by G. A. Henty
Chapter 13: The Final Advance.
A few days after the return of headquarters to Berber, Mahmud was sentdown country, and Fatma was permitted to accompany him. She expressedto Gregory, in touching terms, her gratitude for what he had done forher.
"We have been of mutual assistance," said Gregory. "I have the samereason to be grateful to you, as you have to thank me. I saved yourlife, and you saved mine. You were very kind to me, when I was acaptive--I have done as much as I could for you, since you have beenwith us. So we are quits. I hope you will be happy with Mahmud. We donot treat our prisoners badly, and except that he will be away from theSoudan, he will probably be more comfortable than he has ever been inhis life."
Gregory was now employed in the transport department, and journeyedbackwards and forwards, with large convoys of camels, to the head ofthe railway. The line was completed to Berber, but the officers chargedwith its construction were indefatigable; and, as fast as the materialscame up, it was pushed on towards the Atbara. Complete as had been thevictory on that river, the Sirdar saw that the force which had beensufficient to defeat the twenty thousand men, under Mahmud, was notsufficiently strong for the more onerous task of coping with threetimes that number, fighting under the eye of the Khalifa, and certainto consist of his best and bravest troops. He therefore telegraphedhome for another British brigade, and additional artillery, with atleast one regiment of cavalry--an arm in which the Egyptian Army wasweak.
Preparations were at once made for complying with the request. The 21stLancers, 1st battalion of Grenadier Guards, 2nd battalion of the RifleBrigade, 2nd battalion of the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers, a fieldbattery, a howitzer battery, and two forty-pounders, to batter thedefences of Omdurman, should the Khalifa take his stand, were sent. Astrong detachment of the Army Service Corps and the Royal Army MedicalCorps was to accompany them, but they had yet some months to wait, forthe advance would not be made until the Nile was full, and the gunboatscould ascend the cataract.
However, there was much to be done, and the troops did not pass thetime in idleness. Atbara Fort was to be the base, and here the Egyptianbattalions built huts and storehouses. The Soudanese brigades returnedto Berber, and the transport of provisions and stores for them was thussaved. The British at Darmali were made as comfortable as possible, andno effort was spared to keep them in good health, during the ensuinghot weather. A small theatre was constructed, and here smoking concertswere held. There was also a race meeting, and one of the steamers tookparties, of the men who were most affected by the heat, for a trip downthe Nile. They were practised in long marches early in the morning, andalthough, of course, there was some illness, the troops on the wholebore the heat well.
Had there been a prospect of an indefinitely long stay, the resultmight have been otherwise; but they knew that, in a few months, theywould be engaged in even sterner work than the last battle, thatKhartoum was their goal, and with its capture the power of the Khalifawould be broken for ever, and Gordon avenged.
Early in April the railway reached Abadia, a few miles from Berber, andin a short time a wonderful transformation took place here. From asandy desert, with scarce a human being in sight, it became the sceneof a busy industry. Stores were sorted and piled as they came up byrail.
Three gunboats arrived in sections, and these were put together. Theywere stronger, and much better defended by steel plates than the firstgunboats; and each of them carried two six-pounder quick-firing guns, asmall howitzer, four Maxims, and a searchlight. They were, however,much slower than the old boats, and could do very little in the way oftowing.
Besides these, eight steel double-deck troop barges were brought up, insections, and put together. Three Egyptian battalions came up fromMerawi to aid in the work, which not only included building thegunboats and barges, but executing the repairs to all the native craft,and putting them in a thoroughly serviceable state.
In June the railway reached the Atbara, and for the first time for twoyears and a half, the officers who had superintended its constructionhad a temporary rest. The stores were now transferred from Abadia tothe Atbara, and two trains ran every day, each bringing up somethinglike two hundred tons of stores.
In the middle of July two Egyptian battalions left Atbara and proceededup the Nile, one on each bank, cutting down trees and piling them forfuel for the steamers. As the river rose, four steamers came up fromDongola, together with a number of sailing boats; and in the beginningof August the whole flotilla, consisting of ten gunboats, five unarmedsteamers, eight troop barges, and three or four hundred sailing boats,were all assembled.
By this time the reinforcements from home were all at Cairo, and theirstores had already been sent up. It was arranged that they were to comeby half battalions, by squadrons, and by batteries, each one day behindthe other. To make room for them, two Egyptian battalions were sent upto the foot of the Shabluka cataract.
