him to do, for, seeing the heavy odds we
had opposed to us, and that the enemy were already in possession
of the Takht-i-Shah, thus being in a position to threaten the Bala
Hissar, I sent orders to him to fall back upon Deh-i-Mazang, where he
arrived about 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, Macpherson's baggage, with a guard of the 5th Gurkhas,
commanded by Major Cook, V.C., was attacked by some Afghans, who had
remained concealed in the Paghman villages, and it would probably have
fallen into their hands, as the Gurkhas were enormously outnumbered,
but for the timely arrival of four companies of the 3rd Sikhs, under
Major Griffiths, who had been left by Macpherson to see everything
safely down the pass. Cook himself was knocked over and stunned by
a blow, while his brother in the 3rd Sikhs received a severe
bullet-wound close to his heart.

During the retirement from Bhagwana, Macgregor, my Chief of the Staff,
Durand, Badcock, and one or two other staff officers, got separated
from me and were presently overtaken by an officer (Captain Gerald
Martin), sent by Macpherson to tell Massy he was coming to his
assistance as fast as his Infantry could travel; Martin informed
Macgregor that as he rode by Bhagwana he had come across our abandoned
guns, and that there was no enemy anywhere near them. On hearing this,
Macgregor retraced his steps, and, assisted by the staff officers with
him and a few Horse Artillerymen and Lancers, and some Gurkhas of
Macpherson's baggage guard picked up on the way, he managed to rescue
the guns and bring them into Sherpur that night. They had been
stripped of all their movable parts, and the ammunition-boxes had been
emptied; otherwise they were intact, and were fit for use the next
day.

I found assembled at Deh-i-Mazang Wali Mahomed and other Sirdars, who
had been watching with considerable anxiety the issue of the fight,
for they knew if the Afghans succeeded in their endeavours to enter
Kabul, all property belonging to people supposed to be friendly to us
would be plundered and their houses destroyed. I severely upbraided
these men for having misled me as to the strength and movements of
Mahomed Jan's army, and with having failed to fulfil their engagement
to keep me in communication with Baker. They declared they had been
misinformed themselves, and were powerless in the matter. It was
difficult to believe that this was the case, and I was unwillingly
forced to the conclusion that not a single Afghan