James Grant

“ Seeing that Waller appeared crushed by the prospect before him, Zohrab said, ere he went,
"Think yourself happy, for if Ackbar Khan were to get you, he might do as he has done to others, chain you to a stone in a vault, dark and cheerless as the tomb of a miser. Dogs!" he added, true to his overbearing nature: "you came hither thinking to make us crumb-eaters of Shah Sujah! Bah! the cup of the covetous, saith the proverb, is filled with the dust of the grave. And where lie the covetous now? in the passes of Khoord Cabul!" ”

“ Audley thought with intense compassion of Sybil, whose previous bereavement he had learned from Waller; and all unused to grief, he rode among the Staff in a state of utter bewilderment, considering whether he should write her, and if so, in what terms he was to tell her of her loss.
For a time Mabel clung to Waller's neck, in her great despair of mind, like one in dreadful bodily agony. She cared not for onlookers; for the men of the 44th, or the sepoys, with their black glossy wondering eyes.
"Oh, Waller; I have no friend in the world now—no friend but you!" ”

“ She fanned herself, and waited for a reply.
"For others I cannot say," said Denzil, in low voice; "for myself, never till I came to Cabul—never till I met, I dare not here say who."
"For a griff, Devereaux, you give a capital answer," said Burgoyne, who had been gradually drawing near them; "we both fall in love and out of it too," he added, with a laugh that was almost saucy, for he had already suffered something at Rose's hands. "Love, like a month's pay, does not last for ever." ”

“ The intense, but too often silent devotion of a lad so handsome, flattered her; it was so different from the half-laughing love-making of such men of the world as Waller and Polwhele; yet she had as much idea of going further—in fact, of wedding an ensign—as of espousing a dancing dervish, or an Arab faquir. Of course, she thought in her heart that the Devereaux and Lamorna affair was very strange; but what did it matter there—beyond the Indus? ”

“ Waller's bright blue eyes were dry now; but in their expression tenderness alternated with something akin to ferocity, for all this suffering, and all those deaths that were occurring hourly, were the result of Afghan treachery; and his fair English face seemed to darken as he looked back to where Denzil, the General, and so many more were lying, and the interment of whom was impossible. The enemy was coming on, the bugles were sounding for the advance—if a retrograde movement can be called so—and already the whole force was en route towards Khoord Cabul. ”

“ A looker-on might have thought that the death-warrant of all had been written in an instant, for Denzil, Waller, Audley, Mabel, and poor General Trecarrel stared at each other in blank horror and amazement.
Death by the sword, the lance, and bullet; death by cold, starvation, fire, sack, slaughter, and every horror incident to such a retreat, had been, and were even now, close around them ”

“ Denzil having no such tender reminiscences to soften him, was disposed to be politely cool or grim as Ajax.
"We must get our bonnets and shawls if we are to see this Conference," said Rose; "and we must look sharp—temps-militaire, you know."
"Don't be slangy," said Mabel.
"Do you call French so, Mab?" Rose asked, as they hastened in high spirits to attire themselves for walking, and little anticipating the scene that was before them.
"What are you thinking of Waller?" asked Audley, smiling.
"That a thousand girls may be beautiful; but only one among them have an air of refinement." ”

“ Over his shoulder—as the season was winter—hung a large mantle of finely-dressed sheepskin well tanned, with the soft fleecy wool inwards, and round his waist a Cashmere shawl worn as a girdle, and therein he carried a pair of brass-butted flint-lock pistols, an Afghan knife and dagger. His sabre with cross-hilt and crooked blade dangled nearly in front of him, and on his left wrist, secured by a silver chain, sat a hooded hawk; for now in the nineteenth century, as in Europe ages ago, falconry is a favourite sport of the hardy Afghans. ”

“ At night, crouching on a piece of xummal (or coarse blanket) and covered with sheepskins, Waller would dream at times of Mabel's bright face and merry laugh; but more often, perhaps, of those terrible seven days and seven nights of the retreat through the snowy passes, where the living trod sullenly, doggedly, on over the dead, till they too fell, to be trod on in turn. ”

“ As not one of them had ever seen a Turk of Feringhistan, these answers seemed to perplex them.
"Then why here?" asked Zohrab, suspiciously.
"I served Shah Sujah, and have left him, for fate is against him, and he shall never reign in Afghanistan," said Waller, thinking in his heart, "How many falsehoods must I tell to deceive these artful savages?"
"You are right," said Amen Oollah, grimly; "but as we deem that in serving the Shah you have been guilty of a crime, I give you as a slave to Nouradeen Lai. You shall help him to plough the land." ”

“ In rear of his company, awaiting the order to march, Denzil stood leaning on his sword and muffled in a furred poshteen which he wore above his uniform, as the thermometer was below zero and all the troops were in those blue great-coats usually worn by our soldiers in India. The Europeans looked pale, thin, and haggard, and the dark Bengal sepoys seemed of a livid or pea-green tint, as the cold daylight stole in. ”

“ From the hills of Beymaru the odious Ackbar Khan and others, his adherents, were looking down on our toil worn soldiers as they issued forth with all the honours of war, the colours flying on the wind, with all their brilliant silk and gold embroidery; the bright bayonets pouring onwards like a stream of rippling steel above the dark columns, for, as already stated, the troops were in their greatcoats; the neighing of the horses, the dull rumble of the artillery wheels, the clatter of sponge and rammer, and of round-shot in the caissons ”

