With Kitchener in the Soudan : a story of Atbara and Omdurman

by G. A. Henty

  the construction of the zareba. Ten or twelve men were similarly fastened in a line with him. These had been detected in trying to sneak away. Gregory had not seen anything of the camp before, and as he was taken along he was astounded at the amount of work that had been done. Everywhere the ground was pitted with deep holes capable of sheltering from fifteen to twenty men. The hedge was a high one, and was formed for the most part of prickly bushes. The position was indeed a formidable one, manned as it was by nearly twenty thousand desperate fighters.

  At six o'clock the first gun was fired, and for an hour and a half the camp was swept with shell, shrapnel, and Maxim bullets. Most of the Baggara were lying in the pits. Many, however, walked about calmly, as if in contempt of the fire. More than half of the wretched men bound to the trees were killed. At last the fire of the guns slackened, and on the crest of the position, in a semicircle round the wood, a long line of steadily-marching men appeared. The assault was about to begin. The Dervishes sprang from their hiding-places and lined the trenches behind the zareba. The troops halted and waited. The Maxims moved in front of the British brigade, and then opened fire. A bugle sounded, and the whole line, black and white, advanced like a wall. When within three hundred yards the men knelt down and opened fire in volleys of sections. At the same instant the Dervishes, with difficulty restrained until now, opened fire in return.

  The Maxims and the storm of British bullets swept the wood, filling the air with a shower of falling leaves. Gregory murmured a prayer, shut his eyes, and awaited death. Suddenly he felt his ropes slacken and fall from him, and a voice" said, "Drop on your face, master!" Almost mechanically he obeyed, too astonished even to think what was happening; then a body fell across him. "Lie still and don't move, master; they must think you are dead."

  "Is it you, Zaki ?" Gregory said, scarcely able, even now, to believe that it was his faithful follower.

  " It is I, master. I have been in the camp three days, and have never had a chance of getting near you before."

  "Brave fellow! good friend!" Gregory said, and then was silent.

  Speech was almost inaudible amid the roar of battle. The pipes of the Camerons could, however, be heard above the din. The men advanced steadily in line, maintaining their excellent volley-firing. The three other regiments, in close order, followed, bearing away farther to the right so as to be able to open fire and advance. On that side the black regiments were advancing no less steadily, and the half-brigade of Egyptians were as eager as any. Steadily and well under control all pushed forward at a run, firing occasionally, but thirsting to get hand to hand with those who had desolated their land, destroyed their villages, and slain their friends.

  The British were suffering, but the blacks suffered more, for the volleys of the Camerons kept down the fire of those opposed to them better than the irregular fire of the Soudanese. The latter, however, first reached the zareba, and, regardless of thorns or of fire, dashed through it with triumphant shouts and fell upon the defender's. It was but a minute or two later that the Camerons reached the hedge. Formidable as it looked, it took them but a short time to tear down gaps, through which they rushed, while close behind them the Seaforths, the Lincolns, and the Warwicks were all in, bursting through the low stockade and trenches behind it, and cheering madly. Now from their holes and shelters the Dervishes started up. Brave though they were, the storm that had burst upon them with such suddenness scared them, and none attempted to arrest the course of the Highlanders and red coats. Firing as they ran, the Dervishes made for the river. Many remained in their pits till the last, firing at the soldiers as they rushed past, and meeting their death at the point of the bayonet.

  Hotly the troops pursued, often falling into the pits, which were half hidden by thorns and long grass. There was no attempt at regularity in these holes—nothing to show where they were. It was a wild and confused combat. The officers kept their men as well together as it was possible on such ground, but it was sharp work, for from flank and rear, as well as in front, the shots rang out from their hidden foes, and these had to be dispatched as they pushed forward. As the troops burst through, Gregory sprang to his feet, seized a rifle that had dropped from the hands of a Dervish who had fallen close by, and shouting to Zaki "Lie still as if dead!" joined the first line of troops. No questions were asked. Every man's attention was fixed on the work before him, and no thought was given to this white officer, who sprang from they knew not where. He had no cartridges, and the Dervishes did not carry bayonets, but, holding the rifle club-wise, he kept in the front line, falling into pits and climbing out again, engaged more than once with desperate foemen.

