Muhammad A'zam, who was an old enemy of Mirza Yar Ali, on his arrival in the imperial camp, represented that Mirza Yar All's refusal of the appointment was in fact an act of disobedience to the emperor, and so worked on his father's feelings that the unfortunate officer was beheaded. In his place one Sharif Khan, who had earned an unenviable notoriety in the collection of the jizya, or poll-tax on Hindus, was appointed chief of the commissariat.
Heavy rain and the flooding of the river Musi now added a fresh obstacle to the prosecution of the siege and reduced the besiegers to a plight far worse than that of the besieged. In the month of Rajab, as the third month of the siege was drawing to a close, Firuz Jang made an attempt to carry the place by escalade at night. Ladders were prepared and were placed in position, and the escalading party began to ascend them. Before they had reached the parapet, a dog, which was wandering round the rampart in search of corpses on which to feed, began to bark. The besieged were instantly on the alert, and ran with torches to the spot whence the sound proceeded. The ropes which fastened the ladders to the wall were cut, and the ladders were overturned, the escalading party being hurled into the ditch and overwhelmed with a shower of hand-grenades. But so sure of success had the Mughals been that a messenger, one Haji Mihrab, had been posted in order that at the moment at which the escalading party was expected to reach the parapet he might ride off to the emperor's tent with the news that the fortress had fallen. He carried out his instructions to the letter, and, without waiting to see whether the escalade had been successful, galloped off to the emperor and offered him respectful congratulations on the fall of the place. The satirist Ni'mat Khan-i-Ali has a most amusing poem on the reception of the news by the army. He describes their extravagant delight at the tardy termination of the long and arduous campaign in the Deccan, and the prospect of a speedy return to Hindustan, and then revels in the details of their disappointment when, in the morning, the rejoicing was found to be premature. The dejection of the imperial army on hearing the news of the utter failure of the attempt from which so much had been hoped was, indeed, extreme, and a less determined general than Aurangzib would certainly have abandoned the siege and awaited a more convenient opportunity for its prose-
