"Captain Waller," cried Brigadier Shelton, "this is mere madness; Trecarrel and Trevelyan are throwing their lives away, for the Afghan skirmishers will soon be close at hand! Take your Company to the rear in extended order, and keep the rascals in check if you can. A Ressallah of the 5th Cavalry will support you if necessary."
"Very good, sir," replied Waller, mechanically and coolly, as if on parade, lowering his drawn sword in salute, and obeying with alacrity, in the desire and hope to overtake and protect the father of his Mabel. "Company, forward, double quick;" and forward his men went briskly, with their arms at the trail, and in line, till clear of the bivouac, when he extended them from the centre, and they loaded while advancing.
In active and dangerous military duty like this, there is always some relief from mental torture. A man in grief may sit at his desk, toil with the spade, the shuttle, or the hammer, enduring a sickness of the heart that nothing can allay, and time alone may cure; but in the fierce excitement of mortal strife, the ills of life seem lessened, and a great sorrow may be half forgotten. Hence, to grapple with the enemy, and especially such an enemy as those Afghans, was as a balm to the excited hearts of Denzil and Waller, and forth they went with a will over ground that was singularly repulsive and horrible in aspect. In his keen sense of the terrible event of last night, the former forgot even his jealousy of Audley; they could have but one common cause now—vengeance on the abductors.
Corpses lay thick everywhere, and half covered by the snow.
How terrible seemed the last rest of all those dead people, who, since only yesterday, had learned the great secret of Time and Eternity, and more that mere mortal can never know; their jaws relaxed; their eyes, unclosed by friendly or loving hands, were staring stonily and sightlessly to Heaven, as they slept the sleep from which the thunder of all the cannon in the world would never waken them. The ashes of the Christian would receive no Christian burial; and those of the Hindoo would never mingle with the waters of the Jumna, or his holier river, the Ganges. For the remains of all would ere long become the prey of the wolf and hyæna, and already the vultures were there in sable flights, settling over all the fallen.
In some places under the soldiers' feet, the snow was crimsoned by large patches of frozen blood.
A long line of abandoned dhooleys, full of women, children, and wounded men, were passed. All the occupants of these were dead; and to their ghastly banquet thereon, the scared vultures returned with angry croak and flapping wings, when Waller's men went further from them.
On a little knoll the General and Audley Trevelyan were overtaken. They had reined up their horses, and were looking about them sadly and hopelessly, for no trace of the lost one could be discerned; but the shouts of some exulting Afghans were borne towards them on the morning wind.
A body of cavalry, divided into two parties, were coming along the steep rocks of the Pass on both sides, for the mountain horses of that wild region can climb like cats or goats. A green silk banner floated from a glittering lance, announcing that they formed the Resallah, or troop of Amen Oollah Khan; and each horseman had a juzailchee, or rifleman, mounted, en croupe, behind him, after the fashion of the French Voltigeurs.
These they dropped fresh, unwearied, and ready for action; and the firing began at once from behind the rocks or stones, over which they discharged their long barrelled rifles in perfect security.