The Dark Defile by Diana Preston Read Free Book Online Page A

close upon each other, disgusted our officers, disheartened our soldiers, and finally sunk us all into irretrievable ruin, as though heaven itself … had planned our downfall.”
    On 15 November the seriously wounded Eldred Pottinger and his three companions reached the cantonments to confirm the rumors that the garrison at Charikar had been overrun and to be welcomed, in Eyre’s words, as “men risen from the dead.” While they recovered from their wounds, the increasing cold and the fatigue of constantly manning the large perimeter of the cantonments took their toll on the garrison.
    On 22 November the British tried to retake the Bemaru Hills from the enemy, whose morale had been boosted by the news that Akbar Khan, at the head of six thousand Uzbeks, was advancing on Kabul from Bamiyan in the north. However, the detachment of men sent out was too small, and their commander, Major Stephen Swayne, too indecisive. Eyre, who was again commanding the artillery, described with some bitterness how Swayne, “whose orders were to storm the village, would neither go forward nor retire; but concealing his men under the cover of some low wall, he all day long maintained an useless fire on the houses of Bemaru village, without the slightest satisfactory result.”
    The British cavalry were drawn up behind Eyre’s guns, “where as there was nothing for them to do, they accordingly did nothing” except provide sitting targets for the Afghan sharpshooters, who picked off both men and horses. Eyre found his artillery also “exposed to the deliberate aim of the numerous marksmen who occupied the village and its immediate vicinity, whose bullets continually sang in our ears, often striking the gun, and grazing the ground on which we stood.” Two of his six gunners were wounded, and later a bullet shattered Eyre’s left hand and put him out of action. Shelton arrived with some reinforcements, but judging the forces available too few to dislodge the Afghans, he ordered them back to the cantonments.
    That evening Macnaghten and Elphinstone convened a council of war, at which the envoy argued hard for a further attempt to drive the enemy from the Bemaru Hills. This time Shelton was to command the assault from the start and to deploy a much larger force. At two A.M. on 23 November, taking advantage of the darkness of a moonless night, the brigadier led his men silently out of the cantonments toward Bemaru once more. He was taking with him only a single field gun in contravention of standing orders stipulating that at least two were always to be deployed. He had wanted to take a smaller mountain gun as well, but this had been damaged and could not be repaired in time. Among Shelton’s officers was the brave but corpulent and gloomy Colonel Thomas Oliver, whose customary response to inquiries about his well-being was to mutter, “ Dust to dust! ”
    Initially, the assault force did well. Before the first light crept over the hills, Shelton had managed to get his men and their single gun up the steep rugged slopes to hills above the village. He ordered his gunners to fire grapeshot down on their surprised enemy, who dashed for cover inside the village’s towers and houses before returning fire with their jezails. However, though several officers suggested that, with the benefit of darkness and the enemy in disarray and few in number, this was the moment to storm the village, Shelton delayed too long. Dawn was breaking by the time he sent a detachment under Major Swayne to take the village. This time the hapless Swayne unaccountably lost his way and instead of reaching the main gate—open and unguarded—led his men to a small barricaded wicket gate that he had no means of forcing. They were caught in a storm of jezail fire, and Swayne was shot in the neck. After half an hour, with full daylight approaching, Shelton recalled them.
    By now all surprise had been lost. Those in the city could see and hear what was happening, and armed