The six black battalions left Berber on July 30th, and arrived atAtbara the next day. There were now four brigades in the infantrydivisions instead of three, two battalions having been raised from theDervishes taken at the battle of Atbara. These were as eager as any tojoin in the fight against their late comrades.
This was scarcely surprising. The Baggara, the tyrants of the desert,are horsemen. The infantry were, for the most part, drawn from theconquered tribes. They had enlisted in the Khalifa's force partlybecause they had no other means of subsistence, partly from theirinnate love of fighting. They had, in fact, been little better thanslaves; and their condition, as soldiers in the Egyptian Army, wasimmeasurably superior to that which they had before occupied.
Broadwood, with nine squadrons of Egyptian cavalry, was already on thewestern bank of the river opposite Atbara; and was to be joined atMetemmeh by the camel corps, and another squadron of horse from Merawi.
On the 3rd of August the six Soudanese battalions left Fort Atbara forthe point of concentration, a few miles below the cataract. To thesides of each gunboat were attached two of the steel barges; behindeach were two native craft. All were filled as tightly as they could becrammed with troops. They were packed as in slavers, squatting by theside of each other as closely as sardines in a box. The seven steamersand the craft they took with them contained six thousand men, socrowded that a spectator remarked that planks might have been laid ontheir heads, and that you could have walked about on them; whileanother testified that he could not have shoved a walking stick betweenthem anywhere. White men could not have supported it for an hour, butthese blacks and Egyptians had a hundred miles to go, and the steamerscould not make more than a knot an hour against the rapid stream, nowswollen to its fullest.
While they were leaving, the first four companies of the Rifle Brigadearrived. Every day boats laden with stores went forward, every daywhite troops came up. Vast as was the quantity of stores sent off, thepiles at Atbara did not seem to diminish. Ninety days' provisions,forage, and necessaries for the whole force had been accumulated there,and as fast as these were taken away they were replaced by others fromBerber.
Like everyone connected with the transport or store department, Gregoryhad to work from daybreak till dark. Accustomed to a warm climate,light in figure, without an ounce of spare flesh, he was able tosupport the heat, dust, and fatigue better than most; and, as hehimself said, it was less trying to be at work, even in the blazingsun, than to lie listless and sweating under the shade of a blanket.There was no necessity, now, to go down the line to make enquiries asto the progress of the stores, or of the laden craft on their way up.the telegraph was established, and the Sirdar, at Atbara, knew theexact position of every one of the units between Cairo and himself; andfrom every station he received messages constantly, and despatched hisorders as frequently.
There was no hitch, whatever. The arrangements were all so perfect thatthe vast machine, with its numerous parts, moved with the precision ofclockwork. Everything was up to time. For a train or steamer, or even anative boat, to arrive half an hour after the time calculated fo
r it,was almost unheard of.
The Sirdar's force of will seemed to communicate itself to everyofficer under him, and it is safe to say that never before was anexpedition so perfectly organized, and so marvellously carried out. AtAtbara the Sirdar saw to everything himself. A brief word ofcommendation, to those working under him, cheered them through longdays of toil--an equally curt reproof depressed them to the depths.
Twice, when Gregory was directing some of the blacks piling largecases, as they were emptied from the train; anathematizing the stupid,urging on the willing, and himself occasionally lending a hand in orderto show how it should be done; the Sirdar, who, unknown to him, hadbeen looking on, rode up and said shortly, "You are doing well, Mr.Hilliard!"--and he felt that his offence of jumping overboard had beencondoned.
General Hunter, himself indefatigable, had more occasion to noticeGregory's work; and his commendations were frequent, and warm.
The lad had not forgotten the object with which he had come to thefront. After Atbara, he had questioned many of the prisoners who, fromtheir age, might have fought at El Obeid; but none of these had doneso. The forces of the Khalifa came and went, as there was occasion forthem. The Baggara were always under arms, but only when dangerthreatened were the great levies of foot assembled; for it would havebeen impossible, in the now desolate state of the Soudan, to find foodfor an army of a hundred thousand men.
All agreed, however, that, with the exception of the Egyptianartillerymen, they heard that no single white man had escaped. Numbersof the black soldiers had been made slaves. The whites hadperished--all save one had fallen on the field. That one hadaccompanied a black battalion, who had held together and, repulsing allattacks, had marched away. They had been followed, however, and afterrepeated attacks had dwindled away, until they had finally been brokenand massacred.
