addition to the king's residence it contained
barracks, store houses, magazines, and many residences. Towards
this the cavalcade made its way.

They halted two miles from the town, and the chief sent his son
forward to the Ameer, to inform him that he had brought in an
English prisoner; and to request that an escort might be sent out,
lest he should be killed by the people on approaching the town. An
hour after the man had left, a troop of cavalry sallied out from
the gate of the Bala-Hissar, and rode rapidly to the spot where the
party had halted. Surrounding the camel on which William Gale was
mounted, they conducted it to the fortress.

Illustration: William Gale in the hands of the Afghans.

When he was lifted down from his camel, Will was unable to stand.
Fever had set in again, and he was conveyed to an apartment in a
house near the royal residence. The Ameer was already negotiating
with the British, and orders were consequently given that the
prisoner should receive every attention. The king's own doctor was
ordered to attend him, and two attendants were told off to take
charge of him. The old chief received a recompense, for the care
which he had taken of the prisoner, which fully answered to his
expectations; and he returned home well satisfied with the success
of his policy.

For weeks, Will lay between life and death; and he was a mere
skeleton when, two months after his arrival, he was able for the
first time to sit up at the window, and look across the valley.
Very gradually, he recovered strength. He was well supplied with
food, and especially enjoyed the delicious fruits for which Cabul
is celebrated.

His attendants were a old man and his son, the latter a lad of some
fifteen years of age. The father did his duty, because ordered to
do so; but his scowling face often showed the hatred which he felt
of the Kaffir. The lad, however, took kindly to his patient. He it
was who for hours together would, while Will was at his worst, sit
by his bedside, constantly changing the wet cloths wrapped round
his head, and sometimes squeezing a few drops of the refreshing
juice of some fruit between his parched lips; and as his patient
turned the corner and became slowly convalescent, his pleasure over
the life he had saved, by his care, was very great.

Like most soldiers in the expeditionary force, Will had picked up a
few words of Afghan; and had greatly increased his stock, during
the time he lay in the hut