CHAP. II.] DHAMUNI CAPTURED. 23 prey had again fled. Jhujhar Singh had found no safety in Dhamuni, but gone further south, across the Vindhya hills and the Narmada river, to Chauragarh in the land of the Gonds. Dhamuni had, however, been prepared to stand a siege. The houses round the fort had been razed to the ground and a gallant Rajput named Ratnai left in command. On 18th October the Imperialists arrived before the fort and began siege operations. The garrison fought till mid- night, and then sent a man to Khan-i-Dauran to beg for quarter. But a body of Ruhelas had run their trenches to the edge of the bamboo thicket adjoining the eastern wall of the fort, and occupied the jungle under cover of the darkness. After mid-night some of them entered the fort from that side and began to plunder. Khan-i- Dauran soon arrived and tried to restore order in the darkness. The fort was rapidly filling with the victors when suddenly a powder maga- zine in a tower of the southern wall took fire from the torch of a careless plunderer; a dread- ful explosion followed, blowing up 80 yards of the enormously thick wall and killing 300 Rajputs standing under the wall and also 200 horses.* News arrived about the exact route of the
- Abdul Hamid, I. B. 108-110.
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