It was a great pleasure to Gatacre to find himself in England again. His sociable and friendly instincts all came into play. I remember his getting hold of a list of the cadets at Sandhurst, and seeking out the sons of his friends, and asking them over to such events as would interest them. He set about getting horses, and looked forward to a hunting season at home. The Brigade route-marching was positively an enjoyment to him; he took so much interest in his new regiments that he would get up early on the route-marching days and be on the barrack square to see the first battalion march out, and sit there on his horse until the last man of the last battalion had passed him. Then cantering on, he would work his way up to the head of the column and see the first and the last company march in. He found the most genuine and unaffected pleasure in every phase of his work. The conditions under which it was carried out were much easier and less exacting than they had been in India. Indeed, the light work that goes on after October 1 was so much of a holiday to him that all thought of long leave was postponed till later in the season.
At Christmas he took ten days' leave, which we spent at my father's house in Sussex. The distance being only twenty-four miles, and the weather being open, we did the journey on horseback, and had a few days' hunting with Lord Leconfield's hounds during our visit. On Monday, January 3, we rode back, and, arriving late, had just sat down to luncheon when the A.D.C. suddenly turned up, bringing a telegram in his hand.
1898
"This seemed so important, sir," he said, "that I thought I ought to bring it myself."
The telegram was from the War Office in London to the Aldershot Divisional Office, and ran:
"Please send General Gatacre and Major Snow, Brigade-Major, here as soon as possible; may be wanted for foreign service."
There had been a paragraph in the morning papers announcing the movement of troops from Cairo up the Nile, and this news supplied us with the true interpretation. The General got away by the next train, and in the afternoon sent back this telegram:
"Arrive 9.15; sail Wednesday next."
Having returned so recently from India, the General had all that he wanted in the way of field-service uniform and camp kit. Though twenty-four hours seemed a short time in which to make preparations for such a momentous journey, still he got away more comfortably than the other men who had received the same short summons. On Tuesday morning he cleared up work in the office, and handed over his Brigade; he left Aldershot in the evening, and started from Charing Cross at 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday, January 5, 1898, for Egypt, via Marseilles.
There is no need to tell over again the long story of the gradual loss of the Soudan to Egypt, with the encroachment of the Dervish Empire, nor of the fall of Khartoum with the death of General Gordon ("my brother dreamer in an iron race") on January 26, 1885, nor of the patient preparation that had been going on in the thirteen years that had passed. This book is concerned only with the final act of the drama, the defeat of the forces of the Khalifa Abdullahi, and the recovery of the capital.