Their valour was soon to be tested for scarcely had they committed themselves, when the Russians withdrew again northward and left them to fight it out alone. A formidable accumulation of enemies was promptly mustered against them, and within five weeks of their decision the Assyrians were battling for their lives. Mira Reshid[156] the tyrant of Berwar, led the confederated Kurds from the westward against Lizan and Lower Tyari and with him marched a strong contingent of regular troops from Mosul with batteries of mountain guns. Chumba and Upper Tyari were attacked by the Artosh Kurds and the regular troops from Julamerk. The Agha of Chal[157] brought his forces against Salabekan and Tkhuma; and Sutu Agha of Oramar assailed Jilu and Baz. The Christians were outnumbered on all sides and were much worse equipped than their enemies; for except for a small supply of rifles and ammunition which they had obtained from the Russians their arms were all sadly obsolete. And yet the general result of this great combined attack was failure. Qudshanis was pillaged and burned and the Valley of Lizan was occupied. So also were the villages in the Sapna and Berwar valleys; but these were all open and isolated, and had never been regarded as tenable. The attacks on Jilu, Chumba and Salabekan were all three heavily repulsed. Thus, after a week's hard fighting the Assyrians had lost only the outskirts of their territory on the right (or western) bank of the Zab, and had kept all their key fastnesses (on the eastern side of it) intact. It was only the first round certainly, but the Turks had been foiled for a season; and it was hoped that the Russian operations in Armenia might eventually bring them relief. [Illustration: THE MOUNTAINS OF DIZ AND TAL, FROM THE PASS ABOVE QUDSHANIS Looking across the Zab Gorge, which at this point is about 3,000 feet deep] Then followed a deed as brutal and dastardly as it was characteristically Turkish. Hormizd, Mar Shimun's eldest brother, a young man of three-and-twenty, had been at Constantinople for his education--at the Turkish Government's own invitation--for a period of over two years. As soon as Turkey entered the war, he had been arrested and placed in confinement, and obviously could have had no personal responsibility for any of the events that had occurred subsequently. He was now sent under guard to Mosul to be used for the foulest of blackmail. The Vali of that city was no longer worthy old Tahir.[158] With the good luck that had generally attended him, and which he had generally merited, he had been gathered to his fathers little more than a twelve-month before. His successor, Haidar Beg, was a ruffian--a fit tool for higher placed ruffians--and this man now sent Mar Shimun the message: "Your brother is in my hands, and unless you surrender he dies."