was opened upon them; not a soldier was stirred from his post; no sortie was apparently even thought of; treachery was allowed to triumph in open day; the murder of a British Envoy was perpetrated in the face, and within musket-shot, of a British army; and not only was no effort made to avenge the dastardly deed, but the body was left lying on the plain to be mangled and insulted, and finally carried off to be paraded in the public market by a ruffianly mob of fanatical barbarians."
Lower than this in the scale of degradation it was needless to descend; but still lower was our doomed army pushed down by unrelenting fate ere it was finally exterminated. With the treacherous and cowardly murderers of Sir William Macnaghten, a fresh treaty was entered into by the military council, consisting of General Elphinstone, Brigadiers Shelton and Anquetil, Colonel Chambers, and Captains Bellew and Grant, by which the troops, on condition of being allowed to depart, were to leave behind most of their guns and all their treasure: bills were drawn on India for fourteen lacs of rupees (£140,000); and four additional officers were given as hostages; Captains Drummond, Walsh, Warburton, and Webb, proceeded to join Captains Conolly and Airey, who were already in the keeping of the Affghans. Captains Laurence and Mackenzie, who had been seized with Sir William Macnaghten, were permitted to return, as was also Captain Skinner, who was previously in the power of the enemy.
The sick and wounded of the British force, it was arranged, should not accompany their companions on the approaching march from Cabul. They were to be left in care of the chiefs; and in furtherance of this design, they were conveyed into the Bala Hissar. The movement of the rest was delayed under various pretences till the 6th of January, 1842; when, in the language of Lieut. Eyre, "the fatal morning dawned which was to witness the
