‘A wise thought! Excellent advice! What great wisdom!’ was repeated by the whole circle, while the Sultaun stood by silent, apparently in further consideration upon the subject.
‘Yes,’ he continued, after holding his forefinger between his teeth in an attitude of deliberation for some time,—‘yes, it is a good thought; and we charge you, Syud,’ he added, to his relative, ‘with its execution; collect the pioneers, heave over the battlements into the ditch, fill it up level with the plain. Inshalla! there will be a broad road soon. Be quick about it; and now, sirs, let us lose no more time, but press on; our swords are hardly red with the blood of the infidels, and they appear to be collecting yonder in some force.’
‘But,’ said the Syud, ‘this is a pioneer’s work: in the name of the Prophet, leave me not with them.’
‘I have spoken,’ replied the Sultaun, frowning. ‘Enough! see my command obeyed, and be quick about it.’
‘We may need the road too soon,’ said a voice: but, although they tried hard, they could not discover whose it was.
Once more then they resolutely set forward, and the Sultaun was on foot among his men, who were full of animation as he often spoke to them, and reminded them that those who fell were martyrs, who would be translated to Paradise, and those who survived would win honour and renown. But it was easy to see that, tired and exhausted as they were, the men had not their first spirit; and some hours of constant fighting, with no water to refresh them, had been more than they could support; the opposition every moment became more and more certain and effective, and each step was disputed.
Meanwhile the road over the ditch progressed but slowly. The Syud had thought himself offended by being left behind to see it done, and looked sulkily on without attempting to hasten the operation. The pioneers were too few to effect anything rapidly; indeed it would have been impossible to have done what the Sultaun had ordered, even had the whole force joined in the work; for the ditch was wide and deep, full of thorns, briars, matted creepers, and bamboos, which had been planted on purpose to offer a hindrance to an enemy. A few stones only had been displaced, though the work had gone on nearly an hour, when it was suddenly and rudely interrupted.
The advancing party had proceeded hardly half-a-mile, with much labour, when on a turn of the wall they perceived a square building filled with the enemy, who in considerable numbers had taken post there, and were evidently determined to dispute it hotly.
‘Ah! had we now some of my good guns,’ cried the Sultaun, as he beheld their preparations for defence, ‘we would soon dislodge those unblessed kafirs. By Alla, they have a gun too! there must be some one yonder who understands fighting better than those we have yet seen.’
‘May their mothers be defiled!’ cried a gasconading commander of a battalion of infantry, who was well known for his boasting. ‘Who are they that dare oppose us? my men are fresh’ (for they had just come up from the rear), ‘and if I am ordered I will go and bring the fellow’s head who is pointing the gun yonder.’