146 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VII. gunners, who in one day fired 25 times on the covered lane which had arrived half way across the ditch and destroyed it. Qasim Khan's mine was also discovered and demolished by the fire from the fort guns...The Imperialists had no gun big enough to overthrow the parapet under shelter of which the fort-gunners fired their pieces, not to speak of silencing their fire."** Failure: Siege raised. "So the Imperialists failed with all their efforts." The capture of the fort was hopeless, and on 5th September, Aurangzib, obeying the Emperor's command, began his retreat from Qandahar. He had sat down 3 months and 20 days before the fort, but all in vain. The retreat was hastened by the approach of the terrible Afghan winter which Indians cannot bear, and the news that a large Persian force, estimated at 20,000 strong, was coming to relieve Qandahar. An Imperial force under Qalich Khan had been posted for two months near the fort of Bist with Mughal advanc- ed detachment orders to corrupt its Persian garrison, ravage the district of Dawar, and send supplies of grain to Qandahar. But in August reinforcements from Persia began to
- Waris, 33b, 34b.
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