GORDON AND THE MAHDI.

154 GENERAL EARLE.

hadlasted for five hours,and had been a gallantly contested affair from first to last. The enemy's force consisted of the Monassir and Rabatab tribesmen, with numerous dervishes from Berber. It was impossible to judge accuratelyof their numbers, as their position extendedover alarge range of rocky and broken ground. At all events their losses were very heavy,for the dead, amongwhomwere several ameers,lay piled up on the ridges whichthey had so stubbornlydefended, in heaps. On the British side one had to deplore the death of General Earle, of Colonels Coveny and Eyre, (of the Black Watch and the Staffordshire,respectively) and of sevennon-commissionedofficers andmen. The wounded were more numerous however, comprising four officers and forty-one men of the rank and file.

This was the last action of any realimportance in the campaign. GeneralEarle and the bravemen who had fallen with him were reverenth- interred on the battlefield; and General Brackenbury then proceeded in the directionof Abou Hammed. He hadalready pushed forward a considerable distance, and wouldno doubt have accomplished the mission assigned to him, when fresh instructionsreachedLord Wolseley fromEngland, andthe column wasorderedto retreat upon Korti. This was a task ofno littledifficulty, but General Brackenbury skilfully accomplishedit, and the column returned in safety to the headquarters camp. About the same time a similar duty devolved upon Major-General Sir Redvers Bullei*, whomLord Wolseleyhad despatchedto Gubat on Watch advanced, scaled the rocks, and at the point of the bayonetdrove the Arabs from their shelter.

General Earle went forward with the men, and on reachingthe crest of thehillhe approached a hut which he nodoubtbelieved to be deserted; although,according to some accounts, he had been previously warned that several Arabs wereinside. However thismayhavebeen, it appearsfromthe statement made by Sergeant Watts of the Black Watch, that the General enteredthe hut to examineit. The Arabs who wereinside at once sprang towardshim, and he hadbarelydischargedtwo chambers of the revolver he carried, whenoneof the rebels shot him through the head, throwing his gun at him afterwards. General Earle fell lifelessto the ground, but he didnot die unavenged. The troopsinstantly surrounded thehut, and the rebelsinside were all slain after a brief resistance.

While this actionwas proceeding the squadron of the 19th Hussars under ColonelBuller pushedonbeyond the scene of conflict and captured the enemy's camp three miles in the rear. General Brackenbury, who had assumed the command on the death of General Earle, now orderedthe wholeof the Staffordshiremen to storm ahighand rocky hill on which a number of rebels had takenrefuge. The enenry clungmostdesperately tothis position,and disputedthe ground inchby inch. Butthe Staffordshire men were not to be denied, and gallantly pressing forward, they at last drove the enemy from the hill. This brought the fight of Kirbekanto a close. It