side, and those would be lined with men firing down or else throwing
the great rocks that Bappoo had ordered piled onto the fire steps Inch
by bloody inch the redcoats would fight their way up the narrow road
between the walls, only to turn the corner to see an even greater gate
standing in front of them, and one, moreover, that could not be reached
by the besiegers’ cannon fire. Thus, Bappoo reckoned, the British
assault would be thwarted.
Dodd was not so sure. The Prince was right in thinking that there was
no way in through the Delhi Gate, but Dodd suspected the breaches would
be less formidable. He had begun to see weaknesses in the ancient
walls, old cracks that were half hidden by weeds and lichen, and he
knew the skill of the British gunners. The wall would break easily,
and that meant the breaches would be big and wide, and Dodd reckoned
the British would fight their way through. It might be a hard fight,
but they would win it. And that meant the British would capture the
Outer Fort.
But Dodd did not express that opinion to Bappoo, nor did he urge the
Prince to build an earthen glacis outside the wall to soak up the fire
of the breaching batteries. Such a glacis would delay the British for
days, even weeks, but Dodd encouraged the Prince to believe that the
Outer Fort was impregnable, for in that misapprehension lay Dodd’s
opportunity.
Manu Bappoo had once told Dodd that the Outer Fort was a trap.
An enemy, if they captured the Outer Fort, would think their battle
won, but then they would come to Gawilghur’s central ravine and find a
second, even greater fort, waiting on its far side. But for Dodd the
Outer Fort was Manu Bappoo’s trap. If Manu Bappoo lost the Outer Fort
then he, like the enemy, would have to cross the ravine and climb to
the Inner Fort, and it was there that Dodd commanded and, try as Dodd
might, he could see no weaknesses in the Inner Fort’s de fences
Neither Manu Bappoo nor the British could ever cross the ravine, not if
Dodd opposed them.
The Inner Fort was quite separate from the Outer. No wall joined them,
only a track that dropped steeply to the bed of the ravine and then
climbed, even more steeply, to the intricate gateway of the Inner Fort.
Dodd used that track each day, and he tried to imagine himself as an
attacker. Twenty more guns faced him from the Inner Fort’s single wall
as he descended the ravine, and none of those guns would have been
dismounted by cannon fire. Muskets would be pouring their shot down
into the rocky ravine and rockets would be slashing bloodily through
the British ranks. The redcoats would die here like rats being pounded
in a bucket, and even if some did survive to climb the track towards
the gate, they would only reach Gawilghur’s last horror.
That horror was the entrance, where four vast gates barred the Inner
Fort, four gates set one after another in a steep passage that was
flanked by towering walls. There was no other way in. Even if the
British breached the Inner Fort’s wall it would not help, for the wall
was built on top of the precipice which formed the southern side of the
ravine, and no man could climb that slope and hope to survive.
The only way in was through the gate, and Wellesley, Dodd had learned,
did not like lengthy sieges. He had escaladed Ahmednuggur, surprising
its defenders by sending men with ladders against the unbreached walls,
and Dodd was certain that Wellesley would similarly try to rush the
Inner Fort. He could not approach the wall, perched on its cliff, so
he would be forced to send his men into the ghastly entrance that
twisted as it climbed, and for every steep step of the way, between
each of the four great gates, they would be pounded by
muskets, crushed by stones, blasted by cannon and savaged by rockets
dropped from the parapets. It could not be done. Dodd’s Cobras would
be on the fire steps and the redcoats would be beneath them, and the