Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/164

134 had built their hopes, and laid siege to Qandahar on 16th December, 1648.

Daulat Khan, surnamed Khawas Khan, the Mughal commandant, adopted a foolish scheme of defence. He threw his picked troops into the citadel, named Daulatabad, as if matters had already come to the worst. Three quarters of a mile from the citadel, on the north face of the hill, stood two projecting guard-towers above a flight of forty steps carved in the solid lime-stone rock. Daulat Khan durst not hold this isolated position. But it was a fatal omission. The Persians at once seized this eminence, which dominated the citadel and the market place of Qandahar. On 5th January, 1649, three big guns, each carrying 74 ft shot, reached their camp. Platforms had been already raised for them, and the bombardment of the city began. The parapets and screens above the fort-walls were demolished, and the Persian trenches were safely run to the edge of the ditch. Thence they crossed the moat wooden bridges and secured a lodgement under the walls of the outwork named Shir Haji and began to lay