agreed to lay down their arms and go as prisoners to Kábul.
Among the prisoners was young John Nicholson, who in September, 1857, received his death-wound as he led his storming-column along the ramparts of captured Delhi. The angry tears he shed on giving up his sword expressed a feeling presently shared by every officer in Kandahár; a feeling which, early in April, led the new Governor-General to order the holding of a court-martial on Colonel Palmer as well as General Elphinstone. Palmer's subsequent acquittal was confirmed by Sir J. Nicolls, who held that the circumstances under which he had surrendered his post 'were such as he could neither control, alter, nor alleviate[1].'
A stronger man made a better fight against untoward circumstances at a post which lay between Ghazni and Kandahár. It was fortunate for Captain Halkett Craigie that the garrison of Khelát-i-Ghilzai had been stiffened by forty English gunners, a few sappers, and later still by three companies of Maclaren's Sepoys. Put Craigie himself was a commander after Nott's own heart. During the winter no outward enemy, except the icy north wind, assailed his lonely garrison; but the first days of spring brought the Afgháns around him in ever- increasing numbers, that crept up by means of trenches closer and closer to their intended prey. At last, on the 21st of May, 4,000 Ghilzais, hearing of Wymer's approach from Kandahár,
- ↑ Kaye; Afghan Papers.
