orning the advance was continued. The army paraded by
starlight, and with the first streak of the dawn the cavalry were again
flung far out in advance. Secure behind the screen of horsemen and Camel
Corps, the infantry advanced in regular array. Up to the 27th of August
the force marched by divisions; but on and after the 30th of August
the whole force commenced to march in fighting formation. The British
division was on the left, the Egyptian army on the right. All the
brigades marched in line, or in a slight echelon. The flank brigades
kept their flank battalions in column or in fours. Other British
battalions had six companies in the front line (in company column of
fours) and two companies in support. The Egyptian brigades usually
marched with three battalions in the front line and one in reserve, each
of the three in the front line having four companies in front and two in
support.

The spectacle of the moving army--the grand army of the Nile--as it
advanced towards its goal was especially wonderful in the clear air
of the early morning; a long row of great brown masses of infantry
and artillery, with a fringe of cavalry dotting the plain for miles in
front, with the Camel Corps--chocolate-coloured men on cream-coloured
camels--stretching into the desert on the right, and the white gunboats
stealing silently up the river on the left, scrutinising the banks
with their guns; while far in rear the transport trailed away into the
mirage, and far in front the field-glass disclosed the enemy's patrols.
Day after day and hour after hour the advance was maintained. Arrived at
the camping-ground, the zeriba had to be built; and this involved a
long afternoon of fatigue. In the evening, when the dusty, tired-out
squadrons returned, the troopers attended to their horses, and so
went to sleep in peace. It was then that the dusty, tired-out infantry
provided sentries and pickets, who in a ceaseless succession paced the
zeriba and guarded its occupants.

The position of the next camp was a strong one, on a high swell of open
ground which afforded a clear field of fire in every direction. Everyone
that night lay down to sleep with a feeling of keen expectancy. One way
or the other all doubts would be settled the next day. The cavalry would
ride over the Kerreri Hills, if they were not occupied by the enemy,
and right up to the walls of Omdurman. If the Dervishes had any army--if
there was to be any battle--we should know within