rom the houses, whilst
our foe steadily and angrily pursued and closed in upon us, dislodging us
from our shelters and leaving few loop-holes for escape.

The carnage was awful; quarter was refused. It seemed as though our hope
was a forlorn one; the general and ruthless massacre ordered by the Great
White Queen had actually begun!

The loss of our barricade paralysed us. Yet we could hear the roar and
tumult, and seeing the reflection of fires in other parts of the city,
only hoped that our comrades there were holding their own valiantly as we
had struggled to do. Ever and anon loud explosions sounded above the
thunder of artillery, and it became apparent that the royal troops were
engaged in blowing up any defences they could not take by assault.

From where I had sought shelter behind a high wall with a lattice window
through which I continually discharged my rifle into the roadway, I saw
massacres within walls and without. The troops had poured down upon us in
absolutely overwhelming numbers, and no resistance by our weakened force
could now save us. One fact alone reassured me and gave me courage. In
the bright red glare shed by the flames from a burning building, among a
party who made a sally from the opposite house I caught a momentary
glance of the lithe, active figure of Omar, fighting desperately against
a body of the Naya's infantry and leading on his comrades with loud
shouts of encouragement.

"Do your duty, men!" he gasped. "Let not your enemies crush you!"

But the _melee_ was awful. Once again our partisans were driven back, and
the street was strewn with bodies in frightful array, left where they
fell, uncovered, unattended.

The thick black cloud of smoke which hung over the City in the Clouds and
on either side of it obscured the rising dawn and intensified the horrors
of the awful drama. Fires raged in every direction, making the air hot;
it was close through the smoke cloud above and the absence of wind,
foetid with the odour of human blood that lay in pools in every street
and splashed upon the houses. The sight was majestic, terrible,
never-to-be-forgotten; in the midst of it the terror and stupefaction
were almost beyond human endurance. On all sides were heard the roar of
flames, the breaking of timbers and the crashing in of roofs and walls.
Fire and sword reigned throughout the magnificent capital of Mo; its
people were being swept into eternity with a relentless brutality that
was abso