[334] There has been so much bitter controversy on this unhappy subject, that I have not written this bare outline of the event without instituting inquiries among those who were most likely to have had some personal cognizance of it. That I have rightly characterised these murders I know, for I have the evidence of one who saw the butchery going on. An officer of the highest character writes, in reply to my inquiries: “As regards what is called the Ghuznee massacre, I was walking one day in camp, and came upon the King’s tents, at the rear of which I saw a fearfully bloody sight. There were forty or fifty men, young and old. Many were dead; others at their last gasp; others with their hands tied behind them; some sitting, others standing, awaiting their doom; and the King’s executioners and other servants amusing themselves (for actually they were laughing and joking, and seemed to look upon the work as good fun) with hacking and maiming the poor wretches indiscriminately with their long swords and knives. I was so horrified at coming so suddenly on such a scene of blood, that I was for the instant as it were, spell-bound. On inquiry, I ascertained that the King had ordered this wholesale murder in consequence of one of the number (they were, or were said to be, all Ghazees, who had shortly before been taken prisoners) having stabbed, in his Majesty’s presence, a Pesh-Khidmut, or body-attendant of the King. My friend and I made our exit; and he went direct to the Envoy’s tent and reported the circumstance.”—[MS. Correspondence.]
[335] The advance consisted of the light companies of the four European regiments; the remaining companies composed the other sections of the storming columns. The regiments were: the 2nd, the 13th, and 17th (Queen’s), and the Company’s European Regiment.
[336] Hough says: “Lieutenant Durand was obliged to scrape the hose with his finger-nails, finding the powder failed to ignite on the first application of the port-fire.”
[337] Havelock. Hough says: “The explosion was heard by nearly all.”
[338] Havelock.
[339] Captain Peat.
[340] I give the circumstances of Sale’s escape in the words of Captain Havelock, who has detailed them with trustworthy minuteness. “One of their number rushing over the fallen timbers, brought down Brigadier Sale by a cut in the face with his sharp shunsheer (sabre). The Afghan repeated his blow as his opponent was falling; but the pummel, not the edge of his sword, this time took effect, though with stunning violence. He lost his footing, however, in the effort, and Briton and Afghan rolled together amongst the fractured timbers. Thus situated, the first care of the Brigadier was to master the weapon of his adversary. He snatched at it, but one of his fingers met the edge of the trenchant blade. He quickly withdrew his wounded hand, and adroitly replaced it over that of his adversary, so as to keep fast the hilt of his shunsheer. But he had an active and powerful opponent, and was himself faint from the loss of blood. Captain Kershaw, of the 13th, aide-de-camp to Brigadier Baumgardt, happened in the mêlée to approach the scene of conflict: the wounded leader recognised and called to him for aid. Kershaw passed his drawn sabre through the body of the Afghan; but still the desperado continued to struggle with frantic violence. At length, in the fierce grapple, the Brigadier for a moment got uppermost. Still retaining the weapon of his enemy in his left hand, he dealt him with his right a cut from his own sabre, which cleft his skull from the crown to the eyebrows. The Mahomedan once shouted, ‘Ne Ullah!’ (Oh! God!) and never moved or spoke again.”—[Captain Havelock’s Narrative.]
[341] Havelock. The colour of the 13th was first planted by the hand of Ensign Frere—a nephew of John Hookham Frere.
[342] Havelock. The military historian attributes the forbearance of the soldiery to the fact, that no spirit rations had been served out to them during the preceding fortnight. “No candid man,” he says, “of any military experience, will deny that the character of the scene, in the fortress and the citadel, would have been far different if individual soldiers had entered the town primed with arrack, or if spirituous liquors had been discovered in the Afghan depôts.”
[343] I have been assured by an officer on the staff of the Shah’s army, that he was near his Majesty at the taking of Ghuznee, when under fire, and that he exhibited great coolness and courage. He is said by my informant, who was close beside him, to have sate “as firm as a rock, not showing the slightest alarm either by word or gesture, and seeming to think it derogatory to his kingly character to move an inch whilst the firing lasted.”—[MS. Correspondence.]