Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/41

Rh Sabats, or broad covered ways, under the shelter of which the besiegers approach a fortress protected from gun and musket fire, are contrivances peculiar to Hindustan, for the strong forts of that land are full of guns, muskets, and defensive machines, and can be taken only by this means. Two sabats were accordingly begun; one, opposite the royal quarters, was so broad and high that two elephants and two horses could easily pass abreast, with raised spears. The sabats were begun from the brow of the hill (i.e. half-way up, below the perpendicular scarp), which is a fortress upon a fortress." Seven or eight thousand horsemen and gunners strove to stop the work, and in spite of the bull-hide roofs over the labourers, a hundred or so were killed every day, and their corpses were used as building materials. There was no forced labour, by Akbar's order, but the volunteers were stimulated by showers of money. Soon one of the sabats overtopped the wall of the castle, and on the roof of it a gallery was made whence the emperor could watch the fight.

Meanwhile the sappers had not been idle. Two bastions were mined with gunpowder, and a storming party was drawn up. The first mine blew a bastion into the air, and the stormers rushed into the breach, shouting their war-cry, and were at once at hand-grip with the garrison. At that moment the second mine, owing to a miscalculation, exploded and hurled in fragments into the air the crowd struggling in the breach. The charge was so heavy that stones and corpses were hurled "miles" away, according to the historian,