It seemed scarcely possible to believe that the advance had not yet been discovered.  The silence seemed to forbode some unexpected attack.  The leading brigade and guns halted for a few minutes to allow MacDonald to form his battalions from ‘fours’ into column of companies.  Then at five o’clock the advance was resumed, and at this moment from the shoulder of Firket mountain there rang out a solitary shot.  The Dervish outposts had at last learned their danger.  Several other shots followed in quick succession, and were answered by a volley from the Xth, and then from far away to the south-east came the report of a field-gun.  The Horse Artillery battery had come into action.  The operation of the two columns was simultaneous:  the surpise of the enemy was complete.

The great object was now to push on and deploy as fast as possible.  The popping of musketry broke out from many points, and the repeated explosions of the Horse battery added to the eager excitement of the troops.  For what is more thrilling than the sudden and swift development of an attack at dawn?  The Xth Soudanese had now reached the top of the rise which had hidden Firket, and the whole scene came into view.  To the right front the village of Firket stretched by the side of the river—­a confusion of mud houses nearly a mile in length and perhaps 300 yards broad.  On the landward side the tents and straw shelters of the Dervish force showed white and yellow.  A system of mud walls and loop-holed houses strengthened the northern end of the village.  Behind it as a background stood lines and clusters of palm-trees, through which the broad river and the masts of the Arab boats might be seen.  In front of the troops, but a little to their left, rose a low rocky ridge surmounted with flags and defended by a stone breastwork running along its base.  Across the open space between the village and the hill hundreds of Dervishes on horse and on foot were hurrying to man their defences, and others scrambled up the rocks to see for themselves the numbers of the enemy.  Scores of little puffs of smoke already speckled the black rocks of the ridge and the brown houses of the village.

The attack developed very rapidly.  The narrow passage between the mountain and the river poured forth its brigades and battalions, and the firing-line stretched away to the right and left with extraordinary speed.  The Xth Soudanese opened fire on the village as soon as they topped the rise.  The 3rd and 4th Egyptians deployed on the right and left of the leading regiment, two companies of the 4th extending down on to the foreshore below the steep river-bank.  Peake’s battery (No. 1) and the Maxim guns, coming into action from a spur of Firket mountain, began to fire over the heads of the advancing infantry.