Elphinstone, in reply, enumerated sundry reasons
which led him to the conclusion which he stated, that 'it is not feasible
any longer to maintain our position in this country, and that you ought
to avail yourself of the offer to negotiate which has been made to you.'
CHAPTER VI: THE ROAD TO RUIN
As the result of the military disaster of November 23d, and of the
representations of the General, recorded in the last chapter, Macnaghten,
with whatever reluctance, permitted himself to entertain proposals for an
arrangement made by the Afghan leaders. From the beginning of the
outbreak, while urging on the military authorities to exert themselves in
putting down the revolt, he had been engaged in tortuous and dangerous
intrigues, with the object of sowing discord among the Afghan chiefs, and
thus weakening the league of hostility against Shah Soojah and his
British supporters. In the conduct of these intrigues he used the
services of Mohun Lal, who had been one of Burnes' assistants, and who,
having escaped the fate of his chief, had found refuge in the city
residence of a Kuzzilbash chief. Mohun Lal was a fitting agent for the
sort of work prescribed to him, and he burrowed and suborned with
assiduity, and not altogether without success. But it is unhappily true
that he was commissioned to carry out a darker enterprise, the removal by
assassination of certain of the more virulently hostile among the Afghan
leaders.
Pages:
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111