The first thing to be done was to pull down the stockade along the fetish road, to enable the transport to pass.

When this was done, Colonel Willcocks collected the troops nearest to him and moved forward, at their head, along the broad road.
Their delight, when they emerged into the open and saw Coomassie ahead of them, was unbounded.

Keeping regular step, though each man was yearning to press forward, they advanced steadily.

The silence weighed upon them; and a dread, lest they had arrived too late, chilled the sense of triumph with which they had marched off.

At last, the faint notes of a distant bugle sounded the general salute, and a wild burst of cheering greeted the sound.