I48 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

There was plenty to be clone. Gordon's first care was to see how long the provisions would last, and he thought that he could stand a five months' siege. Next he had to provide for the pay of the soldiers and others, and for this he established a papercurrency, represented by a bank-note in Arabic signed and sealed by himself. It was known that these notes would be honoured, and there were arrears of pay due to those soldiers who had net deserted and who would remain faithful. Messengers were sent out in every direction to offer freedom to all slaves who would abandon their masters and go into Khartum; but not many availed themselves of the offer, for the condition of the country outside gave them opportunities for gaining their freedom without entering a city to defend which they would be called upon to fight.

Daily rations were given to the poor in Khartum, and all the machinery of government went on with regularity; the social life was not devoid of comfort, nor even of cheerfulness, in spite of the climate and impending danger, and the excitement of preparing, not only for defence, but for attack. These preparations were carefully ordered by Gordon himself, and were ingenious and effectual. They enabled him to hold the vast horde of the followers of the Mahdi at bay for months, and to inflict repeated defeats upon them, which kept them in perpetual uncertainty and prevented them from gaining any decided advantage against the handful of the defenders of the city.

The ammunition was removed to the mission station on the river that it might be safe in case of an attack on the fortifications by artillery. Round the walls were three lines of land-torpedoes or percussion mines, which proved to be an effectual barrier, especially as these defences were supplemented by iron "crow's-feet,'' chevaux-dc-fri$c, broken glass, and those wire entanglements cf which we have already heard.

The Nile was rising, too, a very important event for the commander who had to trust chiefly to his armed boats for offensive operations against the enemy on the river banks and beyond them. It required almost sleepless vigilance to meet the difficulties that menaced him, but he was equal to the occasion.