Travels in India (Tavernier) 39.4.7

39.4.7

so that, in order to enter the town, there is but one gate on the plain side, and it is fortified in this direction with three good walls of cut stone, with the ditches at their bases faced with the same stone. Consequently, during the siege, the inhabitants had only to guard a space of 400 or 500 paces wide. They had only two iron guns — one being a 12-pounder, the other 7 to 8; the first was placed on the gate, and the other on the point of a kind of bastion. Until the Nawáb found a means to mount guns above he lost many men from the frequent sorties made by the besieged. The Rájá who was in the town was considered to be one of the best and bravest commanders among the idolaters, and the Nawáb, seeing at length that the place could not be taken unless guns were carried up to the heights, ordered all the Franks who were in the service of the King as gunners to come to him, and promised to each four months’ wages more than their ordinary pay if they could find some means of conveying guns to the heights. In this they were successful. They mounted four guns, with which they bombarded the place, and they were so fortunate as to direct them against the gun which was on the gate, which they rendered useless. When they had battered down half the gate of the town the besieged capitulated; they evacuated the place under honourable conditions.