Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/189

Rh of Golkonda prepared to die like a soldier. He cast off his sloth and luxury of life, and set about ordering his army and making ready for the siege of his citadel. In January, 1687, the enemy took ground at gunshot range, and the leaguer began. Day by day and week by week the approaches were pushed forward under the command of Ghází-ad-dín Fíróz Jang. Abu-l-Hasan had forty or fifty thousand horse outside the walls, which continually harassed the engineers, and the garrison plied their cannon and rockets with deadly effect upon the trenches. The defence was heroic; frequent and deadly were the sallies of the besieged. The fortress was well found in ammunition and provisions, and a ceaseless fire was kept up night and day from the gates and towers and ramparts. Not a day passed without loss to the assailants. At last the lines were pushed up to the fosse, and Aurangzíb himself sewed the first sack that was to be filled with earth and thrown into the ditch. Heavy guns were mounted on earthworks to keep back the defenders, and an attempt was made to scale the walls by night. Some of the besiegers had already gained the ramparts, when a dog gave the alarm, and the garrison speedily despatched the climbers and threw down the ladders. The dog was rewarded with a golden collar.

Meanwhile famine was reducing the Mughal army to extremities. The friends of Golkonda, and especially the Maráthás of 'that hell-dog' Sambhájí, had laid the country waste; the season was dry; and there was a terrible scarcity of rice, grain, and fodder.