Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/186

156 and were returning baffled. So he sent his supports back and stayed there for the return of his men. After a while a foolish servant told him that his men had reached the hill-top and entered the fort. The Rajah hastily believed the report, blew his trumpet, and beat his drums. At this signal the returning Imperial troops ran back to him. But the truth was soon discovered; the Sun rose and presented the straggling assailants on the hill-side as a clear target to the Persian marksmen. Many were slain and wounded on the Mughal side, but the main portion of the loss was undoubtedly borne by the Rajah's men who were nearest the enemy. For this error of judgment Rajrup was censured by his chief and sent back to his old trenches.

Thereafter the only hope of taking Qandahar

was by carrying the sap nearer and breaching the walls. In both of these the Mughals failed. Aurangzib's trenches, west of the ridge, arrived within 22 yards of the wall, and Sadullah's (east of the fort) to a spot 10 yards from the ditch. But here their progress was arrested. "The trenches could not be carried any nearer in face of the severe fire showered from the fort-walls." "The work [of sapping] was hard, and many of Sadul-