I I 2 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

The engagement had lasted four hours, and it was four o'clock before the steamers passed the last guns of the enemy. Then the commander and all the other Soudanese gave way to the crushing calamity that had fallen on them, and nothing but the sense of duty still to be done, and of the necessity for immediate action, would have prevented the British officers from giving way to an outburst of grief for the fate of the man whom they had gone out to rescue.

An island some miles down the river was reached by sunset, and two messengers wearing the Mahdi's uniform were sent out to obtain Information. One of them, who was to go to Khartum, reported on his return that he had met a Jali, who assured him that on the night of the 26th, which meant the night of our 25th to the 26th, Khartum had fallen by the treachery of Farag Pasha, commander of the regular troops, who had opened the gates for the followers of the Mahdi, and that Gordon had been killed with all his men. The Mudir of Khartum, Ahmad Bey Jalabi, had also been concerned in the treacherous act.

It was sorrowful intelligence, and so far confirmed what had been said by the Arabs who had been casually seen upon the shore, that a sense of deep depression settled down upon all on board the steamers, and must have told severely on the chief officer, Sir Charles Wilson, whose personal friendship and sincere admiration for Gordon lent an additional grief to news which affected every one, even the black soldiers, who showed with pride the pewter medals bestowed upon them by the great governorgeneral. But the British officers had other anxieties. The wounded had to be cared for, and Lieutenants Gascoigne and Stuart-Wortley undertook the duties that would have fallen to a regular surgeon had there been one on board. Again the collapse of the natives led some of them to contemplate deserting, even if there were not among them those who were so ready to make terms with the now-triumphant Mahdi that they would have turned traitors and deserters. It was thought necessary to keep a Sussex sentry ready, with orders to shoot any one attempting to leave either vessel. The cataracts were now more difficult than they had been