text:  Its commencement was an attack by certainly not 300 men on the dwellings of Sir Alexander Burnes and Captain Johnson paymaster to the Shah's force; and so little did Sir Alexander himself apprehend serious consequences that he not only refused on its first breaking out to comply with the earnest entreaties of the wuzeer to accompany him to the Bala Hissar but actually forbade his guard to fire on the assailants attempting to check what he supposed to be a mere riot by haranguing the attacking party from the gallery of his house