Most alarmed of all was Eldred Pottinger in Charikar, who was now so certain that his small garrison of Gurkhas was about to be massacred that he rode back to Kabul to reason with Elphinstone and Macnaghten in person. Elphinstone sat looking panicked, then dithered and fussed, but failed to send him any concrete help, least of all the cavalry and artillery Pottinger had desperately requested, saying that all the troops were needed in Kabul. Macnaghten meanwhile said he did not have time to see Pottinger, and mocked his written report:
