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In that year Lord Auckland was Governor-General, and Captain Alexander Burnes was sent on a commercial mission up the Indus, and through the Kyber Pass, to Cabul, where he was received in a friendly manner by the Ameer Dost Mahomed. It must be borne in mind that neither Scinde nor the Punjaub was then under our rule, so that our frontiers were still far distant from Afghanistan.
Sale succeeded Cotton in temporary divisional command pending the arrival of the latter's successor. About the middle of December Shah Soojah and his Court, accompanied by the British Envoy, arrived at Jellalabad for the winter, Burnes remaining at Cabul in political charge.
"There's no way to get there tonight over this road," said the man; "but you might see if Middy Burnes could take you down the lake. He's got a tug, and for a little money he'll run you right there." Horace quickly left the station, and, making his way to the street, found the house to which he had been directed. At his knock Middy Burnes poked a bald head out of the door and asked his business.
She dashed aside her tears and ascended the gangplank, halting at the top a moment to answer Middy Burnes' familiar call to her. She saw that Middy had his little tug under steam and was ready to tow the scow away. Shuddering, Fledra went down the stairs into the living-room, where Lem and Lon awaited her.
It is not proposed to inquire whether Sir Alexander Burnes or Lord Auckland was Governor- General.
That fire is kindled by the young men that dyed since the beginning of the world to know whether those that come have loved the women or have been good huntsmen; and if that soule has not had any of those rare Vertues she burnes and broiles the sole of her feet by going through the fire; but quite contrary if she has had them qualityes, she passes through without burning her selfe in the least, and from that so hot place she finds grease and paint of all sorts of colour with which she daubs and makes herselfe beautifull, to come to that place so wished for.
The Treasury was sacked; the sepoys who had guarded it and Burnes' house were massacred, and both buildings were fired; the armed mob swelled in numbers, and soon the whole city was in a roar of tumult. Prompt and vigorous military action would no doubt have crushed the insurrection, at least for the time.
The Khan of Khelat, whether from disaffection or inability, left unfulfilled his promise to supply grain, and the result of the quarrel which Burnes picked with him was that he shunned coming in and paying homage to Shah Soojah, for which default he was to suffer cruel and unjustifiable ruin.
He says that Sir Alexander Burnes of whom he spoke throughout in the most contemptuous manner an eminent political agent at the Court of Dost Mahommed, was beguiled by the treachery of that Asiatic ruler; that he took everything for truth which he heard, and that, in point of fact, he was utterly unfit for the position which he held at Cabul.
Burnes had, indeed, no specific duties of any kind; in his own words, he was in 'the most nondescript situation. Macnaghten gave him no responsibility, and while Burnes waited for the promised reversion of the office of envoy, he chiefly employed himself in writing long memorials on the situation and prospects of affairs, on which Macnaghten's marginal comments were brusque, and occasionally contemptuous.
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