On the 7th of the month after the capital was taken, Macpherson's Flying Column marched down the savage valley, clearing it of straggling bands of the enemy, from the tomb of Baba Issah to the banks of the Cabul river, but not without a sharp fight at the former place, where Mahmoud Shah and a band of select and most desperate Ghazis had taken post and resisted to the last, courting that death in battle to which they had vowed and devoted themselves. 'Everyone who said "Lord, Lord!" two hundred years ago was deemed a Christian,' says Charles Reade; 'but there are no earnest men now.' However, Mahmoud Shah and his Ghilzies, like the Mahdi and his followers in Egypt, were terribly in earnest about their work of religion and slaughter. Shouting 'Allah! Allah! Allah!' they resisted with juzail and tulwar, shield, pistol, and charah, till they were all shot down, and lay over each other piled in one great heap, all clad in white, but gashed and bloody, and among the last who fell was Mahmoud Shah, who was last seen, with his back to the holy tomb of Baba Issah, standing across the dead body of his favourite white Arab, with eight of the 5th Ghoorkas dead at his feet, an empty horse-pistol in his left hand, a blood-dripping tulwar in his right, and six bayonet wounds in his body, 'The least a death to nature!' By this time there had been hanged in Cabul more than sixty Afghans for complicity in the slaughter of the Embassy. The European troops were now quartered in the barracks of Yakoub Khan's late army in the adjacent cantonments at Sherpore, and soon after an amnesty was granted to all who had fought against us, while a proclamation was issued by Sir Frederick Roberts to the effect that, in consequence of the abdication of the Ameer, 'and of the outrage at the British embassy, the British government were now compelled to occupy Cabul and other parts of Afghanistan, and he invited the Afghan authorities, chiefs, and sirdirs to assist him to enforce order in the districts under their control, and to consult with him conjointly. The population of the occupied districts would--it was added--be treated with justice and benevolence; their religion and customs would be respected, and loyalty and good service to the British crown would be suitably rewarded. On the other hand, all offenders against the new administration would be severely punished.' 'We have restored order in Cabul, and punished all the guilty,' wrote Leslie Colville to Mary. 'I have resigned my appointment on the staff, deeming that I have _done enough for honour_, darling; and now I am coming home!' And now we must return to Ellinor and her fate, while Colville is speeding homeward as quickly as steam could carry him over land and sea. CHAPTER XVI. THE FATE OF ELLINOR.