in favour to
be deserted by all, and this was more especially the case with all those
on whom the Khalifa's wrath fell. Thus everyone--fearing for his own
life--avoids all intercourse with such prisoners.

When Khalil had expended the little money he possessed, he sold his
sword, sheepskin, and clothes, and bought bread--such bread too!--even
Sudanese, who are accustomed to eat all sorts of stuff, could only eat
prison bread when hunger had made them like ravenous wolves; but Khalil
had come from Egypt and its flesh-pots, and the Sudan bread made him
ill.

At length he had no more money to buy even bread, and then he suffered
the pangs of hunger. For a month before his death his beard had grown
quite white, and he himself had become like a skeleton. His wretchedness
and loneliness brought on sickness, and he died a miserable death. It
occurred on a Friday whilst the Khalifa was attending a review, and
Abdullah accidentally fell from his horse on that day, but was caught
before he reached the ground. This was considered a very bad omen by the
people, who thought that Khalil had been unjustly condemned. They
believed it pointed to the overthrow of the Khalifa's rule, and he
himself was very much disturbed.

The disloyal Ababdehs of Hassan Khalifa were also locked up in the
Saier. Hassan was a nephew of the former Mudir of Berber, had been for a
long time emir of Abu Hamed, and during Nejumi's advance on Egypt had
occupied the wells of Murat. It was said that when there, he had acted
in a most reprehensible manner, and had wrung quantities of money out of
the merchants. It was also said that when Saleh Bey advanced from
Korosko on Murat, he came to an arrangement with him--for he was not a
Mahdiist at heart--and had retired on Abu Hamed without attempting to
fight.

All sorts of reports about him reached the Khalifa's ears, but he
refused to believe them. When, however, a certain Abadi named Karrar,
one of the Khalifa's spies, who had been captured by Saleh at Murat, for
having letters in his possession for the sheikhs in Egypt, and had been
kept in prison for some months, was released and returned to Omdurman,
the Khalifa then became convinced of Hassan Khalifa's disloyalty; he
sent four of his mulazimin to Abu Hamed, arrested him and his people,
and confiscated all their property. About forty men were thrown into
chains, dragged to Omdurman and there relegated to the Saier; several
died of typhus, and the remainder,