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—115— Quite early in the morning, the English moved nearer the ci- tadel of Ghazni; and the troops were led by the traitor Sirdar Abdur Rashid Khan and Alexander Burnes. Near the city the English were attacked by the defenders of the town from their hiding places in the orchards of the city, and when the invaders were within range of fire, big guns of the town opened at them. The first engagement which took place between the English and the Afghans was in the orchards of the city, especially in one such orchard which was about 180 yards long and about forty feet wide very severe fighting took place. From the walls of the citadel, which were about thirty to forty feet high, the defenders opened fire with their tinder-fired guns. Mr: Chamberlain, recording the event, says that when the Afghans saw that the firing of the English did not reach them, they came up the parapets of walls and waved their flags, and a group even came up to a distance of only thirty yards. When they arrived so near, Chamberlain says that he intimated the fact to Captain Graves. There They come! The captain ordered his company to fire, but both fires met, the Afghan warriors had become so excited by coming so near to their enemies that they gave no heed to death, and although they fell one after the other as a result of the enemy's fire they continued to push forward,and in this engagement Captain Graves received two severe wounds, and Cha mberlain was compelled to retire his company, and to take their wounded commander on a stretcher to the center of their troops. After this sharp and short engagement, the English force mov- ed towards the walls of the city of Ghazni,and surrounded the walls at a distance, where the Afghan fire could not reach them, and skir- ting north-west they arrived near the Kabul gate of the city. According to the English records, their troops had no rations beyond three days, and the strong resistance of the defenders was likely to upset the attacker's plans till Captain Thomson,the head- engineer, suggested to the commander of the force named Kelvin,that the best plan under the circumstances was to blow up the Kabul gate, and this suggestion was readily agreed to. Towards the fore-