Lieutenant Smyth wheeled it about, and he and the dervish collided.
The man, who by this time appeared somewhat weak, grabbed the
Lieutenant and strove to drive his lance into him. With great
hardihood Lieutenant Smyth fired his revolver in the dervish's face,
killing him instantly. It was a wondrous narrow escape for the
Lieutenant. The instant afterwards I asked him if he had been badly
wounded, but he declared that he was untouched, a statement I could
scarcely credit, and so repeated my question in another form, to
receive a similar answer. In the excitement of the moment he no doubt
did not feel the slight spear wound he actually received upon the arm,
which saved him from the thrust aimed at his body. An examination of
the dead dervish showed he had received four bullet wounds.

The following is a brief and well-balanced account of the charge of
the Lancers furnished me by an officer who was present:--"We moved
along to the left--_i.e._, east of Surgham--following up the enemy on
that flank. Our object was to prevent them retiring into Omdurman or,
at any rate, delay their retreat. A body of dervishes were seen
crouching not far off to the right. Colonel Martin determined to push
the enemy back and interpose between them and the town. The regiment,
of four squadrons, was wheeled into line. When 300 yards off we
started to charge, and were met by a heavy musketry fire from the
enemy. At first it was ill-directed, but very soon casualties occurred
in our ranks from it. Instead of a few dervishes, we tumbled upon over
500 hidden in a fold of the ground. They were in a khor, or nullah,
into which we had to drop, and they lined it twenty deep in places.
Our weight, however, carried us through. The dervishes, when we struck
them, did not break, but "bunched" together, showing no fear of
cavalry. There was half a minute's hacking, cutting, spearing, and
shooting in all directions; then we cleared them, and rallied on the
far side. Halting about 300 yards off, men were dismounted, and we
opened a sharp fire from our carbines on the enemy, driving them to
the westward in ten minutes. The charge was really successful in its
object, as the retirement from that part of the field into Omdurman
was stopped. We left perhaps sixty dervishes on the field in the
charge, and killed about 100 more with our subsequent fire." The
dervish leader who was sitting on a fine black Dongolawi horse was
killed in the melee. A trooper met him