6 THE DOWNFALL OF THE DERVISHES

tion and excellent food. On board our boat were Major Mitford and Lieutenant Winston Churchill. The latter gentleman was going

out to be attached to the 21st Lancers, and

in the intervals of campaigning conversation and graphic accounts of his recent experiences

on the Indian frontier, he supplied us with luminous information as to the principles and practice of Tory Democracy. Another fellow-passenger with whom I was privileged

to enjoy a good deal of pleasant conversation was an Egyptian Bey of high official rank.

As we neared Alexandria, he told me a great many interesting facts about the bombard- ment of 1882. He was present during the engagement, and ridiculed the ground which

was alleged at the time for the action of our

ironclads. Sir Beauchamp Seymour had been ordered from home to “prevent the construc-_

tion of fresh fortifications at all costs,” and when a number of Arabic levies were seen to be shovelling some spadefuls of sand upon

the wretched mounds which stretched towards

Ras-el-tin, the concentrated fire of our warships opened upon the whole line of so-called

“fortifications.” The Egyptian artillerymen