he hands of the cruel Khalifa Abdullah. They seemed to announce the
"release of our spirits from beneath his sheepskin." This was an
expression which the Khalifa delighted to use when talking of his
captured enemies, whose souls, he said, lay beneath his "furwa," meaning
that their lives were entirely in his hands.

Now we were actually in safety. A prayer of the deepest gratitude went
up from the very depths of our thankful hearts; it is quite impossible
to find words to express what we then felt. Our camels seemed to pull
themselves together for a final effort, so as to present us honourably
to the Ababdehs, who were now coming out to meet us.

The reports of our rifles had at first caused some stir in the little
garrison, who feared a sudden attack, and had come out fully armed; but
they soon recognized us, and answered our salute by discharging their
guns in the air. These good people received us most kindly, asked us a
thousand questions, and, surrounding us, brought us to the commandant's
hut. Here, on the 8th of December, the Feast of the Immaculate
Conception, we alighted from our camels, and the hopes which had kept us
alive for years, were at last realized. This supreme moment, about which
we had so often talked with our companions in adversity, which we had
thought about, dreamed about, and pictured to ourselves, this delicious
moment had come at last, and we were free!

But the effects of hunger, fatigue, and the sights and scenes we had
gone through during the last month, did not disappear so easily; our
senses seemed dulled, and our first thought on entering the commandant's
hut was to lie down on the floor and go to sleep, but, strange to say,
that wonderful restorer would not come; we sat gossiping with the
Ababdehs, who could scarcely credit that we, especially the sisters,
could have survived such a ride. We had covered the entire distance of
500 miles between Omdurman and Murat in seven days, including the day we
had spent wandering about in the hills before crossing the river.

The staying power of our camels had astonished me; how easily one of
them might have stumbled and broken its leg as we trotted hard through
the dark nights, unable to see where we were going! But Ahmed and his
companions had used all their knowledge in securing thoroughly good
animals; our excellent guides had been ever ready to help and assist us;
full of energy and pluck, they had carried out their enterprise with the
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