OMDURMAN 227 of heroism were performed. Many of those who got over returned to rescue officers or comrades, until at last all the survivors climbed the bank.

The brunt of the fighting fell upon the two central squadrons. iNot only were the enemy thickest where they charged, but the opposite bank of the deep nullah was composed of rough boulders almost impassable by horses ; these squadrons lost sixteen killed and nineteen wounded. Altogether twentytwo officers and men were killed and fifty wounded, and there were one hundred and nineteen casualties among the horses.

Once across, the survivors gathered at a point where their fire commanded the water-course, and, dismounting, speedily drove the Dervishes from it. On examining it afterwards it was found that sixty dead Dervishes lay where the central squadrons had cut their way through.

The charge in its daring and heroism resembled that of the 23rd Light Dragoons at Talavera. The fall into the ravine on that occasion was much deeper than that into which the Lancers dashed, but it was not occupied by a desperate force ; and although many were injured by the fall, it was in their subsequent charge against a whole French division that they were almost annihilated.

Both incidents were, like the Balaclava charge, magnificent, but they were not war. A desperate charge to cover the retreat of a defeated army is legitimate and worthy of all praise even if the gallant men who make it are annihilated, but this was not the case at Talavera nor at Omdurman.

It was a brilliant but a costly mistake. The bravery shown was superb, and the manner in which officers and men rode back into the struggling mass to rescue comrades beyond all praise ; but the charge should never have been made, and the lives were uselessly sacrificed.

As yet all was quiet at other points. Bodies of the enemy could be seen making their way towards Omdurman. The battery opposite the town had from early morning been keeping up a fire from its heavy guns upon it, but, save for the