196 WITH KITCHENEK IN THE SOUDAN The next morning was a quiet one, and in the afternoon all marched off to the old camp at Abadar. On Sunday they rested, and on Monday the British brigade marched to Hudi, and then across the desert to Hermali, where they were to spend the summer. The Sirdar rode with the Egyptian brigades to Fort Atbara, Macdonald’s brigade was to go on to garrison Berber, Maxwell’s to Assillem, and that of Lewis to remain at Atbara.

The question of the prisoners was already half solved. Alm ost all of them willingly embraced the offer to enlist in the Egyptian army. Many of the women found their husbands among the prisoners; others agreed at once to marry men of the Soudanese battalion; the rest, pending such offers as they might receive in the future, decided to remain at Atbara. At Berber their lot would have been a hard one, for they would have been exposed to the hatred and spite of the Jaalin women there, whose husbands had been massacred at Metemmeh. Fatma, with two attendants only, accompanied Macdonald’s brigade to Berber.

On arriving outside the town the force encamped. Next day the Sirdar, with his staff and General Hunter, came up, and on the following morning made a triumphant entry into the town, followed by the Soudanese brigade. Berber was prepared to do honour to the occasion. Flags waved, coloured cloths and women’s garments hung from the windows, and the whole population lined the streets and received the conquerors with cries of welcome and triumph. They had anticipated a very different result, and had fully expected that the army would have been well-nigh annihilated, and that again the triumphant Dervishes would become their masters. But the sight of Mahmud walking a prisoner, with two guards on each side of him, convinced them that the reports that had reached them were true, that the Dervishes had been signally defeated, and that there was no fear of their ever again becoming lords of Berber.

The Sirdar, by whose side General Hunter rode, headed