  Striking and shouting he fought on until the troops reached the river bank, and having cleared all before them, poured volleys into the mass of fugitives crossing its dry bed. Other hordes were seen away to the left, similarly driven out by Lewis's Egyptians, by whom a terrible fire was kept up until the last of the fugitives disappeared in the scrub on the opposite bank, leaving the river bed thickly dotted with dead bodies; while on the right Macdonald's and Maxwell's blacks similarly cleared the wood. Then the Soudanese and whites alike burst into cheers; men shook each other by the hand, while they waved their helmets over their heads. The Soudanese leapt and danced like delighted children. Presently an officer left a group of others who had been congratulating each other on their glorious victory and came up to Gregory.

  "May I ask who you are, sir?" he said courteously but coldly.

  "Certainly, sir; my name is Hilliard. I have been a captive in the hands of the Dervishes, who, when you attacked, tied me to the stump of a tree as a target for your bullets; and I should certainly have been killed had not a faithful servant of mine, a black, taken the opportunity, when the Dervishes rushed into the trenches and opened fire upon you, to cut my ropes. I have no doubt, sir," he went on, as he saw the officer look somewhat doubtful, "that General Hunter is here. I am known personally to him, and served for a time on his staff."

  " That is quite sufficient," the officer said more cordially. " I congratulate you on your escape. I confess it astonished us all when a strange white officer whom none of us knew suddenly joined us. You will find General Hunter somewhere over on the left; he is certain to have led the charge of the Soudanese."

  " Thank you! I will go and find him; but first, I must return to where I left my man. He had, of course, the Mahdist's patch on his clothes, and I told him to lie still as if dead till I came for him, as in the melee it would have been impossible for me to have protected him."

  Gregory found Zaki still lying where he left him, head downward and arms thrown forward, in so good an imitation of death that he feared for a moment the lad had been shot after he left him. At the sound of his master's voice, however, the native sprang to his feet.

  "You have saved my life, Zaki," Gregory said, taking his hand. "I must have fallen—every man tied to a tree is, as you see, dead; but before we say anything else cut that patch off your clothes or you might be shot as a Dervish by the first man you come across. Keep close to me; I am going to General Hunter. At present I know none of the officers of the white regiments; when I get among the Soudanese I shall be more at home."

  In ten minutes he came to where General Hunter was speaking to the Sirdar. Gregory stopped at a short distance before the general's eyes fell upon him, and he gave an exclamation of pleasure.

  "That is Hilliard, General, the young fellow who jumped from one of the gun-boats off Metemmeh to rescue the woman.

  The act was unnoticed at the time, but a black he had with him was released and brought word that his master was a prisoner in their camp."

  "I heard of it at the time," the Sirdar said, and motioned to Gregory to come up. "I am glad to find that you have escaped the fate we feared had befallen you, but your action was altogether wrong. An officer's life is no longer his own, but belongs to the country he serves, and you had no right whatever to risk it when on duty, even in an action which at any other time would do y
ou great credit."

  He spoke sharply and sternly; Gregory again saluted.

  " I knew afterwards that I had done wrong, sir, but I did not stop to think, and acted on the impulse of the moment."

  "That may be," the Sirdar said; "but officers should think, and not act on the impulse of the moment." Gregory again saluted and fell back. Three or four minutes later the two generals separated. General Hunter came up to him and shook him warmly by the hand.

  "You must not mind what the Sirdar said, Hilliard. It was a very noble action and did you credit, and I can assure you that that was the opinion of all who knew you; but to the Sirdar, you know, duty is everything, and I think you are lucky in not being sent down at once to the base. However, he said to me, after you had left him, 'I shall be too busy this evening, but bring the young fellow with you tomorrow evening, I must hear how it was that Mahmud spared him.' I told him that I understood from your black that the woman was Mahmud's favourite wife, and that she took you under her care.

