Abdullah Thereupon Determined To Strengthen His Extreme Right;
And He Immediately Ordered Four Regiments, Each 500 Strong, Drawn From
The Force Around The Black Flag And Under The Emir Ibrahim Khalil,
To Reinforce The Hadendoa In The Khor.
While we were waiting for orders on
the ridge these men were hurrying southwards along the depression,
and concealed by a spur of Surgham Hill.
The Lancer patrol reconnoitred the
khor, at the imminent risk of their lives, while it was only occupied by
the original 700 Hadendoa. Galloping back, they reported that it was held
by about 1,000 men. Before they reached the regiment this number was
increased to 2,700. This, however, we had no means of knowing. The Khalifa,
having despatched his reinforcement, rode on his donkey with a scanty
escort nearly half a mile from the Black Flag towards the khor, in order to
watch the event, and in consequence he was within 500 yards of the scene.
As the 21st Lancers left the ridge, the fire of the Arab riflemen
on the hill ceased. We advanced at a walk in mass for about 300 yards.
The scattered parties of Dervishes fell back and melted away, and only one
straggling line of men in dark blue waited motionless a quarter of a mile
to the left front. They were scarcely a hundred strong. The regiment formed
into line of squadron columns, and continued at a walk until within 300
yards of this small body of Dervishes. The firing behind the ridges had
stopped. There was complete silence, intensified by the recent tumult.
Far beyond the thin blue row of Dervishes the fugitives were visible
streaming into Omdurman. And should these few devoted men impede a regiment?
Yet it were wiser to examine their position from the other flank before
slipping a squadron at them. The heads of the squadrons wheeled slowly
to the left, and the Lancers, breaking into a trot, began to cross the
Dervish front in column of troops. Thereupon and with one accord the
blue-clad men dropped on their knees, and there burst out a loud, crackling
fire of musketry. It was hardly possible to miss such a target at such
a range. Horses and men fell at once. The only course was plain and welcome
to all. The Colonel, nearer than his regiment, already saw what lay behind
the skirmishers. He ordered, 'Right wheel into line' to be sounded.
The trumpet jerked out a shrill note, heard faintly above the trampling of
the horses and the noise of the rifles. On the instant all the sixteen
troops swung round and locked up into a long galloping line, and the
21st Lancers were committed to their first charge in war.
Two hundred and fifty yards away the dark-blue men were firing madly
in a thin film of light-blue smoke. Their bullets struck the hard gravel
into the air, and the troopers, to shield their faces from the stinging
dust, bowed their helmets forward, like the Cuirassiers at Waterloo.
The pace was fast and the distance short.
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