Baker's rear-guard was scarcely clear of the
valley when a mob of tribesmen and sepoys attacked the fort in which the
old Sirdar was residing, shot him through the head, and then hacked his
body to pieces. It was too clear that governors unsupported by bayonets,
and whose only weapons were tact and persuasiveness, were at an extreme
discount in the condition which Afghanistan presented in the end of
November and the beginning of December.
CHAPTER IV: THE DECEMBER STORM
The invader of Afghanistan may count as inevitable a national rising
against him, but the Afghans are a people so immersed in tribal quarrels
and domestic blood feuds that the period of the outbreak is curiously
uncertain. The British force which placed Shah Soojah on the throne and
supported him there, was in Afghanistan for more than two years before
the waves of the national tempest rose around it. The national
combination against Roberts' occupation was breaking its strength against
the Sherpur defences while as yet the Cabul field force had not been
within sight of the capital for more than two months. There seems no
relation between opportunity and the period of the inevitable outburst.
If in November 1841 the Cabul Sirdars had restrained themselves for a few
days longer two more regiments would have been following on Sale's track,
and the British force in the cantonments would have been proportionately
attenuated.
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