In the movement we are about to narrate, there was no room for the display of generalship, though more than enough for endurance and the most heroic courage; but some such enthusiastic reflections as these were floating in the mind of Denzil, when, by the prolonged notes of the trumpet, and the long roll on the drum, the entire troops in the Cantonments, horse, foot, and artillery, began to get under arms on the morning of the 6th of January, to commence that which eventually proved to be one of the most disastrous retreats on record. How often had the unfortunate Trevor, Waller, Burgoyne, and others, exclaimed, in their weariness of heart-- "Let us fight our way down, destroying everything ere we leave the Cantonments, and at least one-third of us shall reach Jellalabad!" And now the time had come. It had been finally arranged by the Staff at Headquarters, to pay more than fourteen lacs* of rupees to Ackbar Khan, Ameen Oolah Khan, Shireen Khan of the Kussilbashes, the Ghilzie Chiefs, and other treacherous villains, that our troops might march unmolested; Osman Khan undertaking, with his tribe, to escort them so far as Peshawur, the gate of British India, towards Central India. The money was negotiated on the spot by a Cashmere merchant and some Hindoo schroffs or bankers in Cabul. In vain did Major Pottinger and many other officers raise their voices indignantly against this measure of the feeble and aged Elphinstone. * A lac is one hundred thousand. "Never before," they exclaimed, "were British soldiers compelled to _buy_ a way out of an enemy's country; to repay with gold the debt contracted by steel!" But the bargain was struck; Ackbar Khan and his allies were avariciously resolute that it should be adhered to by us, at least. Silently and quickly the troops, 4,500 strong, were formed by Regiments and Brigades; but the confusion around them, in the streets of bungalows or huts, was great, from the number and terror of the camp-followers, now diminished by death, sickness, or desertion, to somewhere about 12,000. Hammocks had been prepared wherein to carry the sick and wounded through the passes; but as the snowfall was deep, this was thought to be impracticable; so in virtue of the species of armistice, nearly the whole of these unfortunate creatures, officers, soldiers, and camp followers had been conveyed into the city, where they were to be left to the care--to the mercy, of the Afghans, certain medical officers casting lots for the perilous duty of remaining behind to attend them, and these devoted Samaritans proved to be Drs. Berwick and Campbell of the 54th Infantry.