the enemy had come within 300 yards of the square, from which volley after volley was now suddenly poured forth, and with such deliberation that the Arab spearmen turned and fled, not one of them getting within fifty yards of Wilson’s position. This is the only instance where British troops in the Soudan won a complete victory without being themselves touched by sword or spear. The square now hastened on to the river, and camped for the night. Next day (20th) they carried water to their wounded comrades in the zareba. They then conveyed them down to the camp by the Nile,[222] where they found some of Gordon’s steamers waiting for them. Wilson’s force was now in a sorry plight, and before he took command discontent was smouldering in its ranks. It had been kept toiling and fighting for four days with little food and less sleep. It had lost in killed and wounded one-tenth of its number. And now with its General disabled, it found itself encumbered by a heavy train of wounded, without means of communication with its base, menaced by a formidable fortress, and assured that two great armies were closing on it from Berber and Khartoum. Little wonder that the soldiers murmured sulkily that they had been led into a trap. Wilson’s orders were, that on arriving at the river he must proceed to Khartoum with a small detachment, the mere exhibition of whose red coats Lord Wolseley imagined would cause the Mahdi to raise the siege. But Wilson was not to let his men even sleep in Khartoum, and he was only to stay there long enough to confer with Gordon! In plain English, Lord Wolseley ordered him to march twenty or thirty men into Khartoum and come away again, after telling Gordon, who was every day awaiting his doom, that he must expect no effective succour till far on in March. Wilson, however, resolved, like a loyal commander, not to desert his comrades until he had seen them safely entrenched--and till he had, by reconnoitring, allayed their dread of an attack from Berber. The Naval Brigade was so disabled that he was forced to use Gordon’s crews for the steamers, and, in obedience to Gordon’s instructions, he had to weed out of these crews all untrustworthy Egyptians. He had also to reconnoitre the fortress of Metamneh.