he disgrace of the
defeat at El-Teb and the slaughter of the army of Hicks Pasha in 1883.
And it may be said that it was these same English rulers in Egypt--
administrators, engineers, military officers, and drill sergeants--that
made it possible for the English to march in triumph through Khartoum
and to avenge the death of Gordon, to some extent to wipe out the
humiliations and blunders of past years.

The original Mahdi died within six months of General Gordon, and was
succeeded by the chief Khalifa, Abdullah. Abdullah was an ignorant and
wholly abominable person, and by his unspeakable cruelty and rapacity
soon alienated vast numbers of the followers of his predecessor, and by
1889 Mahdism could no longer be looked upon as an aggressive but as a
decaying force; yet, though dwindling, it still existed as a strong
military power, with its headquarters at Omdurman.

Meantime the English had been making soldiers of the fallaheen, to whom
successful skirmishes under their English officers and drill instructors
were yearly giving confidence and self-reliance; and in addition to the
fallaheen regiments, Sudanese regiments were formed of the very men who
fought so bravely against our squares at Abu Klea, the "Fuzzywuzzy" of
Kipling, "a first-class fighting man." Whilst the British campaigns in
the Sudan, though affording many a brilliant fight, and many an example
of the heroism and endurance of the British soldiers, were fruitless in
result, the Egyptian campaigns were from 1885 onwards one continual
success,--the fruit of steady effort and perseverance directed to one
end through every kind of difficulty and disappointment, but which
nothing could turn aside from its object, never faltering or swerving
for fourteen years, the credit of which is wholly due to Sir Evelyn
Baring (now Lord Cromer), Sir H. Kitchener (Lord Kitchener), Sir F.
Grenfell, Colonel Wingate, Colonel H.A. Macdonald, and many others; and
their subordinates, among whom must be remembered the English drill
sergeants.

In 1888 Osman Digna again threatened Suakin, and threw up trenches
against the town, but was defeated by Sir F. Grenfell, the Sirdar or
Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian forces, on December 20th. Next,
Wad-en-Nejunii, the great Emir who had defeated Hicks Pasha, came south
in 1889, attempting to get to the Nile at Toski behind Wady Haifa, the
garrison of which, under Sir F. Grenfell, attacked him at Toski, with
the result that he was