“ Taking refuge with the Gurkha garrison of Charikar, Major Pottinger stood a siege of fourteen days, and then made an adventurous retreat to Kabul. Less than a fortnight after his arrival Sir William Macnaghten was murdered, and Pottinger succeeded to his position as envoy to the Afghan court. The apathy of the military leaders made resistance hopeless, and it only remained to negotiate for the withdrawal of the British mission. Pottinger himself was one of the hostages handed over to Akbar Khan, and thus escaped the massacre in the Khyber Pass. ”