NEWS OF THE WEEK.
CHITRAL has been relieved. Shere Afzul's men, it appears, besieged the fort with great persistence and some skill, running a mine within a few feet of the tower, and shooting with such accuracy that Captain Baird was killed, Dr. Robertson and Captain Campbell were severely wounded, and a third of the besieged force were killed or placed hors de combat. The besieged, however, though sorely discouraged by a report that the Ameer had declared a Holy War against the English, held out bravely; and on April 18th Colonel Kelly arrived, after his splendid march from Gilghit, within -twelve miles of the fortress. At the same time two thousand fighting men sent up by the Khan of Dir, reached a point where they were perceived by Afzul Khan, who lost heart in -face of the doable attack, and retreated with all his men. The relief was due to Colonel Kelly, whose march, with less than six hundred native troops, over one hundred and fifty miles of awful country, was a splendid feat of arms. 'General Gatacre was, by the last reports, still pressing for- ward to Chitral, and Sir R. Low still follows with the main body of the expedition, delayed at every step by "incredible" difficulties of transport. His road supplies nothing except water, and he has to carry every pound of food, as well as munitions and tents, over passes 10,000 ft. high and many feet deep in snow. Resistance appears for the present to be at an end; but the tribes cannot be trusted for an hour. A .petty skirmish lost, a false report, an exciting sermon from a Tiloollah, and thousands of clansmen would be defending the nearest gorge, or throwing themselves across the line of communications. The expedition is therefore to be cantoned -on the hills during the hot weather.
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