All told it numbered only 4000 fighting men with 18 cannon.  Nevertheless, on nearing Cabul, it assailed a strong position at Charasia, held by 13 regular regiments of the enemy and some 10,000 irregulars.  The charges of Highlanders (the 72nd and 92nd), Gurkhas, and Punjabis proved to be irresistible, and drove the Afghans from two ridges in succession.  This feat of arms, which bordered on the miraculous, served to reveal the feelings of the Ameer in a manner equally ludicrous and sinister.  Sitting in the British camp, he watched the fight with great eagerness, then with growing concern, until he finally needed all his oriental composure for the final compliment which he bestowed on the victor.  Later on it transpired that he and his adherents had laid careful plans for profiting by the defeat of the venturesome little force, so as to ensure its annihilation[317].

[Footnote 317:  Roberts, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 213-224; Hensman, The Afghan War of 1878-1880.]

The brilliant affair at Charasia served to bring out the conspicuous gallantry of two men, who were later on to win distinction in wider fields, Major White and Colour-Sergeant Hector Macdonald.  White carried a ridge at the head of a body of 50 Highlanders.  When the enemy fled to a second ridge, he resolved to spare the lives of his men by taking a rifle and stalking the enemy alone, until he suddenly appeared on their flank.  Believing that his men were at his back, the Afghans turned and fled.

On October 9 Roberts occupied the Siah Sang ridge, overlooking Cabul, and on the next day entered the citadel, Bala Hissar, to inspect the charred and blood-stained ruins of the British Embassy.  In the embers of a fire he and his staff found numbers of human bones.  On October 12 Yakub came to the General to announce his intention of resigning the Ameership, as “he would rather be a grass-cutter in the English camp than ruler of Afghanistan.”  On the next day the British force entered the city itself in triumph, and Roberts put the Ameer’s Ministers under arrest.  The citizens were silent but respectful, and manifested their satisfaction when he proclaimed that only those guilty of the treacherous attack on the Residency would be punished.  Cabul itself was much more Russian than English.  The Afghan officers wore Russian uniforms, Russian goods were sold in the bazaars, and Russian money was found in the Treasury.  It is evident that the Czar’s officials had long been pushing on their designs, and that further persistency on the part of England in the antiquated policy of “masterly inactivity” would have led to Afghanistan becoming a Muscovite satrapy.

The pendulum now swung sharply in favour of India.  To that land Roberts despatched the ex-Ameer on December 1, on the finding of the Commission that he had been guilty of criminal negligence (if not worse) at the time of the massacre of Cavagnari and his escort.  Two Afghan Sirdars, whose guilt respecting that tragedy had been clearly proven, were also deported and imprisoned.  This caused much commotion, and towards the close of the year the preaching of a fanatic, whose name denoted “fragrance of the universe,” stirred up hatred to the conquerors.