e snatched success from what
looked like certain disaster. The army has a hero and a thorough
soldier in Macdonald, and if the public want either they need seek no
farther. I know that the Sirdar and his staff fully recognised the
nature of the service he rendered. A non-combatant general officer who
witnessed the scene declared one might see 500 battles and never such
another able handling of men in presence of an enemy. When the final
rout of the dervishes had been achieved it was about 10 a.m. The
Sirdar wheeled his brigades to the left, into their original position,
and marched them straightway towards Omdurman. Passing slowly over the
battle-field the awful extent of the carnage was made evident. In my
first wires I insisted that our total casualties were about 500, and
the enemy's over 10,000 slain. Macdonald lost about 128 men. I
subsequently ascertained that the total of our killed and wounded was
about 524. The dervish killed certainly numbered over 15,000, and
their wounded probably as many more. Mahdism had been more than
"smashed," it had been all but extirpated. So may all plagues end.

[Illustration: KHALIFA'S CAPTURED STANDARD (SIRDAR EXTREME LEFT).]

On the march the British troops having to swing aside from where the
Khalifa's black flag still stood, it fell into the hands of an
Egyptian brigade, and was conveyed to the Sirdar by Captain Sir Henry
Rawlinson and Major Lord Edward Cecil. It was given to an Egyptian
orderly to carry behind the headquarters staff. Unfortunately, it
attracted the attention of some of our own people on the gunboats who
were unaware it had been captured. Several rounds were fired at the
supposed dervishes following it, and then it was discreetly furled for
a time. By midday the army had arrived at the northern outskirts of
Omdurman, where the troops were halted near the Nile to obtain food
and water. I rode forward and saw that there were thousands of
dervishes in the town, many of them Baggara. The cavalry were sent as
speedily as possible, after watering and feeding the horses, towards
the south side of the town, and the gunboats were ordered up the
river. Several deputations of citizens, Greeks and natives, came out
and saw Slatin Pasha and the Sirdar. It was stated that the people
would surrender, and that there would be no difficulty in occupying
the place. The Khalifa, it was said, was in his house and must yield.
Slatin Pasha, by the way, had gone over the battle-field