Gordon invited to the Soudan--The Mahdi--Chinese Gordon--His religious feeling--Not supported by England--Arabs attack--Blacks as cowards--Pashas shot--The _Abbas_ sent down with Stewart--Her fate--Relief coming--Provisions fail--A sick steamer--_Bordein_ sent down to Shendy--Alone on the house-top--Sir Charles Wilson and Beresford steam up--The rapids and sand-bank--“Do you see the flag?”--“Turn and fly”--Gordon’s fate 280-288 CHAPTER XXII KUMASSI (1900) The Governor’s visit--Pageant of Kings--Evil omens--The Fetish Grove--The fort--Loyal natives locked out--A fight--King Aguna’s triumph--Relief at last--Their perils--Saved by a dog--Second relief--Governor retires--Wait for Colonel Willcocks--The flag still flying--Lady Hodgson’s adventures 289-302 CHAPTER XXIII MAFEKING (1899-1900) Snyman begins to fire--A flag of trace--Midnight sortie--The dynamite trolley--Kaffirs careless--A cattle raid--Eloff nearly takes Mafeking--Is taken himself instead--The relief dribble in--At 2 a.m. come cannon with Mahon and Plumer 303-317 CHAPTER XXIV THE SIEGE OF KIMBERLEY (1899-1900) The diamond-mines--Cecil Rhodes comes in--Streets barricaded--Colonel Kekewich sends out the armoured train--Water got from the De Beers Company’s mines--A job lot of shells--De Beers can make shells too--Milner’s message--Beef or horse?--Long Cecil--Labram killed--Shelter down the mines--A capture of dainties--Major Rodger’s adventures--General French comes to the rescue--Outposts astonished to see Lancers and New Zealanders 318-325 CHAPTER XXV THE SIEGE OF LADYSMITH (1899-1900) Ladysmith--Humours of the shell--The _Lyre_ tries to be funny--Attack on Long Tom--A brave bugler--Practical jokes--The black postman--A big trek--Last shots--Some one comes--Saved at last 326-340 CHAPTER XXVI SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR (1904) Port Arthur--Its hotel life--Stoessel not popular--Fleet surprised--Shelled at twelve miles--Japanese pickets make a mistake--Wounded cannot be brought in--Polite even under the knife--The etiquette of the bath--The unknown death--Kondrachenko, the real hero--The white flag at last--Nogi the modest--“Banzai!”--Effect of good news on the wounded--The fleet sink with alacrity 341-352 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE SALLY FROM THE FORT AT KUMASSI (see p. 294) _Frontispiece_ THE LAST SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR BY FRANCE AND SPAIN _To face p._ 26 THE NIGHT ASSAULT OF CIUDAD RODRIGO " 56 THE ESCALADE OF THE CASTLE " 66 THE LAST OF AN ARMY " 96 GETTING RID OF HIS CAPTORS " 128