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XVIII.

LOSSES AND GAINS.

IT was over. It was a brilliant, crushing victory, and the dervish army was destroyed: so much everybody knew. But no more. The fight had gone forward in a whirl: you could see men fall about you, and knew that there must be losses on our side; but whether they were 100 or 1000 it was impossible even to guess. Then, as the khaki figures began to muster outside the zariba, it was good to meet friend after friend-dusty, sweaty, deep-breathing, putting up a grimed revolver-untouched. It was good to see the Tommies looking with new adoration to the comfort of their rifles, drunk with joy and triumph, yet touched with a sudden awe in the presence of something so much more nakedly elemental than anything in their experience. Two hours had sobered them from boys to men. Just then there was nothing in the world or under it to which the army would not have been equal. Yet, in that Godlike moment, I fancy every man in the force thought first of home.

MAHMUD A PRISONER.

Now to see what we had done and suffered.

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And

first, for a new fillip to exultation, Mahmud was a prisoner. Some soldiers of the 10th Sudanese had found him as they swept through the zariba-found him sitting on his carpet, his weapons at his side, after the manner of defeated war-chiefs who await death. He was not killed, and presently he was brought bareheaded before the Sirdar-a tall, dark-brown complexioned man of something between thirty and forty. He wore loose drawers and a gibba - the dervish uniform which still mimics the patched shirt of the Mahdi, but embroiders it with gold. His face was of the narrow-cheeked, high-foreheaded type, for he is a pure-bred Arab: his expression was cruel, but high. He looked neither to right nor to left, but strode up to the Sirdar with his head erect.

Are you the man Mahmud?" asked the Sirdar. "Yes; I am Mahmud, and I am the same as you.” He meant commander-in-chief.

"Why did you come to make war here?"

"I came because I was told,—the same as you." Mahmud was removed in custody; but everybody liked him the better for looking at his fate so straight and defiantly.

But small leisure had anybody to pity Mahmud; the pity was all wanted for our own people. Hardly had the Camerons turned back from the river-bank when it flew through the companies that two of the finest officers in the regiment were killed. Captains

Urquhart and Findlay had both been killed leading their men over the trenches. The first had only joined the battalion at Rus Hudi; he had newly passed the Staff College, and only two days before had been gazetted major; after less than a fortnight's campaigning he was dead. Captain Findlay's fortune was yet more pathetic: he had been married but a month or two before, and the widowed bride was not eighteen. He was a man of a singularly simple, sincere, and winning nature, and the whole force lamented his loss. Probably his great height for he stood near 6 feet 6 inches-had attracted attack besides his daring: he was one of the first, some said the first, to get over the stockade, and had killed two of the enemy with his sword before he dropped. Both he and Captain Urquhart had got too far ahead of their men to be protected by rifle fire; but they were followed, and they were avenged.

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Second-Lieutenant Gore of the Seaforths was also killed while storming the trenches: he had not yet, I think, completed one year's service. Among the wounded officers were Colonel Verner of the Lincolns and Colonel Murray of the Seaforths, both slightly: the latter was very coolly tied up by Mr Scudamore, the Daily News' correspondent, inside the zariba under a distracting fire. More severely hit were Major Napier (Camerons) and Captain Baillie (Seaforths): both were excellent officers and good companions; both afterwards died. Besides these the

Seaforths had three officers wounded, the Lincolns two, and the Warwicks one. Most of the casualties occurred in crossing the trenches, which were just wide enough for a man to stand in and deep enough to cover him completely. As our men passed over, the blacks fired and stabbed upwards; most of the wounds were therefore below the belt.

The Seaforths happened to have most officers hit among the four battalions of the British brigade; as they advanced in column against the hottest part of the entrenchment, this was quite comprehensible. But the Camerons, who led the whole brigade in line, lost most in non-commissioned officers and men. Counting officers, they had 15 killed and 46 wounded. The Seaforths lost (again with officers) 6 killed and 27 wounded; the Lincolns 1 killed and 18 wounded; and the Warwicks 2 killed and 12 wounded. Of these several afterwards died. Staff-Sergeant Wyeth, A.S.C., and Private Cross of the Camerons, were both mentioned in despatches. The first carried the Union Jack, which was three times pierced; the other was General Gatacre's bugler. Wyeth was severely wounded, and Cross presently seized with terrible dysentery: both died within a few days. Private Cross had bayoneted a huge black who attacked the general at the zariba, and it was said he was to be recommended for the V.C. A similar feat was done by a colour-sergeant of the Camerons, whose major was entangled in the stockade, and must have been

killed. The colour-sergeant never even mentioned the service to his officer, who only discovered it by accident. Of course there were scores of hair-breadth escapes, as there must be in any close engagement. One piper was killed with seven bullets in his body; a corporal in another regiment received seven in his clothing, one switchbacking in and out of the front of his tunic, and not one pierced the skin. Another man picked up a brass box inside the zariba, and put it in his breast pocket, thinking it might come in useful for tobacco. Next instant a bullet hit it

and glanced away. The Maxim battery had no casualties - very luckily, for it was up with the firing-line all the time; probably nobody could stand up against it. Altogether the British brigade lost 24 killed and 104 wounded, of whom perhaps 20 died.

The Egyptian loss was heavier. They had advanced more quickly, and by reason of their line formation had got to work in the trenches sooner than the British; but they had not kept down the enemy's fire with such splendid success. The 11th Sudanese, which had the honour of having been one of the first inside the zariba, lost very heavily-108 killed and wounded out of less than 700. The total casualties were 57 killed, and 4 British and 16 native officers, 2 British non-commissioned officers, and 365 noncommissioned officers and men wounded. The white officers were Walter Bey and Shekleton Bey, com