The picket turned out, and, as the Arabs were some of them quite close to them, the sentries retired upon it. The enemy kept on firing for about five minutes, then ceased; and the sentries were advanced again, but somewhat closer in than before, since, but for the dog, these two would have been cut off.

They were relieved presently; but there were two other alarms in the night, and the troops in the zereba did not get a very sound rest, having thus to stand to their arms three times.

The morning at length dawned, and a sharp fire was maintained for some time from the hills, the pickets being withdrawn into the zereba. Then the enemy advanced in two long lines, with banners flying, five thousand of them, an imposing spectacle, and the English soldiers grasped their weapons, thinking that the struggle had come at last. But not yet was it to be. The enemy declined to push the attack home, but halted at a distance, keeping up a galling fire. So, as men began to drop, and the day was slipping on, General Stewart determined at ten o'clock to take the initiative.

The camels and other enc.u.mbrances were left in the zereba with a guard, and the square advanced, working round the left of the enemy's position.

The Arabs retreated, and some of our young soldiers began to antic.i.p.ate an easy victory. But the enemy showed that they too could manoeuvre; suddenly wheeling to the left, they came down like an avalanche on the rear of the square, bearing back the men composing it, and breaking in at one of the corners.

Why detail the scene? It was very much the same as that which occurred the year before at Tamai, on the Red Sea side, to the Second Brigade, and which was described while we were following the fortunes of Tom Strachan. The hand-to-hand fighting was desperate, the slaughter terrible, and the enemy was finally beaten back. No matter; a step was taken, though deep in blood, towards the great object--the relief of Khartoum, and the rescue of Gordon, and hope beat high in every breast.

Next day, January the nineteenth, General Stewart left his wounded at the wells of Abu Klea, which had been won, and pushed forward for Matammeh at three in the afternoon. No resistance was met with, no sign of the enemy perceived all night, and when the day dawned a thread of silver shone in the south-east, and a hundred voices broke out simultaneously in a chorus of--

"The Nile!"

Yes, there was the river, and as the light grew stronger the town of Matammeh could be distinguished. At the same time the tam-tams were heard beating, and the enemy appeared swarming over the hills which intervened between the British army and the river.

Another zereba was constructed, for the men were exhausted with fatigue and want of food, and it was not thought wise to give battle until they were refreshed, for it is ill fighting on an empty stomach. So breakfast was got ready, the troops of the Mahdi gathering round the while, like the ma.s.ses of a thunder-cloud.

Presently it burst forth, with rifle flashes for lightning, and a deadly leaden hail. Vainly the men piled up camel furniture, barrels, sacks, sand-bags, for protection; the bullets came amongst them in a storm, and they fell in all directions. And then a rumour ran through all the ranks which spread, not dismay, indeed, nor consternation, but a stern tightening of the heart-strings and bracing of the muscles, with a desire to shoot straight and strike home. The general was. .h.i.t! Yes, the n.o.ble Stewart was down!

Sir Charles Wilson now took command. A redoubt was constructed by the Royal Engineers on the right of the zereba, and manned by fifty-five Life Guardsmen and Scots Greys under Lord Cochrane, and by this means the enemy's fire was somewhat held in check.

At length the longed-for opportunity for vengeance came; the square left the zereba and advanced upon the foe. Straight it went for the sandy ridge held by the enemy, who came charging down with their accustomed reckless courage.

But this time they did not get up to the square. The ground was too open, the zone of fire too unimpeded, the shooting too steady. Down they went in hecatombs. At one hundred yards their pace was checked, those behind embarra.s.sed by the heaps of dead and dying blocking their path. Still they struggled on to get to close quarters with the English, but at thirty yards the withering volleys were too deadly even for their supernatural bravery, and they broke and fled. Steadily advanced the English troops over the ridge of sand, firing carefully while the fugitives were within range; then down to the Nile at Gubat, near Matammeh, victorious indeed, but having paid a high price for victory.

