THE RECONOUEST OF THE SOUDAN. i77 The Sirdar had crossed the Nile on Saturday, and paid a brief visit to Khartoum,accompanied by his officers. The former capital of the Soudan had shrunk to a riverside village, surroundedby ruins. Near the Nile bank, among the bushes,stood one of the movablepumpingengines which Gordon had tried to introduce as an improvement on the centuries-old waterwheel system. His palace, where he spent those last anxious months of his heroic career, was a huge ruin. The roof and more lightly-built Thousands or prisoners had been collected on the field, thousands more came in on the morrow of the battle and during the following days, There were at least 10,000 prisoners unwounded, without counting the thousands more who, although they wore the jibba and carried arms, had not actually fought against the Sirdar's army, but had taken the first opportunity of deserting from the Khalifa's levies. The great mass of the prisoners were disarmed and set at liberty at once. Only HOISTING THE BRITISH AND EGYPTIAN FLAGS AT KHARTOUM.

upper storey were gone, but the solidly-built lower walls were standing, though the flooring, beams, and planks had be >ved for the construction of newer buildings in Omdurman, m. that all the rooms, evenon the groundfloor, were open to the sky. The staircase by which Gordon had come down to meet his murderers was also gone, but the natives were able to point out where it stood.

The only important buildingthat wasingood repair was the large house of the Catholic mission, to which Father Ohrwalder and his fellowprisoners had once belonged. The bouse and its courtyard had been turned into an arsenal and storehouse by the Khalifa, and u the emirs and Bag): ere detained under guard. Altogether, between released prisoners and refugees, some forty thousand people were sent back to their homes in the first week after the victory.

The AIil- inian prisoners found in the great prison of Omdurman, a hundred and fifty in number, were taken special care of, and town the Nile to Cairo, with orders that they should be conveyed at the expense of the Egyptian Government to Massowah, in order to reach their native country. It was hoped that this Iriendly action towards his subjects would give England and Egypt an additional n on Mem od will. 12