With the Khalifa's army were several emirs who had fought at El Obeid;and these would, no doubt, be able to tell him more; but none of thosewho were taken prisoners, at the Atbara, had heard of any white manhaving escaped the slaughter of Hicks's army.
Just as the general movement began, the force was joined by threecompanies of Soudanese. These had marched from Suakim to Berber, twohundred and eighty-eight miles, in fifteen days, an average of nineteenmiles a day--a record for such a march, and one that no European forcecould have performed. One day, after marching thirty miles, they cameto a well and found it dry, and had to march thirty miles farther toanother water hole, a feat probably altogether without precedent.
"You had better fall back upon your old work, Hilliard," the Generalsaid, the day before they started. "As my aide I shall find plenty foryou to do, now that I command the whole division."
"Thank you very much, sir! I don't think that I shall find any workhard, after what I have been doing for the past four months."
"You have got your horse?"
"Yes; he is in good condition, for I have had no riding to do, for sometime."
"Well, you had better get him on board one of the gyasses we shall towup, tomorrow. All our horses will embark this evening. We shall be onboard at daybreak. Our private camels are going with the marchingcolumn; you had better put yours with them. No doubt they will join ussomewhere. Of course, your kit will be carried with us."
It was a delight to Gregory to be on the water again. There wasgenerally a cool breeze on the river, and always an absence of dust. Hewas now halfway between seventeen and eighteen, but the sun had tannedhim to a deep brown, and had parched his face; thus adding some yearsto his appearance, so that the subalterns of the newly-arrivedregiments looked boyish beside him. The responsibilities of his workhad steadied him, and though he retained his good spirits, his laughhad lost the old boyish ring. The title of Bimbashi, which had seemedabsurd to him seven months before, was now nothing out of the way, forhe looked as old as many of the British subalterns serving with thatrank in the Egyptian army.
Returning to the little hut that Zaki, with the aid of some of theblacks, had built for him; he gave his orders, and in a short time thecamel--a very good one, which he had obtained in exchange for thatwhich he had handed over to the transport--started, with its driver, tojoin those that were to carry up the baggage and stores of GeneralHunter, and his staff. These were in charge of a sergeant and threeprivates, of one of the Soudanese battalions. Gregory had got up a caseof whisky, one of bottled fruit, and a stock of tea and sugar fromBerber. No tents could be carried, and he left his tente d'abri at thestores with his canteen; taking on board, in his own luggage, a plate,knife, fork, and spoon, and a couple of tumblers. When the camels hadstarted, he saw his horse put on board, and then took a final strollround the encampment.
The change that had occurred there, during the past fortnight, wasstriking. Then none but black faces could be seen. Now it was theencampment of a British force, with its white tents and all theirbelongings.
The contrast between the newly-arrived brigade, and the hardy veteranswho had fought at the Atbara, was striking. Bronzed and hearty, inuredto heat and fatigue, the latter looked fit to go anywhere and doanything, and there was hardly a sick man in the four regiments. On theother hand, the newcomers looked white and exhausted with the heat.Numbers had already broken down, and the doctors at the hospital hadtheir hands full of fever patients. They had scarcely marched a milesince they landed in Egypt, and were so palpably unfit for hard workthat they were, if possible, to proceed the whole way in boats, inorder to be in fighting condition when the hour of battle arrived.
The voyage up the river was an uneventful one. It seemed all too shortto Gregory, who enjoyed immensely the rest, quiet, and comparativecoolness. The Sirdar had gone up a week before they landed at WadyHamed. Here the whole Egyptian portion of the army, with the exceptionof the brigade that was to arrive the next day, was assembled. Theblacks had constructed straw huts; the Egyptians erected shelters,extemporized from their blankets; while the British were to beinstalled in tents, which had been brought up in sailing boats. Thecamp was two miles in length and half a mile wide, surrounded by astrong zareba.
The Egyptian cavalry and the camel corps had arrived. On the oppositeside of the river was a strong body of friendly Arabs, nominally underthe Abadar sheik, but in reality commanded by Major MontagueStuart-Wortley. By the 23rd of August the whole force had arrived; andthe Sirdar reviewed them, drawn up in battle array, and put themthrough a few manoeuvres, as if in action. General Gatacre commandedthe British division--Colonel Wauchope the first brigade, and Lyttletonthe second. As before, Macdonald, Maxwell, and Lewis commanded thefirst three Egyptian brigades, and Collinson that newly raised, GeneralHunter being in command of the division.
