CHITRAL AND THE N.W. FRONTIER CAMPAIGN. 460 noitre. He found that all the enemy's works had been abandoned. The siege was over. Later in the day came letters broughtby native carriers fromnorth and south. One told of the progress of Low's army ;another,from Colonel Kelly,announced that he would reach Chitral fort next day, April 20th.

and would yet get under the tower. A second sortie was impossible. The counter-mines were begun, the men digging frantically in the basement of the fort. Then Gurdon came down from the roof to report that somehow theenemy had run an opentrench almost to the foot of the tower. This report led to amore carefulexamination,and to everyone'sdelight it wasperceived that this new trench was nothing but the collapsed mine. Foot by foot its roof had We have already traced Kelly's advance to the neighbourhood of Chitral,but we have not followed the fortunes of General Low's force THE buff: AT BARWA.

crumbledinafter the shock of thefirst explosion. The sortiehad after all been a complete success. There was no need to go on with the countermines. Twenty-one of the brave men who seized the summer-house and wrecked the mine werekilled and wounded. The enemy's loss was about fifty.

beyondits crossing of the Panjkora River. On the morning of April 17th— the dayof Harley's sortie from Chitral fort and Kelly's successful fording of the river— Low began his advance from the Panjkora with Waterfield's and Gatacre's brigades, preceded by the Guides' Cavalry.-The enemy were found by the horsemen near the village of Miankalai. Gatacre's brigade and the Derajat mountain battery were sent into action against them, but trie enemy retired as the infantry advanced, showing little fight. The losses on both sides were slight ;the Guides had four troopers wounded, Gatacre's brigade five men wounded. Next day the advance was continued to.Mundia, a village and fort which The next day passed quietly, and in the night a man came close up to the walls,declaredhe was a friend, and said the besiegers were retreating. The prisoners hadgiven the garrison some idea of Kelly's advance, and the news now brought seemedlikely to be true, but for fear of atrap no one movedout till dawn,whenGurdon went out of the fort with a company to recon-