Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/99

Rh by British officers and troops through the streets of Kábul into the castled palace of the Bálá Hissár. No outburst of popular welcome greeted the Sháh's return to his capital after an absence of thirty years. Of those who came out to stare at the passing pageant, very few were seen to offer him a common salaam. 'It was more,' says Kaye, 'like a funeral procession than the entry of a king into the capital of his restored dominions.'

On Outram's arrival at Kábul, he reported to Sháh Shujá the seeming treachery of Hájjí Khán. The old traitor was arrested by the Sháh's command. Proofs of his treasonous practices were soon forthcoming; and the Hájjí was duly marched off a close prisoner to Hindustán. He was finally imprisoned in the riverside fortress of Chanár. Outram himself honestly believed that but for the Afghán's treachery, he would have caught the Amír. Their friends at Kábul however greeted the adventurers as madmen, who were lucky to have returned with their heads upon their shoulders; and Keane declared he 'had not supposed there were thirteen such asses in his whole force.' Lawrence was nearly of the same opinion, though he felt a just pride in the soldierly conduct of 'our Hindustáni troopers,' whose patience, fortitude, and good humour in very trying circumstances, 'nothing could exceed.'

On the 3rd of September the Sháhzádá, Prince Timúr, escorted by Wade and Macnaghten, passed with much pomp through the narrow streets of Kábul into the