26 WITH KITCHENEK IN THE SOUDAH

moment had approached. Throughout the night a fire had

raged from the opposite side of the great square, where sev-

eral deserted houses had been broken into and plundered by

the mob; but the soldiers stationed in the square had pre-

vented any further disorder. iNow, however, parties of troops from the forts began to pour in. It was already known that

their losses had been very heavy and that many of the forts had been destroyed. Soon they broke up, and, joining the mob, commenced the work of pillage. Doors were blown in,

shutters torn off, and with wild yells and shouts the native

population poured in. The work of destruction had begun. The garrison of the bank saw many Europeans, hurrying,

too late to reach that shelter, murdered before their eyes. In

the Levantine quarter the cracking of pistols and the shouts

of men showed that the work of massacre was proceeding

there. Soon every door of the houses in the great square was

forced in, and ere long great numbers of men, loaded with

spoil of all kinds, staggered out. So far the bank had been

left alone ; but it was now its turn, and the mob poured down upon it. As they came up, a sharp fire broke out from every window, answered by a discharge of muskets and pistols from

the crowd. Here men fell fast, but they had been worked up

to such a pitch of excitement and fanaticism that the gaps were more than filled by fresh comers. All the afternoon and evening the fight continued. In vain the mob endeavoured

to break down the massive iron bars of the windows and batter in the doors. Although many of the defenders were wounded, and several killed, by the fire from the windows of the neighbouring houses and from the road, their steady fire

at the points most hotly attacked drove their assailants back again and again.

At twelve o’clock the assault slackened, the soldiers had long left, and, so far as could be seen from the roof of the house, had entirely evacuated the town; and as this fact became known to the mob, the thought of the consequences of their action cooled their fury, for they knew that probably