160 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. VIII. they got no more than a week's time to use their artillery before orders arrived to abandon the siege. Persian losses. From the commencement of the leaguer two months had now passed away. An attempt to corrupt Utar, the commandant of the fort, had brought back the taunting reply, "When you have succeeded in weakening the fort or injuring the garrison in any way, it will be time for me to think of deserting to you!" About the middle of June two high Persian officers (including Mir Alam,* their Chief of Artillery), were blown away by a 70 lb. shot from a Mughal gun. On 26th May, when a magazine was opened for distributing powder to the garrison, the store of sulphur caught fire from the hand of a careless servant who was preparing a pipe of tobacco for the Persian officers present. It soon spread to the powder and there was a terrible explosion. Many houses in the neighbourhood were over- thrown, and men and horses wounded by the flying splinters of rock. About 150 sepoys and water-men perished in the fire, and the four
- Called in the Adab-i-Alamgiri, "Mir Alam, surnamed
Mir Kalan Sani, the Bishak Bashi and superintendent of the New Bastion and Earthen Bastion," and by Waris, "Mahammad Beg, Topchi Bashi." Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ
