soldiers in the use of the
Remington rifles which had fallen into their hands.

For never in the history of war had a nation been armed so completely by
its enemies. The Egyptians sent out armies with weapons of precision
and improved artillery, and they fortified towns, where they massed vast
stores of ammunition, suited to both rifles and guns. The soldiers of
the Mahdi rushed upon their feeble foes with sword and spear, totally
annihilated army after army, and collected the rifles. Then they took
the towns and possessed themselves of the cartridges. Napoleon the
Great used to say that war should support war; but this was going a step
further, and making war supply the means of waging war. The only
drawback was this, that the more elaborate the weapons which you put
into a soldier's hands, the more skill he requires to use them
effectively; and this skill can only be acquired by proper training.

But the Mahdi had never taken the precaution to send any officers to
Hythe, and amongst the miraculous powers which he was said by some of
his followers to possess, that of creating ready-made musketry
instructors was apparently not included. The consequence was that his
men were extremely bad shots, and wasted their ammunition in an almost
incredible manner. What mischief they were enabled to do, especially
with the artillery, was principally owing to the lessons they received
from European scoundrels who had been forced to fly from their own
countries by their crimes, or reckless adventurers who did not care for
cause, nationality, or anything else, so long as they were where
fighting and a chance of plunder was going on--men who would have made
most excellent mediaeval heroes, and would have had a good chance of
living in song and story had they not been born a few centuries too
late.

Amongst all these the Sheikh Burrachee was an exception. He was a
genuine crack-brained enthusiast, sane and even shrewd enough in many
things, but quite crazy upon certain points. Convinced, to begin with,
that it was the duty of every Irishman to hate the English, he had
imaginary private wrongs of his own to avenge. On the top of all that,
he had become a thorough Mohammedan in his sympathetic feelings and
habits, and quite sincere in his adoption of the cause of the Mahdi.
The appearance of England in the field, which would have caused many to
hesitate, was a spur to his enthusiasm, since it offered him an
opportunity of ha