Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

was the important station to seize, for it is from this point that the direct road to Cairo led out; and here the main part of the army was landed. M. de Lesseps, from his office at Ismailia, sullenly watched the immense fleet of transports defile before him; and when the troops began to disembark he is said to have taken up his position on the quay, crying out that no English soldier should land except over his dead body. A bluejacket, however, quietly pushed him aside, remarking, "We don't want no dead bodies about here, sir; all you've got to do is to step back a bit."

bank upon which the town is built, were able to coop up the Egyptians in their own quarter. Other troops, meanwhile, quietly took possession of the offices of the Suez Canal Company; and a midshipman, not more than fifteen years of age, was sent with a few bluejackets to occupy the Company's telegraph station. In the early morning the pompous French Telegraph Agent arrived, as usual, at his office, but was stopped at the door by the minute midshipman, who said politely in French that he was not allowed to enter. "Qui êtes-vous?" cried the official, staring in furious amazement Thus with sublime indifferat this boy with the enormous ence to French opposition, and revolver in his hand. 66 Que in the teeth of an army of voulez-vous ici?" The mid- some 7000 to 10,000 Egyptians shipman drew himself which had rapidly collected "Je suis ici," he said sternly, behind Ismailia, the British "pour empêcher le monde expeditionary force was landed. d'entrer"; and the infuriated Three weeks later the troops Frenchman was obliged to had come in touch with Arabi's remain outside. main army, which had entrenched itself in the desert at Tel-el-Kebir, nearly half-way between Ismailia and Cairo.

up.

During the same night another force was landed at the railway junction of Nefiché, a short distance up the canal; The Egyptian position was and thus the French officials a strong one, and Sir Garnet woke up, rubbing their eyes, Wolseley decided that it would to find the audacious English, be best to make a night attack who really had no manners at upon it. This was done, and all, in possession of the town and just before dawn on Septemwaterway. In the morning the ber 13 the British forces, confleet of transports arrived and sisting of 11,000 infantry and passed into the canal, whose 2000 cavalry, silently marched officials could only retaliate towards the Egyptian redoubts, by refusing them the aid of guided by the stars. They the pilots. The canal dues approached to within a few were punctiliously paid by the hundred yards of the entrenchBritish Government to the ments without being detected, Canal Company, and the ships for it was Arabi's somewhat were successfully navigated by original custom to call in his their own officers. Ismailia sentries at sunset. At last,

however, the Egyptians were aroused, and poured a heavy rifle - fire into the darkness before them. With a rousing cheer the British troops charged straight at the earthworks, and twenty minutes later the whole Egyptian army was in headlong flight. Arabi, who was in bed at the time, afterwards bitterly complained that the English had not given him time even to put his boots on, and he was obliged to fly barefooted across the desert to the nearest railway station, where he caught a train for Cairo.

Sir Garnet Wolseley at once issued orders that the fugitives were to be followed up by the cavalry, but that the chase was not to be made too sanguinary. Tommy Atkins has a kindly heart, and he had no wish to murder the wretched Egyptians who were racing madly before him. The pursuit, thus, is said to have been at times the most ludicrous spectacle. On overtaking a flying Egyptian, the troopers in most cases would give him a sounding smack on the seat of his trousers with the flat of the sabre, and thus would speed him on his way.

Two small cavalry contingents were now sent forward, one to capture the town of Zagazig and the other to take Cairo. The former contingent trotted briskly to the outskirts of the town, and then galloped forward in a straggling line, those best mounted arriving first. Two officers and six troopers were the first to

enter the narrow streets, and these eight men at once clattered up to the station through crowds of natives; and there they found five train-loads of fugitive Egyptian troops about to start for Cairo. One of the officers shot the engine-driver of the foremost train, and thereupon all the soldiers either surrendered to the eight perspiring Englishmen, or else, throwing away their arms, ran for their lives. The Cairo contingent rode hard all day, and arrived at the metropolis on the afternoon of the next day, the 14th. The story of how, without a shot being fired, a handful of exhausted men seized the Citadel and caused the surrender of some 14,000 Egyptian troops, has been told in 8 recent number of 'Maga,' and need not now be repeated.1

The rapid seizure of Cairo prevented Arabi from carrying out a scheme which he is said to have been determined to put into execution. He had decided to burn this ancient city as Alexandria had been burnt, not to bring destruction on the invaders as in the case of the burning of Moscow, but to satisfy some barbarous instinct which the events of the last few weeks had so strongly aroused in him. But when, on the evening of the 14th, he was informed that the British had already arrived, he decided that the best thing to do was to bend the knee to them. He therefore published a statement explaining what nice, kind people the English

1 "The Cavalry March to Cairo." By Colonel Sir Charles Watson, K.C.M.G., March 1911.

C. B.

were, and forthwith surren- fallen rebel to the status of dered to them. On September patriot and hero. 25 the Khedive, accompanied by the Duke of Connaught, Sir Garnet Wolseley, and the British Consul-General, made their state entry into the city, the streets being lined with British troops.

