1 494 AN EXECUTION.
2 to see the Khaibar Pass will easily conceive
3 the difficulties which the troops with the Shah
4 Zada must have undergone in forcing it, well
5 protected and defended as it is by a race of
6 independent men who had hitherto never
7 yielded to the arms of any nation ; and at the
8 same time judge whether these troops did not
9 deserve to be honoured equally with their
10 brother officers of Ghazni.*
11 During our stay, a man was executed. He
12 was a native of Kabul, and hanged for murder-
13 ing his own wife, on the plea of her being a
14 loose woman, and having prostituted her chas-
15 tity to a stranger. The murderer was seized
16 and tried by the officers of the Shah, and sen-
17 tenced to be hanged.
18 On the evening of his execution, a mob, as
19 usual on such occasions, assembled in pro-
20 digious numbers, filling the whole plain in
21 front of the palace, adjoining the western face
22 * « The small fort of Ali Masjid has from its situation
23 long held the Sikhs in check ; and it is not upon record
24 that the celebrated Khaibar Pass has ever previously been
25 forced, ioe Extract from Lord Auckland’s Letter to the
26 Secret Committee, Simla, Aug. 29, 1839,