General Hicks left Rahad on the 26th of October, and arrived at Aluba on the 29th; here he received the Mahdi's letter summoning him to submit. Of course this was taken no notice of, and on the 3rd of November the army advanced towards Kashgeil, which is about twelve miles south of El Obeid. In the meantime the Mahdi had been collecting his followers, and doing all in his power to inspire them with wild fanaticism; anyone who saw the enormous hordes of savages which were brought together, must have trembled for the fate of Hicks. It was said that the Mahdi had been promised the assistance of 40,000 angels from paradise, and everyone quite believed in the truth of this assertion. Anyone beholding this immense multitude of fanatics of every race and age, even though he had formerly been a disbeliever in the Mahdi, must now have been convinced of his divinity. The uneducated masses of the Sudan are entirely governed by the influence of external appearances, they had never heard or seen anything of this description before; now heralds were going from end to end of the camp foretelling the death of everyone who refused to follow the Mahdi. On the 1st of November, Mohammed Ahmed quitted El Obeid, and everyone--man, woman, and child--followed him. Every house was evacuated, and woe to him who attempted to hide himself! Wad Gubara and his flag alone remained behind as garrison of El Obeid. The throng, noisy bustle and din of the camp suddenly gave way to almost absolute silence--the silence of the grave. The days which followed were for us a period of terrible anxiety. Although we felt almost certain that a terrible catastrophe was about to take place, yet we still had a slight hope that, with the help of European leaders, good rifles, and machine-guns, the result might be different. Abu Anga, who had separated from his Jehadieh (black troops) just the day before, now joined the powerful division of Abdel Halim, and on the 3rd of November the Mahdi's followers also joined this division, whilst the Mahdi himself, accompanied by his Khalifas, set out for Birket. It was on the 3rd of November that the action actually began, for, in accordance with the Mahdi's orders, his followers had gradually completely encircled the troops, who were now opposed by black soldiers with Remington rifles, Wad en Nejumi's Gellabas, and the flags of Abdel Halim, Sherif Mahmud, and many others. In the attack which occurred on this date, the Dervishes were forced back with the loss of Fauzi, one of the Mahdi's katibs, Elias Pasha's son, and the son of Hajji Khaled; but General Hicks's losses were considerably greater; he had also run short of water, and was doing his utmost to dig wells, though he did not know that within fifteen minutes' walk of him there was a large reservoir of rain-water. What days of terrible anxiety these must have been for the principal officers, and especially for General Hicks, on whom the entire responsibility rested!