Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 60, No. 373, November 1846Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 60, No. 373, November 1846
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
selfish and abominable device was the spark to the train. It caused a
prompt explosion. The chiefs again assembled, resolved upon instant
action, and fixed upon its plan. It was decided to begin by an attack
upon the houses of Sir A. Burnes and the other English officers resident
in the city. For fear of discovery, not a moment was to be lost. The
following day, the 2d of November, was to witness the outbreak.
And now, at the eleventh hour, fresh intimations of the approaching
danger were conveyed to those whom it threatened. Two persons informed
Sir A. Burnes of it; and one of the conspirators more than hinted it to
Mohan Lal, who had boasted to him that the Ghilzais were pacified by
Major Macgregor, and that Sir Robert Sale was on his victorious march to
Jellalabad. The conspirator laughed. "To-morrow morning," he said, "the
very door you now sit at will be in flames of fire; and yet still you
pride yourselves in saying that you are safe!"
"I told all this," says Mohan Lal, "to Sir Alexander Burnes, whose reply
was, that we must not let the people suppose we were frightened, and
that he will see what he can do in the cantonment, whither he started
immediately. Whilst I was talking with Sir A. Burnes, an anonymous note
reached him in Persian, confirming what he had heard from me and from
other sources, on which he said, 'The time is arrived that we must leave
this country.'" The time for that was already past.
The disastrous occurrences in Afghanistan, on and subsequently to the 2d
of November 1841, are so recent, so well-known, and have been so much
written about, that any thing beyond a passing reference to them is here
unnecessary. Mohan Lal's account of the deaths of Sir A. Burnes, Charles
Burnes, Sir W. MacNaghten, and Shah Shuja, is interesting, as are also
some details of his own escapes and adventures during the insurrection.
From the roof of his house he witnessed the attack upon that of Sir A.
Burnes, and the death of Lieutenant H. Burnes, who slew six Afghans
before he himself was cut to pieces. Sir Alexander was murdered without
resistance, having previously tied his cravat over his eyes, in order
not to see the blows that put an end to his existence. Mohan Lal himself
narrowly escaped death at the hands of the man who subsequently murdered
Shah Shuja; but he was rescued by an Afghan friend, and concealed in a
harem. Afterwards, whilst prisoner to Akhbar Khan, he did good service
in sending information to the English generals and political agents, and
finally in negotiating the release of the Kabul captives. For all these
matters we refer our readers to the closing chapters of his book, and
return to Dost Mohammed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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