The royal exile's plausible manners and his steady professions of belief in himself and of sympathy with the views of his English protectors, had turned Wade into a zealous advocate of the prince whose character he had failed to gauge aright. Shujá's last attempt to recover his kingdom had been made, with Ranjít's connivance, in the course of 1833. Its utter collapse under the walls of Kandahár in the following year, had been due at least as much to Shujá's cowardice at the crucial moment, as to Dost Muhammad's leadership, or the courage of his troops. It was during the Amír's march towards Kandahár that the wily Sikh ruler gained firm possession of Pesháwar.
Disheartened for a time by Shujá's failure, Wade cast an eye of favour on Dost Muhammad. But Shujá returned to Ludhiána and his influence soon won the British Agent back to his earlier prepossessions. If Wade saw no prospect of restoring Sháh Shujá, he might labour at least for the discouragement of the Sháh's victorious foe. Smitten like Burnes with the prevalent dread of Russia, he refused to see in the strong government of Dost Muhammad the simplest solution of the Central Asian problem. India's safety should rather be found in the disunion of Afghán chiefs and the aggrandizement of Ranjít Singh. Wade's comments on Burnes's letters, which passed regularly through his hands, and on those received from an English traveller, Masson, then staying at Kábul, inclined Lord Auckland more
