The greater struggle was still to come.  The whole of Abyssinia was convulsed with fury, and King John in person prepared to take the field and settle the quarrel for ever.  He assembled a mighty host, which is said to have amounted to 130,000 foot and 20,000 horsemen.  The rumours of this formidable concentration reached Gallabat and Omdurman, and in spite of the recent victory caused deep alarm.  The Khalifa saw his frontiers—­even his existence—­menaced, for King John had declared that he would sweep the Dervishes from off the face of the earth:  and in the hour of need the general on whom so much depended died of some poisonous medicine with which he had endeavoured to cure himself of indigestion.  Abu Anga was buried in his red-brick house at Gallabat amid the lamentations of his brave black soldiers, and gloom pervaded the whole army.  But, since the enemy were approaching, the danger had to be faced.  The Khalifa appointed Zeki Tummal, one of Anga’s lieutenants, to the command of the forces at Gallabat, which by strenuous exertions he brought up to a total of 85,000 men.  King John sent word that he was coming, lest any should say that he had come secretly as a thief.  The Dervishes resolved to remain on the defensive, and, fortifying themselves in an enormous zeriba around the town, awaited the onslaught.

At dawn on the 9th of March, 1889, the Abyssinians came within sight of their enemies, and early the next morning the battle began.  Great clouds of dust obscured the scene, and all intelligible sounds were lost in the appalling din.  The Abyssinians, undaunted by the rifle fire of the Soudanese, succeeded in setting the zeriba alight.  Then, concentrating all their force on one part of the defence, they burst into the enclosure and town.  The division of Wad Ali, a fourth part of the entire Dervish army, which bore the brunt of this attack, was almost completely destroyed.  The interior of the zeriba was crowded with women and children, who were ruthlessly butchered by the exultant Abyssinians.  The assailants scattered in all directions in search of plunder, and they even had time to begin to disinter the body of Abu Anga, which they were eager to insult in revenge for Gondar.  The Dervishes already wavered; their ammunition began to fail, when suddenly a rumour spread about among the Abyssinians that the King was killed.  Seizing what booty they could snatch, the victorious army began a general retreat, and the zeriba was soon cleared.  The Arabs were too exhausted to pursue, but when on the following day the attack was not renewed they learned, to their surprise, that they were the victors and that their enemy was falling back towards the Atbara river.  Zeki Tummal resolved to pursue, and his army were further incited to the chase by the fact that the Abyssinians had carried off with them a large number of Dervish women, including the harem of the late beloved Abu Anga.  Two days after the battle the Dervishes overtook the enemy’s rearguard and,