f defence; the
decoration which he invented to reward the soldiers for their courage or
fidelity, an eight-pointed star with a grenade in the centre, and
consisting of three classes, gold, silver, and pewter; the presence of
Slatin (later the sirdar) in the mahdi's camp, and the chains put upon
him. But in November the fighting grew fiercer; the mahdi cut all
communication between Khartoum, stretching from the Blue to the White
Nile, and Omdurman, on the right bank of the latter river. However,
though he took the town, he did not keep it long, for he was shelled out
of it; but day by day his forces crept closer, and Gordon, who had sent
his steamers down to Shendy to meet the relieving troops which he
thought were on their way, had no means of stopping the mahdi when he
began to transport his army from one bank of the Nile to the other, in
preparation for the last assault.

During the summer months Gordon had been cheered by the knowledge that
sir Gerald Graham was fighting Osman Digna and keeping him at bay, but
this was all the consolation he had.

'Up to this date,' he writes on October 29, 'nine people have come up as
reinforcements since Hicks's defeat, and not a penny of money.' Still,
for seven months not a man had deserted; but with the advance of the
mahdi many of the defenders of Khartoum might be seen stealing after
dark to his camp. He sent an envoy across the river to offer Gordon
honourable terms if he would surrender, knowing full well from the
papers which his spies had stolen from the steamer _Abbas_ what straits
the garrison were in. But Gordon, putting little faith in the word of
the mahdi, rejected the proposal and returned for answer, 'We can hold
out twelve years.'

* * * * *

By this time 'Relief Expedition No. 2, to save our national honour,' as
Gordon persisted in calling it, was on its way, and many of us can
recall with what sickening hearts we watched its daily progress. The
obstacles which had been foretold months before by both Gordon and
Wolseley proved even greater than they expected. The Nile had fallen,
and its cataracts, like staircases of rocks, were of course impassable,
and the transport of the boats was a terrible difficulty. Then, owing to
treachery, all the useful camels were spirited away, and only enough
could be collected to carry one thousand men across the desert. Sir
Herbert Stewart started first, and reached the wells of Jakdul on
Januar