ON THE ROAD TO KHARTOUM. 491 am always somewhat sceptical as to the estimates made by a victorious army of the losses sustained by their opponents. Undoubtedly the Sirdar was fully justified in using the phrase he employed in his despatch, announcing the victory, as " the practical annihilation of the Khalifa's army." It so happened that some months after the battle of Omdurman, I happened to be a passenger in the same vessel in which Lord Kitchener was returning to Egypt after his visit to London. One day, while we were both sitting in the smoking-saloon, one of our fellowpassengers remarked to the Sirdar, " I suppose the charge of the Dervishes at Omdurman was a grand military spectacle ?" The Sirdars answer was, ** Well, it was not very much of a battle after all." And I believe this is the truest account ever yet given of the victory. At the same time the Sirdar was fully justified in declaring — to quote again the despatch sent after the battle — that the defeat of the Dervishes before Khartoum had brought about "the extinction of Mahdism in the Soudan, and the submission of nearly the whole country formerly ruled under Egyptian authority."

In the course of the afternoon of the day on which the victory had been won, the fortress of Omdurman surrendered ; and on the following Sunday the British and Egyptian flags were hoisted over the palace at Khartoum, where Gordon, thirteen years before, had found the death which ended his long agony.