To Herat and Cabul: A Story of the First Afghan War

by G. A. Henty

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 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 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 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."