The winter of that year also saw our officers skating on the lake of Istaliff, six miles from Cabul--the skates being the work of a Scottish armourer sergeant. Amateur theatricals,* for which Polwhele painted the scenery, were not wanting to add to the wonder of those sequestered Orientals, to whom the doors of the houses were thrown freely open; but with the coming spring, when the field-pea, the yellow briar-rose, the variously tinted asphodels, and the orchards in rich blossom, made all the valley beautiful, came the crowning marvel, when Lieutenant Sinclair of Her Majesty's 13th Light Infantry, an officer who possessed great mechanical skill, constructed and launched on the lake of Istaliff, that which had never before been seen in Afghanistan, a large boat, with masts, sails, and oars. * The favourite play was "The Irish Ambassador," and others of the same kind. "On such occasions they changed the titles of the _dramatis personæ_, so as to bring them and the offices of the parties bearing them, down to the level of Afghan comprehension; while Burnes and others skilled in the dialect of the country, translated the speeches as they were uttered."--Sales' Brigade in Afghanistan. The plaudits of the assembled thousands made the welkin ring. "Now," they exclaimed, "we see that you are not like the infidel Hindoos that follow you! You are men born and bred like ourselves in a land where God varies the seasons, thus giving vigour to mind and body. Oh, that you had come among us as friends, rather than enemies, for you are fine fellows, one by one, though as a body we hate you!" And so dark days were coming, for the misrule of the Shah Sujah, the intrigues of the restless Ackbar Khan, and the national distrust of the mountaineers of all foreign, especially Kaffir, intervention, were soon to put an end to this pleasant state of matters. On the Chief of the Ghiljees spreading a rumour by letter, that it was the intention of Sir William Macnaghten to seize all the khans of tribes and send them to the Feringhee Queen in London, a dreadful tumult ensued in the city, and ere the cannon could clear the streets, several officers, among whom was Sir Alexander Burnes, were killed in the confusion. Fast spread the spirit of revolt! The feeble Shah shut himself up in the Bala Hissar on its towering rock; and it was deemed advisable to make terms with the leaders, the chief of whom was Ackbar Khan, whose conduct during the whole of those affairs curiously combined the romantic, aristocratic, and courteous tones of a half-civilised prince, with the ferocity of an utter barbarian.