o meet
them, but only arrived near the town to hear that they were too late,
that Khartoum had fallen, and that Gordon had been murdered. The army
was at once hurried back to the coast, leaving it to the Mahdists--more
triumphant than ever--to occupy Dongola; and to push down, and
possibly, as they were confident they should do, to capture Egypt
itself.

The news of the failure was a terrible blow to Mrs. Hilliard. She had
hoped that, when Khartoum was relieved, some information at least might
be obtained, from prisoners, as to the fate of the British officers at
El Obeid. That most of them had been killed was certain, but she still
clung to the hope that her husband might have escaped from the general
massacre, thanks to his knowledge of the language, and the disguise he
had with him; and even that if captured later on he might be a
prisoner; or that he might have escaped detection altogether, and be
still living among friendly tribesmen. It was a heavy blow to her,
therefore, when she heard that the troops were being hurried down to
the coast, and that the Mahdi would be uncontested master of Egypt, as
far as Assouan.

She did, however, receive news when the force returned to Cairo, which,
although depressing, did not extinguish all hope. Lieutenant Colonel
Colborne, by good luck, had ascertained that a native boy in the
service of General Buller claimed to have been at El Obeid. Upon
questioning him closely, he found out that he had unquestionably been
there, for he described accurately the position Colonel Colborne--who
had started with Hicks Pasha, but had been forced by illness to
return--had occupied in one of the engagements. The boy was then the
slave of an Egyptian officer of the expedition.

The army had suffered much from want of water, but they had obtained
plenty from a lake within three days' march from El Obeid. From this
point they were incessantly fired at, by the enemy. On the second day
they were attacked, but beat off the enemy, though with heavy loss to
themselves. The next day they pressed forward, as it was necessary to
get to water; but they were misled by their guide, and at noon the
Arabs burst down upon them, the square in which the force was marching
was broken, and a terrible slaughter took place. Then Hicks Pasha, with
his officers, seeing that all was lost, gathered together and kept the
enemy at bay with their revolvers, till their ammunition was exhausted.
After that they fought wit