Sixty Years a Queen: The Story of Her Majesty's ReignMaxwell, Herbert, Sir
History
Sixty Years a Queen: The Story of Her Majesty's Reign
Maxwell, Herbert, Sir
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
There is little more to add. It had been part of Elphinstone's shameful
bargain with Akbar Khan that Jellalabad and Candahar should be evacuated
before the army of Cabul should reach the former place, and orders had
been sent to General Sale in Jellalabad and General Nott in Candahar to
abandon these towns. Luckily, these officers were of the right British
stamp, and they refused to obey. Akbar Khan besieged Sale in Jellalabad;
Sale not only held that place but gave battle to the Afghans outside the
fort, routed them, and made ready to co-operate with General Nott at
Candahar for a forward movement on Cabul. But the faculties of Lord
Auckland, the Governor-General, seemed paralysed. Regardless of British
prestige, the very keystone of our rule in India, he ordered the
precipitate recall of all the troops in Afghanistan. Luckily, again, his
term of office was just drawing to a close, and Lord Ellenborough came
out to take the reins of government. At first he issued a proclamation
endorsing the withdrawal from Afghanistan, but more spirited counsel
prevailed in the end. The re-conquest of Cabul was accomplished by the
entry of General Pollock into the capital on September 15, 1842, when it
was found that the unfortunate Shah Soojah had paid the penalty of the
greatness thrust on him by English diplomacy, and had been assassinated
by the people he had been set to rule. Of the English ladies and
children who had been taken under the protection of Akbar Khan the story
has been written in a once famous book, Lady Sale's _Journal_. The
husband of that lady, General Sir Robert Sale, was sent to recover the
captives, who had suffered innumerable hardships. General Elphinstone
had died--the best thing that could happen for his fame; the rest were
found in a hill fort in the Indian Caucasus, in charge of a chief, who,
having heard of Akbar Khan's defeat, was easily bribed to surrender his
trust. The retreat from Cabul had begun on January 6, but the news did
not reach England till March 7.
[Illustration: _Thomas Sully._} {_By permission of Messrs. Graves._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN 1838.
This portrait was painted from life at Buckingham Palace by Mr. Sully,
an American Artist, whose daughter, about the same age as Her Majesty,
took the Queen's place and wore the jewels while these were being
painted into the picture. Her Majesty came in while the young lady was
thus attired and conversed with her.]
[Illustration: _F. Winterhalter._} {_By permission of Messrs. Graves._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN, ABOUT 1845.
This illustration is from a very beautiful coloured lithograph prepared
in 1851 in compliance with Her Majesty's kind suggestion that a portrait
should be prepared which, in those days of expensive prints, might be
sold at a price within the reach of her less well-to-do subjects.]
[Sidenote: The Corn Duties.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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