92 THE BATTLE OF THE ATBARA :KRUPP GUNS IN ACTION.

CHAPTER XVIH.

THE BATTLE OF THE ATBARA.

MAHMOUD had chosen the position for his camp very skilfully. It was so placed that it was sheltered by rising ground from distant fire. Its rear rested on the river,and was surroundedby dense thickets of thorny sunt-bushes and dom-palms with a tangled undergrowth. On the desert side the bush was thinner. The camp itself was surrounded by a zereba of desert thorn, piled up and twisted together, so that in places it was ten feet high and twenty feet across. Inside this was a second line of stockades and shelter trenches. Ten guns were mounted in pits on this inner line. When it was passed there was a labyrinth of trenches, rifle-pits, bomb-proof shelters, mud-huts, and straw tukkuls. The camp, irregularly shaped, was about 1,200 yards across. It was crowded with men and animals, and in many of the pits camels, donkeys, mules, and horses were tethered. It must have been a very uncomfortable place to live in. The Dervish cavalry appear to have been camped outside of it,away to theright of the position.

WhenMahmoud heard that the Sirdar's army was approachinghe mounted his horse and rode round his lines to see that everyone was at the post assigned to him. Thisdone,he dismounted and took shelter in an underground bomb-proof in themiddle of the central citadel of the camp. Heafterwards protested against the idea that he had shown any want of couragein choosing this position. He had madeall the arrangementsfor the defence,he said,and there wasnothing more for him to do.

Meanwhile the Anglo-Egyptian army had formed in line of battle, and advanced to the topof a gravelly ridge, barelysix hundred yards from the zereba, andhaltedas it cameclearly in sight at this closerange. An undulating surface of sand and stones,with tufts of coarse,drygrass, extendedto the Dervishposition, andamongthe palms andalong the edge of the camp could be seen crowds of the enemy with their banners flying, pennons of blue and white, yellow and brown, with Arabic inscriptions — words from the Koran that weresupposed tobe talismans of victory. TheMahdist cavalry hadmounted,and were trotting out into the desert to the right, watched by Broadwood's squadrons. The great zerebahedge,of which so much hadbeen looked like a grey-green wall running through the scrub under the palms.

The Sirdar's battle-line was a littleover threequartersof amilelong from left to right. The squares had deployed into fighting formation, the two-deepline,shoulder to shoulder' that will never again be seen on a European battle-field, but which was the best to use against a halfsavage enemy, whose fire was always wild and high, and could not inflict much loss, even on troops advancing in serried ranks. Gatacre's Britishregiments werein front on the left. The Camerons, Seaforths,and Lincolns stood in line,