222 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

don't know that higher praise could be given to any one. The void it left in every one's heart was very painful a void nothing could fill ; and for days afterwards I woke with a feeling of something gone. On hearing the sad news, the iQth Hussars, who had served under him in previous campaigns and were much attached to him, made a forced march in the hope of being in time for the funeral ; but they arrived, unfortunately, just too late.

The third piece of news was that an expedition had been ordered to Suakin, to make a diversion on the enemy's flank, and, if possible, to reinforce us by means of a railway to Berber.

The latter part of this intelligence was received with open mouths and incredulous smiles. That a railway should be laid down across two hundred and forty miles of desert in time to transport troops to Berber to our assistance was rather too much to swallow. Even if there was an autumn campaign, the chances of which were just dawning on us, we very much doubted the possibility of making a railway across a rocky, unsurveyed desert, devoid of water and