. At 4 A.M. a third assault was made
upon the cavalry enclosure. The tribesmen, carrying scaling ladders,
advanced with great determination. They were received with a deadly
fire. They then drew off, and the first night of the siege was
terminated by desultory firing. The garrison remained at their posts all
night, and when it became day the enemy were seen to have retired, to
the hills to the north-west, whence they maintained a ceaseless fire.
Although the defenders were protected by their stone walls, many had
strange escapes from the bullets, which fell incessantly into the
interior.

Meanwhile, in spite of the vigorous attack that was being made on the
Malakand, it had been decided to send some assistance to the little band
at Chakdara. Captain Wright and forty sowars of the 11th Bengal Lancers
with Captain Baker of the 2nd Bombay Grenadiers and transport officer
at the Malakand, started at dawn on the 27th, by the road from the north
camp. Before they had gone very far they came under the fire of the
enemy on the hills. These did not dare to venture into the plain, but
availed themselves of the broken nature of the country. As the squadron
reached the road leading to the polo ground, Captain Wright received
information that the enemy were collected on the plain and immediately
the pace was quickened in the hopes of a charge being possible. But the
tribesmen ran to the hills at the sight of the Lancers, and maintained
a constant, though luckily, an ill-aimed fire. At length the village
of Batkhela was reached, and beyond it the Amandara Pass came in sight.
This is a gap in a long spur, which runs from the southern side of the
valley to the rapid river in the middle. As the river was then in full
flood and unfordable, the only road to Chakdara lay over or through the
spur. But the pass was held by the enemy.

Captain Wright had by this time realised, what probably no one at the
Malakand then knew, that the enemy's numbers were enormous. The whole
way from Malakand to Amandara--every ridge and hill was crowned with
their banners. Wherever the ground protected them from the horsemen
they gathered thickly. Cemeteries [Cemeteries are frequent and prominent
features of Frontier landscapes. Some of them are of great extent: all
of remarkable sanctity.], nullahs and villages swarmed with men. Their
figures could be seen in all directions. Far beyond the Amandara Pass
bands of tribesmen, of varying strengths, could be obse