ons of the townsfolk, Greeks and natives, came out and offered
to surrender. They said that the Khalifa was in his house, and that he
had about a thousand of his bodyguard with him, but that they could not
offer any successful resistance. The town was full of fugitive
Dervishes; many thousands of them were there--among them a great number
of wounded.

At half past four the Sirdar, with his staff, entered the town;
accompanied by Maxwell's Egyptian brigade. Only a few shots were fired.
The Dervish courage was broken. It was to the followers of the Prophet,
and not to the infidels, that the plains of Kerreri had proved fatal.
It was their bodies, and not those of the white soldiers, that were
strewn there so thickly. The promise of the Khalifa had been falsified,
the tomb of the Mahdi was crumbling into ruins, the bravest of their
troops had fallen--what more was there to be done?

As Slatin Pasha rode in at the head of the troops, he was instantly
recognized by the people, among whom, for years, he had been a
prisoner; and on his assurances that mercy would be shown to all, if
there was no resistance, numbers of the Dervishes came out from their
houses and huts, and laid down their arms.

The women flocked out into the streets, uttering their long and
quavering cries of welcome. To them the entry of the British was a
relief from a living death, as almost all were captives taken in war,
or in the Dervish raids upon quiet villages. They could scarce even yet
believe that they were free--that their tyrants were slain or
fugitives.

Intense was the surprise and relief of the population, when they were
told that there would be no looting--no harm done to any by the
conquerors; that all would be free, if they chose, to depart to their
homes, and to take their few belongings with them.

The scene in the town was awful--the stench overpowering! The Dervishes
were absolutely ignorant of all sanitary methods--pools of the foulest
slush abounded, and thousands of dead animals, in all stages of
decomposition, lay about the streets. Among them were numerous dead
bodies, principally of girls and women, who had been killed by their
brutal husbands or masters, to prevent them from falling into the hands
of the British. There were also many dead Dervishes, and others
desperately wounded.

Strangely enough, the latter did not seem to regard their victorious
enemy with the hate that had been exhibited by many of the wounded in
the