The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-09
BATTLEFIELD pIcTtTRl1s,

BAL lLEf HE'LL y M phIHfc
 On September ] I rode with Lord Tulibardine to the Egyptian cavalry to examine the scene. We came at once to the grourd ov 1T waich the Twenty first Lancers had charged. It's peculiar formation was more aparent at a sec ond view. Looking from the spot where he had wheeled into line and be- gan to gallop, it was scarcely possible to believe that dkhor or nullah ran smooth and unobstructed plain. An right across what apeared to be advance of a hundred yards revealed the trap and displayed d long ditch, with rocky sides steeply sloping, about five feet in depth and perhaps twenty feet wide. In this trench lay about a dozen dead bodies of dervishes, half a dozen dead donkeys, and litter of goatskin water-bottles. dervsh sad- dies, and broken weapons The level ground beyond was spotted with corpses. Half a dozen horses, stripped or saddles and bridlesy made brown tumble in the back ground. In the cen tre red-and-white lance pennon, fly ing from a stick marked the grave of the fallen Lancers. And that was all. Yet the place may be remarkable. At any rate a great many officers of all regiments and arms had been to visit 1t. We rode on over the ridge of Helio- graph Hill until we reached the spot where the dervish column had come into the artillery fire. All over the ground-on the average three yards a art- IDod n1a iy, "a white and patched smocks of faithful dervishes. Three days of burning sun had done their work The bodies were swollen to almost gigantic proportions. Twice as large as living men, they ap- peared in every sense monstrous The more advanced hardly resembled hu- man beings, but rather great bladders, such as the natives use to float down the Nile on Frightful gashes scared their limbs, and great stains, once crimson. covered their garments. The smell redoubled the horror Keeping to windward of the thickest cluster, we picked our way, and the story of the fight unfolded itself.
 Here was where the artillery had opened on the swarming masses. Men had fallen in little groups of five or six to each shell. Nearer to the zareba about 800 yards-the rnusketry had begun to tell and the dead lay scat tered about--one every ten yards. Two hundred yards further the full force of the fire-artillery, Maxims. and ri- f1les-had burst on them. In places desperate rushes had been made, and there the bodies lay so thickly as to hide the ground. Occasionally there were double layers of this hideous cov- ering. Once I saw them lying three deep. In a space not 100 yards square more than 400 corpses lay fostering. Can you imagine the pastures into which man, once created in the image of his Maker, had been twisted? Do not try, for were you to succeed you would ask yourself with me, Gan I ever forget?" Here was where Mac Donald's brigade-three artillery bat teries and several Maxim guns-had repulsed the Khalifa's attack. A great heap of corpses lay around the spot where the black flag had been captur- ed. There was where the brigade had faced about to meet Ali Wad Helu ard his 10000 warriors. There, again, was where the Baggara cavalry had made their last spler,iitf charge to certain Ge ath. They had ridden straight at the solid line of bayonets and in the teeth of the sto~.n 0f rroIcetiles. Every man had galloped at full speed. and then he fell shot, rolling over and ever de- stroyed, not condu sred. by machinery. All this was had to see But worse ramains behind: after the dead, the wounded, Thera may have been wounded derv shes among the heaps of slain; the atmosphere forbade ap- proach. Tn "e certainly were many ' preached these cautiously, and pistol in hand. examined their condition. | Lord 1Uli'bardina had large vstar bottle. He aiamounted, and gave a | few drops to each till all was exl. allst- ed. Ycu must remember that th.s was three days after the fight, and that the sun had eaten down mercilessly aIl l the time
 It would have been a grateful sight
 to have seen large bucket of clear,