Yakub found himself utterly unable to withstand the attack from the river.  His own attack on MacDonald languished.  The musketry was producing terrible losses in his crowded ranks.  The valiant Wad Bishara and many other less famous Emirs fell dead.  Gradually he began to give ground.  It was evident that the civilised troops were the stronger.  But even before the attack was repulsed, the Khalifa, who watched from a close position, must have known that the day was lost; for when he launched Yakub at MacDonald, it was clear that the only chance of success depended on Ali-Wad-Helu and Osman Sheikh-ed-Din attacking at the same time from Kerreri.  And with bitter rage and mortification he perceived that, although the banners were now gathering under the Kerreri Hills, Ali and Osman were too late, and the attacks which should have been simultaneous would only be consecutive.  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.  Yakub and the defenders of the Black Flag disdained to fly, and perished where they stood, beneath the holy ensign, so that when their conquerors reached the spot the dark folds of the banner waved only over the dead.

While all this was taking place—­for events were moving at speed—­ the 1st British Brigade were still doubling across the rear of Maxwell and Lewis to fill the gap between the latter and MacDonald.  As they had wheeled round, the regiments gained on each other according to their proximity to the pivot flank.  The brigade assumed a formation which may be described as an echelon of columns of route, with the Lincolns, who were actually the pivot regiment,