turally, but stoutly
and steadfastly held by the Guides. Where such immensely superior
numbers are concerned it is not safe to allow them to get too close, or
by sheer weight they may beat down a thin line of rifle-fire. The Guides
consequently opened a heavy fire into the darkness in the direction of
the advancing masses, thereby making known to all and sundry that the
surprise, as a surprise, had failed. This with undisciplined troops was
alone enough to disconcert the whole operation; the enemy, instead of
advancing, halted, and, taking refuge in the villages, awaited the break
of day.

So soon as it was light they opened a heavy but badly aimed fire on the
Guides, but showed no disposition to assault. At last, after some delay
and evidently under the urgent haranguing of their priests and leaders,
a mass of warriors some five thousand strong was collected under the
shelter of the villages to make another effort. But so steady and
accurate was the fire of the Guides, that even these brave fanatics
feared to face the open, and the attack melted away. Sir Frederick
Roberts, with the eye of the born general seizing the right moment,
launched his cavalry and artillery in counterstroke and pursuit, till
when the sun set that night fifty thousand of the chivalry of the Afghan
nation had been swept from sight and hearing, and nothing but a vast
solitude remained where teeming thousands stood lately.

Thus collect, and thus disappear, the great yeomen armies of
Afghanistan. To-day they are not; to-morrow they are assembling in their
thousands from the four quarters of the compass; a few days, and they
have melted away like snow. The explanation is simple enough. The fiery
crescent goes forth, summoning the faithful, every man with his arms and
ammunition and carrying in his goatskin bag food enough to last him for
a week. Commissariat or Ordnance Departments there are none; thus as
each soldier finishes his food or his ammunition, or both, he hies him
home again for a fresh supply; perhaps he returns, and perhaps he has
had enough fighting for the present, and does not. And so is it with all
the fifty thousand.

The Guides did not see any more serious fighting till April, when,
together with a wing of the 92nd Highlanders under Major White,[22] and
two guns of F.-A. Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, they fought a gallant
little action with about five thousand of the enemy at Charasiab near
Kabul. Jenkins, who was in command