The Sirdar's Fleet--Difficulties of Navigation--The Loss of the _Zaphir_--Concentration of Friendlies at Wad Hamed--Their Love for Firearms--Rout of a Dervish Detachment--Gunboats shell the Kerreri Ridge and Riverside Villages--Some Faint-hearted Friendlies--Gallantry of the Gaalin--Tuti Island--The Shelling of the Mahdi's Tomb--Gunboats silence the Forts--Lyddite Shells--Maxim Fire upon the Fugitives--Gunboats proceed up the River--The Fate of Gordon's old Flotilla 203 CHAPTER VI AFTER THE BATTLE The Mahdi's Tomb--A Wounded Man lands under False Pretences--Villiers' Bicycle in Omdurman--Loathsome Streets--The Arsenal--Dervish Ammunition--The "Man-stopping" Bullet--Awful Effects of Modern Rifle Fire--The Gordon Memorial Service--Varieties of Loot--A Tommy's Quaint Mistake--Enrolment of Dervishes under the Khedive's Flag--Charles Neufeld--The Austrian Sisters--Slatin Pasha in Camp--Good-bye to Omdurman--We strike on a Sandbank--Our Sleeping Arrangements--Failure of Attempts to move Gunboat--A Soldier Drowned--A Dead Egyptian--We get off the Bank--Loss of my Luggage--Cross goes to Hospital--Delays on Homeward Journey--Mohammedan Divorce Laws--A Camel dies from the Bite of an Asp--A Good Dinner--From Alexandria to Marseilles--Announcement of Cross's Death--The Future of the Sudan 222 MAP AND PLANS THE NILE FROM THE ATBARA TO KHARTUM _Facing page 104_ THE BATTLE OF OMDURMAN (TWO PLANS) _Facing page 202_ PLAN OF OMDURMAN AND KHARTUM TO ILLUSTRATE THE OPERATIONS OF THE GUNBOATS AND THE FRIENDLIES _Facing page 214_ THE DOWNFALL OF THE DERVISHES CHAPTER I FROM CAIRO TO THE ATBARA Towards the end of last July I heard to my great joy, from the editor of the _Westminster Gazette_, that a permit had been granted me to act as his special correspondent during the forthcoming campaign in the Sudan. Sinister rumours had been afloat for a long time to the effect that the utmost difficulty would be experienced in securing such permission, and several officials at the Foreign Office had warned applicants that even in the event of a formal pass beyond Wady Halfa being accorded, there would be no certainty that correspondents would be allowed to proceed actually to the front. The baselessness of these apprehensions was amply shown by subsequent events. War correspondents in the recent campaign had little to complain of on the score of any curtailment of their liberty of movement, though the Sirdar's subsequent refusal to take any pressmen to Fashoda may have provoked some unreasonable criticism.