1 48 SECRET HISTORY OF THE LAHORE DURBAR.
2 the rear, or to fire from wherever space could be found to
3 work them. Calmly and silently the besieged viewed these
4 formidable preparations for the assault. They had merely
5 closed the two gates, the one leading into the Hazooree Bagh
6 and the other towards the eastern verge of the city ; but
7 inside each of these g*ates they had placed two guns loaded with
8 grape. They also manned the walls as well as their numbers
9 would allow with the men of the Dogra or Phirman batta-
10 lion, who lay concealed, ready to deal out destruction on the
11 dense masses below. At this time the Hazooree Bagh was
12 thronged with a motley multitude of Gorchars, or troopers,
13 Akalees, Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery. Shere Sing himself
14 took up his position in a marble summer house in the middle
15 of the garden, and by his personal and repeated orders a space in
16 front of the gateway of the fort was cleared with much diffi-
17 culty, and twelve guns were placed so as to bear on the wooden
18 portals, at a distance of not more than thirty-five or forty
19 yards in front of them.
20 The scene at this moment was of a strange and fearful charac-
21 ter,— the dense mass of fierce men heaving to and fro almost
22 up to the walls of the fort like an angry sea beating against a rock.
23 The tumult of their wild music and still wilder cries as the host
24 clamoured to be led to the attack was stunning. Soon however,
25 the horror took another form. The entire circle of guns — about
26 two hundred and thirty pieces of artillery — simultaneously
27 opened a fire of blank cartridge. This was done probably in
28 the expectation of terrifying the defenders of the fort,
29 but if so about fifty rounds from each gun were thrown away
30 to no purpose. The effect, however, of this firing was awful,
31 stunning all, besieged as well as besiegers, and shaking the
32 fort even to the old foundations laid by the Emperor Akbar. At
33 length the firing ceased suddenly, and then ensued a calm and
34 silence so profound that the stillness was not less awful than
35 the previous uproar. Not a sound, not a whisper was heard on