HOW THE SQUARE WAS BROKEN. 23 so have ceased firing-, may have been unavoidable; and the sailors were hurled back with the inrush, their officers fiqrfitinof and some of them falling round the now useless gun; but that the men who had to stand the fierce and desperate charge, the cavalry men as well as the infantry, should have had to throw clown their ineffectual rifles and take to the bayonets, perhaps in many instances to find that, like the bayonets of the troups at Suakim, they bent like blades of tin, was a horrible experience, for which, even in that dread moment, many a curse not loud but deep may have been forgiven. The Gardner had jammed at the tenth round, and the Arabs ran in at the opening, as they did at Tamai, the corner of the square being crushed in. The naval officers were knocked over by the rush, including Sir C. Beresford, who, however, was up again in a moment.

Amidst it all the demeanour of the Guards' officers was noticed. Without noise or fuss they gave orders as though they were on parade, and spoke to their men quite quietly as though nothing unusual was going on. It was said that not a single Arab passed through the ranks of the Life Guards and the Blues.

Burnaby, seeing that the heavies must be opened out and that the Gardner must have room to play, rode forward, and met his death fighting like a knight of old, and with his vast strength and terrible sword cleaving his way until his horse was brought down and the Arab's sword was in his neck.

There was for some time a good deal of contention on the subject of the manner in which the Arabs made their way into the square, and therefore the subsequent explanation made by Lieutcol. the Hon. R. Talbot in The Nineteenth Century was regarded as important, since that officer was in a better position than most of his comrades to observe and to record the part taken in the battle by the heavy camel regiments of which he was in command.

The total strength of the regiment was 390. Right wing: 1st company — 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards; 2nd company-Royal Horse Guards, Queen's Bays. Left wing: 3d company 4th Dragoon Guards, 5th Dragoon Guards; 4th company — Royal Dragoons, Scots Greys; 5th company — 5th Lancers, 16th Lancers.