Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/209

 CHAPTER XIII

'Pax Asiae Restituta'

If the victories of Nott and Pollock had served to vindicate the honour of our arms, the deliverance of the prisoners, black and white, appealed to a wider range of human sympathies, and tapped a purer fount of patriotic sentiment. But the task imposed upon our troops appeared to be still incomplete, while a large remnant of Akbar's forces kept the field in the Kohistán. Towards the close of September two brigades under General McCaskill were sent to break up a force which might else annoy our troops on their march homewards. McCaskill, aided and advised by Havelock, discharged his errand with full success. The strong and populous town of Istálíf, climbing up the terraced hillside from a sea of bloom and verdure below, was filled with families who had come for shelter to 'the maiden city' from the perils of war elsewhere. It was carried by storm on the 29th of September with trifling loss; the women and children streaming in white-robed crowds up the mountain beyond, as Broadfoot's Sappers and the 9th Foot rushed in. The town was plundered and set on fire.