The European soldiers
were left behind at Budiabad, and the band of ladies and gentlemen
started on the afternoon of April 10th, in utter ignorance of their
destination, under the escort of a strong band of Afghans. At the ford
across the Cabul river the cavalcade found Akbar Khan wounded, haggard,
and dejected, seated in a palanquin, which, weak as he was, he gave up to
Ladies Macnaghten and Sale, who were ill. A couple of days were spent at
Tezeen among the melancholy relics of the January slaughter, whence most
of the party were carried several miles further into the southern
mountains to the village of Zandeh, while General Elphinstone, whose end
was fast approaching, remained in the Tezeen valley with Pottinger,
Mackenzie, Eyre, and one or two others. On the evening of April 23d the
poor General was finally released from suffering of mind and body. Akbar,
who when too late had offered to free him, sent the body down to
Jellalabad under a guard, and accompanied by Moore the General's soldier
servant; and Elphinstone lies with Colonel Dennie and the dead of the
defence of Jellalabad in their nameless graves in a waste place within
the walls of that place. Toward the end of May the captives were moved up
the passes to the vicinity of Cabul, where Akbar Khan was now gradually
attaining the ascendant. Prince Futteh Jung, however, still held out in
the Balla Hissar, and intermittent firing was heard as the weary
_cortege_ of prisoners reached a fort about three miles short of Cabul,
which the ladies of the proprietor's zenana had evacuated in their
favour.
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