ther pursuit by the Infantry being valueless, the 1st and 2nd
Brigades halted on the far side of Mazra, where I with the 3rd Brigade
shortly afterwards joined them.

Brigadier-General Hugh Gough, having satisfied himself as to the
security of our left flank, scouted as far as Kohkeran, and then
proceeded with the Cavalry of the Kabul-Kandahar Field Force to
execute the extended movement entrusted to him. He crossed the
Arghandab, and pushed round to get in front of the line of the enemy's
retreat towards Khakrez. Some _ghazis_ and Irregular Afghan troops
were overtaken, but no Regular regiments were met with, the soldiers
having, as is their custom, quickly divested themselves of their
uniform and assumed the garb of harmless agriculturists.

Ayub Khan himself had fled early in the day with his principal
Sirdars.

As I rode into the abandoned camp, I was horrified to hear that the
body of Maclaine, the Horse Artillery officer who had been taken
prisoner at Maiwand, was lying with the throat cut about forty yards
from Ayub Khan's own tent. From what I could learn, the latter had
not actually ordered the murder, but as a word from him would have
prevented it, he must be held responsible for the assassination of an
officer who had fallen into his hands as a prisoner of war.

Our losses during the day comprised: killed, 3 British officers,[5]
1 Native officer, and 36 men; wounded, 11 British officers, 4 Native
officers, and 195 men, 18 of whom succumbed to their wounds. It was
difficult to estimate the loss of the enemy, but it must have been
heavy, as between Kandahar and the village of Pir Paimal alone 600
bodies were buried by us.

With the exception of the 1st Brigade, which remained at Mazra for the
night to protect the captured guns and stores, the troops all returned
to camp before 9 p.m.[6]

Utterly exhausted as I was from the hard day's work and the weakening
effects of my late illness, the cheers with which I was greeted by the
troops as I rode into Ayub Khan's camp and viewed the dead bodies of
my gallant soldiers nearly unmanned me, and it was with a very big
lump in my throat that I managed to say a few words of thanks to each
corps in turn. When I returned to Kandahar, and threw myself on the
bed in the little room prepared for me, I was dead-beat and quite
unequal to the effort of reporting our success to the Queen or to the
Viceroy. After an hour's rest, however, knowing how anxiously news
from Kanda