On the 11th of October Sir Frederick Roberts and his staff, with a cavalry escort, rode into the Bala-Hissar and, the next morning, the British troops marched into the fort. The gates of Cabul stood open, and a column was marched through the town, and formal possession taken of it.
During the first five weeks which elapsed, after the massacre of the mission, William Gale remained almost prostrate in the house of the friendly Parsee trader. He had barely recovered his strength, after his prolonged illness, when the attack was made; and the events of that night, and the great loss of blood which he had suffered, had reduced his strength to that of an infant. Under the care of the Parsee and his family, however, he slowly but steadily regained strength.
For the first month, but little news reached him from without. Then a report came that the British had assembled, in considerable force, on the crest of the Shatur-Gardan; and were going to move on Cabul from that direction. Then, day by day, the tidings came in of the advance of the force. It was reported, generally, that the Ameer had gone out to meet them; with the intention of leaving them, when the decisive moment, arrived and taking command of the tribesmen, who would fall upon and annihilate them.
On the 6th the town was unusually quiet, and Will heard that the Afghan army had moved out, to occupy the hills commanding the approach through the defile; and that, with the aid of the tribesmen, the British army was to be exterminated there.
[Chapter 15]: The Fighting Round Cabul.
All day long, on the 6th of October, William Gale sat at an open window in the upper story of the Parsee's house--facing west--and listened to the distant roar of the battle; while all Cabul was in a state of wild excitement, in the sure anticipation of victory. Will felt equally confident as to the result of the battle. He knew that--well led--a British force could be trusted to carry any position held by the Afghans; and he felt sure that, even should he fail to carry it by direct attack, the English general would, sooner or later, succeed in turning it by flank movements.
About two o'clock in the afternoon, William noticed a change in the character of the sounds in the town. In the Hindoo quarter all had been quiet--for the inhabitants greatly feared that, in a burst of fanaticism following a victory achieved over the British, the Afghans might sack the Hindoo quarter, and murder its inhabitants. Yossouf, however, had been all the morning out in the town; and had, from time to time, brought in a report of the rumors current there.
At first it was said that the British were being utterly routed, that they were being exterminated by the Afghan fire, that the hill tribes were sweeping down upon their rear, and that not a man would escape. Presently the reports became more contradictory. The firing was still heard, but it was no longer one continuous roll. Some said that the British were annihilated; others that, repulsed in their attack, they had fallen back to their camp but, soon after two o'clock, Yossouf rushed up to William's room with the news that the Afghans had been driven from the heights, and that the British were in possession of these, and of the defile through them.
Yossouf had, throughout the morning, been swayed by conflicting emotions and wishes. At one moment he hoped that his countrymen might conquer; then the fear that, after victory, the Hindoo quarter might be sacked, and his English friend discovered and killed, overpowered his feeling of patriotism.
It must be remembered that Afghanistan has, for centuries, been rather a geographical expression than a country. Its population is composed of a great number of tribes, without any common feelings or interest, and often engaged in desperate wars and conflicts with each other. The two leading tribes--the Ghilzais and Duranees--had long struggled for ascendency in the cultivated portion of the country. For a long period the Ghilzais had had the supremacy, but the Duranees were now lords of the country.