1 The siege of the fort.
2 504 HISTORY OF THE PANJAB,
3 broken open and ‘their contents pillaged, and the Chatta Bazdy was set
4 on fire, the flames rising above the highest house in the city.
5 As day dawned, the whole army of 70,000 infantry, with 50,000 followers,
6 rushed infuriated in the direction of the fort, filling the air with the
7 war-ery, “ Wah, Guru ji ki Fateh,” “Wah, Guru ji ki Khdlsd-jv.” The ford
8 was densely surrounded on all sides by eager troops, who covered the space
9 below the walls, like a swarm of bees. Batteries of artillery were posted
10 all round the fort in such a manner as to enable them to keep up con-
11 stant communication with each other. Even this continuous line, which
12 comprised 230 pieces of artillery, was considered insufficient, and more guns
13 were brought into action. The main strength of the besieging force lay
14 at the Haztri Bdégh, where Shér Singh himself directed their movements,
15 arranging their posts and assigning commands to the officers. With the ex-
16 ception of a few minutes rest in the palace barddari, his whole time was un-
17 interruptedly employed in personally conducting the manceuvres of his
18 troops. Twelve guns were placed opposite the marble summer house, facing
19 the western gate of the fort, for the purpose of blowing it in.
20 The besieged consisted of the Dogrd force of Guldb Singh, who had been
21 ordered from Shadera, and a force of 1,200 Sikhs under Budh Singh, Man,
22 who guarded the fort treasury called the Moti Mandar. They lined the
23 walls of the fort, on which their batteries were mounted at different points.
24 The whole presented a strange and terrible spectacle, Elated with the
25 hope of rewards, and still more of plunder and rapine, the wild Khdlsé soldiery,
26 directed by Shér Singh in person, formed one compact body, which reached to
27 the very walls of the fort and assailed it with the impetuosity of the ocean when
28 in the height of a tempest it angrily beats against arock. The savage cries
29 of the warriors and the loud sounds of their wild music were deafening. A
30 volley was then fired from the batteries of the attacking force, in order to terrify
31 the defenders, which completely stunned both besiegers and besieged, shak-
32 ing to. their very foundations the walls of the fort built by the Great
33 Akber. This was all unreplied to by the defenders in the fort. The besiegers
34 now became still more excited, and were clamorous in demanding the
35 immediate opening of the gates, All this was unheeded. At length a terri-
36 ble fire was simultaneously opened by the twelve guns which had been posted
37 opposite the western gate of the fort, and the result was that the old gate
38 fell down, with thirty-seven ont of the thirty-nine men who, with two guns
39 loaded with grape shot, were defending it. A band of 800 Akdlis now rushed
40 to the front to seize the guns, but the two surviving men discharged their
41 pieces simultaneously, and in the twinkling of an eye a hundred of the
42 assailants fell dead on the ruins of the gate, where the bodies of the
43 fallen defenders lay. Alarge number of horses belonging to the besiegers
44 were also killed. The Dogrds on the walls and ramparts of the fort now
45 promptly opened fire with their muskets, the result being that the twelve
46 guns which had hitherto hurled destruction on the besieged were abandoned,
47 and in about ten minutes the palace garden was cleared of the besiegers,
48 who dispersed in all directions, leaving behind them, on the field, 300 killed
49 and 100 wounded, besides 50 prisoners who had been captured by the
50 Dogrds in a sally,
51 The eastern gateway of the fort was bombarded under very much the
52 same circumstances as the western gate had been, and with similar results
53 = the besiegers, whose loss in killed and wounded, men and animals, was
54 ormous.
55 The Khdisé force, being thus repulsed in the first assault, opened a heavy
56 Sri satguntf ages aah fFSERDERA, train of artillersamdbichpengiarladalentert, and