Captain Apperley's command of the latter he had now dismounted, and posted in a shallow ditch that surrounded a square mud fort, in which he placed the chargers. A range of steep hills rose in front of this improvised post, and through them lay the Sung-i-Navishta Pass—which means the 'Place of the Written Stone,' from an ancient Persian inscription carved on a mass of rock in the centre of the defile, stating that the road then had been made in the reign of Shah Jehan, who was crowned at Agra in 1628.
Hills, steep, barren, and stony, were on the left of this post, and there were grey garden walls, from which the Afghans were firing briskly, but as most of their balls went into the air, it was evident that they were ignorant of how to sight the rifles they were handling.
A small party of the 12th Bengal Cavalry dismounted, held a walled garden on the right of this post, and kept up a rattling carbine fire on the enemy, who took cover among ground so rough and broken that no cavalry in the saddle could act against them.
To succour these advanced parties, whose posts were now enveloped in whirls of eddying smoke, streaked by incessant jets or flashes of fire, the Royal Artillery guns came on under Major Parry, with a wing of the Gordon Highlanders under Major Stewart White, with some of the 23rd Pioneers and two squadrons of the 5th Punjaub Cavalry, all sent by General Baker, who assigned to this mixed but slender force the severe task of carrying these garrisoned heights.
Old Spatterdash as he went to the front had just time to wring Colville's hand and congratulate him, but in doing so reeled a little in his saddle. In fact, at that early hour he was still groggy from his potations over night, and said, in a feathery voice,
'S'cuse me, Colville, but that infernal bullet I got at Lucknow is troubling me as usual.'
A few minutes more saw Spatterdash lying on his back, shot through the head, and a riderless horse galloping rearward with loose reins, while very heavy firing on the left announced that Baker was pushing on towards the hills, and all along their green slopes could be seen the white smoke of cannon and rifles eddying and rolling before the soft morning breeze.
As Major White pushed on with his somewhat mixed command, Colville could see the rocky heights on both flanks of the Sung-i-Navishta Pass manned by dark masses of the enemy, all ranked under numerous standards that streamed in the breeze, red, blue, green, white, and yellow, the colours of the different mountain tribes, or of the fortified villages from which they came.
There, too, were the sombre battalions of the Ameer's revolted infantry, clad in brown tunics faced with scarlet; and, most conspicuous of all, were a horde of Ghazis, furious and inflamed fanatics, in purest white, led by several chiefs, but most notably by Mahmoud Shah.
Parry's battery now opened fire on the crowds that covered the nearest hill, and, while yells of defiance mingled with the din of the guns and musketry, four Afghan rifled mountain guns in the Pass replied, making very good practice against us indeed, and waking the echoes of the rocks that overhang the Logur river.