Sale's Brigade In Afghanistan, With An Account Of The Seizure And Defence Of Jellalabad by Gleig George Robert;

Author:Gleig, George Robert;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Normanby Press
Published: 2014-07-31T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII.

March from Tizeen—Rear-guard engaged.

THE same caution which had marked the whole of Sir Robert Sale’s proceedings from the outset was manifested in the arrangement of his camp in the valley of Tizeen. Strong piquets were planted on every side, and not they alone, but the advanced sentries were ordered to construct songas for their own protection; while within the lines breastworks of loose stones were thrown up, from behind which the troops might be able to defend themselves against a large superiority of numbers. Not contented with these precautions, Sir Robert made arrangements for attacking, on the morrow, the chief’s castle; and one-half the amount of his infantry, together with a still larger proportion of his artillery, were directed to follow Col. Dennie on this service. But just as the troops had paraded, and were preparing to quit the ground, a messenger came in from the obnoxious chief with a letter to the political agent, in which he professed his inability to resist the Feringhees, and proposed to come to an accommodation with them. “I know,” so ran his despatch, “that I and my countrymen cannot pretend to cope with your soldiers. If, therefore, you attack my castle, I shall flee to the hills, destroying, before I go, my whole stock of provisions for the winter. We may starve, but you will not be benefited; and starving men sometimes do desperate things. I do not wish to fight any more; offer me terns.”

Captain MacGregor, having read this characteristic communication, proceeded with it to General Sale’s tent; and expressing an opinion that the writer would cheerfully agree to such conditions as might be proposed, he prevailed upon the General to counter-order the march of the troops that had been about to operate against the tower. Neither, as it seemed, had the political agent suffered his hopes to outrun probabilities; for the chief of Tizeen expressed his willingness to come into the treaty proposed, and to give hostages for his faithful fulfilment of it. Accordingly about six o’clock in the evening of the 23rd, ten heads of families arrived in the camp, who were placed under surveillance rather for appearance’s sake than because of any use that would be made of them; for the slaughter of hostages is an atrocity unknown with English armies, whether serving in the East or in the West. However, it was taken for granted that the Afghans could not possibly be aware of this difference between their usages and ours: and the presence among them of these ten poor wretches, who looked more like the outcasts of a tribe than its leading members, induced the inhabitants of the British camp to hope for an immediate pacification of the valley.

Thus far the chief was true to his word, that, in the course of the 25th, considerable supplies of provisions and forage were sent into camp. The people who brought them, however, seemed to be excessively out of humour, and would neither accept nor bestow the smallest civilities

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