TEL-EL-KEBIR. 15

CHAPTER III.

TEL-EL-KEBIR.

We left Alexandria with its forts dismantled, its guns dismounted, and its fortifications generally abandoned. The events which followed need not be described in detail. Arabi and his army left the city, which was now in the hands of marauding hordes, many of them composed of released convicts. The larger portion of the town was burnt, and wholesale depredations and murders continued for two days, after which they were checked by the land¬ ing of a body of marines and blue-jackets.

England now decided to send troops into Egypt to reconquer the country for the Khedive. A vote of credit was passed (July 27), and three days after¬ wards the Scots Guards sailed for Alexandria, followed at short intervals by troops amounting in all to 1,010 officers, 21,200 non-commissioned officers and meo, 54 he’d guns, 5,600 horses, and 500 mules. But this force was in

a short time swelled—including contingents from India, Cyprus, and else¬ where—to 40,560.

Sir Garnet Wolseley took command, arrived at Alexandria on August the 15th, and was inline.Lately empowered by the Khedive to undertake operations and occupy the country.

The campaign against Arabi was destined to witness some notable and successfully carried out surprises by this general. The first was the occupa¬ tion of Port Said. The fleet sailed, cleared ready for action, from Alexandria

as if with the intention of seizing Aboukir, but when night fell, the order to

“ ’bout ship ” was given, and the ships steamed back and took possession of Port Said. Several minor actions took place at Tel-el-Mahuta, Kassassin, etc., but by a wonderfully accurate prophecy of General Wolseley’s the spot on which the whole campaign was settled was Tel-el-Kebir. To this we will at once proceed.

The body of the troops was now stationed at Kassassin. The intentions

of the General were kept secret in the extreme ; and it was not till within twelve hours of the premeditated attack that orders were given to leave the

camp. At sundown, on the evening of Tuesday, September 12th, every tent was struck. The men bivouacked on the ground, taking a rest of five or six hours.

At midnight the order was given to march, and in a few moments the men

were noiselessly moving over the ground in the direction of the enemy’s entrenchments. “ Never,” says the London Standard’s correspondent, “did