only. But it was at last determined, for a time at least, to hold the town, as our retirement to the citadel would look like weakness. Another consideration was, that once in the citadel we should be shut up entirely, for, as you see, it stands in the middle of the town, and with the streets crowded with the enemy, there would be no getting out to obtain provisions.
"The result has proved the wisdom of the step we took. The walls are now strong enough to be obstinately defended, and from their extent we have been able to sally out at one gate or another and bring in provisions. We had but two days' food when we arrived here; now we have succeeded in gathering in a sufficient quantity to keep the troops on half rations for two months, and I hope that before it is finished we shall be relieved from Peshawur. We gave the natives a handsome thrashing on the day before we got in here. They attacked us in great force, trying especially to carry off our baggage, but the infantry repulsed them splendidly. However, they came on to renew the attack. The cavalry were placed in ambush, and the troops, after at first advancing, suddenly wheeled round and went off at the double. The enemy, believing that they had achieved a great victory, rushed after them. As soon as they reached an open space, the cavalry fell upon them. For months they had been inactive, being of no use among the hills. Now was their[Pg 292] chance, and in a moment they were in the thick of the Afghans. They made terrible havoc among them, and thus it was that we were able to enter the town without further trouble. The next day, the 13th of November, Broadfoot was appointed garrison engineer. He had a small corps of sappers with him, and they soon set to work.
"On the morning of the 16th, the enemy were thick in the gardens round the town, the principal body being on the hillside. It was resolved to give them another lesson. They were, as could be seen from the highest point in the city, some five thousand strong, and Colonel Monteith of the 35th Bengal Infantry, took out eleven hundred men at daybreak. The advance was covered by the guns which had been mounted on the walls, and their shrapnel soon drove the enemy into the open. The infantry pressed forward and scattered them, and the cavalry completed their rout. It was this defeat that so cowed them for a time, that I was able to fetch in grain, sheep, firewood, and other necessaries. I may mention that I took upon myself, as soon as we came in here, the post of commissariat officer. It was not until the end of the month that they again mustered in force sufficient to attack us; they contented themselves with hovering round and keeping up a desultory fire.
"On the 1st of December, however, they gathered in great numbers, and seemed to threaten an attack. Colonel Dennie commanded this time, and he took out the greater portion of the garrison and a couple of guns. It was noon when he sallied out. Abbot's guns commenced the action by pouring a tremendous fire of grape into the thick mass. They fled in wild confusion; the cavalry cut them up terribly, and the infantry overtook and bayoneted many of them. It could scarcely be called a fight. The day was won directly the guns opened fire, and we did not lose a single man. Since that time they have not ventured to attack us.
[Pg 293]
"News came day after day of the terrible mess at Cabul. The news was kept as far as possible from the troops, so as not to discourage them; but, of course, since Brydon came in, the truth of the terrible massacre had to be told. I am happy to say that, although filling them with wrath and indignation, it has in no way abated their spirit. During the six weeks' rest we have had since the battle of the 1st of December, we have, as you see, really done wonders in the way of fortification, and consider that we are in a position to repulse any attack however formidable."
"When do you expect that a relief column will arrive from Peshawur?"
"That is a grave question which I cannot answer. Our last news was that Brigadier-general Wyld was on the point of advancing, but from the tone in which he wrote he had evidently no great hope of success. His four Sepoy regiments had been corrupted by the Sikhs, who, having themselves a great repugnance to enter the passes, had endeavoured, and successfully, to inspire the Sepoys with the same feeling. The Sikhs, who were to co-operate with him, were themselves in a state of open mutiny, and threatened to kill General Avitable if he interfered with them. He intended, however, to advance, as the case was so urgent, but with little hope of success. He was without cavalry, and had but two guns on Sikh carriages, which would probably break down after a few rounds had been fired. It was the letter of a brave man surrounded with difficulties, but ready to attempt almost the impossible to bring aid to us. I fear, however, that there is little chance of our relief until reinforcements from India reach Peshawur."
This opinion was justified when, on t............