that hazard. For the decision to assault the rebellious city Baird-Smith, then, was responsible. He at once, in conjunction with his second in command, Alexander Taylor, drew up the plan of assault.
To understand the plan the Chief Engineer worked out it is necessary that I should lay before the reader a short and concise description of the defences to be assailed. I cannot do this better than in the very words of Baird-Smith.
'The eastern face,' he wrote, 'rests on the Jamnah, and during the season of the year when our operations were carried on the stream may be described as washing the base of the walls. All access to a besieger on the river front is therefore impracticable. The defences here consists of an irregular wall, with occasional bastions and towers, and about one-half the river face is occupied by the palace of the King of Dehlí and its outwork, the old Mughal fort of Salímgarh. The river may be described as the chord of a rough arc formed by the remaining defences of the place. These consist of a succession of bastioned fronts, the connection being very long, and the outworks limited to one crown work at the Ajmír gate, and martello towers, mounting a single gun, at such points as require additional flanking fire to that given by the bastion themselves. The bastions are small, generally mounting three guns in each face, two in each flank, and one in the embrasure at the salient. They are provided with masonry parapets, about twelve feet in thickness, and have a relief of about sixteen feet above the plane of site. The curtain consists of a simple masonry wall or rampart, sixteen feet in height, eleven feet thick at top, and fourteen or fifteen at bottom. The main wall carries a parapet, loopholed for musketry, eight feet in height and eight feet in thickness. The whole of the land front is covered
