oss the desert, and the land was full of misery and of
rebellion.

In 1881 the discontented Soudanese found a leader.

From the island of Abbas on the Nile, Mahommed Ahmed, a dervish or holy
man, from Dongola, proclaimed to the people of Egypt and of the Soudan
that he was a prophet sent from heaven to save them from the cruelty of
their rulers.

_El Mahdi el Muntazer_, or The Expected One, he called himself, and
said he was immortal and would never die.

Soon he had many followers. He was attended by soldiers, who stood in
his presence with drawn swords, and he had all the power of a king.
Because he was Mahdi, his followers all had to obey him. And as he was
Mahdi, he himself did exactly as he pleased, and what he liked to do
was all that was wicked and cruel.

The Governor-General at Khartoum, seeing that the Mahdi was growing
much too powerful, sent two companies of soldiers to take him prisoner.
The Mahdists made a trap for them, fell on them with their swords and
short stabbing spears, and destroyed them. More troops were sent, and
also destroyed. Then came a small army, and of that army almost no man
escaped.

"This is in truth our Deliverer, sent from Heaven," said the wild
people of the Soudan, and they flocked in tribes to join the Mahdi.

It was not long before he owned a great army, and there have never been
any soldiers who fought more fiercely and with more magnificent
courage, and who feared death less, than those followers of a savage
dervish.

The Mahdi laid siege to one of the chief cities of the Soudan. It fell
before him, and sack and massacre followed.

An army of 11,000, under the command of a brave English officer, was
then sent to attack the Mahdi. Like all the troops that had gone
before them, they were led into a trap, and, out of 11,000 men, only
eleven returned to Egypt.

From one victory to another went the Mahdi. His troops, armed with
weapons taken from those they had slain, were rich with plunder.

Only two Englishmen were now left in the Soudan. At Khartoum were
Colonel Coetlogan and Mr. Frank Power, correspondent of the _Times_.

Colonel Coetlogan telegraphed that it was hopeless for the Egyptian
troops in the Soudan to hold out against the Mahdi. Soldiers were
deserting daily, and people on every hand were joining the victorious
army of the ruffian who claimed to have been sent from Heaven. Colonel
Coetlogan begged for orders for the loyal troops to leave the S