THE ARABI MUTINY. 255 movement to the palace, and instead of punishing \ or reprimanding them for having conspired against ) his authority, he came to a friendly understanding with them, one of whose conditions was that seventy / native officers, Arabi amongst their number, were \ raised then and there to the rank of colonels. After / this compact, Arabi and his brother officers seem I to have worked harmoniously with Ismail up to j the date of his deposition. It has been made ay charge against Arabi that, two days after he had sworn to Ismail to fight to the last sooner than acquiesce in his dethronement by force, he was the first to pay homage to Tewfik. I think, however, the charge is unjust. Arabi probably intended to affirm by his oath his readiness to risk his life in order to resist any attempt on the part of foreign Powers to effect Ismail's dethronement by violence. When, however, he discovered that Ismail was to be deprived of his authority, not by any Christian Power, but by the orders of the Commander of the Faithful, and when he- further learnt that Ismail bowed to the will of the Sultan, he may fairly have deemed himself relieved from his oath.

Meanwhile the " three colonels," as the chiefs of > the native military organization were called, had enlisted the services of Mahmoud Pasha Sami, then a member of Riaz s Ministry ; an Egyptian of Turkish descent, who saw an opportunity of advancing his own ( fortunes by associating himself with the conspiracy, \ and who, after the wont of Turks in Egypt, soon made