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 the 28th, news was brought that the movement had failed. on the 15th colonel moseley had started under cover of night with the 53rd and 64th native regiments to occupy the fortress of ali musjid,[pg 294] which had been held by a small corps of men of one of the native tribes under mr. mackeson. they had been true to their salt, and had resisted every attack of the afridis. moseley's force arrived there at daybreak, and met with but little opposition on the way. but it was discovered that, owing to some blunder, only fifty supply bullocks had been sent on instead of three hundred and fifty that should have accompanied the force. therefore, instead of having a month's provisions, they had but enough for a few days. brigadier wyld started on the morning of the 19th to relieve them, but on the preceding day the sikh troops refused to enter the pass and marched back to peshawur. nevertheless, wyld determined to press forward with the two native regiments. as soon, however, as the enemy attacked them the sepoys at the head of the column wavered and opened an aimless fire.
in vain the brigadier and the officers endeavoured to persuade them to advance. they would not move forward, nor would the rest of the troops advance to their assistance. the two guns broke down after a round or two, and what little spirit remained among the sepoys evaporated at once, and the column had to fall back. one of the guns was spiked and left behind, the sepoys refusing to make any effort to bring it off. the brigadier, who with several of our officers was wounded, saw that it was impossible to persevere, and the force fell back beyond the pass. moseley could obtain no news, and was unaware of the repulse of the relieving column. although the troops were on half rations supplies were nearly exhausted. the water was bad, and numbers of the sepoys fell ill, and on the 23rd he determined to evacuate the fortress. two officers volunteered to hold it, but the sepoys would not support them, and the former native garrison had lost heart; so, on the 24th, the force marched out. the afridis mustered strongly to oppose the retreat. the sepoys,[pg 295] animated now by the hope of safety, fought well. two british officers were killed, most of the baggage lost, and some of the sick and wounded had to be abandoned, but the main body got through safely.
such was the news that was brought by a native in our pay, together with a letter from brigadier wyld saying that it would be impossible to renew the attempt until reinforcements of at least one british regiment with some guns arrived. but the news that help was still far distant in no way discouraged the garrison of jellalabad, who redoubled their efforts to strengthen the fortifications and to prepare by their own unaided efforts for the worst.
at peshawur wyld's repulse bore the natural consequences. the discontent among the sepoy's increased, many deserted, and expressions of determination never to enter the pass again were common among them. sickness broke out, and when on the 25th of february general pollock, who had been selected to command the force gathered there, and invested with full authority on all other matters, arrived, he found a thousand men in hospital; a week later the number was increased to eighteen hundred.
no better man than pollock could have been chosen. he possessed at once great firmness, kindness of heart, and a manner calculated to inspire confidence. he declared to the central authorities at once that, even with the brigade which had come up with him, to advance up the pass would be to court another defeat. the four sepoy regiments that had been engaged could, in their present state, not be counted on for service, and the force at his disposal was therefore no greater than that which wyld had lost. he set to work in the first place to restore confidence. it was a difficult task. many even among the officers had become affected with the spirit of defection, and did not hesitate to express their opinion that an advance through the khyber pass would[pg 296] involve a repetition of the cabul disaster. the new sepoy regiments were at once visited by emissaries from those of wyld's brigade and from the sikhs, who endeavoured in every way to persuade them also to refuse to enter the pass, and succeeded in the case of the 26th native regiment, who joined the four other battalions in refusing to advance. on the day after his arrival general pollock visited all the hospitals, enquired into the ailments of the sick, and talked encouragingly to them. then he went to the sepoy regiments, enquired into the cause of their discontent, and exhorted them to return to their duty, and not to bring disgrace upon regiments that had so many times in the past proved their courage and loyalty.
his task was a hard and difficult one, but his method of mildness and firmness combined gradually restored their spirits and discipline; and the knowledge that reinforcements were on their way, with a good proportion of european troops, including cavalry and artillery, greatly aided his efforts. still, until these reinforcements arrived, pollock could do nothing but reply to the urgent letters of sale and macgregor by pointing out his inability to move.
on the 19th of february angus was with macgregor on the walls of jellalabad. the men were as usual working hard and steadily, grateful in the thought that their long labour had borne its fruits, and that in a few days they would be able to lay by their picks and shovels, the work that they had been set to do having been accomplished.
"another week," captain havelock, who was acting as persian interpreter to macgregor, said to angus, "and the whole work which broadfoot traced out will be finished. in one respect i am sorry that it should be so, for there is nothing like active work for keeping men's spirits up and preventing them from feeling the effects of idleness. i think—" and he stopped abruptly. there was a sudden[pg 297] tremor of the earth and a deep sound like thunder, then they were both thrown off their feet. the walls, the houses, the whole city, swayed and shook. then came the crash of falling houses, wild shouts of alarm and pain; the earth crumbled beneath them, and they rolled down together into the moat. on finding that they were unhurt they scrambled up the slope of earth. a terrible sight presented itself. a third of the buildings in the town had fallen. but this was not the worst. several of the bastions had been destroyed; almost all the parapets were thrown down; several great breaches were made in the wall, one of them eighty feet in length; and the moat had in many places been filled up with the debris of the wall and parapet. the soldiers were extricating themselves or helping their comrades from the earth that had almost overwhelmed them; others were standing gazing with a dazed air at the destruction that had been wrought.
