the Outer Fort.” He tapped the small upper circle of the figure
eight.
Wellesley nodded.
“And that, too, is difficult?”
“Again, two entrances,” Sevajee said.
“One is a road that climbs from the plain. You can’t see it from here,
but it twists up the hills to the west and it comes to the fort here.”
He tapped the waist of the figure eight.
“It’s an easier climb than the southern road, but for the last mile of
the journey your men will be under the guns of the Outer Fort. And the
final half-mile, General, is steep.” He stressed the last word.
“On one side of the road is a cliff, and on the other is a precipice,
and the guns of the Outer Fort can fire straight down that half-mile of
road.”
Colonel Butters shook his head in gloomy contemplation of Sevajee’s
news.
“How come you know all this?” he asked.
“I grew up in Gawilghur,” Sevajee said.
“My father, before he was murdered, was kill adar of the fortress.”
“He knows,” Wellesley said curtly.
“And the main entrance of the Outer Fort?”
“That,” Sevajee said, ‘is the fortress’s weakest point.” He scratched
a line that pierced the uppermost curve of the small circle.
“It’s the only level approach to the fortress, but it’s very narrow. On
one side’ he tapped the eastern flank of the line ‘the ground falls
steeply away.
On the other side is a reservoir tank. So to reach the fort you must
risk a narrow neck of land that is swept by two ramparts of guns, one
above the other.”
“Two walls?” Wallace asked.
“Set on a steep hill,” Sevajee said, nodding.
“You must fight uphill across both walls. There is an entrance, but
it’s like the Inner Fort’s entrance: a series of gates with a narrow
passage leading from one to the other, and men above you on both sides
hurling down rocks and round shot.”
“And once we’ve captured the Outer Fort,” Wellesley asked, ‘what
then?”
Sevajee offered a wolfish smile.
“Then your troubles are just beginning, Sir Arthur.” He scuffed out
the diagram he had made in the dust and scratched another, this one
showing two circles, one large and one small, with a space between
them.
“The two forts are not connected. They are separated here’ he tapped
the space between the circles with his tulwar – ‘and that is a ravine.
A deep ravine. So once you have the Outer Fort, you still have to
assault the Inner Fort, and its de fences will be untouched. It has a
wall which stands at the top of the ravine’s cliff, and that is where
your enemy will be taking refuge; inside the wall of the Inner Fort. My
father reckoned no enemy could ever capture Gawilghur’s Inner Fort. If
all India should fall, he said, then its heart would still beat at
Gawilghur.”
Wellesley walked a few paces north to stare at the high promontory.
“How big is the garrison?”
“Normally,” Sevajee said, ‘about a thousand men, but now? It could be
six or seven times that many. There is room inside for a whole
army.”
And if the fort did not fall, Wellesley thought, then the Mahrattas
would take heart. They would gather a new army and, in the new year,
raid southwards again. There would be no peace in western India till
Gawilghur fell.
“Major Blackiston?”
“Sir?”
“You’ll make an exploration of the plateau.” The General turned to
Sevajee.
“Will you escort Major Blackiston up into the hills? I want sketches,
Blackiston, of the neck of land leading to the main entrance. I want
you to tell me where we can place breaching batteries. I need to know
how we can get guns up to the tops of the hills, and I need to know it
all within two days.”
“Two days?” Blackiston sounded appalled.
“We don’t want the rascals to take root up there, do we? Speed,
Blackiston, speed! Can you leave now?” This question was directed at
Sevajee.
“I can,” Sevajee answered.
Wellesley waved Blackiston on his way.
“Two days, Major! I want you back tomorrow evening!”
Colonel Butters frowned at the far hills.
“You’re taking the army to the top?”