Sword of Empire by Christopher Nicole

Author:Christopher Nicole [Nicole, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00OYUNBYO
Goodreads: 23494247
Publisher: Century
Published: 1990-12-31T23:00:00+00:00

Bombay, 12 August 1840

I have been forced to abandon Laura! I hope and pray this may be only temporary. But even a temporary separation after the joys we shared last winter is a harrowing experience.

In the New Year, I was filled with the happiness of fulfilment. Oh, any man who has lived and not held Laura Dean naked in his arms has never lived at all!

As it happens, many have known that sublime happiness. But they are all dead. I am alive.

I cannot pretend our liaison has made me immensely popular with my compatriots, but that means nothing to me. Nor have my constant letters insisting upon her innocence and demanding her forgiveness by the Company, her acquittal of all charges — of which she is entirely innocent — made me very popular with my superiors. But that means nothing either.

And now this peremptory recall to duty.

I was tempted to remain in the softness of Laura’s arms. But Laura would not permit me to take so desperate a step, and on reflection I must admit that she was right. She has no more desire to end her days in Kabul than have I, and her only hope of escaping that foul place is for me to arrange for a pardon for her, and a triumphal return to Bombay.

This I certainly intend to do. If I fail, well, at least I know where she is, and that she is waiting for me.

In Afghanistan, it all seems very settled. We gave them a good drubbing outside Ghazni, and of course several of their leaders were killed. The rest seem anxious to make peace, and a good number of the hill chieftains have entirely submitted to Company rule. Just to make sure of their loyalty, we are paying them each a kind of retainer as Company servants, so long as they keep the peace in their villages.

Best of all, of course, Dost Mohammed is in our hands. He simply presented himself for surrender, being tired of the whole business. Naturally Shah Shuja wanted his head, his eyes, or some other even more important portion of his anatomy, to make sure he could not change his mind at some future date, but John Company does not deal in such barbarities, and the ex-amir has been sent down into India and perpetual imprisonment. It is a pity that his equally rascally son Akbar remains at large, but we are assured that his credit with the Afghans is now very low, and the chances of his mounting a counter-offensive slight indeed.

Naturally there are born pessimists like old General Nott, whom we left in command of the garrison at Kandahar, who writes in all directions imploring for vast reinforcements to be sent. Otherwise, he says, not a man of us will ever see Bombay again. This is clearly an absurd point of view. We simply have not got the men to spare; it would be a waste of time and money; in any case, these people are thoroughly cowed.

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