but there is not the least doubt but that he
was engaged in correspondence with him during the whole time, and that
Dost Mahomed was thus enabled to effect his escape with his family,
although Captain Outram with his party pursued him as far as Bamian. If
Hadjee Khan had not acted in this most treacherous way, there could not
be a doubt but that Dost Mahomed must have fallen into the hands of
Captain Outram. Thus Hadjee Khan proved his double treachery; for which,
on his return to Cabool, it was understood the Shah would have put him
to death, but for the presence of the English, upon whose interference
his sentence was changed to perpetual confinement in one of the state
prisons.

It described, also, the arrival of the eldest son of Shah Shooja, with
the contingent from Runjet Sing; his meeting with his youngest brother
on the road, near the city, who went out for that purpose upon an
elephant, richly caparisoned, attended by a suitable cortege; his
reception by the British army, and afterwards by his father, at the Bala
Hissar, where my son mixed with the troops of the Shah, who filled the
palace yard, and was thus enabled to witness the first interview, which
was anything but that which might have been expected when the eldest son
arrived at the palace to congratulate his father on his restoration to
his throne. The King was seated alone in an open balcony, slightly
raised above the court, where his officers of state were ranged on
either side, on the ground. The Prince advanced through a line of troops
and public officers, but did not raise his eyes from the ground. When he
came near his father, he prostrated himself in submission to the King,
who called to him "that he was welcome;" after which the son ascended to
the balcony, where he again made a prostration, when his father raised
him up, and seated him near him. The peculiarly careful conduct of the
son on his approach appears to have arisen from a consciousness of his
father's jealous and suspicious temper, and a fear lest even a smile
interchanged with a friend at the court might be construed into hidden
treachery. Soon after this, the chief persons of the court made their
salutations to the King, to each of whom he said a few words, and the
ceremony was ended.

My son added, that he little expected when he was at the levee of his
late Majesty King William, before he left England, that the next
ceremony of the sort at which he should be present would be tha