At daybreak the
troops started again, and before the sun had attained its greatest power
reached Zowarat. This place was scarcely six miles from Dongola, and, as it
was expected that an action would be fought the next day, the rest of
eighteen hours was welcomed by the weary soldiers. All day long the army
remained halted by the palms of the Nile bank. Looking through their
glasses up the river, the officers might watch the gunboats methodically
bombarding Dongola, and the sound of the guns was clearly heard.
At intervals during the day odd parties of Dervishes, both horse and foot,
approached the outpost line and shots were exchanged.
All these things, together with the consciousness that the culmination
of the campaign was now at hand, raised the excitement of the army to a
high pitch, and everyone lay down that night warmed by keen anticipations.
An atmosphere of unrest hung over the bivouac, and few slept soundly.
At three o'clock the troops were aroused, and at half-past four
the final advance on Dongola had begun.
It was still night. The full moon, shining with tropical brilliancy
in a cloudless sky, vaguely revealed the rolling plains of sand and the
huge moving mass of the army. As long as it was dark the battalions were
closely formed in quarter columns. But presently the warmer, yellower
light of dawn began to grow across the river and through the palms,
and gradually, as the sun rose and it became daylight, the dense
formation of the army was extended to an array more than two miles long.
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