The force numbered, in all, about twenty thousand; and althoughdestitute of the glitter and colour of a British army, under ordinarycircumstances, were as fine a body of men as a British general couldwish to command; and all, alike, eager to meet the foe. The Britishdivision had with them two batteries and ten Maxims, and the Egyptiandivision five batteries and ten Maxims.
As Gregory was strolling through the camp, he passed where the officersof one of the British regiments were seated on boxes, round a roughtable, over which a sort of awning had been erected.
"Come and join us, Hilliard. We are having our last feast on our laststores, which we got smuggled up in one of the gunboats," the Majorcalled out.
"With pleasure, sir."
The officer who was sitting at the head of the table made room besidehim.
"You men of the Egyptian Army fare a good deal better than we do, Ithink," the Major went on. "That institution of private camels is anexcellent one. We did not know that they would be allowed. But, afterall, it is not a bad thing that we did not have them, for there is nodoubt it is as well that the soldiers should not see us faring betterthan they. There is bother enough with the baggage, as it is. Ofcourse, it is different in your case. There are only two or three whiteofficers with each battalion, and it would not strike your black troopsas a hardship that you should have different
food from themselves. Theyare living as well as, or better than, they ever did in their lives.Three camels make no material addition to your baggage train, while, asthere are thirty or forty of us, it would make a serious item in ours,and the General's keen eyes would spot them at once."
"Our camels are no burden to the army," Gregory said. "They only have afew pounds of grain a day, and get their living principally on whatthey can pick up. When they go on now, they will each carry fiftypounds of private grain. They get five pounds when there are no bushesor grass, so that the grain will last them for a fortnight."
"I suppose you think that the Dervishes mean fighting?"
"I think there is no doubt about it. All the fugitives that come in saythat the Khalifa will fight, but whether it will be in the defence ofOmdurman, or whether he will come out and attack us at Kerreri, nonecan say. The Khalifa keeps his intentions to himself."
"By the bye, Hilliard, I don't think you know my right-hand neighbour;he only joined us an hour before we started, having been left behind atCairo, sick.
"Mr. Hartley, let me introduce you to Mr. Hilliard--I should sayBimbashi Hilliard. He is on General Hunter's staff."
The young lieutenant placed an eyeglass in his eye, and bowed toGregory.
"Have you been in this beastly country long?" he asked.
"If you include Lower Egypt, I have been here eighteen years."
"Dear me!" the other drawled; "the climate seems to have agreed withyou."
"Fairly well," Gregory replied. "I don't mind the heat much, and onedoesn't feel it, while one is at work."
"Hartley has not tried that, yet," one of the others laughed. "Work isnot in his line. This most unfortunate illness of his kept him back atCairo, and he brought such a supply of ice with him, when he came up,that he was able to hand over a hundredweight of it to us when hearrived. I don't think, Major, that in introducing him you should haveomitted to mention that, but for a temporary misfortune, he would bethe Marquis of Langdale; but in another two years he will blossom outinto his full title, and then I suppose we shall lose him."
Gregory, whose knowledge of the English peerage was extremely limited,looked puzzled.
"May I ask how that is?" he said. "I always thought that the next heirto a title succeeded to it, as soon as his father died."
"As a rule that is the case," the Major said, "but the present is anexceptional one. At the death of the late marquis, the heir to thetitle was missing. I may say that the late marquis only enjoyed thetitle for two years. The next of kin, a brother of his, haddisappeared, and up to the present no news has been obtained of him. Ofcourse he has been advertised for, and so on, but without success. Itis known that he married, but as he did so against the wish of hisfather, he broke off all communication with his family; and it isgenerally supposed that he emigrated. Pending any news of him, thetitle is held in abeyance.
"He may have died. It is probable that he has done so, for he couldhardly have escaped seeing the advertisements that were inserted inevery paper. Of course, if he has left children, they inherit thetitle.
"After a lapse of five years Mr. Hartley's father, who was the nextheir, and who died five years ago, applied to be declared the inheritorof the title; but the peers, or judges, or someone decided thattwenty-one years must elapse before such an application could be evenconsidered. The income has been accumulating ever since, so that at theend of that time, it is probable that Mr. Hartley will be allowed toassume the title.
"Will the estates go with the title, Hartley?"
"Oh, I should say so, of course!" the other drawled. "The title wouldnot be of much use, without them."
"Nonsense, my dear fellow!" another said. "Why, a fellow with yourpersonal advantage, and a title, would be able to command the Americanmarket, and to pick up an heiress with millions."