  "By the way, have you heard that Mahmud is captured? Yes, he is caught, which is a great satisfaction to us, for his being sent down a prisoner will convince the tribesmen that we have gained a victory, as to which they would otherwise be incredulous. I hear that the Egyptian brigade, which was to the extreme left, has captured Mahmud's wife and a great number of women,"

  ''With your permission, sir, I will go over there at once and ask Colonel Lewis that she may receive specially good treatment. She has been extremely kind to me, and it is to her influence over Mahmud that I owe my life. Up to this morning Mahmud would have spared me, but Osman Digna insisted that I should be killed, and he was obliged to give way. They fastened me to a tree behind the trench just inside the zareba, and I should certainly have been killed by our own musketry fire, had not my boy, who had come into the camp in disguise, cut my cords. I fell as if shot, and he threw himself down on me until the Camerons burst in, when I at once joined them and did what little I could in the fight."

  "I will give you a line to Colonel Lewis, to tell him that Mahmud's wife, whom you will point out, is to be treated with respect, and that her people may be allowed to make her an arbour of some sort until the Sirdar decides what is to be done with her. Probably she will be sent down to Berber. No doubt we shall all fall back."

  "Then you will not pursue, sir?"

  " No. The cavalry have already gone off in pursuit of their horsemen, but they are not likely to catch them, for we hear that Osman Digna is with them, and he seems to enjoy a special immunity from capture. As for the other poor beggars, we could not do it if we wanted to. I expect the campaign is over for the present; certainly nothing can be done till the railway is completed, then the gun-boats can tow the native craft abreast of us as we march along the river bank. Shendy has been captured, and we found twelve thousand Jaalin prisoners there, women and children, and a large quantity of stores. That is what makes the position of the Dervish fugitives so hopeless. There is nothing before them but to find their way across the desert to Omdurman, and I fancy that few of them will get there alive.

  " No doubt some will keep along by the Atbara, and others by the Nile. The latter will have the best chance, for the friendlies at Kassala will be on the look-o^t for fugitives. I am sorry for the poor wretches, though they richly deserve the worst that can befall them. They have never shown mercy. For twenty years they have murdered, plundered, and desolated the whole land, and have shown themselves more ferocious and merciless than wild beasts."

  He took out his pocket-book, wrote the order to Colonel Lewis, and then, tearing the leaf out, handed it to Gregory, who at once made his way, followed closely by Zaki, to the spot where two Egyptian battalions had halted. They had no difficulty in finding Colonel Lewis, who was receiving a report from the officers of the two battalions of the casualties they had sustained. Gregory had met the Colonel several times at Berber, and the latter recognized him at once.

  "Ah! Major Hilliard," that officer said as he came up, "I am glad to see you. I heard that you had been captured by the Dervishes and killed, but I suppose, as I see you here, that it was only the usual canard."

  " No, sir. I was captured, but, as you see, not killed, though it has been a pretty close thing. This is a note, sir, that General Hunter requested me to give you."

  Colonel Lewis read the order. " The women are down over there, a couple of hundred yards away,." he said. " I will send a sergeant and four men with you. If you will point out Mahmud's wife, I will see that she is made as comfortable as possible."

  " Thank you, sir! It is to her I owe my life, and I am most anxious to do all I can to repay the debt."

  " You came along through the other brigades; do you know what their losses have been 1"

  "The British losses are not heavy, sir, considering the fire they have been exposed to. Macdonald's brigade suffered most, I believe."

  "Yes; I saw one of the officers just now. It seems they came down upon Mahmud's picked body-guard, and these fought desperately. They found Mahmud in the usual attitude in which the Dervish emirs await death when they are conquered. He was sitting quietly on his mat, with his arms laid down beside him, and was, I should imagine, somewhat surprised at finding that he was not cut to pieces at once."

