the extreme right was now becoming
apparent.

Regrets and fury were alike futile. The three brigades advancing drove
the Khalifa's Dervishes back into the desert. Along a mile of front an
intense and destructive fire flared and crackled. The 32nd British Field
Battery on the extreme left was drawn by its hardy mules at full gallop
into action. The Maxim guns pulsated feverishly. Two were even dragged
by the enterprise of a subaltern to the very summit of Surgham, and from
this elevated position intervened with bloody effect. Thus the long line
moved forward in irresistible strength. In the centre, under the red
Egyptian flag, careless of the bullets which that conspicuous emblem
drew, and which inflicted some loss among those around him, rode the
Sirdar, stern and sullen, equally unmoved by fear or enthusiasm. A mile
away to the rear the gunboats, irritated that the fight was passing
beyond their reach, steamed restlessly up and down, like caged Polar
bears seeking what they might devour. Before that terrible line the
Khalifa's division began to break up. The whole ground was strewn with
dead and wounded, among whose bodies the soldiers picked their steps
with the customary Soudan precautions. Surviving thousands struggled
away towards Omdurman and swelled the broad stream of fugitives upon
whose flank the 21st Lancers already hung vengefully. Yakub and the
defenders of the Black Flag disdained to fly, and perished where they
stood, beneath the holy ensign, so that when their conquerors reached
the spot the dark folds of the banner waved only over the dead.

While all this was taking place--for events were moving at speed--the
1st British Brigade were still doubling across the rear of Maxwell and
Lewis to fill the gap between the latter and MacDonald. As they had
wheeled round, the regiments gained on each other according to their
proximity to the pivot flank. The brigade assumed a formation which may
be described as an echelon of columns of route, with the Lincolns, who
were actually the pivot regiment, leading. By the time that the right of
Lewis's brigade was reached and the British had begun to deploy, it was
evident that the Khalifa's attack was broken and that his force was in
full retreat. In the near foreground the Arab dead lay thick. Crowds of
fugitives were trooping off in the distance. The Black Flag alone waved
defiantly over the corpses of its defenders. In the front of the
brigade the fight was over. Bu