Here it is possible only briefly to summarise the chief
incidents of the captivity. The unanimous testimony of the released
prisoners was to the effect that Akbar Khan, violent, bloody, and
passionate man though he was, behaved toward them with kindness and a
certain rude chivalry. They remained for nearly three months at Budiabad,
living in great squalor and discomfort. For the whole party there were
but five rooms, each of which was occupied by from five to ten officers
and ladies, the few soldiers and non-commissioned officers, who were
mostly wounded, being quartered in sheds and cellars. Mackenzie drily
remarks that the hardships of the common lot, and the close intimacy of
prison life, brought into full relief good and evil qualities;
'conventional polish was a good deal rubbed off and replaced by a
plainness of speech quite unheard of in good society.' Ladies and
gentlemen were necessitated to occupy the same room during the night, but
the men 'cleared out' early in the morning, leaving the ladies to
themselves. The dirt and vermin of their habitation were abominably
offensive to people to whom scrupulous cleanliness was a second nature.
But the captives were allowed to take exercise within a limited range;
they had among them a few books, and an old newspaper occasionally came
on to them from Jellalabad, with which place a fitful correspondence in
cypher was surreptitiously maintained.
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