1 A. D. 1818. AND TAKEN BY STORM. 115
2 immediately complied wilh, his two forts of Mozuffur-
3 gurh and Khangarh were stormed and taken. In the
4 course of February the city of Mooltan was occupied,
5 and its citadel closely invested without much loss. The
6 approaches were made according to no consistent plan,
7 but every Jageerdar and chief erected his own battery,
8 and a promiscuous fire was kept up from guns and small
9 arms against every part of the defences. The means of
10 the garrison were however so deficient, that even ander
11 this irregular method of attack, the wall of the citadel
12 was, by the continual fire kept up, breached in several
13 places, and the upper works and defences were nearly de-
14 molished in the coarse of the month of April. In May the
15 approaches were carried close to the Dhool-kot, or fausse
16 braye of the works, and the army became eager to be led
17 to the storm ; butRuNJEET SiNGH, who, though absent,
18 regulated every thing connected with the siege, forbad
19 any risk being run, and continued his offer to the Nuwab
20 of a Jageer if he would surrender. He was obstinate in
21 his refusal, and seemed determined to hold out to the last
22 extremity. While matters continued in this state, an
23 Akalee fanatic, Sadhoo Singh, on the 2d of June,
24 advanced without orders with a few companions, and
25 attacked sword in hand, the Afghans in the Dhool-kot,
26 who, being at the time asleep or negligent, were over-
27 powered. The men in the Sikh trenches, seeing this,
28 advanced simultaneously on the impulse of the moment
29 to support the attack, and the entire outwork was carried
30 with a slaughter of those defending it. Flushed with
31 this success, the assailants attempted the fort, and found
32 ready entrance by the breaches made, the garrison not
33 expecting assault, nor being prepared for a consistent
34 and determined resistance. The citadel was thus sud-
35 p 2