38 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

men at once rush down. The six hundred form square and fight,—it is true fighting this, but it is useless. One side of the square is burst in and that brave little band is massacred to a man. Sincat is captured. Five men and thirty women are spared—that is all, and when the news reaches Suakim there are streets filled with weeping women and—yes—weeping men.

Sincat fallen and Tokar surrounded, something must be done. In this dilemma the Khedive turned to Baker Pasha, now at the head of a creditable body of gendarmerie. This general managed to get together 3,000 troops of an utterly nondescript character, and with these attempted the relief of Tokar. His men were perfectly useless. In the first battle, about 10 miles from Trinkitat, they fell on their knees and begged for mercy from the rebels. It

was not a battle, said a correspondent, but a butchery.

Soon Graham is ordered to take 4,000 men and fight for Tokal1. He does

so, and the battles of El Teb, in which he was victorious, did a little to damp the ardor of the rebels.

It is necessary now to go back as little and speak of the causes which brought the great Gordon on thfe scene.

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