163 CHAPTER XXLL THE CRISIS OF THE BA'TLE.

WHILE the Lancers were desperately charging the Dervishes on the other side of the Jebel Surgham ridge, the infantry brigades, British and Egyptian, were moving out from the ground they had held so well, to take up the echelon formation already described for the advance into Omdurman. The leading British brigade had marchedat half-pastnine, and was just topping the sandy ridge betweenSurgham and the river, its four battalionsmarching abreast in column. The Sirdar andhis staff were ridingclose to it on the ridge,being anxious to see as soon as might be what was out in front. The other brigades weremoving into the positions assigned to them for the advance. Several of the regiments were marching on ground that had been swept by ourfire, and frequently wounded fanatics would spring up and fire on the men or try to close withthem. They were bayoneted or shot;but, apart from this desultory shooting, all fire had ceasedfor some time. Most of the British and Egyptian* felt fairly certain that the battle was over,and that if theDervishes wereencountered again it would be further south, on the march betweenthe Surgham ridge and the suburbs of Omdurman.

triumphs of El Obeid and Khartoum, and had at one time seemed a likely competitor against Abdullahihimself for the Khalifate. The other columnon the right was commandedby Yakub, the Khalifa's brother, and the Khalifa himself accompanied it, bringing his black banner into the battlefor the second time.

MacDonald's brigade was marching out to takeup itsposition nearest the hills and furthest to the rear in the great echelon. He had with him the 2nd Egyptians, underMajor Pink, and the three oldest of the Soudanese battalions— the 9th under Major Walter, the 10th under Major Nason, and the nth under the command of Major Jackson— in all, about 3,000 first-rate infantry. ColonelLong, theartillery commander, had sent to this side of the field three of the Egyptian batteriesof Maxim-Nordenfeldt quickfirers, commandedrespectively by Majors Peake andLawrie and Captain de Rougemont. Mac-Donald had also with him a couple of Maximgun detachments. It was fortunate that he was so strong inartillery, for on his isolated brigade the storm of the Dervish attack burst in its full fury.

He had the briefest warning from the cavalry of what was coming. Then, as he formed up his brigade in line facing westward, Yakub's column poured down upon him, wave upon wave,from the hills. MacDonald wasdeploying into line— the nth Soudanese on his left, the 2nd Egyptians in his centre, the 10th Soudanese on the right, with the 9th behind them in support. The 9th rushed up to prolong the line, the Maxims were placed on the flanks of the brigade, and the batteries unljmbered and r;ame into action in intervals left for the purpose between the battalions. Thusthe Dervish onset was met by a hail of bullets and shells from eighteen guns and 3,000 rifles, the Soudanese firing independently, the Egyptians in steady volleys. The nearest infantry brigade, Lewis's, wasnearly a mile away. Forabrief anxious ten minutesMacDonald had all the battle to himself. Hunter, always keen to be at the post of danger, had galloped up to the threatened brigade as But, screened by the hills that looked down on thebattlefield, the Khalifa was gathering his army for a last greateffort. It waswellplanned, and against less thoroughly trained troops than those who met it this onset might have ended in a victory for Mahdism. The warriors engaged in this second attack had for the most part taken no share,or only a slight one, in the earlier advance. The Dervishes were massed in two huge columns, which were to make a' converging attack on the Egyptian right and right rear. The left column, composed largely of those who had been in action against Colonel Broadwood and the mounted troops, was commanded by the Khalifa's son Osman, the Sheikhed-Din, and a more experienced warrior, the Emir Ali Wad Helu, who had been one of the earliest companionsof the Mahdi, had shared in the victory over Hicks at Kashgii and the