"we had better go to head-quarters," havelock said, "and see what has happened there."
they made their way with difficulty through the ruins that blocked the streets. the movements of the earth still continued, and they had all they could do to keep their feet. on reaching head-quarters they found to their satisfaction that all was safe. the general and macgregor had both been occupied in writing despatches to peshawur, and had rushed out into the little courtyard of the house. the offices round it fell in ruins at their feet, but the dwelling-house, although it swayed to and fro, did not fall. enquiries were at once set on foot, when it was found that no lives had been lost among the garrison, although two natives had been killed by the fall of their houses.
no time was lost. the whole of the garrison were told off into working parties, and in half an hour were diligently at work repairing the wall at the most important points.[pg 298] they worked until late at night, by which time the breaches were scarped, the rubbish all cleared away, and the ditches dug out again, while a parapet of gabions was erected along the great breach. a parapet was erected on the remains of the bastion which flanked the approach to the cabul gate, that had been entirely ruined, a trench had been dug, and a temporary parapet raised on every bastion round the place. never, probably, was so much work accomplished by an equal number of men in the same time. day after day the work was continued, until by the end of the month the parapets were restored, the breaches built up, the rampart increased in thickness, every battery re-established, and the gates entrenched; and yet the troops were in hourly anxiety that their work might be again destroyed, for during the month succeeding the great earthquake fully a hundred shocks were felt.
so extraordinary was the vigour with which the repairs had been accomplished, that when akbar khan moved down with his forces early in march and saw the formidable defences, he and his followers were unable to understand it, and declared that the preservation of jellalabad from destruction must have been the result of witchcraft, for no other town or village had escaped. while at work the garrison had been in constant expectation of attack, for akbar's army lay but a few miles from the town. but the success of the two sorties had shown the afghan leader that he had very different foes to deal with from the dispirited force that had been annihilated in the passes. here were men ready to work and to fight, while those at cabul had done neither; and he resolved to attempt to starve them out, hoping for the same success as had attended a similar step at cabul. he kept on, therefore, drawing in more closely, harassing the foraging parties, and having occasional skir[pg 299]mishes with the bodies of cavalry sent out to protect the grass-cutters.
on the night of the 10th the enemy threw up sangars, small defences of earth or stone, at many points round the town, and from behind them opened a brisk fire. there was a report that behind these shelters they were mining towards the walls, and a strong party of infantry and cavalry, with two hundred of broadfoot's sappers, commanded by colonel dennie, were sent out. as they poured out through the gate, akbar advanced with his forces; but the guns on the ramparts received them with a heavy fire, and although they came on several times as if prepared to give battle, they eventually drew back, unable to withstand the storm of shot and shrapnel. the working parties of sappers set to work to destroy the sangars, and in doing so discovered that there was no foundation for the report that the enemy were mining. when the work was done, the troops began to fall back to the town, as ammunition was beginning to run short. on seeing their retirement the afghans again advanced; but on our troops halting and facing them, they at once turned and fled, having lost considerably by our artillery and musketry fire. dennie's force sustained no loss in killed, but broadfoot was wounded, and the loss of his services as engineer was serious.
time passed quietly. the whole of the ground had been cleared of trees, houses, and walls for some distance round the town, and the afghans were no longer able to crawl up under shelter and keep up a galling fire on our men. early in april a messenger brought in news that pollock had now received his reinforcements, and would advance in a day or two, the sepoys having recovered their health and spirits. his force had been joined by the 9th foot, the 3rd dragoons, nine guns, and the 1st native cavalry.
[pg 300]
on the 5th these started from jumrood. brigadier wyld commanded the advance guard, general m'caskill the rear. two columns of infantry were to scale the height on either side of the pass, major davis in command of that on the right, colonel moseley of that on the left. at three o'clock in the morning they started. the heights on either side and the pass were crowded with the enemy, who were always well informed of the british movements by the natives in the town. they expected that the force would all move along the road, and anticipated an easy success. the two flanking parties moved off so quietly in the dim light of the morning that they were not perceived by the enemy until they began to scale the heights. then a lively combat began, and the afghans learned for the first time that even among their own hills the british could beat them.
the difficulties of the ascent were great, but the moral of the sepoys was now completely restored, and they stormed the heights on either side with great gallantry, driving the afghans before them. while this was going on, the main column in the valley had cleared away a formidable barricade that had been erected at the mouth of the pass, and which could not have been destroyed without much loss had the afghans maintained their position on the hills. pollock now advanced, and the afghans, who had assembled in large numbers at the mouth of the pass, bewildered at finding themselves outflanked, fell back, and the column with its great convoy of animals moved forward.
the number of draught animals was very large, although the baggage of the advancing force had been cut down to the narrowest dimensions, in order that provisions and ammunition for the garrison at jellalabad might be taken on. the march occupied the greater part of the day. the heat was great, and the troops suffered from thirst; but animated by their success, they thought little of this, and before night[pg 301]fall bivouacked round ali musjid, whose garrison had evacuated the place when they saw that the day had gone against them. all night long the afghans kept up a fire from among the hills, but did not attempt an attack. the sikhs had joined the main body, as the general, doubtful as to their fidelity, had sent them by another pass. the general's estimate of them was not a mistaken one. they were left to occupy ali musjid and guard the pass, but shortly after the army had moved on they quitted the position and marched away, seizing some of the baggage animals on their way up, and, throwing their loads on the ground, employing them to carry their own baggage.
the crushing and altogether unexpected defeat that the tribesmen had suffered had its effect. they had found themselves beaten at their own game and withdrew at once to their fastnesses, and pollock's force marched on without meeting with any serious opposition.
