WARS OF THE NINETIES 178 considerable quantity of arms and ammunition was found there, including seventeen guns of various calibres. But besides the military stores there was a miscellaneous collection of various articles of European manufacture, the loot of the various garrisons that had been captured in the Soudanand of Hicks Pasha's unfortunate fired a salute, the bands playing the British National Anthem and the Khedive's March. Then followed a brief religious service in memory of the hero of the spot— Charles Gordon. There were some few among the officers who had shared in the unsuccessful attempt to come to his rescue thirteen years before. Three of thenewspaper correspondents, who looked on and recorded this solemn scene, had been with the little band that fought its way across the Bayuda Desert, only to arrive toolate. One of the four chaplains, the veteran FatherBrindle,had marched across the Bayuda with the Royal Irish in that terrible campaign. Here at last they wereallat Khartoum, too late, indeed, to save Gordon, but not too late to begin again carrying on that work of bringing justice and security to thepeople of the Soudan to which Gordon devoted so much of his best energies army.

There was very little of any value, and there were naturally anxious inquiries as to what had become of the treasure which the Khalifa was reported to have been accumulating for years. Rumour supplied various answers. One report was that his flight was encumbered with treasure-laden camels; another that it had been transferred to some hiding-place in Kordofan months ago; a third that it was buried somewherein Khartoum;and yet a fourth that it had been sent up the river shortly before in two armed steamers, which had as yet sent back no news. Whatever truth there may have been in any of the other reports, the last was baseless, for the steamers had gone on a much more serious mission.

The chaplains in turn offered prayer, then the band played the "Dead March" in Saul, and the pipers a wailing Highland coronach, while the steamers on the river fired nineteen minute guns. At the close of the service the Sirdar called for cheers for the Queen and the Khedive. Then the ranks were broken, and before returning across the river to Omdurman half an hour was given to all,officers and men, to have an opportunity of visiting the famous spots associated with Gordon's last days.

On the Sunday morningthere was a striking scene in Khartoum. The Sirdar and his staff, with the officers commanding brigades and divisions, and as many of the British officers as could be spared from duty, were ferried across the Nile from Shambat to the ruined city. With them went guards of honour of several of theBritishregiments, of Gordon'sowncorps, the Royal Engineers, of the Royal Artillery, and of the nth Soudanese. The band of the Soudanese and the pipers of the Camerons and Seaforths were also present. The troops were formed in a hollow square, just in front of the ruined palace, close to the spot where Gordon was killed. Two flagstaffs had been erected on the palace wall,and by each stood a couple of officers. At a signal from the Sirdar they hoisted at one staff the Union Jack, at the other the Khedive's flag— red with a white crescent— while the two gunboats on the river When the news of the battle of Omdurman and therecaptureof Khartoum reached England there was a disposition to speak of the victoryas the avenging of Gordon. Such an idea was certainly out of accord with Gordon's own way of thinking,and one of his sisters'public!)' protested against it. The truer idea was that we had not come for vengeance,but to destroy a hideous tyranny which had undone Gordon's life-work in the Soudan, and of which an end had to be made before Gordon's work could be resumed.