were within its walls: the residence of Sir Alexander Burnes was also in Cabul, while that of Sir William Macnaghten was near the cantonment.
In this careless and scattered state, our troops at Cabul slumbered in fancied security, as if their day-dream was never to terminate; but the morning of the 2nd of November dissipated the spell. At an early hour the city was in a state of commotion; the shops were plundered, the houses of the British officers attacked, flames were seen to issue from that part of the city where they dwelt, and an incessant report of fire-arms seemed to roll through the town from end to end. Among the first of the houses assaulted were those of Sir Alexander Burnes and of Captain Johnson, paymaster of the Shah's forces; but the confidence of the former was still such that he refused to retire, or defend himself, and attempted to appease the assailants by haranguing them from a high gallery. They soon, however, forced an entrance; and though the Sepoys who formed the guard of Sir Alexander Burnes fought nobly, he was mercilessly slaughtered, with his brother, a lieutenant in the Bombay army, Captain Johnson, and Lieutenant Broadfoot of the Bengal European regiment, who slew six of the assailants before he himself was killed. The Shah's treasury, as well as the residence of Sir Alexander Burnes, were plundered; every man, woman, or child found in either massacred, and the buildings burned to the ground.
The whole city was now in a state of insurrection, and it was dangerous for an European countenance to be anywhere visible; but still, by energetic measures the commotion might have been suppressed, and the subsequent calamities prevented. With inconceivable recklessness, however, Sir William Macnaghten said that the storm would soon blow over of itself; while General Elphinstone, the Commander-in-Chief, an amiable and intelligent officer, was rendered by age and declining health totally unequal to the emergency. He was peculiarly deficient in decision and promptitude, the
