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When the army removed to Cairo, after the defeat and dispersal of Arabi's force at Tel-el-Kebir, Gregory established himself there, and was joined by his wife and child. As soon as matters settled down, and a considerable portion of the troops had left Egypt, Mr. Ross said to him: "Of course, our operations in the future will be comparatively small, Mr. Hilliard, and I must reduce my staff."
"How far off is the road to Suez, where you expect to meet Arden's men?" asked our hero. "Eight miles further on. We could strike the road sooner, but it is not good," Belbeis answered; "there is time enough." "And how far is it to Tel-el-Kebir?" "Fifty miles as the bird flies," he answered. "The way we go, about sixty. Ah!"
In the recent English operations in Egypt, the advance guard always kept in telegraphic communication with headquarters and with England, and after the battle of Tel-el-Kebir news of the victory was telegraphed to the Queen and her answer received in forty-five minutes.
On the subject of the quarter-column formation which proved so fatal to us, it must be remembered that any other form of advance is hardly possible during a night attack, though at Tel-el-Kebir the exceptional circumstance of the march being over an open desert allowed the troops to move for the last mile or two in a more extended formation.
"Good," answered Belbeis, his eyes sparkling with pleasure; "my duty is to convey you safely to Tel-el-Kebir, and I thought there might just be a chance of avoiding the risk of a fight; but it is not to my liking, I would sooner fight." "We shall get all we want of it, I expect," said Helmar, drawing his carbine from its bucket and examining the breech.
After the evacuation of Gallipoli there were constant rumors of another attack being contemplated, and for several months the Australians and New Zealanders were kept in Egypt for the defense of the canal. Those who took part in the march from Tel-el-Kebir will not forget it in a hurry. The camels bolted with our water and we only had our water-bottles in a hundred miles across the desert.
Three cheers for the heroes of Tel-el-Kebir, dead and livin'!" cried Armstrong, setting the example. The response was prompt and hearty, and for a few moments a forest of white helmets waved in the air.
In Egypt he reformed the nature of the Nile peasant to the extent of making good fighters of the sons of the cravens of Tel-el-Kebir; good enough, when led by British officers, to annihilate the army of the Khalifa; and in South Africa Kitchener wound up with success a war that had been horribly bungled by others.
At last, however, the order came for the despatch of the balloon equipment to the front, and though this arrived long after Tel-el-Kebir, yet it is recorded that the first ascent in real active service in the British Army took place on the 25th of March, 1885, at Suakin, and balloons becoming regarded as an all-important part of the equipment of war, they were sent out in the Bechuanaland Expedition under Sir Charles Warren, the supply of gas being shipped to Cape Town in cylinders.
At Tel-el-Kebir many thousand prisoners were made, and in other engagements our hands were always full of dervish wounded. At El Teb, Tamai, Abu Klea, Abu Kru, Gemaizeh, Atbara, and elsewhere, wounded dervishes fell into our hands, and received every attention from the medical staff. And in some of these actions our troops were themselves in sore straits.
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