We Started At
A Trot, Two Or Three Patrols Galloping Out In Front, Towards The High
Ground, While The Regiment
Followed in mass - a great square block of
ungainly brown figures and little horses, hung all over with water-bottles,
Saddle-bags, picketing-gear, tins of bully-beef, all jolting and jangling
together; the polish of peace gone; soldiers without glitter; horsemen
without grace; but still a regiment of light cavalry in active operation
against the enemy.
The crest of the ridge was only half a mile away. It was found unoccupied.
The rocky mass of Surgham obstructed the view and concealed the great
reserve collected around the Black Flag. But southward, between us and
Omdurman, the whole plain was exposed. It was infested with small parties
of Dervishes, moving about, mounted and on foot, in tens and twenties.
Three miles away a broad stream of fugitives, of wounded, and of deserters
flowed from the Khalifa's army to the city. The mirages blurred and
distorted the picture, so that some of the routed Arabs walked in air
and some through water, and all were misty and unreal. But the sight was
sufficient to excite the fiercest instincts of cavalry. Only the scattered
parties in the plain appeared to prevent a glorious pursuit. The signalling
officer was set to heliograph back to the Sirdar that the ridge was
unoccupied and that several thousand Dervishes could be seen flying into
Omdurman. Pending the answer, we waited; and looking back northwards,
across the front of the zeriba, where the first attack had been stopped,
perceived a greyish-white smudge, perhaps a mile long.
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