their submission. His first inquiries were for those of his family who had been safely lodged in British keeping at Ghazní. He talked freely with Macnachten over his late adventures, how he had made up his mind to surrender before the fight of Parwándarra, and had quietly ridden off with a few staunch followers to fulfil his purpose on the evening after the fight.
A tent was pitched for him in the Residency 'compound,' and Captain Lawrence was placed in temporary charge of the noble prisoner. On the 6th the Amír was handed over to the care of Captain Peter Nicolson, who was presently to escort him to Hindustán. During his stay at Kábul the captive Bárakzái was treated with all courtesy not only by the leading officers of the garrison, who admired him as much as they despised Sháh Shujá, but above all by the same Macnaghten who had just been thirsting for his blood. Lord Auckland must have smiled at the contrast between his Envoy's previous letters and that in which he now pleaded for liberal treatment of the 'villain' whom Sháh Shujá refused to see. Macnaghten contended that the case of the Ludhiána pensioner furnished no true parallel to that of the Amír. 'The Sháh had no claim upon us; we had no hand in depriving him of his kingdom; whereas we ejected the Dost who never offended us, in support of our policy of which he is the victim.' Such were the few and pithy words in which the Envoy arraigned the justice of that very policy which he had been