The general laugh that followed showed that Hartley was, by no means, apopular character in the regiment.
"The fellow is a consummate ass," the man on Gregory's left whispered."He only got into the service as a Queen's cadet. He could no more havegot in, by marks, than he could have flown. No one believes that he hadanything the matter with him, at Cairo; but he preferred stoppingbehind and coming up by himself, without any duties, to taking anyshare in the work. He is always talking about his earldom--that is whythe Major mentioned it, so as to draw him out."
"But I suppose he is really heir to it?"
"Yes, if no one else claims it. For aught that is known, there may behalf a dozen children of the man that is missing, knocking aboutsomewhere in Canada or Australia. If so, they are safe to turn up,sooner or later. You see, as the man had an elder brother, he would nothave counted at all upon coming to the title. He may be in someout-of-the-way place, where even a colonial newspaper would never reachhim; but, sooner or later, he or some of his sons will be coming home,and will hear of the last earl's death, and then this fellow's nosewill be put out of joint.
"I am sure everyone in the regiment would be glad, for he is aninsufferable ass. I suppose, when he comes into the title, he willeither cut the army altogether, or exchange into the Guards."
The party presently broke up, having finished the last bottle of winethey had brought up. Gregory remained seated by the Major, discussingthe chances of the campaign, and the points where resistance might beexpected. The other officers stood talking, a short distance off.Presently Gregory caught the words:
"How is it that this young fellow calls himself Bimbashi, which, Ibelieve, means major?"
"He does not call himself that, although that is his rank. All thewhite officers in the Egyptian Army have that rank, though they mayonly be lieutenants, in ours."
"I call it a monstrous thing," the drawling voice then said, "that ayoung fellow like this, who seems to be an Egyptian by birth, shouldhave a higher rank than men here, who have served fifteen or twentyyears."
The Major got up, and walked across to the group.
"I will tell you why, Mr. Hartley," he said, in a loud voice. "It isbecause, for the purpose of the war in this country, they knowinfinitely more than the officers of our army. They talk the languages,they know the men. These blacks will follow them anywhere, to thedeath. As for Mr. Hilliard, he has performed feats that any officer inthe army, whatever his rank, would be proud to have done. He went indisguise into the Dervish camp at Metemmeh, before Hunter's advancebegan, and obtained invaluable information. He jumped overboard from agunboat to save a drowning Dervish woman, although to do so involvedalmost certain capture and death at the hands of the Dervishes. Inpoint of fact, his escape was a remarkable one, for he was tied to atree in the first line of the Dervish defences at Atbara, and was onlysaved by what was almost a miracle. He may not be heir to an earldom,Mr. Hartley, but he would do more credit to the title than many I couldname. I hear him well spoken of, by everyone, as an indefatigableworker, and as having performed the most valuable services. CaptainKeppel, on whose gunboat he served for two or three months, spoke to meof him in the highest terms; and General Hunter has done the same.
"I fancy, sir, that it will be some years before you are likely todistinguish yourself so highly. His father was an officer, who fell inbattle; and if he happened to be born in Egypt, as you sneeringly saidjust now, all I can say is that, in my opinion, had you been born inEgypt, you would not occupy the position which he now does."
Gregory had walked away when the Major rose, and he did not return tothe party. It was the first time that he had run across a bad specimenof the British officer, and his words had stung him. But, as he said tohimself, he need not mind them, as the fellow's own comrades regardedhim, as one of them said, as "an insufferable ass." Still, he could nothelp wishing, to himself, that the missing heir might turn up in timeto disappoint him.
General Hunter started next day, at noon, with two of his brigades andthe mounted troops; the other two brigades following, at nightfall. Theprevious night had been one of the most unpleasant Gregory had everspent. The long-expected rain had come at las
t. It began suddenly;there was a flash of lightning, and then came a violent burst of wind,which tore down the tents and the flimsy shelters of the Egyptians andSoudanese. Before this had ceased, the rain poured down in a torrent;lightning, wind, and rain kept on till morning, and when the start wasmade, everyone was soaked to the skin. The Egyptian baggage left at thesame time, in native craft.
