Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/258

210 at Burganw, seven or eight leagues from Asir. He was received very kindly and related all the details of the siege. He remained there the next day, and on the following day the Imperial camp moved towards Asir. On the 21st of Farwardin, or 25th of Ramazan, it reached the city of Burhanpur, and the emperor took up his abode in the palace of the old rulers. Intent upon the siege, he then marched on, attended by numerous amirs, and arrived under the fort on the 3d of Shawwal. Shaikh Farid then received orders to attend to his own duties as paymaster-general and wait upon his Majesty, and to appoint the other amirs to the direction of the trenches, so that he might be ready, upon emergency, to lead a force in any direction.

The trenches were then allotted to the different amirs: the first to Khan-i Azam, another to Nawab Asaf Khan, and another to Mirza Jani Beg of Tatta. A fourth trench was placed by Shaikh Farid in charge of his brethren and adherents, and having examined it carefully, he gave it into their charge, while he himself proceeded with a chosen force to attend upon the emperor. It was impossible to dig mines or construct covered ways, and the men in each trench accordingly endeavoured to bring the investment as close as possible. At the end of the month, Azam Khan and Asaf Khan reported that the garrison kept up a fire from different kinds of guns all night and day, with object and without object, necessary and unnecessary, and that the besiegers endured it with great bravery.

In the early days of Zi-al-ka'da, Bahadur sent out