bhang, surged up against the blazing timbers and beneath the city walls. But the disciplined courage of the small garrison backed by the resourceful skill of their leader, Major Lane, completely frustrated each fresh attempt to clamber over the grain-bags hurriedly heaped up behind the gate. After four hours of fierce struggle the baffled Afgháns disappeared, leaving behind them many of their dead. Later in the month Nott and Wymer sallied out again to teach the enemy another lesson of respect for British prowess against heavy odds[1].
Less fortunate was the lot of Colonel Palmer's garrison at Ghazní. Forced by treachery to abandon the town in December and to shut themselves up in the citadel, Palmer's Sepoys suffered terribly from the bitter cold, intensified by the want of fuel and by short rations of unwholesome food. The enemy summoned them to surrender in accordance with the agreement signed at Kábul. Palmer put them off for a time with specious excuses; but at last it seemed to him that nothing but capitulation could save his troops. On the 6th of March the wasted garrison marched out of the citadel under promise of safe-conduct to Pesháwar. But a crowd of Gházis made a fierce attack on the houses in which the garrison had been allowed to take shelter. For the next fortnight they underwent the horrors of a second and far more fatal siege. At last, when nearly all the Sepoys had stolen off in hopes of making their way to Pesháwar, the officers
- ↑ Stocqueler; Afghan Papers.