That evening they arrived at the mouth of the Shabluka Cataract. Hereit had been expected that the advance would be opposed, as strong fortshad been erected by the enemy, the river narrowed greatly, andprecipitous rocks rose on either side. Through these the course waswinding, and the current ran with great strength, the eddies and sharpbends making it extremely difficult for the gunboats to keep theircourse. Indeed, it would have been impossible for them to get up, hadthe forts been manned; as they would have had to pass within twohundred yards of the guns. But although the forts could hardly havebeen attacked by the gunboats, they were commanded by a lofty hillbehind them; and the scouts had discovered, some weeks before, that theDervishes had retired from the position, and that the passage would beunopposed.
Maxwell's and Colville's brigades started at four that afternoon, andthe next day the whole division was established at El Hejir, above thecataracts.
Lyttleton's brigade started, at five o'clock A.M. on the 25th, thegunboats and other steamers moving parallel with them along the river.At five in the afternoon the first brigade followed and, two daysafterwards, the camp was entirely evacuated, and the whole of thestores well on their way towards El Hejir. On the previous day, tworegiments of Wortley's column of friendly natives also marched south.The Sirdar and headquarters, after having seen everything off, went upin a gunboat, starting at nine in the morning.
As usual, the Soudanese troops had been accompanied by a considerablenumber of their wives, who were heavily laden with their littlehousehold goods, and in many cases babies. They trudged patiently alongin the rear of the columns, and formed an encampment of their own, halfa mile away from the men's, generally selecting a piece of groundsurrounded by thick bush, into which they could escape, should Dervishraiders come down upon them.
The stores arrived in due course. One of the gunboats, however, wasmissing--the Zafir, with three gyasses in tow, having suddenly sunk,ten miles north of Shendy, owing to being so deeply loaded that thewater got into the hold. Those on board had just time to scramble intothe boats, or swim to shore. No lives were lost, though there were manynarrow escapes. Among these were Commander Keppel and Prince ChristianVictor, who were on board. Fortunately, another steamer soon came alongand took the gyasses, with the ship-wrecked officers and crew on board,and towed them up to El Hejir.
It had been intended to stay here some little time, but the Nilecontinued to rise to an altogether exceptional height, and part of thecamp was flooded. At five o'clock, therefore, the Egyptian brigadesstarted, with the guns on their right and the steamers covering theirleft, while the cavalry and camel corps were spread widely out, inadvance to give notice of any approaching Dervish force. As usual thesoldiers' wives turned out, and as the battalions marched past, shoutedencouragement to their husbands; calling upon them to behave like men,and not to turn back in battle. The presence of the women had anexcellent effect on the soldiers, and in addition to their assistancein carrying their effects, they cooked their rations, and looked afterthem generally. The Sirdar, therefore, did not discourage theirpresence in the field, and even supplied them with rations, when it wasimpossible for them to obtain them elsewhere.
In the afternoon the two white brigades also moved forward. At nineo'clock they arrived at their camping ground, and the whole army wasagain collected together. Next morning the four squadrons of Egyptianhorse, with a portion of the cavalry, went forward to reconnoitre, andone of the gunboats proceeded a few miles up the river. Neither sawanything of the enemy.
There had been heavy rain during the night. This had ceased atdaybreak, and a strong wind speedily dried the sands, raising suchclouds of dust that it was difficult to see above a few yards. Thestorm had also the effect of hindering the flotilla.
On the other side of the river, Stuart-Wortley's friendlies had a sharpbrush with some Dervishes, whom they had come upon raiding a village,whose inhabitants had not obeyed the Khalifa's orders to move intoOmdurman.
As the rainstorms continued, it was decided, by a council of war, thatthe health of the troops would suffer by a longer stay. On the 29th,therefore, the army set out in order of battle, ready to encounter theKhalifa's attack, but arrived without molestation at Um Teref, a shortdistance from Kerreri, where it was expected the enemy would givebattle.
The camp was smaller than those hitherto made, and was protected by astrong zareba. The sentries were doubled, and patrols thrown out. Heavyrain set in after sunset, and almost a deluge poured down. The tentshad been left behind, and as the little blanket shelters were soonsoaked through, their occupants were speedily wet to the skin.
It was still raining when, at half-past five, the force again started.As before, the army was marching in fighting order. The day was cooland cloudy, and at one o'clock they halted at a village called Merreh,or Seg. The cavalry had come into touch with the Dervish patrols, butthe latter, although numerous, avoided combat.
In one of the deserted villages was found one of Wingate's spies, inDervish attire. He had left Omdurman thirty hours before, and broughtthe news that the Khalifa intended to attack at Kerreri. This place hadbeen chosen because there was current an old prophecy, by a Persiansheik, to the effect that English soldiers would one day fight atKerreri, and be destroyed there. It had, therefore, become an almostholy place to the Mahdists, and was called the death place of all theinfidels; and, once a year, the Khalifa and his followers made apilgrimage to it.
