68 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

horseman got to within fifty to a hundred yards, and he also fell.

In a few minutes the whole of the front ranks were swept away, and then there was a hustling backward; the Arabs, brave as they were, could not stand that deadly fire poured against them with a precision that seemed to make every man a mark for a bullet.

.At the same time the surrounding hills were left bare of the thousands of Arabs, who, but a few minutes before, seemed to be about to come down and annihilate the little force. Three rinCTincr cheers arose from our men; victory was ours, but the work was not done yet: the Nile must be reached, if possible, before night had set in, and the heavy train of wounded must be borne thither. To men parched, faint, and weary from the excitement of such a day and from previous want of sleep, to march the remaining distance was a terrible task; but it had to be accomplished.

All the leaders of the defeated foe and about 300 dead lay in front of the square, and, as was afterwards discovered, numbers more had been killed in the long grass and behind the ridge, several of their wounded havinsf been taken into Metammeh. Our garrison in the seriba, too, had kept up their duel with the Arab riflemen at long ranges, and had fired at the masses of the enemy on the gravel hills in front of the squares, where the shells could occasionally be seen bursting and scattering the crowds, so that it was surmised that a large number of spearmen were prevented from joining the charge because they were driven from their position.

It was said that the whole of the people of the country side, amounting, with the tribesmen engaged in the battle, to more than 15,000, witnessed the engagement, which was afterwards called the battle of Gubat from the place afterwards occupied by our troops, which somehow came to be spoken of as Gubat, though it was really Abu-Kru. When the square mounted the ridge the flying enemy could be seen in all directions. The square had been halted for a few minutes after the fight was over, to refill pouches with ammunition and give the men a drink of water. Not a man had been killed by the charge, nor had one been touched by sword or spear.

The sun had just set as they resumed their march and reached