A warning coming from
such a friendly quarter was doubtless duly weighed and duly allowed for;
but after all, what could a peaceful Embassy do but trust to the honour
and integrity of the friendly Power whose guest it was? To show the
smallest sign of distrust by attempting, for instance, to place a merely
residential set of buildings, completely commanded all round, into a
state of defence, was only to court disaster. What could the British
Ambassador in Paris do against a brigade of troops unrestrained by the
French Government? What could an escort of seventy-five men, however
brave, do against thousands, and tens of thousands, of armed men?
Cavignari therefore took the bold course, which British officers, before
and since, have taken. He sat quietly, and with good and brave heart
faced the coming storm, if come it must; but greatly confident that it
might split and roll by on either side.
In the end, by sad mischance, a small matter, and one quite unconnected,
directly or indirectly, with the attitude of the British Embassy, caused
the storm to burst with sudden and uncontrollable fierceness. The
already half-mutinous Herati regiments were, as was not unusual in those
days, very much in arrears as regards their pay. For months they had
received none, and were, perhaps naturally, in an angry and sullen mood.
The finances of the State were in a chaotic condition, the treasury at
low ebb, and credit had receded to a vanishing point.
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