A few shots were fired during the night, and fires blazed on the hillsto notify, to Omdurman, our precise position. The troops started againsoon after daylight, facing now to the right and marching westward, toleave the bush and broken ground, and get out in the open desert,stretching away to Omdurman. The cavalry were widely spread out, andthe Lancers ascended to the top of the hill of El Teb, from which aview of the Dervish camp was obtained.
It lay some ten miles due south. The Dervishes were disposed in threelong lines, stretching from within two thousand yards of the Nile outinto the desert, being careful to get, as they believed, beyond therange of the four gunboats that steamed quietly up.
After a short march the force halted near the river, two miles north ofKerreri. The place was convenient for camping, but the banks of theriver were steep, and there was much difficulty in watering the horsesand transport animals.
"We are in for another bad night," one of the General's staff said toGregory, as the evening approached.
"It looks like it. Clouds are banking up fast. If the rain would butcome in the daytime, instead of at night, one would not object to itmuch. It would lay the dust and cool the air. Besides, on the march wehave other things to think of; and though, of course, we should bedrenched to the skin, we should not mind it. But it is very unpleasantlying in a pool of water, with streams running in at one's neck."
"As to one's blanket, it is like a sponge, five minutes after the rainbegins," the officer said.
"I am better off in that respect," Gregory remarked; "for, when I leftmy little tent behind, I kept a waterproof sheet instead of my secondblanket. I had intended to use it tent fashion, but it was blown downin a minute, after the first storm burst. Now I stand up, wrap myblanket tightly round me, while my boy does the same with thewaterproof sheet; and I keep moderately dry, except that the water willtrickle in at the end, near my neck. But, on the other hand, thewrapping keeps me so hot that I might almost as well lie uncovered inthe rain."
The staff had intended taking a few tents with them, but these werepractically of no use at all, as all canvas had to be lowered by thetime that "lights out" sounded, and after that hour no loud talking waspermitted in the camp. This might have been a privation,
had theweather been fine, but even the most joyous spirit had little desirefor conversation, when the rain was falling in bucketfuls over him.
The officers of the white division lay down by their men, in theposition they would occupy if an attack by the enemy took place. Theofficers of the Egyptian regiments lay together, just in rear of theirmen. As soon as the "last post" sounded, absolute silence reigned. Thesentries, placed a very short distance out, kept their senses of sightand hearing on the alert; and with eye and ear strove to detect theapproach of a lurking foe. Jaalin scouts were stationed outside thezareba, so as to give an early warning of the approach of the enemy;but no reliance could be placed upon them; for, altogether withoutdiscipline, they would probably creep under bushes, and endeavour tofind some shelter from the pitiless downpour.
Had the Khalifa known his business, he would have taken advantage ofthe tempestuous night, and launched his warriors at the camp. Confidentas the officers of the expedition were, in the ability of their men torepulse any assault that might be made in the daylight, it was feltthat such an attack would cause terrible loss, and possibly gravedisaster, if delivered at night. The enemy might not be discovereduntil within a few yards of the camp. The swish of the rain, and thealmost incessant crash of thunder, would deaden the sound of theirapproach; and, long before the troops could leap to their feet andprepare to receive them calmly, the Dervishes would be upon them. Asthe latter were enormously stronger in numbers, the advantage ofsuperior weapons would be lost in a hand-to-hand fight, and in theinevitable confusion, as the troops in reserve would be unable to openfire, while ignorant of the precise position of friends and foes.
The Khalifa, however, was relying upon prophecy. It was at Kerreri thatthe infidel army was to be utterly destroyed, and he may have thoughtthat it would be tempting fate, were he to precipitate an action beforethe invaders reached the spot where their doom had been pronounced.
Even more miserable than night was the hour before dawn. Lying still,drenched to the skin as they were, Nature prevailed, and the menobtained some sleep; but when they rose to their feet, and threw offthe sodden blankets, they felt the full misery of eight hours'drenching. They were cold now, as well as wet, and as they endeavouredto squeeze the water from their clothes, and to restore circulation byswinging their arms, but few words were spoken; and the rising of thesun, which was regarded as a terrible infliction during the day, waseagerly looked for. No sooner did it appear above the horizon than thespirits of the men rose rapidly, and they laughed, joked, and madelight of the inconveniences of the situation.
