long enjoy the fruits of his victory, for he died five
months to the day after the fall of Khartum. His successor, Abdullah,
bore the title of Khalifa, and for thirteen years was a scourge to the
unfortunate land. The tribes of the Sudan, tired of the oppression of
Egypt, had welcomed the Mahdi as a deliverer, but they had only
exchanged Turkish pashas for a tyrant unmatched in cruelty and
shamelessness. Abdullah plundered and exhausted the country, but with
the money and agricultural produce he extorted from the people he was
able to maintain a splendid army always ready for the field. His capital
was Omdurman, where the Mahdi was buried under a dome; but he did not
fortify the town, for long before any Christian dogs could advance so
far their bones would whiten in the sands of Nubia.

Yet after many years the hour of vengeance was at hand. The British
Government had taken the pacification of the Sudan in hand, and in 1898
an army composed of British and Egyptian troops was advancing quietly
and surely up the Nile. There was no need to hurry, and every step was
made with prudence and consideration. The leader, General Kitchener, the
last man to send a letter to Gordon, made his plans with such foresight
and skill that he could calculate two years in advance almost the very
day when Khartum and Omdurman would be in his hands.

At the Atbara, the great tributary of the Nile which flows down from the
mountains of Abyssinia, Kitchener inflicted his first great defeat on
the Khalifa's army in a bloody battle. From Atbara the troops pushed on
to Metemma without further fighting, and on August 28 they were only
four days' march from Khartum.

The green of acacia and mimosa is now conspicuous on the banks of the
river, which is very high. The grey gunboats pass slowly up the Nile in
the blazing sun, and the troops push on as steadily and as surely as
they have from the start of the expedition. Small parties of mounted
dervishes are seen in the far distance. The country becomes more
diversified, and the route runs through clumps of bushes and between
hillocks. A short distance in front are seen white tents, flags, and
horsemen, and the roll of drums is heard. It is the Khalifa calling his
men to the fight; but at the last moment the position is abandoned, the
dervishes retire, and Kitchener's army continues its march.

At length the vaulted dome over the Mahdi's grave beside the Nile bank
rises above the southern horizon,