The service finished, several of those present, guided by Slatin Pasha, walked through what were once the streets of Khartoum, now only a collection of rubbish heaps. All the stone and building material had been removed to construct the houses at Omdurman. The only edifices spared in any way were the palace, the arsenal, and the Austrian mission building. Only a few of the inhabitants remained in the place which was formerly the capital of the Soudan.
A detachment of the 11th Soudanese was left to guard the flags which remained floating over the palace, and the rest of the troops then returned to Omdurman.
On the following day, the whole of the Sirdar's army was paraded and marched, with full military display, through the streets of Omdurman, as well to give the natives an idea of the strength of the Anglo-Egyptian force, as to impress on them that the Mahdist rule was a thing of the past. The place reeked with filth, and the smell was overpowering. Bodies of men and animals lay decomposing in the streets, and on every side was squalor and misery.
After this the British troops, with the exception of some companies of the Northumberland Fusiliers, were shipped off as rapidly as possible to Cairo. There was no more fighting to be done, and the men were beginning to feel the after-effects of the past week's marching and fatigue. In addition to this, enteric fever had begun to set in, and the hospital tents were crowded. However, by the end of the month, nearly the whole of the British division had left.
CHAPTER LXIX.
FASHODA.
On the 7th September a surprising and unlooked-for incident occurred. One of Gordon's old steamers, the Tewfikeyeh, which had been sent by the Khalifa up the White Nile, unexpectedly returned to Omdurman, only to find that the place had changed hands.
On being boarded she at once surrendered to the Sirdar. Her captain reported that on reaching Fashoda he had been fired on by a party of white men, and in support of his statement produced some nickel-plated bullets, of small calibre, and evidently of European manufacture.
There was no doubt that a European expedition of some kind had arrived at Fashoda, and opinions only differed as to its nationality and object.
The Sirdar's first step was to order all the newspaper correspondents back to Cairo.