CHAPTER XXV. ON CAMELS ACROSS THE GREAT NUBIAN DESERT. Father Ohrwalder and Sisters Venturini and Chincarini escape--The ride for life--The rencontre with the Dervish guard near Abu Hamed--Alarm of the party--The journey across the great Nubian desert--Five hundred miles on camel-back in seven days--Arrival at the Egyptian outpost at Murat--Safe at last--Arrival in Cairo 424 CHAPTER XXVI. THE PRESENT KHALIFA'S DESPOTISM IN THE SUDAN. Reflections on the situation in the Sudan--The horrors of the present Khalifa's rule--How long shall it continue? 447 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, MAP AND PLAN. PAGE Father Ohrwalder, Sisters Venturini and Chincarini, and their servant Adila (_Frontispiece_). Zubeir Pasha 8 A native woman of Dongola 65 Hicks Pasha 74 Colonel Arthur Farquhar (Chief of Staff) 80 A Baggara emir, present at the annihilation of the Hicks Expedition, and afterwards captured at Toski 89 Father Ohrwalder's interview with the Mahdi at Rahad, concerning religion 107 The gold medal struck by Gordon to commemorate the siege of Khartum 122 A Dervish emir present in the attack on Khartum, and afterwards captured at Toski 136 An Egyptian Harem woman 156 "Many a time did I turn round to look back, until Bonomi disappeared from view in the wood" 181 A slave woman from Equatoria 209 Abyssinian dancing girls 243 An Arab sheikh of Upper Egypt 255 Bishir Bey, sheikh of the Ababdeh Arabs 259 Wad en Nejumi (from a photograph of a drawing made by an Egyptian officer of the great Emir, as he lay dead on the field of Toski) 264 A native woman of Makaraka, the wife of one of Emin Pasha's officers, who reached Egypt from Uganda in June 1892 270 A trophy of arms, banners, and drums, captured from the Dervishes 305 Charles Neufeld 354 A slave girl from Equatoria 382 A Baggara woman 398