Next morning the Shah's camp was threatened on the left by large bodies of horse and foot who were driven off by the Cavalry and some of his Highness's troops; whilst another force, consisting chiefly of horse, under the command of one of Dost Mahommed's sons; and at a short distance from him a Ghiljie Chief, with about fifteen hundred Cavalry, who had hung upon our flank all the way from Khelat-i-Ghiljie, menaced us to the right. This determined the Commander-in-Chief to expedite matters, and the engineers having made a careful inspection of the fortress, he resolved on carrying it by storm. The whole of the 22nd was consumed in making the necessary preparations, the field hospital being got ready while strong detachments of Cavalry scoured the country around, in order to keep the enemy from our lines. In order to give my readers a correct idea of the strength of the fortifications, and the difficulties overcome by the intelligence and courage of the officers and men of the British Army, I cannot do better than to copy the official reports made by the principal Engineer officers on the subject. They contain a full detail of the operations up to the moment when the citadel fell into our possession. _Memorandum of the Engineers' operations before Ghuznee, in July, 1839, by Captain George Thompson, Bengal Engineers, Chief Engineer Army of the Indus._ The accounts of the Fortress of Ghuznee, received from those who had seen it, were such as to induce his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief to leave in Candahar the very small battering train then with the Army, there being a scarcity of transport cattle. The place was described as very weak, and completely commanded from a range of hills to the north. When we came before it on the morning of the 21st of July we were very much surprised to find a rampart, in good repair, built on a scarped mound about thirty-five feet high, flanked by numerous towers, and surrounded by a faussebraye and wet ditch. The irregular figure of the "enceinte" gave a good flanking fire, whilst the height of the citadel covered the interior from the commanding fire of the hills to the north, rendering it nugatory. In addition to this, the towers, at the angles, had been enlarged, screen walls had been built before the gates, the ditch cleared out and filled with water, stated to be unfordable, and an outwork built on the right bank of the river so as to command the bed of it. The garrison was variously stated from three to four thousand strong, including five hundred Cavalry, and from subsequent information we found that it had not been overrated.