FIGHTING AGAINST TIME. BERBER. 1 49 The barge with the Krupp gun was taken up the Blue Nile by a steamer within a week of the defection of the treacherous pashas, and the rebels on the bank awoke to the fact that they were being shelled beyond endurance, forty of them being killed. Next day there was a mutiny among the rascally Bashi-Bazouks in Khartum, and 250 of them had to be disarmed; but the assaults on the enemy outside went on : sorties were made by which they were driven back with great loss, and their horses were captured. As the Nile rose the naval attacks became more frequent and more rapid. The steamers were armoured with bullet-proof plates made of soft wood and iron. The barges were cased in the same way. and were converted into monitors by the construction on each of a castle twenty feet high, from which a double line of fire commanded the Nile banks. At night, however, the rebels swarmed back, and mostly kept up a constant fire against the palace till daylight warned them to retreat from the dreaded steamers. The palace walls were all dinted and pitted with balls and bullets; and more than once the enemy attempted an assault, only to be met by torpedoes, which scared them back from the city walls with considerable loss. So passed the months of March and April, during which time, telegrams reached the government, and Sir E. Baring was able to report on the state of affairs; but then came news of the fall of Berber. Hussein Khalifa had bravely and loyally held his own as long as possible. He and the merchants and principal people of the town had repeatedly sent to Cairo imploring aid, and saying that the enemy was closing round Berber and Shendy in numbers too great to be much longer repulsed; but no aid was forthcoming, and at length Hussein, having received an intimation that he must do the best for his own safety, retreated north, and Khartum from that time was for a period completely isolui Messages could not be certain of reaching the beleaguered city, nor could any definite intelligence be regularly transmitted. The messengers could not enter Khartum: and now that Berber :uu\ the telegraphic station were in the hands of the rebels there were no means of certain communication, even though large sums oi money were offered to messengers, who, in disguise, attempted to