All the plans of Ackbar Khan had been long prearranged, and among those, as an intercepted despatch from him to a Ghilzie chief announced, was nothing less than a Holy War, for he adjured all, in the name of the Prophet, "to rise against the infidels, whose chief," he adds, "I have slain with my own hand at Cabul, even, as I trust, in like manner to slay the chief of the Feringhees, Sale, in Jellalabad." The six hundred Horse that had been seen advancing, were met by two of our officers, Captain Skinner, of the 61st Native Infantry, and Lieutenant Burgoyne, who bore a flag of truce. They demanded what their intentions were; and the fierce Ackbar who rode at their head, muffled in a robe of the costliest furs, played with the lock of a pistol, and seemed with difficulty to restrain himself from using it. However, he replied, "I have come on the part of the great chiefs of Afghanistan, to escort you as far as Jellalabad; but we demand hostages that you shall march no further on the way than Tezeen, ere Sale Sahib evacuates the city, wherein he has no right to be." "Wherefore hostages, Khan?" asked Captain Skinner. "Lest when you effect a junction, you may all come back to Cabul. The lives of the hostages should answer for this, and I take _yours_ in the meantime, as an earnest thereof!" And as he spoke, he drew his pistol, and deliberately shot poor Skinner through the head; so Burgoyne, full of rage and pity, returned with the message alone. Notwithstanding this new crime, other interviews took place, and ultimately Major Pottinger and two other officers were given up as hostages; but all this pretended diplomacy was merely a trick on the part of Ackbar to cause delay, until he got the lower portion of the Khyber Pass manned completely by the armed tribes, and even barricaded by felled trees against our retreat, for the force was too slender now to admit of having skirmishes or scouting parties moving along the summits of the cliffs, collaterally with the retiring column. "Yield who may," was the cry of Waller and many others, "we at least, as Englishmen, as British soldiers, shall fight our way through the passes with courage, discipline, and the fury of despair. All cannot perish; come on, lads--forward!" "Forward--steady, Jack Sepoy!" the Queen's troops would call to those of the East India Company.