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He argued that to conclude a treaty with the Afghans would be a fatal error, and suggested two alternative courses which offered a prospect of saving their honour and part of the army the occupation of the Balla Hissar, which was the preferable measure, or the abandonment of camp, baggage, and encumbrances, and forcing a retreat down the passes.
And then the starving people are blamed for finding fault, and for being suspicious. What else, he asks, can they be? How can a man dying of starvation have patience? The chief places he visited were Balla, Claremorris, Ballyhaunis, and Hollymount. The scenes he witnessed were, he says, scarcely if at all less harrowing than those which had been reported from the locality of Skibbereen.
She came to the door and called: "Balla, come here." Her voice sounded to the boys a little strained and troubled, and they ran up the steps and stood by her. Balla came to the portico, and looked up with an air of inquiry. He, too, showed excitement. "Balla, I want you to know that if you wish to go, you can do so."
Peter and Cole found out about the pen, and then the servants learned of it, and the boys were joked and laughed at unmercifully. "I believe them boys is distracted," said old Balla, in the kitchen; "settin' a pen in them woods for to ketch hogs, with the gap open! Think hogs goin' stay in pen with gap open ef any wuz dyah to went in!"
Many of his friends regarded him in the light of the leader of a forlorn hope, and probably Cavagnari recognised with perfect clearness the risks which encompassed his embassy; but apart from mayhap a little added gravity in his leave-takings when he quitted Simla, he gave no sign. It was not a very imposing mission at whose head he rode into the Balla Hissar of Cabul on July 24th, 1879.
"Old man, come here!" called some of them to Balla, who was standing near expostulating with the men who were about the fire. "Who? me?" asked Balla. "B'ain't you the carriage driver?" "Ain't I the keridge driver?" "Yes, you; we know you are, so you need not be lying about it." "Hi! yes; I the keridge driver. Who say I ain't?" "Well, where have you hid those horses?
Frank was hardly out of hearing before Willy was surprised to hear the prisoner call him by name in the most friendly and familiar manner, although the voice was a strange one. "Willy, is that you?" called the person inside. "Yes." "Where's Frank?" "Gone to get Uncle Balla." "Did you see that other fellow?" "Yes." "I wish you'd shot him. He brought me here and played a joke on me.
It took a great deal longer to dig the hole in the dark than they had expected, and when they got back to the house everything was quiet. The boys had their hats pulled over their eyes, and had turned their jackets inside out to disguise themselves. "It's a first-rate place! Ain't it, Unc' Balla?" they said, as they entered the chamber where their mother and aunt were waiting for them.
"Let me get up, Sergeant, hic don't you heah the roll-call? the tent's mighty dark; what you fool me in here for?" muttered the man inside. The boys could see that he was stretched out on the floor, apparently asleep, and that he was a soldier in uniform. Balla stepped inside. "Is he dead?" asked both boys as Balla caught him by the arms, lifted him, and let him fall again limp on the floor.
Nor had he the nerve to remain in Cabul until Roberts should camp under the Balla Hissar and demand of him an account of the stewardship he had undertaken on behalf of the ill-fated Cavagnari.
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