Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/139

Rh that Burnes himself should be made the first victim of an outbreak planned for the next morning, the anniversary of Parwándarra.

Next to the house of the Envoy-Elect was that which contained the Sháh's Treasury, under the charge of Paymaster Captain Johnson, who happened that night to be sleeping in cantonments. Each house was protected by a small Sepoy guard. The Treasury looked out upon a narrow street, half a mile distant from the Bálá Hissár. Burnes lived in the city for reasons which chiefly concerned himself. The plunder of the Treasury would hold out a sufficient bribe to the men employed in wreaking Afghán vengeance on the enemy next door. 'To kill Burnes and to sack the Treasury' — argues Durand — 'was to open the revolt in a manner that would silence the timid or wavering, feed the thirst for gold, and compromise all irrevocably. It was to open the insurrection in the city of Kábul with imposing success.'

About 7 a.m. on the 2nd of November Captain George Lawrence had just returned to the Residency from his early morning walk, when a servant came up breathless to tell him that the streets of Kábul were filled with armed men, who surrounded the houses of Sir A. Burnes and Captain Johnson. An hour later Lawrence found the Envoy engaged in earnest talk with Elphinstone and some officers of his staff. 'On coming in, Sir William placed a note from Burnes in my hand, bogging for aid, as from a tumult in the city he feared his house might be attacked.' Lawrence