Peshawur and the Khyber Pass 67 



spring ; but that farewell dinner was a sad one, 

 and when at its conclusion " The Queen " had been 

 drunk, Lord Roberts could hardly find words in which 

 to propose Cavagnari's health. 



Next morning they both rode out of the camp 

 together, and in the valley took leave of each other, 

 Cavagnari setting forth on that fateful mission ; but 

 they had only ridden a few yards along their different 

 roads before an unaccountable impulse made them 

 simultaneously turn round, ride back, shake hands 

 once more, and part for ever. 



Only two months later all India was struck aghast 

 at the awful news of the massacre of Sir Louis 

 Cavagnari and his staff at Kabul. 



Once more Lord Roberts, after much fighting, 

 entered the capital of Afghanistan. The walls of the 

 Residency were pitted with bullets and drenched with 

 blood, but no traces of the bodies of the Englishmen, 

 who must have died so hard, were ever found. 



O you Members of Parliament who live quietly 

 at home ! you wire-pullers of the greatest nation in 

 the world ! does it ever repent you of the lives 

 you have sacrificed in remote regions at the altar of 

 your god, Party Power ? You cut down expenses, you 

 tie the hands of able men on the spot, and then you 

 regret that England's prestige is trailed in the dust, 

 and the blood of her gallant men wantonly shed. 



To conclude : Yukub Khan abdicated, and was 

 sent into India. Abdur Rahman was nominated in 

 August, 1880, Amir of Afghanistan, where he still 