An hour later, their clothes were nearly dry. By that time they wereall well on their way, the brigades, as before, marching inechelon--Wauchope's brigade on the left, Lyttleton's farther to theright but more to the rear, the three Egyptian brigades farther out onthe plain, the 21st Lancers scouting the ground in front of the Britishdivision, and the native cavalry and camel corps out beyond the rightof the Egyptians.
All expected that, at least, they should have a skirmish before theyreached Kerreri, where they were to encamp; but, as they advanced, itwas found that the Dervishes had fallen back from that line, and hadjoined the Khalifa's main force near Omdurman.
By ten in the morning the army had arrived at its camping place, whichwas in the southern part of the ground occupied by the stragglingvillage. As usual, both extremities of the line rested on the Nile,forming a semicircle, in which the baggage animals and stores wereplaced, in charge of Collinson's brigade. The gunboats took up theirposition, to cover the ground over which an enemy must approach to theattack.
While the infantry were settling down, the cavalry and camel corps wentout scouting. Signallers soon mounted a rugged hill, named Surgham, andfrom here a fine view was obtained of Omdurman, and the Khalifa's army.Omdurman was six miles away, covering a wide tract of ground, with butfew buildings rising above the general level, the one conspicuousobject being the great tomb of the Mahdi, with its white dome.
In the outskirts of the town were the white tents of the Dervish army.For the present these were unoccupied, the whole force being drawn up,in regular line, out on the plain; about halfway between the town andSurgham Hill. It was formed in five divisions, each of which was brightwith banners of all colours, sizes, and shapes. The Khalifa's owndivision was in the centre, where his great black banner, waving from alofty flagstaff, could be plainly made out.
The Lancers, Egyptian cavalry, and camel corps continued to advance,capturing several parties of footmen, principally Jaalins, who probablylagged purposely behind the retiring Dervishes, in order to be taken.At times the cavalry attempted to charge the Dervish horsemen, whenthese approached, but in no case did the latter await the attack.
Presently, above the occasional musketry fire, came the boom of a heavygun. There was a thrill of excitement in the camp. The gunboats hadarrived opposite Omdurman, and had opened fire upon the Dervishriverside forts. These were strongly constructed; but, as in the fortsat Metemmeh and Shabluka, the embrasures were so faultily constructedthat the guns could only be brought to bear upon the portion of theriver directly facing them, and the four gunboats passed them withoutreceiving any material damage, and were so able to maintain thebombardment without receiving any fire in return. At the same time,they landed the forty-pounder guns on an island but a short distancefrom the town, and thence opened fire with lyddite shells upon it. Thehowitzers were trained upon the Mahdi's tomb, and soon great holes wereknocked in the dome.
It could be seen, from the top of the hill, that this caused greatexcitement in the Dervish lines, and a number of their horsemen rodeout against the Lancers, and drove in their advance scouts; but, on themain body of the regiment moving forward, they fell back to their line;and almost immediately a heavy body of infantry moved out, theirintention evidently being to surround and cut off the regiment, whileat the same time a general advance took place. The Colonel of theLancers dismounted a portion of his men, and these checked the advanceof the enemy, until the rest fell back.
The news of the advance was signalled to General Kitchener, and thewhole force at once took their position, in fighting order. Believingthat a general attack on the camp would now be made, the cavalry fellback on either flank, so as to clear the way for the fire of theartillery and infantry.
The Dervishes had a good view of our camp from the top of Surgham, butthe Khalifa apparently considered that it was too late in the day for ageneral attack, and drew off his men to their former position, and therest of the afternoon and evening passed quietly. As the men ate theirmeal, of tinned meat and biscuit, they were in higher spirits than theyhad been since the advance began. Hitherto, they had been in constantapprehension lest the Dervishes should shun a battle, and would retireacross the desert to El Obeid, or elsewhere; and that they would haveto perform interminable desert marches, only to find, on arriving atthe goal, that the enemy had again moved off. The events of the day,however, seemed to show that this fear was groundless, and that theKhalifa had determined to fight a decisive battle for the defence ofhis capital.
The British soldier is ready to support any fatigue, and any hardship,with a prospect of a fight at the end; and, during the advance, he isalways haunted by the fear that the enemy will retire, or give in onhis approach. This fear was stronger than usual on this expedition, forthere was no question as to the greatly superior mobility of theDervishes; and it was evident that, if they chose to avoid fighting,they had it in their power to do so.