place.

I cannot say that I was favourably impressed by his appearance. He was
an insignificant-looking man, about thirty-two years of age, with a
receding forehead, a conical-shaped head, and no chin to speak of,
and he gave me the idea of being entirely wanting in that force of
character without which no one could hope to govern or hold in check
the warlike and turbulent people of Afghanistan. He was possessed,
moreover, of a very shifty eye, he could not look one straight in the
face, and from the first I felt that his appearance tallied exactly
with the double-dealing that had been imputed to him. His presence in
my camp was a source of the gravest anxiety to me. He was constantly
receiving and sending messages, and was no doubt giving his friends
at Kabul all the information he could collect as to our resources and
intentions. He had, however, come ostensibly as our ally, seeking
refuge from his mutinous soldiers, and whatever suspicions I might
secretly entertain, I could only treat him as an honoured guest, so
long as there was nothing proved against him.

My first visit to Yakub Khan was of a formal character. Nevertheless,
he seized the opportunity to urge strongly upon me the advisability
of delaying my advance, that he might have time, he said, to restore
order amongst his troops, and to punish those who had participated in
the attack on the Embassy. I replied that my orders were peremptory,
and that it was my duty, as it was my determination, to press on to
Kabul with all possible speed. Finding that his arguments had no
effect, he changed his tactics, and declared that he was much alarmed
for the safety of his family, whom he had left in the Bala Hissar;
that he had only one regiment on which he could depend; that he feared
when the others should hear of our approach they would break out
and attack the citadel; and that the innocent people in Kabul, not
considering it possible that a British force could get there so
quickly, had made no arrangements to convey their families away.

Feeling that anxiety for the safety of the families was not the true
cause for the Amir's efforts to delay us, and that his sole object
was to gain time for the development of plans for opposing our
advance--which subsequent events proved had been made with great
care--I told him it was impossible to accede to his wishes, but that
time would be given for all women and children to clear out of the
city if it should prove necessa