Meanwhile Yet Another Body Of The Enemy,
Comparatively Insignificant In Numbers, Who Had Been Drawn Up Behind The
'White Flags,' Were Moving Slowly Towards The Nile, Echeloned Still Further
Behind Their Right, And Not Far From The Suburbs Of Omdurman.
These men
had evidently been posted to prevent the Dervish army being cut off from
the city and to secure their line of retreat; and with them
the 21st Lancers were destined to have a much closer acquaintance
about two hours later.
The Dervish centre had come within range. But it was not
the British and Egyptian army that began the battle. If there was one arm
in which the Arabs were beyond all comparison inferior to their adversaries,
it was in guns. Yet it was with this arm that they opened their attack.
In the middle of the Dervish line now marching in frontal assault were
two puffs of smoke. About fifty yards short of the thorn fence two
red clouds of sand and dust sprang up, where the projectiles had struck.
It looked like a challenge. It was immediately answered. Great clouds
of smoke appeared all along the front of the British and Soudanese brigades.
One after another four batteries opened on the enemy at a range of about
3,000 yards. The sound of the cannonade rolled up to us on the ridge,
and was re-echoed by the hills. Above the heads of the moving masses
shells began to burst, dotting the air with smoke-balls and the ground
with bodies.
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