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Updated: May 6, 2025
Steadily advanced the English troops over the ridge of sand, firing carefully while the fugitives were within range; then down to the Nile at Gubat, near Matammeh, victorious indeed, but having paid a high price for victory. "If them Arabs takes to shooting straight, and won't come on any more, it strikes me we shall be in a hole," said Thomas Dobbs to Grady.
"And won't they come out and tackle the naygurs that have been bothering them on the one side, while we pitch into them on the other! We'll double them up and destroy them entoirely." "I doubt if we go at Matammeh before we get reinforcements," said Macintosh. "And what will we want with reinforcements?" asked Grady; "haven't we bate the inimy into fiddle-strings already?"
"We are not to make back to Gubat, then?" asked Reece in surprise. "No," said Strachan. "Matammeh has not been carried?" "Not yet; I suppose it may be soon; everybody seems to expect it. But I don't see the use now." "Why not?" "Well," said Strachan, "one hates to be the bearer of bad news, but it must come. The expedition has been too late: Khartoum has fallen."
For some time all was suspense and conjecture amongst our friends; but after awhile the news circulated from the staff to the regimental officers, from the officers to the sergeants, from the sergeants to the men, that the enemy were in position at the Wells of Abu Klea, twenty-three miles from Matammeh, the place on the Nile they were working for. Where was Abu Klea?
No matter; a step was taken, though deep in blood, towards the great object the relief of Khartoum, and the rescue of Gordon, and hope beat high in every breast. Next day, January the nineteenth, General Stewart left his wounded at the wells of Abu Klea, which had been won, and pushed forward for Matammeh at three in the afternoon.
"Well, for my part, I hope we shall have a cut in at Matammeh to- morrow," said Kavanagh, "so as to get on up the river at once." "Aye, I hope we may," echoed half a dozen voices in chorus. "Gordon and the poor chaps with him must be pretty well sick of waiting to be relieved, hemmed in all the time by those blood-thirsty savages."
When the battalion had to move away and manoeuvre at some little distance from the camels, one company was always to be left to defend them. The pleasant time at Korti was soon over, and they started across the desert for Shendy. So that by cutting across the desert from Korti to Shendy, or rather Matammeh, which is on the nearer bank of the river, an enormous distance is cut off.
"We've got naither the medal nor the bar nor Khartoum yet, d'ye ken?" said Macintosh. "And when will we be after attacking Matammeh?" asked Grady, as he sat over the bivouac fire. "Precious soon, I should think; we can't get on to Khartoum till it's taken," said Kavanagh. "And for why not?" asked Grady again.
No resistance was met with, no sign of the enemy perceived all night, and when the day dawned a thread of silver shone in the south-east, and a hundred voices broke out simultaneously in a chorus of "The Nile!" Yes, there was the river, and as the light grew stronger the town of Matammeh could be distinguished.
"It's a sight of trouble we have taken to resave the inimy, and it will be mighty onpolite of him if he doesn't come at all," said Grady. "I don't believe there's any Arabs about these parts," said Macintosh; "they air all together at Matammeh, or else before Khartoum." "You think yourself very clever, no doubt," said Corporal Adams, indignantly.
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