The Afghans did not wait for close quarters,
and Nott was no more seriously molested. Reaching the vicinity of Ghuznee
on September 5th, he cleared away the hordes hanging on the heights which
encircle the place. During the night the Afghans evacuated Ghuznee. Soon
after daylight the British flag was waving from the citadel. Having
fulfilled Lord Ellenborough's ridiculous order to carry away from the
tomb of Sultan Mahmoud in the environs of Ghuznee, the supposititious
gates of Somnath, a once famous Hindoo shrine in the Bombay province of
Kattiawar, Nott marched onward unmolested till within a couple of marches
of Cabul, when near Maidan he had some stubborn fighting with an Afghan
force which tried ineffectually to block his way. On the 17th he marched
into camp four miles west of Cabul, whence he could discern, not with
entire complacency, the British ensign already flying from the Balla
Hissar, for Pollock had won the race to Cabul by a couple of days.
For months there had been negotiations for the release of the British
prisoners whom Akbar Khan had kept in durance ever since they came into
his hands in the course of the disastrous retreat from Cabul in January,
but they had been unsuccessful, and now it was known that the unfortunate
company of officers, women, and children, had been carried off westward
into the hill country of Bamian.
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