k,
left the governor a force of fifty thousand men to defend it. He
afterward sent him an additional force of ten thousand men, under the
command of a general named Kariakas.

With these soldiers the governor shut himself up in the city. He knew
very well that if he surrendered or was taken he could expect no
mercy, and he went to work accordingly strengthening the
fortifications, and laying in stores of provisions, determined to
fight to the last extremity. The captain of the guard who came to
assist him had not the same reason for being so very obstinate in the
defense of the town, and this difference in the situation of the two
commanders led to difficulty in the end, as we shall presently see.

The Mongul princes began the siege of Otrar by filling up the ditches
that encircled the outer wall of the town in the places where they
wished to plant their battering-rams to make breaches in the walls.
They were hindered a great deal in their work, as is usual in such
cases, by the sallies of the besieged, who rushed upon them in the
night in great numbers, and with such desperate fury that they often
succeeded in destroying some of the engines, or setting them on fire
before they could be driven back into the town. This continued for
some time, until at last the Mongul princes began to be discouraged,
and they sent word to their father, who was then engaged in the siege
of Bokhara, informing him of the desperate defense which was made by
the garrison of Otrar, and asking his permission to turn the siege
into a blockade--that is, to withdraw from the immediate vicinity of
the walls, and to content themselves with investing the city closely
on every side, so as to prevent any one from going out or coming in,
until the provisions of the town should be exhausted, and the garrison
be starved into a surrender. In this way, they said, the lives of vast
numbers of the troops would be saved.

But their father sent back word to them that they must do no such
thing, but must go on and _fight their way_ into the town, no matter
how many of the men were killed.

So the princes began again with fresh ardor, and they pushed forward
their operations with such desperate energy that in less than a month
the outer wall, and the works of the besieged to defend it, were all
in ruins. The towers were beaten down, the ramparts were broken, and
many breaches were made through which the besiegers might be expected
at any moment to force thei