IN SIGHT OF THE ENEMY. 49 SO that the column seemed to be led by a struggling crowd of men and riderless camels, which kept on and on and could not be driven back. The moment the halt was sounded men lay down to try to snatch a few minutes' sleep even amidst the groans of the beasts and the moans of their drivers, which rose, so Colonel Wilson tells us, in one continuous roar, which must have been heard at Metammeh, and probably gave the enemy the first notice of the approach of our men.

As Sir Herbert Stewart desired to reach the Nile without being seen he had perhaps better have left the guide to take them in the way which he was going, though it was thought that it would have led to a point too far from the town, and the plan had been to arrive at a place not more than three miles distant. Progress was slow—not more than a mile an hour; and half an hour before daylight a halt was called that they might see where they were and to give time for the rear to close up.

They could not at anyrate reach the Nile before daylight, and so the guide was ordered to take the shortest way that they might arrive without being discovered by the enemy. He was accordingly placed under a cavalry escort and turned in another direction. The Nile was then about six miles distant, and after another two miles of slow and wearisome marching the advanced men came upon some herds of goats, Avhich were quickly appropriated and supplied the lucky fellows in front with a draught of milk apiece. The officer sent forward to reconnoitre reported that he had seen Metammeh, heard the beating of the tomtoms, and observed the troops there in regular formation moving over the gravel ridge on which the town was built. It was now of little use trying to avoid being seen, and on mounting a ridge our men could see the valley beneath, a wide belt of vegetation with the river running through it, a number of large regularly built villages, a large town about four miles to the left in front, and another smaller town on the other side—the former Metammeh, the latter Shendy. Numbers of the enemy were moving down from the town, some coming straight towards our column or our hussars, who had moved forward as far as Vol. IV. B7