ssians.

He received a reply from the Duke of Argyle--the British minister
for India--of a doubtful nature, couched in terms which seem to
have aroused his resentment. From this moment, there can be no
doubt that the Ameer's course was decided upon. He was between the
hammer and the anvil and, as he could obtain no guarantee of
assistance from England, he determined to throw himself into the
arms of Russia.

Letters were exchanged between him and General Kaufmann--the
Russian viceroy in Turkestan--and the latter gave him the warmest
promises of support, if he would ally himself with Russia. Although
he had, for years, declined to accept a British resident at Cabul,
or to allow Englishmen to enter the country; he now, believing in
the power and willingness of Russia to help, received the visit of
a Russian general and staff, at Cabul.

Unfortunately for the Ameer, the government of England had now
changed hands; and the ministry at once sent to Sheer-Ali, to
demand that he should receive a British resident. It was late in
the year, and the Ameer--acting, no doubt, on the advice of his
Russian friends--sought to gain time by evasive answers. The
British government--who saw through the ruse--ordered the envoy to
advance, with a strong escort. This obliged the Ameer to come to a
final decision; and the die was cast by the escort being stopped,
by force, on its arrival at Ali-Musjid.

There is no doubt that the Ameer, and his friends, calculated that
it was already too late in the season for the English to gather a
sufficient force, on the frontier, to force the passes held by the
Afghan army before the snows. The promptness of action of the
English government, the valor of their troops, and the unusually
late setting in of the winter combined to overthrow the Ameer's
plans. Had the campaign been delayed till the spring, there can be
little doubt that the British, in their advance, would have found
themselves opposed--if not by a Russian army--at least by an army
led and officered by Russians, with Russian engineers and
artillerymen. The promptness of their advance, and the capture of
the passes and the dispersion of the Afghan armies, within a week
of the opening of the campaign, altogether altered this position.

Sheer-Ali found himself a king without an army. The plains of Cabul
were thronged with the panic-stricken fugitives from the Khyber and
Peiwar; and Sheer-Ali started at night from his capital with his
Russ