"If them Arabs takes to shooting straight, and won't come on any more, it strikes me we shall be in a hole," said Thomas Dobbs to Grady.

"True for you, me boy," replied the Irishman.

"Or at any rate we shall not be able to go about in square for them to get all round and blaze away into the brown of us." And there were some of higher rank who began to entertain the same misgivings.

To resist a rush, the square was excellent, but for a long-continued fire without coming to close quarters it was impossible. Many of the more sanguine, however, hoped that the tremendous losses the Arabs had sustained would dishearten them--that they would awake to the fact that the Mahdi was by no means invincible, and had deceived them.

As for Gordon, had they not had a message from him? "All right; could hold out for years."

Their chivalrous dash across the desert, and the hard fighting against enormous odds, the loss of valuable men, and the fall of their general, were not fruitless then, since the object of the expedition would be attained.

"Sure we will all get a bar with _Khartoum_ on it under a medal!" said Grady.

"Medals! Bars! Yah!" cried Tarrant.

"I'd sooner have tuppence a day extra for beer."

"We've got naither the medal nor the bar nor Khartoum yet, d'ye ken?"

said Macintosh.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

BIR-HUMP.

"And when will we be after attacking Matammeh?" asked Grady, as he sat over the bivouac fire.

"Precious soon, I should think; we can't get on to Khartoum till it's taken," said Kavanagh.

"And for why not?" asked Grady again.

"Eh, man!" exclaimed Macintosh, "ye would na go past it and leave all these thousands of heathens in our rear, would ye? With an army at Khartoum in front, and the army here in our rear, we should be between two fires, don't ye see? Never a mouthful of grub or a cartridge could get to us, and we should be peppered on all sides at once."

"We might as well risk it and get it over," said Tarrant.

"We get nothing fit to eat as it is."

"I call that stupid, talking like that!" cried Dobbs. "I know the rations are a deal better than ever I expected; capital, I call them."

"So they are," said Macintosh; "but if Tarrant had sheep's-head, haggis, and whusky itsel' for dinner, he would na be contented."

"Every man to his taste," growled Tarrant; "and if a chap likes tinned meat he's welcome. I prefer good beef and mutton, fresh-killed, with plenty of potatoes and white bread."

"And a little tripe and onions, or a swatebread after it, with pudding and lashings of sherry wine, I'll be bound," said Grady.

"Get along wid ye, it's Lord Mayor of London ye ought to be. Why, man, it's fighting and not ating ye've come out here for."

"Well, I got plenty of that between Abu Klea and this, anyway," replied Tarrant. "A bullet went through my water-bottle early on the eighteenth, and I was without a drop for hours. I believe I have worse luck than anybody."

"Worse luck than anybody, you ungrateful beggar!" cried Smith.

"And how about Richardson, your rear rank man, who got the same bullet which spoilt your bottle into his body, and died in pain that evening?

I suppose you would rather _his_ water-bottle had been hit and _your_ inwards!"

Tarrant busied himself in stuffing and lighting his pipe, and made no reply.

"Well, for my part, I hope we shall have a cut in at Matammeh to- morrow," said Kavanagh, "so as to get on up the river at once."

"Aye, I hope we may," echoed half a dozen voices in chorus.

"Gordon and the poor chaps with him must be pretty well sick of waiting to be relieved, hemmed in all the time by those blood-thirsty savages."

"Eh, but it must have been bad last March, when our people won the victory at Tamai, and they thought at Khartoum that they were coming across to them," said Macintosh.

"And then to hear they had gone awa again, and left them without a bit of help but themselves."

"Sure, won't they be glad when they hear our guns!" cried Grady. "And won't they come out and tackle the naygurs that have been bothering them on the one side, while we pitch into them on the other! We'll double them up and destroy them entoirely."

"I doubt if we go at Matammeh before we get reinforcements," said Macintosh.