There
also accompanied the march of the humane Pollock a great number of the
mutilated and crippled camp followers of Elphinstone's army who had
escaped with their lives from its destruction. On the 12th of October the
forces of Pollock and of Nott turned their backs on Cabul, which no
British army was again to see for nearly forty years, and set out on
their march down the passes. Jellalabad and Ali Musjid were partially
destroyed in passing. Pollock's division reached Peshawur without loss,
thanks to the precautions of its chief; but with M'Caskill and Nott the
indomitable Afghans had the last word, cutting off their stragglers,
capturing their baggage, and in the final skirmish killing and wounding
some sixty men of Nott's command.
Of the bombastic and grotesque paeans of triumph emitted by Lord
Ellenborough, whose head had been turned by a success to which he had but
scantly contributed, nothing need now be said, nor of the garish pageant
with which he received the armies as they re-entered British territory at
Ferozepore. As they passed down through the Punjaub, Dost Mahomed passed
up on his way to reoccupy the position from which he had been driven. And
so ended the first Afghan war, a period of history in which no redeeming
features are perceptible except the defence of Jellalabad, the dogged
firmness of Nott, and Pollock's noble and successful constancy of
purpose.
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