n at work to prepare fascines, and bundles, and rafts of
timber, which were to be loaded with the stones and sunk in the river
to form the foundation for the proposed bank. The men would bring the
stones down to the bank in their hands, and then horsemen, who were
ready on the brink, would take them, and, resting them on the saddle,
would drive their horses in until they came near the place where the
stones were to go, when they would throw them down and then return for
others. In this way they could work upon the jetty in many parts at
once, some being employed in building at the end where it abutted on
the shore, while the horsemen were laying the foundations at the same
time out in the middle of the stream. The work of the horsemen was
very difficult and dangerous, on account of holes in the sandy bottom
of the river, into which they were continually sinking. Besides this,
the garrison on the walls were doing their utmost all the time to
impede the work by shooting arrows, javelins, stones, and fiery darts
among the workmen, by which means vast numbers, both of men and
horses, were killed.

The Monguls, however, persevered, and, notwithstanding all the
opposition which the garrison made, they succeeded in advancing the
mole which they were building so far that Timur was convinced that
they would soon gain so advantageous a position that it would be
impossible for him to hold out against them. So he determined to
attempt to make his escape. His plan was to embark on board his boats,
with all his men, and go down the river in the night.

In order to prepare for this undertaking, he employed his men secretly
in building more boats, until he had in all more than seventy. These
boats were kept out of sight, in hidden places in the river, until all
were ready. Each of them was covered with a sort of heavy awning or
roof, made of wet felt, which was plastered over with a coating of
clay and vinegar. This covering was intended both to defend the men
from missiles and the boats themselves from being set on fire.

There was one obstacle to the escape of the boats which it was
necessary to remove beforehand, and that was the bridge which the
Monguls had built across the river, just below the town, when they
first came to besiege it. To destroy this bridge, Timur one night made
a sally from one of the gates, and attacked the men who were stationed
to guard the bridge. At the same time he sent down the current of the
river a n