Nor Was This All.
Far Away, Near The Kerreri Hills, The Yellow Light Of A Burning Village
Shot Up, Unquenched By The Rain, And Only Invisible In The Brightest
Flashes Of The Lightning.
There was war to the southward.
CHAPTER XIV: THE OPERATIONS OF THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER
The British and Egyptian cavalry, supported by the Camel Corps
and Horse Artillery, trotted out rapidly, and soon interposed a distance
of eight miles between them and the army. As before, the 21st Lancers
were on the left nearest the river, and the Khedivial squadrons curved
backwards in a wide half-moon to protect the right flank. Meanwhile the
gunboat flotilla was seen to be in motion. The white boats began to ascend
the stream leisurely. Yet their array was significant. Hitherto they had
moved at long and indefinite intervals - one following perhaps a mile,
or even two miles, behind the other. Now a regular distance of about 300
yards was observed. The orders of the cavalry were to reconnoitre Omdurman;
of the gunboats to bombard it.
As soon as the squadrons of the 21st Lancers had turned the shoulder of
the steep Kerreri Hills, we saw in the distance a yellow-brown pointed
dome rising above the blurred horizon. It was the Mahdi's Tomb, standing
in the very heart of Omdurman. From the high ground the field-glass
disclosed rows and rows of mud houses, making a dark patch on the brown of
the plain. To the left the river, steel-grey in the morning light, forked
into two channels, and on the tongue of land between them the gleam of a
white building showed among the trees.
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