7th, he had been able to open communication
with Brigadier-General Charles Gough, commanding Bright's leading
brigade. I was thus again brought into communication with India, and
in a position to clear my hospitals of those amongst the sick and
wounded who were not progressing favourably, and could not soon be fit
for duty.

By this time the Inquiry Commission had completed its difficult task
of trying to sift the truth concerning the fate of Cavagnari and his
companions from the mass of falsehood with which it was enveloped. The
progress had been slow, particularly when examination touched on the
part Yakub Khan had played in the tragedy; witnesses were afraid to
give evidence openly until they were convinced that he would not be
re-established in a position to avenge himself. The whole matter had
been gone into most fully, and a careful perusal of the proceedings
satisfied me that the Amir could not have been ignorant that an attack
on the Residency was contemplated. He may not have foreseen or desired
the massacre of the Embassy, but there was no room for doubt as to his
having connived at a demonstration against it, which, had it not ended
so fatally, might have served him in good stead as a proof of his
inability to guarantee the safety of foreigners, and thus obtain the
withdrawal of the Mission.

It was impossible, under these circumstances, that Yakub Khan could
ever be reinstated as Ruler of Kabul, and his remaining in his present
equivocal position was irksome to himself and most embarrassing to me.
I therefore recommended that he should be deported to India, to
be dealt with as the Government might decide after reviewing the
information elicited by the political Court of Inquiry, which to
me appeared to tell so weightily against the ex-Amir, that, in my
opinion, I was no longer justified in treating as rebels to his
authority Afghans who, it was now evident, had only carried out his
secret, if not his expressed, wishes when opposing our advance
on Kabul. I decided, therefore, to proclaim a free and complete
amnesty[2] to all persons not concerned, directly or indirectly,
in the attack on the Residency, or who were not found hereafter in
possession of property belonging to our countrymen or their escort, on
the condition that they surrendered their arms and returned to their
homes.

At Daud Shah's suggestion, I sent three influential Sirdars to the
Logar, Kohistan, and Maidan valleys, to superintend the co