262 Seven Vears in the Soudan.

in which, against my will, I was obliged to take part. The fight became general all along the line, but in two hours and a half the rebels were repulsed. My troops, blinded by their success, rushed to attack the enemy's barricades, in spite of the retreat being sounded. On reaching the barricades, my men fell under the enemy's fire in such numbers that they were obliged to fall back some two hundred feet to recover, in a locality sheltered from the enemy's balls. It was late in the day and time to think of returning to camp. It was then that we suffered most from the pursuit, although our retreat was executed in good order, the men replying to the enemy's fire at every three or four paces. Three of my orderlies were killed, my horse wounded in two places, and once we were obliged to prevent the retreat from degenerating into a flight. After repulsing our adversaries once more, we returned little by little into the camp. This flight was the only one of . the campaign in which the enemy could boast of some advantage. But it Avas not my fault, and if the soldiers had obeyed orders, we should not have had to deplore so great a loss. The rebels, to celebrate their victory, let off fireworks all night, accompanied b} firing and shouts of jo}' ; they certainly believed Ave were definitely beaten. I passed the Avhole night in rendering what little surgical assistance I could to the wounded, but they AA'ere so manj that I could help but few, and was myself so Aveakened by priA'ation that I felt I should surely die if attacked b} fcAer, The onl} advantage that accrued from the fight was, that f aAoured by the darkness, a thousand slaves escaped into the AA'oods.

After much thought I conceiAed a plan of routing the rebels from their position. It was to make myself master of the torrent whence they procured water. This torrent AA'as at about nine hundred feet from their entrenchments, so I had a large