Читать книгу The Battles of the World or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events онлайн

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The next day took us thirteen miles on a road of extreme barrenness; the high, wild, rugged mountains, hemmed in the narrow defile; the skeletons of the massacred force still strewed the road in every direction; no signs of vegetation, or aught to relieve the eye from wildness—the numerous hollow crags, as we passed, seemed to ring with echoing despair, and afforded most formidable positions for the treacherous Affghan to use his jezail or matchlock, without fear of opposition. The enemy, finding we had now entered the Pass, hovered about, and succeeded in murdering an officer, and a few men of Pollock’s force. The divisions marched one day a-head of each other, and thus kept up a continued line of communication. I, with General Nott’s, arrived at this ground on the 14th; the road was equally extremely harassing the next day, as indeed, ever since our entrance to the Pass. The ascents and descents are so numerous, coupled with having to cross the water so often, and there being no hold for the feet, on the loose flinty stones, made it very trying for both man and beast. Upwards of twenty times had the gushing torrent, dashing from side to side of the valley, to be waded through, and numbers of bleaching frames of the victims of Akbar’s treachery, lay exposed in the midst of the rolling stream. In one part of this day’s march we came to a place fifty yards in length, crowded with dead bodies of men, horses, and camels, which were those of a troop of irregular cavalry, who had all been cut up on this spot. About a mile from Sah Baba, our next ground, stands a round tower, the ruins of an old fort; it was now used as a bone house, and was crammed to the ceiling, with skulls, legs, arms, and shattered frames, and numbers were heaped outside the door, and round it,—placed there by the enemy, to form a glaring spectacle of their bitter revenge. A large body of Affghans were now seen covering the hills in our rear, and opened a fire into the dreary abyss, on our rear guards and baggage as they passed. The column had moved on some few miles, but were halted, and those of our troops in possession of the heights commenced an attack, and succeeded in repelling them, and forcing them to retreat, and we reached camp with little loss. This place is said to be the burial place of Lamech, the father of Noah, and if we may judge from its wild, dreary, stony, barren appearance, which looked as if it had been washed up into a heap after the deluge, and so void of all chances of fertility, that one could scarcely doubt the tradition.