AMANULLAH

Jallalabad was the first to suffer. Being near the
scene of the first rising, the local people had had oppor-
tunities of seeing the slight resistance of the Govern-
ment troops, and had long cast envious eyes on the
Royal Palace there and its stock of valuable goods, im-
ported from the West and therefore surely responsible
for the present trouble.

On December 3 large bands of tribesmen, having first
destroyed the bridges, had appeared outside the gates
of the fair city. The two thousand troops stationed
there at first stood firm, and resisted every attempt at
negotiation. The men of the city were terrified. They
knew well enough that in the event of an attack, the
lawless hillmen who now menaced them would allow no
qualms to check a wholesale sack of the rich bazaar,
the despoiling of women, their delight in the murder of
able-bodied men. And on the walls of Jallalabad, late
that evening, there appeared the old men of the city,
holding Korans in their hands, in supplication to the
waiting tribesmen outside.

" You are not fighting us," cried the old men. " You
are fighting Government troops. Go, then, to the mili-
tary lines, and leave the city alone. We of Jallalabad
are with you, and will pray for you. We believe in your
protests against the Kafir who calls himself King. Leave
us, therefore, and leave our city. Your enemies are the
troops ! '*

One by one the old men dropped from the wall, shot
by the casual rifle-fire of the besiegers. Then they
entered the city, and the smoke rose high above the
Afghan Plain that night, while in the red glow of burning
houses, there rose the shrieks of those who had dared
to argue in the face of an Afghan tribesman.

They made short work of the troops. Eight hundred
lay dead the next morning. The rest deserted. The

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