command of some matchlocks--him he persuaded to join the chase. Outram
leading, the whole party pushed on, under a severe fire, to the very
topmost pinnacle of the rocks, where was flying the consecrated banner,
green and white, of the fanatic Mussulmans. This was captured, the
standard-bearer was shot, thirty or forty killed, and about fifty made
prisoners.

The sequel we give from page 164 of the _History_, edited by Mr.
Charles Nash:[1]--"A scene now ensued, much less pleasant to
contemplate. It of course became a question what to do with the
captives, and they were brought before the Shah. _Some of them were
released, upon their declaring that they had been forced into the ranks
of the king's opponents against their will_." We pause to remark, that
already in this fact, viz. the cheerful dismissal of prisoners upon
their own verbal assurance of friendliness, though so little
reconcilable with the furious service on which they were taken, there
is enough to acquit the Shah of unmerciful designs. He made an opening
through which all might have escaped. "But," proceeds the author, "the
majority, excited by fanaticism, were not restrained, even by the
Shah's presence, from evincing their animosity towards his person, and
avowing their determination to have been to seek his life. One of them,
more violent than the rest, upon the interference of one of his
majesty's attendants, stabbed him with his dagger; and they were then"
[_then?_ what! because one was worse than the rest?] "immediately
ordered for execution. Two of them, however, were afterwards spared;
one upon the plea of his being a Syud," (i.e., a descendant
collaterally from the Prophet,) "and the other, because he pleaded hard
for his life."

[1] _History of the War in Affghanistan_. Brookes: London. 1843. We cite