A Comfortable Breakfast—All ready for the Dervishes—Egyptian Cavalry engage the Enemy—Gunboats to the Rescue—The Joy of Battle—Here they come!—A Splendid Spectacle—The Dervishes open Fire—The First Shell—A Dervish Battery—Effect of our Shell Fire—Wounded Men—Curious Tricks played by Bullets—Maxims at Work—A Dervish Cavalry Charge—Persistent Sharpshooters—The Army leaves the Zeriba—The Lancers' Charge—Mutilation of the Dead—Wounded Horses—Killing the Wounded Dervishes—Renewal of the Fight—Steadiness of the Sudanese and Egyptians—Final Repulse of the Enemy—Dreadful Effects of our Fire—Men falling out—We halt beside a Khor—Regimental Music—Escape of the Khalifa—Death of Hon. Hubert Howard—A Champagne Dinner in the Street—The End of Mahdism
CHAPTER V
Gunboats and Gaalin
The Sirdar's Fleet—Difficulties of Navigation—The Loss of the Zaphir—Concentration of Friendlies at Wad Hamed—Their Love for Firearms—Rout of a Dervish Detachment—Gunboats shell the Kerreri Ridge and Riverside Villages—Some Faint-hearted Friendlies—Gallantry of the Gaalin—Tuti Island—The Shelling of the Mahdi's Tomb—Gunboats silence the Forts—Lyddite Shells—Maxim Fire upon the Fugitives—Gunboats proceed up the River—The Fate of Gordon's old Flotilla
CHAPTER VI
After the Battle
The Mahdi's Tomb—A Wounded Man lands under False Pretences—Villiers' Bicycle in Omdurman—Loathsome Streets—The Arsenal—Dervish Ammunition—The "Man-stopping" Bullet—Awful Effects of Modern Rifle Fire—The Gordon Memorial Service—Varieties of Loot—A Tommy's Quaint Mistake—Enrolment of Dervishes under the Khedive's Flag—Charles Neufeld—The Austrian Sisters—Slatin Pasha in Camp—Good-bye to Omdurman—We strike on a Sandbank—Our Sleeping Arrangements—Failure of Attempts to move Gunboat—A Soldier Drowned—A Dead Egyptian—We get off the Bank—Loss of my Luggage—Cross goes to Hospital—Delays on Homeward Journey—Mohammedan Divorce Laws—A Camel dies from the Bite of an Asp—A Good Dinner—From Alexandria to Marseilles—Announcement of Cross's Death—The Future of the Sudan
MAP AND PLANS