an Egyptian force, the stores and armament to be purchased at a
valuation, and a force of Italian Arab irregulars to be transferred to
the Egyptian service. Sir H. Kitchener then returned to the Nile,
where the situation had suddenly become acute. During November Colonel
Parsons, the 16th Egyptian Battalion, and a few native gunners marched
from Suakin, and on the 20th of December arrived at Kassala. The Italian
irregulars--henceforth to be known as the Arab battalion--were at once
despatched to the attack of the small Dervish posts at El Fasher and
Asubri, and on the next day these places were surprised and taken with
scarcely any loss. The Italian officers, although a little disgusted at
the turn of events, treated the Egyptian representatives with the
most perfect courtesy, and the formal transference of Kassala fort was
arranged to take place on Christmas Day.

An imposing ceremonial was observed, and the scene itself was strange.
The fort was oblong in plan, with mud ramparts and parapets pierced for
musketry. Tents and stores filled the enclosure. In the middle stood
the cotton factory. Its machinery had long since been destroyed, but
the substantial building formed the central keep of the fort. The tall
chimney had become a convenient look-out post. The lightning-conductor
acted as a flagstaff. The ruins of the old town of Kassala lay brown
and confused on the plain to the southward, and behind all rose the
dark rugged spurs of the Abyssinian mountains. The flags of Egypt and
of Italy were hoisted. The troops of both countries, drawn up in line,
exchanged military compliments. Then the Egyptian guard marched across
the drawbridge into the fort and relieved the Italian soldiers. The
brass band of the 16th Battalion played appropriate airs. The Italian
flag was lowered, and with a salute of twenty-one guns the retrocession
of Kassala was complete.

Here, then, for a year we leave Colonel Parsons and his small force to
swelter in the mud fort, to carry on a partisan warfare with the Dervish
raiders, to look longingly towards Gedaref, and to nurse the hope that
when Omdurman has fallen their opportunity will come. The reader, like
the Sirdar, must return in a hurry to the Upper Nile.

Towards the end of November the Khalifa had begun to realise that the
Turks did not mean to advance any further till the next flood of the
river. He perceived that the troops remained near Berber, and that
the railway was only a litt