Mingled expressions of rage and indignation were uttered by all save Waller, who looked singularly pale and calm.
"And what was the reply to these degrading proposals?" he asked, while quietly selecting and lighting a cigar.
"It was answered that a British General might, if he chose, leave or give certain officers as hostages, but that he had no power over their wives and families. That without the full consent of husbands and parents, the ladies and children would not be left behind."
"I should think not—left, d—n it, to certain destruction!" exclaimed Polwhele, his dark eyes flashing fire. Burgoyne resumed:
"It was then that Ackbar said to us, mockingly, 'If you save your lives, what do the lives or honour, as you call it, of your wives or sisters matter? They are only women, and, as women, are spoil, like your horses and camels, yaboos, shawls, pipes, and gunpowder. Allah! you Kaffirs are strange dogs.' And there, for to-night, the matter rests. News came, however, that the Queen's 16th Lancers, the 9th, and 31st Regiments have come up country, as far as Peshawur; but that is fully two hundred miles distant; the defiles are full of snow, and they cannot be here in time either to assist or save us."
These details, which are matters of history, now filled all in that isolated camp with extreme dismay. Every hour provisions were growing more scarce; every hour the snow was falling more heavily, and thus the tremendous mountain gorges through which the route lies to Jellalabad or Peshawur, were hourly becoming more and more impassable.
To move or quit the fortified Cantonments without the solemn promise of safe conduct from the vast hordes in arms, was perilous in the extreme. To remain was but to die by slow starvation or the sword. So the question asked by the Khan of Khelat, was likely to have a terrible answer.
"Major Thain," writes Lady Sale, "was now sent round to ask all the married officers if they would consent to their wives staying, offering those who did so a salary of 2000 rupees a month! Lieutenant Eyre said, that if it was to be productive of good, he would stay with his wife and child. The others all refused to risk the safety of their families. Captain Anderson said that he would rather put a pistol to his wife's head and shoot her; and Sturt declared that his wife and mother should only be taken from him at the point of the bayonet; for himself, he was ready to perform any duty imposed upon him."*
* "Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan." Major Thain belonged to H.M. 21st Foot, but was then on the Staff.
Sturdy old General Trecarrel swore that he would take his Company of the Cornish Light Infantry, put Mabel and Rose in the centre, and force a way through the Passes at all hazards, rather than leave them to a fate which none could foresee. At the worst, they could all die there together, and there could be little doubt of the event if we marched without terms, for tidings came from Taj Mahommed, the Wuzeer, that Aziz Khan, with 10,000 Kohistanees, had beset the road at Tezeen; and that the warriors of the Ghilzie tribe (which numbers 600,000 souls) were in possession of all the heights overlooking it.