eserted city looked
delightful, after the sand, dirt, and wretchedness of Omdurman. The
gardens of the governor's house, and other principal buildings, had run
wild; and the green foliage was restful indeed, to the eye, after the
waste of sand, rock, and scrub that had been traversed by the army on
its way from Wady Halfa.

The vessels drew up opposite a grove of tall palms. Beyond them
appeared what had been the government house. The upper story was gone,
the windows were filled up with bricks, and a large acacia stood in
front of the building.

The troops formed up before the palace, in three sides of a square--the
Egyptians were to the left, looking from the river, and the British to
the right--the Sirdar, and the generals of the divisions and brigades,
facing the centre. Two flagstaffs had been raised on the upper story.
The Sirdar gave the signal, and the British and Egyptian flags were run
up. As they flew out, one of the gunboats fired a salute, the Guards'
band struck up "God Save the Queen!" and the band of the 11th Soudanese
then played the Khedive's hymn, while the Generals and all present
stood in salute, with their hands to the peak of their helmets. The
Sirdar's call for three cheers for the Queen was enthusiastically
responded to, every helmet being raised. Similar cheers were then given
for the Khedive, the bands again struck up, and twenty-one guns were
fired.

As the last gun echoed out, the Guards played the Dead March, in Saul;
and the black band the march called Toll for the Brave, the latter in
memory of the Khedive's subjects, who had died with Gordon. Then minute
guns were fired, and four chaplains--Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist,
and Catholic--by turns read a psalm or a prayer. The pipers then wailed
a dirge, and finally the Soudanese bands played Gordon's favourite
hymn, Abide with Me.

At the conclusion, General Hunter and the other officers shook hands
with the Sirdar, one by one. Kitchener himself was deeply moved, and
well he might be! Fourteen years of his life had been spent in
preparing for, and carrying out, this campaign; and now the great task
was done. Gordon was avenged. Of the Dervish host, the remnant were
scattered fugitives. The Mahdi's cause, the foulest and most
bloodstained tyranny that had ever existed, transforming as it did a
flourishing province into an almost uninhabited desert, was crushed
forever; and it was his patient and unsparing labour, his wonderful
orga