ting their fatigue, rapidly climbed the steep side
of the mountain, and, swarming into the first entrenchment, quickly
cleared it of the enemy; then, guided by the flashes of the Afghan
rifles, they pressed on, and, being joined by the leading company of
the 72nd, took possession of a second and larger entrenchment 200
yards higher up. Without a perceptible pause, the Highlanders and
Gurkhas together rushed a third position, the most important of all,
as it commanded the head of the pass.

The Spingawi Kotal was won; but we were surrounded by woods, which
were crowded with Afghans, some 400 of whom made a dashing but
ineffectual attempt to carry off their guns, left behind in the first
scare of our sudden attack. These men were dressed so exactly like
some of our own Native soldiers that they were not recognized until
they got within 100 yards of the entrenchment, and they would
doubtless have succeeded in accomplishing their purpose--as the
Highlanders and Gurkhas were busy pursuing the fugitives--had not
Galbraith, whom I had sent with an order to the front, hurriedly
collected a certain number of stragglers and met the Afghans with such
a murderous fire that they broke and fled, leaving seventy dead in a
space of about fifty yards square.

As the rising sun lighted up the scene of the conflict, the advantages
of a night attack became more apparent. The pass lay across the
shoulder of a mountain (9,400 feet above the sea), and through a
magnificent pine forest. Its approaches were commanded by precipitous
heights, defended by breastworks of felled trees, which completely
screened the defenders, who were quite comfortably placed in wide
ditches, from which they could fire deadly volleys without being in
the least exposed themselves. Had we not been able to surprise the
enemy before the day dawned, I doubt whether, any of us could have
reached the first entrenchment. As it was, the regiment holding it
fled in such a hurry that a sheepskin coat and from sixty to a hundred
rounds of ammunition were left behind on the spot where each man had
lain.

We had gained our object so far, but we were still a considerable
distance from the body of the Afghan army on the Peiwar Kotal.

Immediately in rear of the last of the three positions on the Spingawi
Kotal was a _murg_, or open grassy plateau, upon which I re-formed the
troops who had carried the assault. The 2nd Punjab Infantry, the 23rd
Pioneers, and the battery of Royal