Arabi was speedily put upon his trial; and, although Egyptian law does not permit a rebel to have counsel, a section of the English public insisted that he should be defended, and they sent out by public subscription two barristers to conduct his case. Moreover, the home Government appointed an English delegate to watch the trial and to see that the old rebel had fair-play. At first no one supposed that Arabi would escape with his life; but presently it dawned upon the bewildered court that British public opinion would never permit his execution. Some terrible charges were brought against the prisoner, but in an Oriental country it is almost impossible to arrive at the truth. In the end it was arranged that Arabi should plead guilty; sentence of death was passed; and the Khedive immediately commuted this to banishment. The prisoner's escape from death was received with cheers by the few English people in the court, and the wife of one of the barristers rushed forward and presented the startled Arabi with a large bouquet of flowers, while the Egyptian judges and officials stared blankly at each other, wondering what manner of people this was, who had raised the

On 26th December 1882 Arabi embarked upon a British vessel, and was conveyed to Ceylon, where he lived for nineteen years, a forgotten exile. As old age

[ocr errors]

crept upon him he began to express the keenest desire to return to Egypt, and to Mr Clement Scott he once said: "I have done with politics, as I have done with war. I want to return to Egypt, there to live as a private man. This is what I ask from your great country, country, which has treated me with such merciful consideration. I have been punished, and I have suffered. I have asked pardon, and still, knowing the English, I ask for mercy.' In 1901 the old man was permitted to return to Egypt, which had forgotten him; and for ten years he lived at Helouan, in a small house on the edge of the desert. He died at the age of seventy-two, and was buried in a neighbouring cemetery, the funeral being attended only by a few relatives and friends. The days of his triumphs are all forgotten, and his death was barely noticed by the people to whom his smallest word had once been law, a fact which indicates that the lesser "patriots" of the present day in Egypt are likewise doomed to speedy oblivion. But for us at this present time, when another north African country has been invaded by a European Power, the events which led up to the British Occupation of Egypt deserve to be studied and understood.

[ocr errors]

W.

SOME SERVICE REMINISCENCES.

BY COLONEL C. E. CALLWELL, C.B.

[blocks in formation]

we

erected in the middle of a rectangle laid out on the ground and supposed to have sides of a fixed number of yards, giving it an area about equal to that of a that of a lawntennis ground. The target merely served as an object to lay on; any shell pitching into the rectangle counted as a hit. The first time I was there I happened to be on duty on the day that were to carry out ours, and was about to ride off to mark out the rectangle and set up the target when my commanding officer stopped me. "You!" he said with scorn. "What's the good of you! You couldn't pace more than a yard and a quarter if your life depended on it. No. P— shall go. He's got legs of a decent length and some imagination." (P.

II.

occupant of the Front Opposition Bench in the House.) So P took over the duty and performed it with an admirable zeal and discretion. For he not only laid out a rectangle of about the size of an ordinary cricket-ground, but he furthermore tilted it up on the face of a hill over against the place where the guns were to take up their position. We could not have missed it had we tried to, and the consequence was that we were the best shooting battery in the United Kingdom that year.

On the march from Woolwich down to Okehampton the battery had been billeted at Brentford. On going round billets that afternoon a young and earnest driver reported to me in some concern that his horses would not drink. Ordered to fetch a bucket of water and to try them again, the lad went over to a clear but sluggish - looking stream just behind the stable, filled a pail, and carried it back, to the manifest gratification of the pair of horses; but when it was set before them, they merely sniffed at it suspiciously and drew back, snorting. Just at that moment the publican who owned the billet happened

is now a not undistinguished to come round, and I asked

wrong with the water, as the horses did not seem to think much of it. 66 Anything wrong!" ejaculated the publican. "Well, of all the -! Wy, it's salt water from the sea." It turned out that the channel was a backwater from the tidal Thames; but it is hard to say how it came to be clear instead of muddy.

him if there was anything horse. "Rather a good stamp of remount this, sir. One of a lot we got a week or two back, and is coming on nicely. Plenty of girth, you see-not one of the straight-shouldered ones," and he was edged in alongside the steed and deftly shouldered along and left to himself to soothe the animal, which was sure to be somewhat affrighted by his sword and gold lace. It was bad luck if he did not look into the manger and find the pipe. Then there was an explosion, although gratification at having made the discovery struggled for mastery with displeasure at the irregularity which

By some men in the Service inspections are regarded with the gravest apprehension; but the truth is that a great deal depends upon studying the idiosyncrasies of inspecting officers on these occasions. They are full of the milk of human kindness if they are treated judiciously, and they are not entirely free from certain amiable weaknesses which those undergoing the ordeal will do well to nourish. An inspecting officer dearly loves, for instance, to detect some abuse prevailing in the unit with which he is concerned, all by himself and as a consequence of his own alertness and perspicacity. There used to be a well-known Colonel on the Staff at Woolwich whose inspections had to be taken very seriously, and called for anxious preparation on the part of the battery about to face the music. A good plan was to arrange that he should find a driver's pipe reposing in one of the mangers when he went round stables. The procedure was simplicity itself. As soon as he came abreast of the selected stall, his attention was invited to the

had been exposed. Where was the subaltern in charge? Where was the sergeant? The driver was an old soldier, too, from the look of him, the ruffian! If this sort of thing went on at an inspection at an inspection, mind you!- what sort of stable management must there be on an ordinary day? But the incident would put the colonel in the best of tempers, and ensured an excellent report for the battery when he came to send it in.

A certain Inspector-General of the Royal Artillery, when he was going round a fort, always made a point of penetrating into one of the magazines. All manner of precautions are of course taken within the precincts of a magazine-one pulls on special boots over one's other ones for fear of introducing grit, and one converses in an undertone as if one was repeating the

« PredošláPokračovať »