ler body from the west. In half delirium and full frenzy on
rushed the dervishes. Our guns, knowing the range to a nicety--for
they were able to see landmarks put down the day before--hurled at
them avalanches of shell. The vivid air blazed and shook, and the
hail of Lee-Metfords cut, like mighty scythes, lanes in the columns
massed ten-deep. Greater resolution and bravery no men ever possessed.
In face of destruction and death they continued their wild race. But
they were thinning or being thinned as they drew nearer. When about
1100 yards away a body of horsemen, two hundred or so, the Khalifa's
own tribesmen, Taaisha Baggara, chiefs and Emirs, setting spurs to
their horses charged direct for the zereba. Cannon and Maxims smashed
them, infantry bullets beat against and pierced through them. At every
stride their numbers diminished, horses and riders being literally
blown over or cut and thrown down. Undaunted a remnant held on to
within two or three hundred yards of Colonel Maxwell's line, where the
last of the gallant foemen tumbled and bit the dust. Partly encouraged
by the self-sacrificing devotion of the horsemen, the footmen
followed. The black flag was carried to within 900 yards of Colonel
Maxwell's left. Learning from their earlier failure, the Khalifa's men
directed their attack upon the Egyptian troops. But the British
division's cross-fire smote them, and the guns and Maxims knocked all
cohesion out of their ranks. Still defiantly they set their standards
and died around them. Then I noted there were again signs of wavering
amongst the main body, who were hanging back. The big black flag was
stuck in a heap of stones, and the more devoted sought to rally there.
Abdullah himself and his chiefs endeavoured to collect the broken
columns. It was attempted in the face of a bombardment that would have
shaken a city, and a fusilade that ought to have mown down every
blade of halfa-grass near. But Maxwell's men seemed not quite to get
the range. The flag and flagstaff were riddled with bullet holes, and
the dead were being piled around. Still, dervish after dervish sprang
to uphold the black banner of Mahdism. A herculean black grasped the
staff in one hand, and leaned negligently against it for what appeared
to be the space of five or ten minutes,--probably less than one
minute,--ere the soldiers managed to give him his final quietus. Then
it was that the remnant of the army of the Khalifa began to melt away.
It wa