in the khor and ran him through
with his spear.

By far the finest feature of that morning of battles was the action
fought by Colonel Macdonald with his brigade. The dervish forces that
sought to crush him numbered fully 20,000 men. To oppose them he had
but four battalions, or in all less than 3000 Soudanese and Egyptian
soldiers. With a tact, coolness, and hardihood I have never seen
equalled, Colonel Macdonald manoeuvred and fought his men. They
responded to his call with confidence and alacrity begotten of long
acquaintance and implicit faith in their leader. He had led several of
the battalions through a score of fierce fights and skirmishes, always
emerging and covering himself and his men with glory, honour and
victory. All of them knew him, they were proud of him, and reposed
implicit confidence in their general. Unmistakably the Khalifa and his
son, the Sheikh Ed Din, thought that their fortunate hour had
come--that, in detail, they would destroy first Macdonald, then one by
one the other Khedivial brigades. What might have been, had father and
son arrived at the same time and distance on both sides of Macdonald,
as they evidently intended, I will not venture to discuss. Happily the
onslaughts of the wild, angry dervishes did not quite synchronise, and
Colonel Macdonald was able to devote virtually his whole firing
strength to the overthrow of the Khalifa's division ere rapidly
turning about first one then another of his battalions to deal with
the Sheikh Ed Din's unbroken columns. The enemy on both sides got very
close in, hundreds of them being killed almost at the feet of the men
of the 1st Khedivial brigade. Dervish spears were thrown into and over
the staunch and unyielding Soudanese and Fellaheen soldiery. Peake's,
Lawrie's, and de Rougemont's batteries stood their ground, side by
side with the infantry, never wavering, firing point-blank upon the
dervish masses. Majors Jackson, Nason, and Walter were, as usual,
proud of the steadiness of their blacks--the 11th, 10th, and 9th
battalions--whilst Major Pink, of the 2nd Egyptian, was elated with
the stout way his soldiers doubled, wheeled, and at a critical moment
rushed to fill up a gap near one of the batteries. The "Gippies"
looked without flinching straight into the eyes of the dervishes, and
fired volleys that would have done credit to a British regiment. The
hulking, physically strong "Fellah" had at last taken the measure of
his enemy, and meant to