Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/58

52 These and similar speeches were reported to Macnaghten by the British Agent, who stayed on two months longer at his post, listening with heavy heart to the pleadings and remonstrances of Dost Muhammad's ministers, discussing matters of State with the Amír himself, and fretting at the honours tardily paid to his Russian rival. Ere long Viktevitch rode in state through the streets of Kábul to the Bálá Hissár; the Amír received him with impressive heartiness; and the Captain of Cossacks, who had been sent, like Burnes, on a commercial errand, rose to the occasion by promising the Afgháns everything which they had asked in vain of their English friends. He afterwards went back to Kandahár, and secured the signatures of Dost Muhammad's brethren to the new treaty of alliance with Persia and the Tzar. He had even planned a visit to Lahore; but Ranjít Singh declined to sanction a step so offensive to his English ally.

The Amír, however, was not happy. Even as late as March 21 he wrote to the Governor-General, imploring him to 'remedy the grievances of the Afgháns,' and to give them 'a little encouragement and power.' But Lord Auckland returned no answer to this last despairing cry for common justice, and before the end of April Dost Muhammad's patience had worn itself out. One of the Kandahár chiefs came to Kábul to win the Amír over to the Persian alliance; Burnes's Mission had fallen into contempt, and on the 26th of