“ I can scarcely admit or realise the idea that you are the one who is to give a tone, a colour, to all my future life. No, Denzil; you have paid me the greatest compliment a man can pay a woman; but it may not be. Let us be friends—oh yes! dear, dear friends, who shall never forget each other; but not lovers" (here she held up her ruddy lips to the bewildered Denzil) "not lovers—oh,no—not lovers!" ”

“ He was seen; there was a shout—spurs were applied to the horses, flight was impossible, and in half a minute he was again a prisoner, the lances levelled at his throat menacing him with death.
"A Kaffir—a Feringhee! kill him, kill him!" cried the villagers, male and female, as they crowded in wild tumult around him; even the tawny children raised their little hands against the weary wanderer, for the place was the abode of Ghazees, the wildest of Mohammedan fanatics.
"Bismillah! there is one yet alive!" exclaimed a horseman. ”

“ DENZIL A NAWAB.
When consciousness came back to Denzil he found himself alone—alone with the dead. He knew not what time had elapsed since he had been struck down by the treacherous wretch whose life he had sought to save; and no vestige of the retreating troops remained, save those whose bodies dotted all the wintry waste. Angrily and sadly the rising wind howled from the mountain pass, blowing before it over the frozen snow the long leaves of the coss, or dead grass, the fir cones and pistachio nuts from the thickets close by ”

“ Thousands of Afghans and fanatical Ghazees were now crowding close to the walls, impatient for plunder and rapine, hissing like serpents, spitting like tiger-cats, and brandishing their bare weapons with an air of ferocity and grimace peculiar to Orientals only; but as yet contenting themselves with throwing stones, which the Afghans do with a strength and precision exclusively their own. By one of these Sergeant Treherne was struck nearly senseless to the earth, when in the act of receiving some order from Waller, who became, for him, unusually excited. ”

“ As he ate, falling to without uttering "Bismillah!" an omission which his captors did not fail to remark, he thought that cookery must be a sublime science at home—a veritable branch of the fine arts; but hunger is ever an excellent seasoning to any meal.
The snow had now begun to melt fast, and for four days Waller was kept a close prisoner, without a chance of escape, though he brooded over it incessantly, and writhed in spirit to be thus detained from his duty in Jellalabad, where doubtless the task of vengeance—it might be the deliverance of the unhappy hostages—had already begun. ”

“ This is the Toorkoman of Roum!" said the young horseman with the steel cap, in whom Waller now recognised Zohrab Zubberdust; "he has escaped from old Nouradeen Lai; well—he shall not escape from me. These Feringhees are excellent grooms, and I want one. Bismillah! it is written—let us go—I shall protect you."
Like many a Christian, Zubberdust the Mussulman had the spirit of avarice and treachery in his heart; but as an Afghan mountaineer it was tempered with something of honour; for, strange to say, honour may exist among Mohammedans, as well as among Christians, without an atom of morality. ”

“ Polwhele and Burgoyne were still talking of their morning march into the hills of Siah Sung, and made light of killing so many of the natives, having only two rank and file killed, and one wounded severely, partaking the while of what was set before them with as much unconcern and heartiness, as if they had been snipe-shooting, or pig-sticking, in the jungle, for in that part of the world danger became a pastime.
"So one of Burgoyne's sepoys was wounded?" asked Elphinstone. ”

“ Devereaux! I think you are very fond of papa; for his Cornish name, perhaps," and as no one was looking, she patted his cheek with her fan.
"I love something more than the mere Cornish name of Trecarrel," said Denzil, tremulously; but Rose only bit the feathers of her fan, and eyed him laughingly over it.
"But I repeat that this place is tiresome," she resumed, as a pause had ensued, and pauses are always awkward; "think of the Residency parties, with their young ladies' quadrilles and married ladies' ditto! A man may dance in both sets, and yet have only one hand to dispose of. ”

“ Imitating the example of Polwhele, Denzil sheathed his sword, and arming himself with a dead man's musket, fired till his hands and elbows ached with the exertion of loading.
Tents and baggage of every kind, even a piece of cannon, were speedily abandoned to the Afghans, for the native servants and drivers fled on all sides, thinking to save their lives, but only to be eventually slaughtered in detail; while slowly and laboriously through the snow the troops moved towards a gorge in the hills of Siah Sung, in hope to get through the Khoord Cabul Pass before nightfall. ”

“ An intense thirst, which successive handfuls of snow failed to allay, hunger, and extreme cold from lying so long in that dark den in such a season, made Waller hail the descending night, and with sombre satisfaction he quitted his lurking place, to seek on foot the road to Jellalabad.
"In England," thought he, "the Poor Law guardians have studied at times to discover upon how little mankind can be kept alive; and there have been learned philosophers who declared it possible for people to exist without food at all! ”

“ But now Zohrab Zubberdust, a handsome and dashing Afghan gentleman, one of those soldiers of fortune who possessed only his sword and his horse, and thus served Ackbar Khan for three rupees per diem, said,—
"Khan Sahib, how comes a true believer to have a face and beard so fair?"
"A Persian taught me to dye my beard yellow; and as for my face, I am a Turk of Stamboul," replied Waller, boldly. ”

“ When day was fairly in, Waller began to think of seeking a place of concealment till night again fell, when he felt certain that a few miles more along that open highway must eventually bring him to some gate of Jellalabad; but an abrupt turn of the road brought him suddenly upon a village, the gates of which stood open. There in the little street some armed horsemen were grouped around a well, and many people were astir previous to departing to their work in the fields; for all the country there is beautifully cultivated, and ever covered by a profusion of the richest vegetation. ”