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

by G. A. Henty

In half an hour the firing gradually abated, and the musket shots came more faintly through the air. "Our men are falling back, Azim, there can be little doubt about that by the sound. There cannot be any great number of troops engaged. What on earth can Macnaghten and Elphinstone be doing?"

The roar of shouting in the streets became louder, and there was an occasional sound of firearms. "It is quite evident that the mob are in entire possession of the city, Azim. They are looting the traders' quarter, and probably murdering all the whites who have taken up their residence there."

These fears were fully justified. The houses of Sir Alexander Burnes and Captain Johnson, the paymaster of the Ameer's troops, adjoined each other. Johnson had, fortunately for himself, slept that night in the camp. Sir Alexander had with him his brother, Lieutenant Burnes, and Lieutenant Broadfoot, his military secretary, who had just arrived. Curiously enough, it was the anniversary of the disastrous fight at Purwandurrah, in which fight Broadfoot's eldest brother had been killed. Soon after Angus had gone out the Ameer's minister arrived and repeated the warning already given by the friendly Afghan. Burnes could no longer doubt that there was danger, but he refused to leave his house, saying that as soon as the news that there was a tumult reached the camp, the troops would be at once despatched to put it down. He, however, wrote urgently to Macnaghten for support, and sent messengers to the most powerful native chief in the town begging him to calm the people, and assure them that all grievances should be redressed.

One of the messengers was killed on the way, the other managed to return to the house desperately wounded. The gathering in the street increased every moment. Burnes with the two officers went out on to a balcony, and from thence harangued the mob. His voice was drowned by yells and curses, weapons were brandished, and an attack was made on the doors of both houses. Part of the mob were fanatics, who thought only of slaying the infidels, but a still larger party were animated solely by a desire to share in the sack of the Ameer's treasury next door. The native guards both of Sir Alexander and the treasury opened fire, and for a time maintained themselves with the greatest bravery. Of the English officers, Broadfoot was the first to fall, shot through the heart. The position became more and more desperate. A party of the insurgents had set fire to the stables and forced their way into the garden. Burnes was still attempting to lull the fury of the crowd. Long ere this troops should have arrived to his rescue, but there were no signs that they were approaching. At last, seeing that all was lost, he disguised himself and went out into the garden with a man who had sworn by the Koran to convey him and his brother safely into camp. No sooner, however, did they issue out than the traitor shouted: "This is Burnes."

The mob rushed upon the brothers and hewed them to pieces. The defenders of the two houses fought bravely to the last, but were finally slaughtered to a man.

Sir Alexander Burnes owed his death to the faults of others rather than his own. Having been previously at Cabul as the British agent, and speaking the language perfectly, it was to him the people made their complaints, to him they looked for redress. They knew nothing of Macnaghten. When they found their condition growing from bad to worse, their taxes increasing, their trade at a stand-still, food extremely dear, and employment wanting, it was on Burnes that they laid the blame; and yet he was all the time endeavouring, but in vain, to persuade Macnaghten that it was absolutely necessary to compel the Ameer to abandon a course that was exasperating for people of all classes, from the most powerful chiefs to the poorest inhabitants of the city. Burnes was unquestionably a man of great ability, and had he been in Macnaghten's place with full power and responsibility, things would probably have turned out differently.

The expedition from the first was a gigantic blunder, undertaken in the teeth of his remonstrances. In any case it was doomed to failure. It was impossible that we could maintain on the throne a man hated by the whole of his subjects—a race of fighting men, jealous to the last degree of their independence, and able to take full advantage of the natural strength of the country. But under the administration of an officer at once firm and resolute, and anxious to conciliate them in every way, the British force might have remained until the Indian government could no longer support the expense of the occupation, and could then have withdrawn quietly with the puppet who had proved himself so utterly incapable of conciliating the people upon whom we had thrust him.

The great fault in the character of Burnes was instability—his alternate fits of sanguine hopefulness and deep depression, and his readiness to believe what suited his mood of the moment. These characteristics were no doubt heightened by the unfortunate position in which he found himself. He had had every reason to expect that in view of his previous residence in Cabul and his knowledge of the character of the people, he would have the post of political officer of the Afghan capital, and he only accepted a secondary position upon the understanding that Macnaghten's appointment was a temporary one, and that he would succeed him. When, however, months and years elapsed, and he was still without any recognized position whatever, when his advice was never adopted and his opinions contemptuously set aside by a man infinitely his inferior, he naturally came to take the worst view of things, and his fits of depression became more frequent. At last he fell, not because his house was isolated, for it could have held out until aid had come, but because the three men whose duty it was to rescue him—Macnaghten, the Ameer, and Elphinstone—were alike vacillating, undetermined, and incompetent.

The Ameer was the only one of these three to take any steps. When he heard of the riot he sent down a regiment of Hindoostanee troops to rescue Burnes. Instead, however, of marching outside the town to the end of the street in which Burnes's house was situated, they entered the city by the nearest gate, and tried to make their way through a maze of narrow lanes. Their advance was desperately opposed. From every house and roof a fire of musketry was kept up, and, after losing two hundred of their number, they fled in utter confusion to the shelter of the citadel. Elphinstone in his report says that he received the news at half-past seven that the town was in a ferment, and shortly after the envoy came and told him that it was in a state of insurrection, but that he did not think much of it, and expected the revolt would shortly subside. Macnaghten suggested that Brigadier Shelton's force should proceed to the Bala Hissar to operate as might seem expedient, while the remaining force was concentrated in the cantonment, and assistance if possible sent to Sir Alexander Burnes.