The march of Sir Sam Browne's force from the breezy upland of
Gundamuk down the passes to Peshawur, made as it was in the fierce heat
of midsummer through a region of bad name for insalubrity, and pervaded
also by virulent cholera, was a ghastly journey. That melancholy
pilgrimage, every halting-place in whose course was marked by graves, and
from which the living emerged 'gaunt and haggard, marching with a
listless air, their clothing stiff with dried perspiration, their faces
thick with a mud of dust and sweat through which their red bloodshot eyes
looked forth, many suffering from heat prostration,' dwells in the memory
of British India as the 'death march,' and its horrors have been
recounted in vivid and pathetic words by Surgeon-Major Evatt, one of the
few medical officers whom, participating in it, it did not kill.
CHAPTER II: THE OPENING OF THE SECOND CAMPAIGN
There were many who mistrusted the stability of the treaty of Gundamuk.
Perhaps in his heart Sir Louis Cavagnari may have had his misgivings, for
he was gifted with shrewd insight, and no man knew the Afghan nature
better; but outwardly, in his quiet, resolute manner, he professed the
fullest confidence. Cavagnari was a remarkable man. Italian and Irish
blood commingled in his veins. Both strains carry the attributes of
vivacity and restlessness, but Cavagnari to the superficial observer
appeared as phlegmatic as he was habitually taciturn.
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