e
Bayuda desert, produced a tiny bottle of champagne that was to have
been drunk in Khartoum when we got there. He opened it, and shared the
driblet with a few of the old campaigners. By one p.m. we were all
back again in Omdurman, leaving behind two companies of the 11th
Battalion to hold Khartoum for the two flags, the hoisting of which,
side by side, the Egyptians regarded as natural and most proper.

CHAPTER XIV.

KHARTOUM MEMORIAL COLLEGE.--THE OFFICIAL DESPATCHES.

It was decided by the Sirdar, from whom no successful appeal was
possible, that, after the occupation of Khartoum, the war
correspondents had no longer any pretext for remaining in the country.
There were no questions raised by the military to excuse their ruling.
No more was heard about the difficulties of transport, the scarcity of
provisions, and everything being required for the soldiers. Had not
the keen Greek sutlers, as usual, followed the army in shoals,
managing somehow to convey themselves and their goods to the front? We
had not been two days encamped at Omdurman before some of these
traders arrived, and, dumping their sacks and boxes by the wayside,
started selling forthwith. The natives, too, speedily reassured,
brought out and squatted before baskets of dates, onions, and other
comestibles they were anxious to dispose of for English or Egyptian
money. Rightly contemning the Khalifa's coinage as practically
valueless, they refused to accept it in payment, and proffered to sell
all they possessed at the price of old copper. The British troops
made their triumphal entry into Omdurman on the 5th of September, and
several of the correspondents left for England the same day. We who
remained had a sort of Hobson's choice, either to return to Cairo on
the 8th September or to remain in Omdurman out of which we should not
be allowed to stir until all the British troops had gone, when we
should have to leave with the last batch. Which course we should adopt
was with fine humour left to be decided by a majority of ourselves.
For once the Press was practically unanimous and elected to shake the
dust of the Soudan from their feet, and so it came about that the war
correspondents had to fold their tents and go, disposing of their
quadrupeds as best they could. There was no alternative in the case of
the horses between accepting any price for them or shooting them, for,
in the Soudan, there being no grazing, a horse must have a master or
starv