118 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE JOURNEY BACK.

The hero of the war in the Soudan is dead. We need not now dwell on the comparatively unimportant after-events.

The two steamers fared ill on their way back. The firing was vigorously kept up against them, and they had hard work slipping past the guns which lined the banks. On the 29th one steamer went aground sixty miles above Gubat. The remaining steamer, having rescued the crew, kept on its solitary way. But only for another twenty miles. Then it too struck a rock and sank in deep water. All the guns, stores, and ammunition of both steamers were lost. Sir Charles Wilson escaped with the members of his party and the crew from the wreck of his steamer in a small nuggar to the island, where they entrenched themselves. At three in the morning of the Gth of February the troops at Gubat were thrown into a state of intense excitement by the appearance of a small row-boat coming down the Nile. It contained Lieutenant Stuart-Wortley, with two men (another report says with three English soldiers and natives from Khartoum), wdio had rowed forty miles down stream—a most perilous venture—fortunately, they were not molested. The camp was horror-stricken. No tongue or pen can adequately describe, says the correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, the effect produced in all hearts by the fatal announcement. It was so little expected that the men had been comforting themselves with the prospect of being able to relieve the long beleaguered city, and cheer its heroic defender within a few weeks at latest. The news fell like a thunderbolt in our camp, and has saddened and depressed the stoutest hearts. Eager inquiries were made on all sides about Gordon, but it could only be replied that the steamers could not get close enough in shore to ascertain anything positively.

At two o’clock Lord Charles Beresford left on a steamer flying the British ensign to rescue Sir Charles Wilson and his party on the island. He took with him twenty picked marksmen of the Royal Rifles attached to the Mounted Infantry. The Mahdi’s irregular followers were gathering round that point, and this the third relief expedition it almost seemed was to share the fate of its predecessors. But not quite. Still it was a daring exploit and the dangers were great. The gauntlet had to be run between crowds of rebels, and under a heavy fire. One steamer was shot through the boiler and