The effect of Broadwood's cavalry action upon the extreme right was now
becoming apparent.
Regrets and fury were alike futile. The three brigades advancing drove the
Khalifa's Dervishes back into the desert. Along a mile of front an intense
and destructive fire flared and crackled. The 32nd British Field Battery on
the extreme left was drawn by its hardy mules at full gallop into action.
The Maxim guns pulsated feverishly. Two were even dragged by the enterprise
of a subaltern to the very summit of Surgham, and from this elevated
position intervened with bloody effect. Thus the long line moved forward in
irresistible strength. In the centre, under the red Egyptian flag, careless
of the bullets which that conspicuous emblem drew, and which inflicted some
loss among those around him, rode the Sirdar, stern and sullen, equally
unmoved by fear or enthusiasm. A mile away to the rear the gunboats,
irritated that the fight was passing beyond their reach, steamed restlessly
up and down, like caged Polar bears seeking what they might devour. Before
that terrible line the Khalifa's division began to break up. The whole
ground was strewn with dead and wounded, among whose bodies the soldiers
picked their steps with the customary Soudan precautions. Surviving
thousands struggled away towards Omdurman and swelled the broad stream of
fugitives upon whose flank the 2lst Lancers already hung vengefully.
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