from molesting our friends or those of the Sháh; and to treat with all honour and respect any of our people who might for the present be unable to come away. While Macnaghten was reading out these terms, Akbar broke in with the impatient query, 'Why should you not march to-morrow?' After long discussion, the Envoy's proposals were substantially accepted, the chiefs agreeing to furnish the supplies, while Macnaghten undertook to quit cantonments in three days. Hostages were exchanged, and the conference broke up, says Lawrence, 'with mutual assurances of friendship and good faith.'
The arrangement was duly notified to the Sháh, and stops were taken fur withdrawing the Bengal troops from the Bálá Hissár. As things stood, a timely retreat from Kábul might still have saved the lives of a helpless garrison, if not the honour of the British name. But a large store of grain was somehow left behind in the citadel, while Elphinstone's men and cattle were on the verge of starving. The promised supplies came in very slowly or were plundered by the way. Delays resulting, whether from accident or design, gave each of the contracting parties a handle for complaint, for mutual mistrust, for fresh demands on one side, and for vain remonstrances and poor subterfuges on the other. Three days passed, and our people were still shivering in their intrenchment. The few forts still held by us had to be surrendered before the Afgháns would send in any more supplies. On the 20th they demanded the surrender