  " I am glad he was not, sir, for he certainly behaved well to me. It was through the influence of his wife, I admit, but in sparing me he really risked serious disaffection among his followers, and at last gave way only to coercion."

  The sergeant and men had now come up, and Gregory went off with them. Three or four hundred women were seated on the ground together, with half a dozen Egyptian soldiers standing as sentry over them. More or less closely veiled as they were, Gregory could not distinguish Fatma among them; and indeed, except when he first reached her in the water, he had not got a glimpse of her features. The question, however, was speedily settled when a woman rose in the middle of the group with a cry of gladness. "So you are saved!" she exclaimed. " I have feared so that you were killed. Have you news of Mahmud?"

  " Yes, lady. He is a prisoner, but well and unharmed. I have obtained an order from the General that you are to be treated with honours as his wife. We cannot do much for you at present, but all that is possible will be done. I have represented your kindness to me, and these soldiers will at once erect an arbour for you, and food will be brought for you all as soon as matters have settled down a little."

  The Egyptian soldiers had already begun to cut down saplings. Accustomed as they were to the work, in half an hour they had erected an arbour. Fatma was then assisted into it with the other women of the harem. The sergeant gave orders to the sentries that no one was to be allowed to interfere in any way with them, and then Gregory took his leave, saying that he would return later on. He again joined General Hunter, who seemed to be his natural chief now that his service in the gun-boat was over.

  The list of casualties was now being brought in. The Uamerons, who had led the attack in line, had lost most heavily; they had fifteen killed and forty-six wounded, among them being two officers killed and one mortally wounded. The Sea-forths had one officer killed and one mortally wounded, and four others less severely; in all, six killed and twenty-seven wounded. The Lincolns had one killed and eighteen wounded; the Warwicks two killed and eighteen wounded. Many of the wounded afterwards died. The Egyptians had lost more heavily. The casualties among them were: fifty-seven killed, and four British and sixteen native officers and three hundred and sixty-seven non-commissioned officers and men wounded. The Dervish loss was terrible. Three thousand men were killed, among whom were nearly all the emirs, and two thousand were taken prisoners. The rest were hopeless fugitives, and a vast number of these must have been wounded.

  There was but a short rest for the troops. When the wounded had been collected and carried to a neighbouring palm grove, where the surgeons did all that could then be done for them; and the trophies of the fight—banners and spears, guns of all sorts, swords and knives—had been gathe
red, principally by the exultant Soudanese and Egyptians, the force prepared for a start.

  " May I ask, General, what is to be done with the women?" Gregory said.

  " I have been speaking to the Sirdar about them, and I was just going to ask you to go with me to them. They are, of course, not to be considered as prisoners. They cannot stay here, or they would die of hunger; therefore they had best follow the troops, at any rate as far as the Atbara camp. They will have food given them, and must then decide for themselves what they are to do. It is a difficult question altogether. The only thing that can at present be settled is that they mustn't be allowed to die of hunger, and they must be protected against molestation. The troops will march at four o'clock. The Egyptian brigade have volunteered to carry the wounded; they will start later. The women had better follow them.

  No doubt some of them will find their husbands among the prisoners, so that there will be no trouble about them."

  "What will be done with the men, sir?"

  The General smiled. "To-morrow they will probably enlist in our service to a man, and will fight just as sturdily as the other Soudanese battalions against their brethren in Khartoum. All the prisoners we have hitherto taken who are fit for the work have done so, and, as has been shown to-day, are just as ready to fight on our side as they were against us. They are a fighting people, and it is curious how they become attached to their white officers, whom formerly they hated as infidels."

  When the matter was explained to them, the women accepted the situation with the resignation that is natural to the Mahomedan woman. Gregory was able to assure Fatma that in a short time she would undoubtedly be allowed to join Mahmud, and accompany him wherever he was sent.

  " But will they not kill him?" she said.