I entered the fort shortly after it surrendered and at every step spectacles of the most shocking and revolting nature met the eye. Round a long twenty pounder, which was planted to the right of the entrance, lay heaps of dead Affghans, who appeared to have attached the greatest importance to the service of this piece from the numbers who crowded to perform the duty whenever our fire killed those engaged in it. The agonising cries and groans of the wounded wretches who lay stretched at every side, and who craved drink to sate their burning thirst, struck those who had not been engaged in the fearful excitement of the scene with horror and pity, whilst at every turning a horse, wild with the injuries he had received, was to be met galloping furiously along the narrow streets, and treading the bodies of the dying and dead under foot. Advancing through the bazaar, my attention was drawn towards a venerable looking Affghan, who was seated on the ground with his back propped against a wall, and whose richly ornamented muslin robes were stained with blood, which flowed profusely from a wound in his breast. A fine looking youth of about fourteen years of age was attempting to stanch it, and I hastened to proffer my assistance. The old man, however, pushed me back, and would not let me approach him, plainly indicating by his gestures that he held me and my countrymen in abhorrence. Whilst standing at a short distance from him, a straggling ball came whizzing past me, whether intentionally or accidentally I cannot say, and put an end to his sufferings. Some soldiers, who afterwards examined the person of this old chief, for such from his attire I took him to be, discovered amongst other things an extremely well executed map, on which the whole of the route of our troops from the point at which we had disembarked to our arrival at Ghuznee was plainly indicated. Some of the Affghan women were occasionally to be met turning over the bodies of the dead, in the hope of being able to discover their relations or friends, and giving way to their grief in the most heart-rending lamentations. They were the most superior class of women I had as yet seen amongst the Asiatics, their features being regular, and finely formed, and their eyes piercing, but at the same time soft in their expression. Although nothing like violence was used towards them, they did not escape some incivilities at the hands of our men, owing to the fact that a number of Affghan soldiers had attempted to escape in female disguise.