On the fourth, however, the fertile plain of the valley stretched open and flat up to the very gates.
In front of the forts a line of sangars extended, the position of each being marked even now by a glare of light above it, which struck up from the fire which the insurgents had lit behind the walls of stone.

And from one and another of the sangars the monotonous beat of a tom-tom came to Luffe's ears.
Luffe walked up and down for a time upon the roof.

There was a new sangar to-night, close to the North Tower, which had not existed yesterday.
Moreover, the almond trees in the garden just outside the western wall were in blossom, and the leaves upon the branches were as a screen, where only the bare trunks showed a fortnight ago.
But with these matters Luffe was not at this moment concerned.

They helped the enemy, they made the defence more arduous, but they were trivial in his thoughts.

Indeed, the siege itself was to him an unimportant thing.