132 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



and the halo of history surrounding the slender stems 

 of those broken minarets, were very impressive on 

 that still May evening. And surrounding it, of 

 course, were ever the same saintly- looking poppies, 

 like deceiving angels, with delicate creamy- white com- 

 plexions, beguiling the senses even as they stood, and 

 making the air heavy, faint, and oppressive. 



On reaching our garden camp, we were welcomed 

 with the intelligence that the Amir had just sent 

 orders that we were to be received into the city itself, 

 and that everything we wished to see was to be 

 shown to us. The next morning was the time fixed 

 for our entry. Accordingly, on the morning of 

 Sunday, the 10th May, when our gallant Afghan 

 cicerone, with a glittering staff, rode up to say that 

 the gates were open, he found three British officers 

 ready, of whom one at least was arrayed in all the 

 pomp of (nearly) full uniform, and each was doing 

 his best to disguise from the other two the intense 

 interest he felt in the day's proceedings. Indeed we 

 were rather a silent party as we rode over the bridge, 

 and through the great gates of the Kutub Chak 

 entrance, and found ourselves inside the city walls at 

 last. We were in happy ignorance of what was 

 going on then, or had been going on in the great 

 political world for the previous fortnight ; and if our 

 thoughts strayed into the regions of forecast, there 

 was not one of us who would for a moment have 

 anticipated the news which greeted us that evening 



