s of his decision.

It was about 11.50 a.m. when the Sirdar wheeled his army about to
resume the march upon Omdurman. The dervishes who had escaped
slaughter had bent their bodies and run from the fatal field, going
far off behind the western range of hills. Moving slowly and in
echelon, as when we first set out, we passed over part of the
battle-field. Groups of unwounded dervishes, who insisted on fighting
and sniping the troops, had to be dealt with as well as all others who
persisted in being truculent. Like everybody else at the head of the
column, I was shot at repeatedly. All of the enemy, however, who
showed the least disposition to surrender were left unmolested.
Hundreds of dervishes who had been wounded hobbled on in front of our
army. We could see the Khalifa's forces behind the hills watching us
and streaming upon a parallel line towards Omdurman. But the dervishes
were no longer in compact military array or ranged in division under
chiefs. They were mostly scattered in small groups and bands spread
over a very wide area. It was a rabble, and had lost semblance of
being an army with power of concerted action. When Macdonald's fight
was over, the Egyptian cavalry under Colonel Broadwood returned and
formed up near the camelry. They, with the Camel Corps, moved forward
on the right as before during the final advance upon the Khalifa's
capital. Men and horses had done a week of the hardest kind of work,
but both were yet willing and full of spirit. As for the 21st Lancers,
the few mounts remaining fit for work scarcely counted as a cavalry
force. The gunboats and the infantry saw to our left, which was not
difficult, for upon that hand the country was quite bare. About 2 p.m.
the army reached the northern outskirts of Omdurman, the British
division upon the left. Gatacre's men were nearest the Nile, Maxwell
and Lewis being almost opposite one of the main thoroughfares of the
town. A halt for water--the great necessity--food, and rest was
ordered. Parties were instantly detailed to fill water-bottles and
fantasses, iron tanks. The cooks, too, got to work, and fires were
kindled with wood torn from neighbouring huts, and a meal was
prepared. Under the burning sunshine, down upon the loose dirt and
gravel, officers and men sprawled to rest themselves. There was a very
muddy creek or inset near, and thither went thousands, parched with
thirst, to drink, not hesitatingly but gulping down copious draughts
of water,