If the enemy threw up earthworks during the night at some distance from the corner bastions, and fired in a line parallel to the ditch, they could not fail to do some mischief. As it is, not a man on the walls has yet been wounded, and our answering volleys, when fired, have always been effective. Four men out in the open were shot down by one volley from the marksmen at the south-west bastion, the range being 450 yards. A Martini rifle, resting in a neatly-cut channel on the parapet, is, in the hands of cool, collected soldiers, a most deadly weapon at these short ranges; and as no one is allowed to fire without an officer’s permission, the shooting is nearly always good. One of the many rumours from the city was that powder-bags were to be brought to blow in the gates. In only one case, at head-quarters, has an attempt been made by us to permanently close the gateways. There is a strong guard at each, and the open space is usually blockaded with Afghan ammunition waggons, strong _abattis_ outside being so arranged as to check a rush. On either side of the waggons, which can be easily drawn away when troops are sent out, are low walls built up of flour-bags, from behind which ten or twelve men can command the entrance if it comes to close fighting. At the head-quarters’ gate strong doors have been placed on hinges let into the wooden supports to the mud wall on either side, and gun carriages are closely jammed against these. Twelve picked men are on duty day and night on the wall commanding the entrance, and their orders are to reserve their fire until the enemy with their powder-bags are within twenty yards of the gateway. A strong wooden platform, with a parapet of sand-bags, stretches from wall to wall six feet above the gun-carriages, and this post is entrusted to the care of the thirty Ghoorkas who came up with Sir Michael Kennedy as escort. Even if the door were blown in, the ghazis at the head of a storming party would have to face a heavy fire from above, which they could not return while clambering over the barricade. This gateway would probably be the one first assailed, as the Afghans know quite well that General Roberts and his Staff have their quarters within it.