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118 among the first to advocate, and the most eager to carry through. His appeal to Lord Auckland's sense of justice was not made in vain, for the victim was everywhere received with becoming honour, and consoled with a pension of £20,000 a year.

On the 13th the Amír and his son, Afzal Khán, began their march in company with Sir Willoughby Cotton, towards Jalálábád, whence a strong body of troops returning homewards escorted them across the Punjab to Ludhiána.

Early in December the Sháh and the Envoy retired again for the winter to Jalálábád. Once more there was a lull in Afghán affairs. Macnaghten's sanguine spirit mistook the lull for a settled calm. In spite of late experience, of warnings from many quarters, from soldiers like Nott, and politicals like Todd and Rawlinson, the Envoy still fondled his absurd belief in the power of British gold and bayonets to reconcile a turbulent people to the rule of a puppet king surrounded by worthless favourites, and played upon by the hired tools of foreign infidels. He would not hear a word spoken against the Sháh, whom Nott and other shrewd observers accused of plotting with his fellow-tribesmen to get rid of his English friends. If the Envoy could have had his own way, Nott himself, the ablest officer in the country, who ought by right of merit and long service to have replaced Cotton at Kábul, would have been summarily recalled from Kandahár.