fortress in ever increasing numbers. They again entered the trenches and rushed upon the siege batteries, capturing and carrying off several of the guns, and spilling those which they could not carry away. Having effected so much, they turned their attention to their own defences, and utilised the huge sandbags with which the ditch had for the second time been filled in repairing the breaches in the wall, thus, as Khafi Khan says, using the equivalent Persian proverb, killing two birds with one stone.
In the meantime, the imperial army, floundering in the heavy mud and impeded by the swollen nalas, were endeavouring to attack the fortress. They knew that one of the bastions had been battered to pieces. They did not know that the besieged had taken advantage of their successful attack on the trenches to repair the ruined bastion. When the attacking column advanced in the morning under a heavy fire, which carried destruction among their ranks, and neared their objective, the morning light disclosed no breach in the fortifications. Both Ni'mat Khan-i-Ali and Khafi Khan give an amusing account of the argument which ensued as to which bastion was the object of the attack. The argument so facetiously described by both authors was doubtless an accusation of treachery brought by the men against their leaders, met by them and their henchmen with an indignant denial. Many of the storming party believed that they had been betrayed, and led against the wrong bastion, and accused their leaders and those who were in the confidence of their leaders of having led them into a trap. The argument ended in a free fight, which was encouraged by the plaudits and delighted shouts of the garrison, who lined the walls and enjoyed the spectacle. This ridiculous conflict continued till nightfall, when the officers with much difficulty brought it to an end.
There still remained one mine to be fired, and the emperor, having directed that it should be fired the next morning, rode out to witness the spectacle, which was a miserable fiasco. This was the mine from which the besieged had removed the powder. A match was ignited, but the mine would not explode, and the miners were afraid to inspect the mine so closely as to discover what was wrong, but at last a spy brought information of what the besieged had done. The match had been cut, but sufficient was left to lead the miners to believe that the
