The houses themselves were loopholed, and everything was prepared for a desperate defence.

During that day the guns continued to enlarge the breach; and the Sepoys, who had laboured almost incessantly for four nights and days, were able to lie down for some hours.
That night passed quietly.

Holkar had probably heard, from adherents in the town, of the retrenchment that had been formed; and Colonel Ochterlony believed that the absence of any movement towards the breach was a sign that he was making preparations for a sudden attack at some other point.

Sentries were placed along the walls facing the encampment of his army and, just before dawn, the discharge of a musket, at the Lahore gate, showed that it was against it that the enemy's attack was directed.
The Sepoys had been bivouacked in an open space, in the centre of the city, and they at once proceeded to the point threatened.

In the dim early morning light, a great mass of men could be made out approaching and, at the same moment, fifty guns opened fire on the gate, to cover their advance.