I saw his face, however, and it was full of
horror and astonishment.' Neither Mackenzie nor Lawrence, the surviving
companions of the Envoy, witnessed the actual end. 'Whether,' writes
Kaye, 'he died on the spot, or whether he was slain by the infuriated
ghazees, is not very clearly known; but the fanatics threw themselves on
the prostrate body and hacked it with their knives.' There is no doubt
that the head of the unfortunate Macnaghten was paraded in triumph
through the streets of Cabul, and that the mangled trunk, after being
dragged about the city, was hung up in the great bazaar. Of the three
officers who accompanied the Envoy to the conference, Trevor was
massacred, Lawrence and Mackenzie were saved with difficulty by friendly
chiefs, and brought into the city, where they and Captain Skinner joined
the hostages, Captains Connolly and Airey, under the safe roof of the
venerable Mahomed Zemaun Khan.
That Akbar and the confederate chiefs spread a snare for the Envoy is
plain, and that they regarded his acceptance of their deceitful proposals
as a proof of his faithlessness to the treaty obligations to which he had
bound himself. It was no element in their reasoning that since they had
not regarded the treaty the British functionary might without breach of
faith hold that it did not bind him. But it is improbable that the murder
of Macnaghten was actually included in their scheme of action.
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