TREPARING TO FIGHT. 65 wound would prove fatal, was so calm and collected that he was able to reply to Sir Charles Wilson—who asked him what had been his intentions—that in his opinion the best thing- to be done was either to go at once for Metammeh, or to repeat the plan adopted at Abu-Klea, of going out to fight for the water, and then returning to the seriba to carry the wounded and the stores down the Nile.

There was no time for hesitation. The enemy, including a large number of regular soldiers, was in force directly in front, and lines of banners could also be seen on the left and right, while the firing from the front and the right grew so hot that a company of guards and a company of the mounted infantry were sent out as skirmishers to keep it down; and during the time that the square Avas being formed the position became almost intolerable. Several of the officers had very narrow escapes. One had the button of his coat carried inside his shirt just above the belt; a bullet whizzed through the whisker of another; a third had his helmet shot through; and the sword scabbard of a fourth was struck, the bullet glancing off" to his ankle.

The march could not be commenced until the seriba was left in a condition to resist any attack that might be made upon it, and it Avas for this reason that the two small redoubts already mentioned were formed under a brisk fire.

The square Avas formed Avith the guards and mounted infantry in front and the heavies and Sussex in the rear; half the heavies being left at the seriba with the royal artillery and the naval brigade, their guns and the " Gardner" and all the camels, except those actually required for carrying the ambulance, reserve ammunition, and Avater. At each angle of the square Avere small reserves, dismounted hussars and sappers, to meet any repetition of the attempt to rush upon a corner of the square and bear it inward. Adjutant Crutchley, of the guards, was seriously wounded in the leg while the square Avas forming. The heavy fire of the enemy Avas, hoAvever, replied to from the redoubts, and as each corps came up, it lay down on the ground in proper position; the place chosen for assembling being just outside the hussars, Avhere Vol. IV 68