The entire camp, with its countless tents, donkeys, and mules, fell into the hands of the Mahdiists. The captured animals were in such quantities that the victors could not possibly carry them off, and in consequence they either hamstrung them or cut their throats. Amongst the other things captured were two guns. The road to Gondar, the former capital of Abyssinia, was now clear, and Abu Anga advanced towards it, hoping that he would secure great quantities of treasure. It was a march of only thirty miles from the battlefield, and was soon reached; sacked, plundered, and reduced to ashes; the churches were pillaged and then burnt; priests were thrown down from the roof and killed; the population massacred, and women and children dragged in hundreds into slavery. Abu Anga only stayed a short time in Gondar, the change of climate had already caused the death of a number of his troops, and, laden with booty, he returned to Galabat, which he reached at the end of December. Meanwhile there was great anxiety in Omdurman. Abdullah could not conceal his alarm, for it was well known that the Abyssinian army was very powerful. Abu Anga had crossed the border thirty days before, and still no news reached Abdullah: those who did not wish the Dervishes well, rejoiced at the thought that a great part of the army must have been destroyed, and the anxiety so told on Abdullah, that he was seen to visibly age in this momentous time. Besides, there was the prophecy of Mohammed, who had forbidden his followers to make war against the Abyssinians, unless the latter first provoked it. Abu Anga's expedition was in direct disobedience to this order, and it was thought that he must suffer defeat as a punishment, and it was urged that if Abu Anga returned in safety, then the Prophet Mohammed must be a liar as well as the Mahdi. At length the arrival of twelve heads which Abu Anga had sent to Galabat proved conclusively that a great victory had been won, and now the news of the destruction of Gondar and the return of Abu Anga's victorious troops was indeed a welcome relief to the terrible suspense. This news was followed up soon afterwards by the arrival of numbers of women and children, and quantities of loot. Several of these miserable captives had died on the journey, and those who had not been already sold, had their ears cut off, and were sent to the beit el mal. Abdullah, without the smallest shame, went himself to the beit el mal, and chose all the best-looking girls for his harem, and each of the principal men of his household received an Abyssinian girl as a present.