to her acute mental misery a kind of apathetic stupor followed, and she was in that state as the Retreat again began.
CHAPTER XX.
IN THE KHYBER PASS.
We almost shrink from the task of telling the story of that awful retreat, in which the Rider on the Pale Horse followed the steps of our troops, so closely, so terribly, and in such ghastly triumph!
All the plans of Ackbar Khan had been long prearranged, and among those, as an intercepted despatch from him to a Ghilzie chief announced, was nothing less than a Holy War, for he adjured all, in the name of the Prophet, "to rise against the infidels, whose chief," he adds, "I have slain with my own hand at Cabul, even, as I trust, in like manner to slay the chief of the Feringhees, Sale, in Jellalabad."
The six hundred Horse that had been seen advancing, were met by two of our officers, Captain Skinner, of the 61st Native Infantry, and Lieutenant Burgoyne, who bore a flag of truce. They demanded what their intentions were; and the fierce Ackbar who rode at their head, muffled in a robe of the costliest furs, played with the lock of a pistol, and seemed with difficulty to restrain himself from using it. However, he replied,
"I have come on the part of the great chiefs of Afghanistan, to escort you as far as Jellalabad; but we demand hostages that you shall march no further on the way than Tezeen, ere Sale Sahib evacuates the city, wherein he has no right to be."
"Wherefore hostages, Khan?" asked Captain Skinner.
"Lest when you effect a junction, you may all come back to Cabul. The lives of the hostages should answer for this, and I take yours in the meantime, as an earnest thereof!"
And as he spoke, he drew his pistol, and deliberately shot poor Skinner through the head; so Burgoyne, full of rage and pity, returned with the message alone.