Beyond this effulgence there spreads a sombre welter of
misrepresentation and unscrupulousness, intrigue, moral deterioration,
and dishonour unspeakable.
PART II: THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR
CHAPTER I: THE FIRST CAMPAIGN
A brief period of peace intervened between the ratification of the treaty
of Gundamuk on May 30th, 1879, and the renewal of hostilities consequent
on the massacre at Cabul of Sir Louis Cavagnari and the whole _entourage_
of the mission of which he was the head. There was nothing identical or
even similar in the motives of the two campaigns, and regarded purely on
principle they might be regarded as two distinct wars, rather than as
successive campaigns of one and the same war. But the interval between
them was so short that the ink of the signatures to the treaty of
Gundamuk may be said to have been scarcely dry when the murder of the
British Envoy tore that document into bloody shreds; and it seems the
simplest and most convenient method to designate the two years of
hostilities from November 1878 to September 1880, as the 'second Afghan
war,' notwithstanding the three months' interval of peace in the summer
of 1879.
Dost Mahomed died in 1863, and after a long struggle his son Shere Ali
possessed himself of the throne bequeathed to him by his father. The
relations between Shere Ali and the successive Viceroys of India were
friendly, although not close.
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