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62 opened fire against the crumbling walls of Kámrán's stronghold. The siege dragged on for months in a fitful, haphazard way, with little advantage to either side. Fortunately for the Afgháns, a young officer of Bombay Artillery, Eldred Pottinger, who had been sent by his uncle, Colonel Pottinger, on a roving mission into Central Asia, had reached Herát in good time to bear an active and a memorable part in the defence. As Colonel Malleson has well said —

'It was Eldred Pottinger who repaired the fortifications, who inspired the garrison, who forced even Sháh Kámrán and his minister, Yár Muhammad, to play the warriors. It was Eldred Pottinger, who, on the 24th of June, 1838, repulsed the enemy's attack led by the Russian general, Borowski, and a battalion formed of Russian volunteers. Finally, it was mainly through Eldred Pottinger's exertions and example that, on the 8th of September, 1838, the Persian army raised the siege and retired, beaten, baffled, and humiliated, within its own borders .'

Before the grand assault in June two attempts at negotiation, one conducted by Pottinger, the other by McNeill from the Persian camp, had been made and failed. In the latter case McNeill had very nearly succeeded when his Russian rival, Simonich, reached the Persian camp just in time to dissuade the Sháh from accepting the English offers. After this failure McNeill quitted the camp, and sent off a messenger, Major Todd, to urge upon Lord Auckland the need of prompt interference against the Sháh and his Russian friends.