loud gusts of wind tended to deprive the besieged of the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the movements of their assailants by the noise with which they were inevitably attended. Within the fort a dead calm prevailed. Not a shot was fired, and some suspicion was entertained that the place had been evacuated.
When all were in position, the attention of the enemy was partially diverted by a false attack. The British batteries opened, and were answered from the fortress. In the meantime the explosion-party were preparing themselves for the assault. It consisted of Captain Peat, of the Bombay Engineers; Lieutenants Durrand and McLeod, Bengal Engineers; three sergeants and eighteen men of the Sappers. The charge ordinarily recommended to be employed for blowing open gates is from sixty to one hundred and twenty pounds of powder; but, as it was apprehended that the enemy might have taken alarm at the approach of the British army to that side of the place on which the Cabul gate was situated, and might thereupon have strengthened it, the charge was increased to three hundred pounds.
The movements of the explosion-party were observed from the ramparts, but the enemy did not penetrate their precise object. Blue lights were thrown up to afford them a better opportunity of ascertaining what was in progress; but, being burned from the top of the parapet, instead of being thrown into the passage below, they offered little assistance to those who employed them. Had they been thrown over, it would, in the opinion of Captain Peat, have been impossible to place the powder. As it was, the besieged were content with firing from loopholes upon the explosion-party, and those by whom they were protected – random operations, which produced little effect. The powder having been placed, the hose laid, and the train fired, the gate was instantly blown away, together with a considerable part of the roof of the square
