224 WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOUDAN the casualties had been few. In their desperate attempt to get at close quarters the Dervish riflemen had not stopped to reload the weapons they had discharged, and there was practically no return to the awful Are to which they had been exposed.

But while Yacoub’s force had been terribly punished, and the main body, brought to a stand-still at a distance of fourteen hundred yards, had suffered almost as heavily, the battle had not gone so well to the right of our position, towards which the Edialifa was now moving. Broadwood’s horse and the camel corps had been driven off the hill they occupied, and so fierce was the attack that three of the guns of the horse-battery had to be left behind. The camel corps were ordered to retire rapidly and make for shelter to the right rear of the camp. The force made two or three stands, and the Egyptian cavalry more than once charged the pursuing horsemen. The gun-boats opened fire and covered the final retirement of the camel corps, which had lost eighty men. The cavalry did not retire to the zareba, but continued to fall back, occasionally turning and facing the enemy, until they were five miles away, when the Dervishes gave up the pursuit, and sat down to rest after their tremendous exertions.

Although forced to retire, the cavalry had done good service, for they had drawn off a great body of the enemy at a critical moment, and these were unable to return and take part in the battle still raging. At length the Khalifa moved off with all his force behind the western hills, and for a short time there was a lull in the battle. Many of the wounded tribesmen crawled up to within seven or eight hundred yards of the zareba and there opened fire. Their aim was good, and men began to drop fast in spite of the volleys fired to clear off the troublesome foe. But their fire was soon disregarded, for from the ravines in the range of low hills behind which the Khalifa’s force had disappeared, a mass of men burst out at a hard run. Erom their shelter behind Surgham