full success by a body of troops under the gallant Griffiths. This was followed by a good deal of brilliant but desultory fighting, in which our soldiers of all arms proved their mettle against an active and ubiquitous foe. But the net result revealed no traces of concerted action for a common end. Individual officers, like Eyre, Sturt, Mackenzie, Griffiths, did their duty well and nobly, whenever they got the chance. But the men whose rank betokened leadership did not lead. They merely wrangled or did nothing. As Colonel Malleson has pithily remarked, 'there was in fact no command.'
No change for the better took place when Elphinstone, at Macnaghten's urgent entreaty, recalled Shelton and his troops on the 9th from the Bálá Hissár. The Envoy himself, who had been a soldier before he obtained a 'writership' in the Bengal Civil Service, still showed something of a soldier's energy and forecast in the hour of danger. He had lost no time in urging the recall of Sale's brigade and the despatch of Nott's Bengal troops from Kandahár. Had his advice been promptly taken, the commissariat stores would have been saved, and all the difficulties arising from their loss would have been avoided. He hoped, of course, that the presence of Brigadier Shelton would infuse new spirit into the conduct of the defence. The troops were on half-rations, but thanks to Macnaghten's energy, supplies could still be bought from the neighbouring villages, although the disgraceful capture of our stores had turned numbers of neutral
