removed. This was a work of immense labour, the
ground consisting first of a layer of soil, then of debris which had
fallen from the face of the rock above, stones and boulders, to the
depth of some fifteen feet, under which was the solid earth.

The slope resembled an anthill. The soldiers and able-bodied men broke
up the boulders and rock with sledgehammers; or, when necessary, with
powder, and blasted the rock, when needed. The women and children
carried away the fragments in baskets. The work lasted for a
fortnight, at the end of which a position of an almost impregnable
nature was formed. At the foot of the earthworks protecting the guns,
both at the face and sides, the ground, composed of great boulders and
stones, sloped steeply out, forming a bank fifteen feet deep. At its
foot, again, the solid rock was blasted away, so as to form a deep
chasm, thirty feet wide and ten feet high, round the foot of the fort.
For a hundred yards on each side, the earth and stones had been
entirely removed down to the solid rock.

Ten guns were placed in the battery, and the fire of these swept the
slopes behind the town and castle, rendering it impossible, until the
fort was carried, for an enemy to attack the town on that side; or to
operate, in any way, against the only point at which an attack could
be made upon the castle.

The rajah was delighted at this most formidable accession to the
defensive power of his fortress, which was now in a position to defy
any attack which could be made against it. A store of provisions and
ammunition was collected there, and the command given to one of
Charlie's Sepoy lieutenants, with a hundred trained artillerymen, and
two hundred infantry. Numbers of cattle had been driven into the town
and castle, and stores of provisions collected.

It was but two days after the battery was complete that the news
arrived that the rajah's brother, with Murari Reo, had entered the
rajah's dominions, and was marching up the valley to the assault. The
rajah had, in the first place, wished to defend a strong gorge through
which the enemy would have to pass; this having hitherto been
considered the defensible point of his capital, against an invasion.
Charlie pointed out, however, that although no doubt a successful
defence might be made here, it would only be a repulse, which would
leave the enemy but little weakened for further operations. He argued
that it was better to allow them to advance to the poi