Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/311

Rh of nearly a mile and a half. The entrance to this is from the west, by a gate opening on to the Chandni Chauk, known, in 1857 as the Láhor gate. The other gates were the Kashmír, to the north, near the English church and the Kachahrí or Court of Justice; to the west of this, though facing northward, the Mórí gate; to the proper west, at the angle formed by the north and west faces, the Kábul gate; then, midway between the two angles of the western face, the Láhor gate, forming the entrance to the famous Chandni Chauk, leading through the city to the Citadel; further to the south, just after the wall of defence makes a bend inwards, was the Farásh-kháná gate; at the angle beyond it, the Ajmír gate; then, forming entrances to the southern face, the Turkoman, and beyond it the Dehlí gate; beyond again, facing the river, was the Ráj-ghát gate.

The fort had been strengthened by English engineers and provided with perfect flanking defences. Round the walls, twenty-four feet in height, ran a dry ditch, some twenty-five feet in breadth and somewhat less than twenty in depth, the counterscarp being an earthen slope of very easy descent, much water and weather worn. There was a kind of glacis, but it scarcely merited the name, being but a short slope, seventy or eighty feet in breadth, springing from the crest of the counterscarp, and provided with no special means of obstruction. The place was garrisoned by some 40,000 sipáhís, armed and disciplined by the British. Its walls were mounted with 114 pieces of heavy artillery, capable of being supplied with ammunition from the largest magazine established by the British in the upper provinces. The garrison had, in addition, some sixty pieces of field-artillery, and were well supplied with gunners, drilled and disciplined by the British.

To take this strongly defended city the English general