212 WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOUDAN them, as the fellow’s own comrades regarded him, as one of them said, as “ an insufferable ass.” Still, he could not help wishing to himself that the missing heir might turn up in time to disappoint him.

General Hunter started next day at noon with two of his brigades and the mounted troops, the other two brigades following at nightfall. The previous night had been one of the most unpleasant Gregory had ever spent. The long-expected rain had come at last. It began suddenly ; there was a flash of lightning, and then came a violent burst of wind which tore down the tents and the flimsy shelters of the Egyptians and Soudanese. ‘ Before this had ceased, the rain poured down in a torrent; lightning, wind, and rain kept on till morning, and when the start was made everyone was soaked to the skin. The Egyptian baggage left at the same time in native craft.

That evening they arrived at the mouth of the Shabluka Cataract. Here it had been expected that the advance would be opposed, as strong forts had been erected by the enemy, the river narrowed greatly, and precipitous rocks rose on either side. Through these the course was winding and the current ran with great strength, the eddies and sharp bends making it extremely difficult for the gun-boats to keep their course ; indeed it would have been impossible for them to get up had the forts been manned, as they would have had to pass within two hundred yards of the guns. But although the forts could hardly have been attacked by the gun-boats, they were commanded by a lofty hill behind them, and the scouts had discovered some weeks before that the Dervishes had retired from the position and that the passage would be unopposed. Maxwell’s and Colville’s brigades started at four that afternoon, and the next day the whole division was established at El Hejir above the cataracts.

Lyttleton’s brigade started at five o’clock a.m. on the 25th, the gun-boats and other steamers moving parallel with them along the river. At five in the afternoon the first