All this coming close to our works, and spying, ought to have been stopped.
Sturt called out to them in Persian, and warned them off, or he would open the guns upon them. Some respectable people begged, for God's sake, he would not do so; for they were not warriors, but had come out to see sights and amuse themselves.
Sturt saw a man meanly dressed on foot stealing up close to the walls, and called out "Pēsh Burrō;" on which he raised his hand, telescope fashion, to his eye, and showed the end of a note. He was passed on to the gate, and admitted into cantonments; and was said to be the bearer of a letter from Mahommed Akbar Khan. However, this is denied, or even that any letter came.
Whenever the political horizon clears a little, mystery becomes the order of the day. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;" and when overwhelmed with perplexity, the directors of events here are not so close. However, events do transpire, and we know that treaties are on foot with the Ghilzye chiefs; though that too is denied to-day.
Meer Musjudee is dead. Some say he has been poisoned; others that he died in consequence of the wounds he received last year in the Kohistan. A number of this chief's followers have gone off with the body to the Kohistan, there to attend his funeral obsequies.
A report has come to us through the enemy, that three regiments, from Kandahar, have got beyond Ghuznee, somewhere about Shecoabad; that there has been an engagement; and that though the Affghans could not conquer them, they still have been able to prevent their progress.
Sleet in the morning; and in the afternoon snow, which soon froze.
27th.—We had a quiet night; and it continued tranquil till the middle of this day; when the horsemen again took post on the hills, and escorted infantry to the right, and down into the village of Behmaru, into which we threw some shells.
The negotiations are now come quite to a close. The enemy's demands were modest, considering that they were the first to treat, it is said. They require, in addition to giving up the King and his family into their hands, all our guns and ammunition, muskets, bayonets, pistols, and swords. The married men, women, and children, to be given as hostages; and then—we are to trust to their generosity! To this the Envoy sent a chivalrous reply,—That death was preferable to dishonour,—that we put our trust in the God of battles, and in His name bade them come on.
The King is in an awful state of alarm; for he has been told that we have been making terms for our free exit out of the country, paying for the same five lakhs of rupees; and leaving him to his fate, poor man! He is certainly to be pitied (if not at the bottom of it all), fallen from his high estate, and believing us to have abandoned him.