1 CHAND KOUR, 505
2 continued it with such violence and rapidity that it threatened the destrue-
3 tion of the old walls; but the fire of the Dogrd garrison on the rampart
4 was so well directed that in about an hour the artillery below was silenced,
5 and the besiegers, falling back, sought protection in the houses of the city.
6 About 146 guns were left on the plains, with no one to protect them. The
7 dead bodies of men and carcases of horses and bullocks which were to be
8 seen in numbers around them presenting a most ghastly spectacle.
9 At this juncture the Khdisd troops behaved in the most savage and brutal 8%
10 way. Seizing the women of private houses in the city, they compelled these
11 unfortunate creatures to stand in front of their guns and around them.
12 Many were forcibly bound to the wheels of the artillery. The object of the
13 barbarians in thus forcing the tenderer sex to surround their guns and occupy
14 a place in front of their own ranks was to divert the direct effect of the
15 enemy’s fire. The handful of Dogrds, however, deserved the greatest credit
16 for their cautious conduct, taking into consideration the disadvantages under
17 which they were placed and the difficulties under which they suffered. With
18 such skill did they direct their fire on the besiegers below that very few of the
19 unfortunate women were struck, and the work of destruction in the ranks
20 of the besiegers went on steadily to their profound amazement. As the
21 best proof of their gallantry and humanity, as also of their skill as marks-
22 men, it is stated that, of 1,200 women who had been thus barbarously ex-
23 posed, only 19 fell victims to the atrocity of the Sikhs, while 200 of the
24 artillerymen were found dead around their guns from the effects of the
25 fire of the garrison.
26 In this manner the besiegers continued the bombardment for three days
27 and nights, and the small garrison replied to the best of their ability and
28 power. The Sikhs took up secure positions in and behind the houses in the
29 city, and advantageously placed their guns close to the walls, directing their
30 muzzles through embrasures made for the purpose. From these concealed
31 batteries a tremendous cannonade was maintained at intervals. The for-
32 tress, which was originally intended by the Emperor Akber as a palace for
33 the residence of the royal household, contained no embrasures, and the
34 besieged, to overcome this defect, erected batteries of wood and earth within
35 the fort, from which they returned the fire of the besiegers. The in-
36 cessant and heavy cannonade kept up by the besiegers for three days resulted
37 in several large breaches in the walls of the fortress, which afforded the
38 Dogrds the advantage of being able to make several sallies on the besiegers
39 during the night. Shér Singh, on this occasion, hired the services of some
40 forty mochts, who, hunters, or shikaris, by profession, were good marksmen,
41 and whom he mounted on the minars of the Bddshéhi Mosque. The
42 mochis were paid at the rate of Rs. 10 to Rs. 20 each, and their com-
43 manding position enabled them to inflict considerable loss on the garrison
44 inside the fort, who were unable to reply effectually to their fire, since they
45 commanded every corner of the palace with their weapons. ;
46 The siege lasted five days, during which time the besiegers once
47 entertained the idea of blowing up the Badshdhi Masjid, where Shér Singh
48 had taken up his position, and which they knew to contain a magazine of
49 6,000 maunds of powder. They, however, desisted from exploding this
50 magazine, fearing their own destruction by the explosion of subterrancous
51 passages filled with powder which connected the Guldb Khand of Haztri Bégh
52 with the middle of the fort. On the evening of the fifth day news reached
53 Léhore of the arrival of Rdjé Dhidn Singh from the Jamnut hills at a place
54 three or four miles from Shadera. Shér Singh ordered the cessation of hos-
55 tilities, and entered into negotiations with Guldb Singh, but that Chief refused
56 Savage conduct of
57 @ hesiegers.
58 The manly bearing
59 of the besiezed.
60 The bombardment of
61 the fort.
62 ‘The arrival of R4j&
63 Dhian Singh at
64 Lahore,
65 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com