THE END OF THE STORY? 263 of Sir H. D. Woolf—do not come into these last pages of the present narrative.

The latest event which can now engage our attention may be said to conclude this story of the war in Egypt and the Soudan. On the morning of the 7th of October the "friendlies" in the district of Suakim did what had been expected of them, and captured Tamai in a desperate fight, in which two hundred of the rebel followers of Osman Digma were slain, numbers were wounded, and forty were taken prisoners.

The force of the friendlies was a small one, but they fought valorously under their leader, Ahmed. Twenty of them were killed and twenty wounded; but all the principal men of the rebels were slain, and a large amount of booty fell to the victors. Colonel Kitchener gave orders to grant quarter to everyone, and sent out a transport detachment to bring in the enemy's guns, the friendlies still pursuing the enemy. The road to Tokar was open, and the event was considered to be likely to effect the pacification of the Eastern Soudan. At that time the enemy at Dongola was said not to exceed two thousand.

As regards the British troops then in Egypt, it may be mentioned that on the 6th of July the forces were said to be as follows:—At Alexandria a battery of artillery, the ist battalions of the Dorsetshire and Essex Regiments, and half of the ist battalion of the King's (Shropshire Light Infantry). At Cairo three batteries of artillery, a company of engineers, the 1st battalions of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and the Cheshire Regiment, the 2d battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment, the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, and half of the first battalion of the King's (Shropshire Light Infantry). At Assouan the 20th Hussars, two batteries of artillery, a company of Engineers, the ist battalion of the Princess of Wales' Own (Yorkshire Regiment), and the 2d battalion of the Durham Light Infantry.

Little remains to be said. During the course of this story of a remarkable episode in English history we have made such comments as it may be hoped have served to elucidate the scope and effects of the events that have been described, and it is not within the province of the narrator (even if it would be acceptable to the reader) to say more than a few words on the probable results of the war in Egypt and the Soudan. We have not yet seen the end, or even the near consequences ; but whatever may be our opinion on the subject of the occupation of Egypt, and of the expeditions which were sent to the Nile, across the desert, and to the shores of the Red Sea, one thing is certain, Egypt has been compared to a stagnant pool into which a stone being thrown, a few circling eddies rise and spread and are lost, and all remains as still and lifeless as before. But the stone that was cast into Egypt in the time of Mehemet Ali, stirred it into more than