Mackenzie also was released, along with Captain Skinner, who had escaped by a happy chance from the massacres of the 2nd of November.
On the first day of the new year, 1842, the ratified treaty, bearing the seals of eighteen chiefs, was placed in Pottinger's hands. By that time the guns, muskets, and ordnance stores had all been given up. Preparations for retreat went dismally forward, amid scenes of wild disorder and outrages which Shelton declined to check. Snow fell heavily from time to time, and our half-starved, ill-clad Sepoys suffered cruelly from the unaccustomed cold. Frequent warnings from Sháh Shujá and other friends in Kábul failed to move the military chiefs from their fixed purpose. The Sháh offered the English ladies an asylum in his citadel. On the strength of this offer Pottinger and Lawrence entreated Elphinstone to march his force straight into the Bálá Hissár. 'But can you guarantee us supplies?' asked the General. Of course they could guarantee nothing of the kind. 'No, we retreat,' said Elphinstone; and the order was issued for a march next morning towards Jalálábád[1].
About nine on the morning of January 6, the sick and wounded having all been safely lodged in the Bálá Hissár, the vanguard of a force still reckoned at 4,500 men was led out by Brigadier Anquetil through a breach made in the rampart the night before. It was 'a crouching, drooping, dispirited army' which Lawrence saw slowly picking its way through snow
- ↑ Lawrence.
