52 EGYFT AND THE SOUDAN.

garrison who would stay behind to protect them. During this time about five-and-twenty men were killed, and it was quite early during the confusion that Cameron was shot in the back as he rose from the place where he had seated himself near his camels and reached his hand for a box of sardines which his servant had brought for him. St. Leger Herbert, a delightful companion and highly accomplished man, a great friend both of General Stewart and Colonel Wilson, had gone with the wounded general to the hospital, where he assisted the aide-de-camp to attend to him. He had been writing at Stewart's dictation and had just come back to fetch his water-bottle before joining the square when he was killed on the spot.

Cameron had had a presentiment of death during the previous night march and was strangely solemn and foreboding: a very different thing from being afraid, for probably few men knew less of fear. He was held in high regard by officers and men as well as by his colleagues; and he had been through greater perils than most of those who were his companions in Egypt. Few of liis friends who met him at the Savage Club in London (the writer of these lines among them) just before his departure for the Soudan thought that he was going on his last campaign. His description of the journey of the desert column from Korti to Abu-Kru was not received at the office of the Standard in London till after his death; and there seems to be in it a strange sense of impending trouble. This letter is characteristic of the style of one of the ablest of war correspondents.

" General Stewart's previous march to Gakdul and back was more of the nature of a successful reconnaissance made in search of water. We were now in grim earnest bound on a dash straight across, to plunge unsupported into the heart of the enemy's country, and amidst a population all of them avowed disciples of the Crescentade against infidels everywhere, inaugurated by Mahomed Achmet, the Mahdi of the Soudan. No wonder that the natives who watched looked upon us as men doomed to destruction, for had not three large armies more numerous than ours, and as well equipped, already passed over the same road.