THE RECONQUEST OF THE SOUDAN. 91 reserve ammunition and hospital stores were move slowly, and the march seemed very long and wearisome. Almost the only incident that gave variety to these dull hours is thus noted by Mr. Burleigh, who rode with the British brigade:"It was three a.m. when two miles or so off, upon our right, there suddenly sprang up a huge column of bright flame. The beacon continued burning furiously for a few minutes, and then dwindled into a patch of red light. Whether it was a signal-fire, or a group of dompalms carelessly ignitedby someDervish patrol, none could truly say. The general opinion was that the pillar of fire was a Dervish fire-warning to Mahmoudof ourapproach. But whya bonfire, when his scoutscould, without letting us know, have ridden into hiscamp andprivately warned him ? It was felt that it didnot, after all, much matter whether the enemy was warned or not."

What thispillar of fire wasremainsstillamystery. According to Mahmoud's own account,he knew nothing of the Sirdar's approach till five in the morning, when one of his scouts rode in with the startling news that the Anglo-Egyptian army was in battle array within a mile of his fortified camp.

temporarily unloaded and taken down to the river under escort for a drink, the last they could get till the battle was over. Then,behind the protection of a watchful outpostline,officers and menlay down for a few hours' sleep. While the bivouac was being formedthe .Sirdarandhis staff hadpaid a brief visit to eachof the squares, andassured themselves that all wasgoing well.

There was an alarm in the bivouac of Gatacre's British brigade. A soldier cried out in his sleep, and just at that moment a mule that had pulled his picketing-peg loose came wandering in among the sleeping men. Less causes have produced a panic. As it was, company aftercompany sprang up andgrasped their rifles, expecting a Dervish attack. Two battalions were on their feet in half a minute. But the word was passed that all was quiet in front, and the menlay downagain.

Meanwhile Broadwood's squadrons, the remainingcompanies of the camel corps, and the fourbatteries had startedfrom Umdabiya camp. and were coming up steadily across the desert. At oneo'clock onGoodFriday morning,without the brisk sound of drum and bugle that is the accustomed reveille of the Egyptian army, the squares were roused from sleep. Word was passed from company to company to rise and fall in, and as the array was being completed the guns and the horsemen came up and took their assigned places, the cavalry on the left ot the line,the guns in the intervals of the squares and behind them. Again the march began through the rising dust under the white moonlight. Captain Fitton, of the staff, one of the tallest men in the army, and an expert in desert tracking, showed the way to the directii g square. A couple of native guides rode beside him, but he worked, as a sailor would say, bydead reckoning, taking the direction by a coinpass-bearing, and estimating the distance travelled by time and the known marching speed of the troops. Twice on the way the course had tobe changed, so that the problem w as not an easy one. But Fitton solved it neatly, and when at last the squares halted, the centre of the army was within two hundred yards of the point previously pricked off on the Sirdar's map.

The distance to be traversed was not great, °ut in tlu square formation the men had to At a quarter to four, as the leadingsquares topped oneof the low flat-backed ridges us the desert, there came in sight out in front a scattered line of red spots and blurs ot light. These werethe Dervishcamp-fires burning low. They seemed very far away,but CaptainFitton's calculation, which proved correct, was that they were just a mile and a half distant. So the order was againpassed to halt andlie down, and the army waited for the dawn, many sleeping quietly beside their arms, others too anxiously excited to close their eye-s.

During this hall the Sirdar again visited every brigade and battery. It is his wa)- to see for himself that all is as he wishes it should be, and he is one of those unwearying men who seem able to work without sleep. In its march the army had made a half-wheel to the right, and now faced eastward, with the enemy's camp between it and the river. About five the first grey touch of dawn began to show, and the men stood to their arms. Then the welcome order came, and the line began to advance slowlyand steadily ovei the undulatingground that lay in its front. The sun would soon rise behind it, and, with the sunrise, would come battle and victory.