Then The
Scattered Battalions Re-Formed Facing West, And The Panting Soldiers
Looked About Them.
While MacDonald's brigade was storming the hills, Lewis's had advanced
on the village and the Dervish camp.
The Arabs from their loopholed houses
made a stubborn resistance, and the 4th battalion by the river-bank were
sharply engaged, their commanding officer, Captain Sparkes, having his
horse shot in four places. Encouraged by their enormous superiority in
number and weapons, the Egyptians showed considerable zeal in the attack,
and their conduct on this occasion was regarded as a very happy augury
for the war, of which this was the first general engagement.
As Lewis's brigade had swung to its right, and MacDonald's had borne away
to the left, a wide gap had opened in the centre of the attack. This was
immediately filled by Maxwell's brigade, so that the whole force was now
formed in one line, which curved and wheeled continually to the right
until, by the time the rocky hills had been taken, all three brigades
practically faced west and were advancing together towards the Nile.
The Dervishes - penned between the river and the enemy, and unable to
prevent the remorseless advance, which every moment restricted them to
narrower limits - now thought only of flight, and they could be seen
galloping hither and thither seeking for some means of escape.
The position of the Desert Column would have enabled the XIIth Soudanese,
by moving down to the river, to cut off this line of retreat; but the
foreshore of the river at the southern end of Firket is concealed from
a landward view by the steep bank, and by this sandy path the greater
number of the fugitives found safety.
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