But the intervening space had been carefully cleared of cover, and was swept by the musketry of the defenders.  All attempts to cross this ground—­even the most determined rushes—­ proved vain.  While some made hopeless charges towards the walls, others crowded into a few straw shelters and mud huts which the troops had not found opportunity to remove, and thence maintained a ragged fire.  After an hour’s heavy fusillade the attack weakened, and presently ceased altogether.  At ten o’clock, however, strong reinforcements having come up, the Dervishes made a second attempt.  They were again repulsed, and at a quarter to eleven, after losing more than 500 men in killed and wounded, Ahmed Fedil admitted his defeat and retired to a clump of palm-trees two miles to the west of the town.  The casualties among the defenders were five men killed, one British officer (Captain Dwyer) and thirteen men wounded.

The Dervishes remained for two days in the palm grove, and their leader repeatedly endeavoured to induce them to renew the attack.  But although they closely surrounded the enclosures, and maintained a dropping fire, they refused to knock their heads against brick walls a third time; and on the 1st of October Ahmed Fedil was forced to retire to a more convenient camp eight miles to the southward.  Here for the next three weeks he remained, savage and sulky; and the Kassala column were content to keep to their defences.  A few convoys from Mugatta made their way into the forts under the cover of darkness, but for all practical purposes the blockade of the garrison was complete.  Their losses in action had reduced their strength.  They were not abundantly supplied with ammunition.  The smell of the putrefying corpses which lay around the walls and in the doura crop, together with the unhealthy climate and the filth of the town, was a fertile source of disease.  A painful and racking fever afflicted all ranks, and at one time as many as 270 of the 400 regular soldiers were prostrated.  The recurring night alarms added to the fatigues of the troops and the anxieties of the seven officers.  The situation was indeed so unsatisfactory that Colonel Parsons was compelled to ask for assistance.

Major-General Rundle, who in the Sirdar’s absence held the chief command, immediately organised a relief expedition.  The IXth, XIIth, and half of the XIIIth Soudanese, with three companies of the Camel Corps, under Colonel Collinson, were at once sent from Omdurman to the mouth of the Rahad river.  The infantry were conveyed in steamers; the Camel Corps marched along the bank, completing the whole distance of 130 miles in fifty-six hours.  The Blue Nile garrisons, with the exception of the post at Rosaires, were also concentrated.  By the 8th of October the whole force was collected at Abu Haraz.  Five hundred camels, which had marched from Omdurman, and every available local beast of burden joined the transport of the column.  On the 9th the XIIth Soudanese