cumvallation, and closely blockaded it. Unable to effect any impression, they retired; but, on the 21st of May, they made an attack at four in the morning, in two columns each of 2,000 men, with thirty scaling-ladders, when after an hour's contest they were completely beaten off. As for Ghuznee, it fell into the hands of the Affghans in March. Colonel Palmer, who commanded, not having quite a thousand men, was unable to prevent them from entering the city, but maintained himself in the citadel till the Sepoys were all frost-bitten and unfit for duty, provisions not to be obtained, relief despaired of, and, above all, water failing; when on the 6th of March he evacuated the place, in pursuance of a capitulation with some of the Affghan chiefs. The diminished force had scarcely marched out of the citadel ere it was attacked by the savage, fanatic Ghazees.[1] On one spot an English officer, his wife, their servants, and thirty Sepoys were massacred. Native women and children and Sepoys were butchered by the Ghazee knives, or knocked down in heaps by discharges of artillery. Colonel Palmer himself was put to the torture; after which he and his nine surviving officers were thrown into a small and filthy dungeon.
At this period several of the Affghan chiefs were waging ferocious war upon each other in the neighbourhood of Cabul. Shah Sujah had been treacherously assassinated, and his youngest son, Futteh Jung, was proclaimed king by one party, while another was opposed to him; and a civil or clan warfare was carried into the very heart of the city of Cabul. Akbar Khan, however, who had been absent during these transactions, now hastened to Cabul; and by his talents, influence, and address, regained the complete mastery of that capital. He then turned his arms against the Bala Hissar; and, having effected a breach, compelled it to surrender. Yet he did not proceed to extremities against Futteh Jung, but acknowledged him as Shah, with the understanding that he
- ↑ Champions of religion.
