Page image — the source of record
Machine transcription
-113-
by the troops of Amir Dost Mohamed Khan's sons between Muqar and Ghazni.
When the English arrived at Ghazni, contrary to their previous information they found that the defence walls of the city and its turrets were much stronger than reported. As Sirdar Mohamed Afzal Khan had detached himself and his troops from the precints of the city, the English found a good opportunity to study the defences of the city. Furthermore, as the result of more minute information of Abdur Rashid Khan, the English burrowed a tunnel under the Kabul gate of Ghazni, and at about 3. A. M. on 23rd. July 1839 blew up the gateway, not through fighting or valour, but through treachery of a person who had been depraved by the wiles of the enemy. The defenders, who hardly thought of this, did fight gallantly round the walls of the citadel, but all was lost, and further resistance had no meaning. Although the slain bodies of the defenders lay in heaps opposite the Kabul Gateway, the enemy forces entered the city, and when the English banner was hoisted over the Bala Hissar, Lord Kean, the Commander-in-Chief of the English forces led Shah Shuja, and Mcnaughton into the city.
It was in this manner that the special friendship of a person belonging to the country, with one of the servants of the English, and his revealing of the plans, destroyed all the hopes and a spirat-ions of the country and the people at a very critical juncture.
It is possible that the traitor may not have fathomed the depth of his treachery, but history records the magnitude of cowardice and unforgivable sin it was which caused a series of perils for the country.
THE BATTLE OF SPEAR & THE SHIELD.
ARTICLE TWENTY NINTH
From the 21st. to 24th of July 1839. A.D. certain events occurred inside the citadel of Ghazni., which may be said to belong to the realms of fancy and dreams. We consider these as such, because no Afghan and no English soldier could dream that Ghazni could be taken with ease and so soon. But as traitorous hands were at work, events turned out in a different shape, and the
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.