The Memoirs of Bābur 906.4.3

906.4.3

During the siege, the round of the ramparts was made each night; sometimes I went, sometimes Qāsim Beg, sometimes one of the household Begs. Though from the Turquoise to the Shaikh-zāda's Gate may be ridden, the rest of the way must be [Sidenote: Fol. 92b.] walked. When some men went the whole round on foot, it was dawn before they had finished.[560] One day Shaibāq Khān attacked between the Iron Gate and the Shaikh-zāda's. I, as the reserve, went to the spot, without anxiety about the Bleaching-ground and Needle-makers' Gates. That day, (?) in a shooting wager (_aūq aūchīdā_), I made a good shot with a slur-bow, at a Centurion's horse.[561] It died at once (_aūq bārdī_) with the arrow (_aūq bīla_). They made such a vigorous attack this time that they got close under the ramparts. Busy with the fighting and the stress near the Iron Gate, we were entirely off our guard about the other side of the town. There, opposite the space between the Needle-makers' and Bleaching-ground Gates, the enemy had posted 7 or 800 good men in ambush, having with them 24 or 25 ladders so wide that two or three could mount abreast. These men came from their ambush when the attack near the Iron Gate, by occupying all our men, had left those other posts empty, and quickly set up their ladders between the two Gates, [Sidenote: Fol. 93.] just where a road leads from the ramparts to Muḥ. Mazīd Tarkhān's houses.