A Chapter of AdventuresHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
A Chapter of Adventures
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Alexandria (Egypt) -- History -- Bombardment, 1882 -- Juvenile fiction
THE work of pacification had gone on steadily. It was on Thursday
evening, the 13th of July, the boys had returned to the town. On the
15th Captain Fisher, who was in command of the naval party on shore,
marched through the streets disarming the Egyptian soldiers, of whom
there were large numbers still in the place, and had a skirmish with a
strong party of them at the Rosetta gate. Lord Charles Beresford was in
charge of the police arrangements, and with a force of marines and three
hundred disarmed Egyptian soldiers was occupied in stamping out the
fires and in arresting marauders. A large number of Arabs were also
enlisted in the service.
The population now began to return to the city. Many of the lower class
of Greeks and Italians landed from the vessels, and were a source of
continual trouble, as they at once took to plundering what the natives
had left.
On Monday morning the 38th Regiment and the third battalion of the 60th
Rifles arrived in the harbour, and were at once landed. General Sir
Archibald Alison also arrived and assumed the command on shore, and the
following day a body of troops marched along the line of railway to
Ramleh, six miles distant. Ramleh stands at the point where a narrow
neck of land connects the peninsula on which Alexandria stands with the
mainland. Along this narrow isthmus run the road, the railway, and the
Sweet-water Canal, and here there is a pumping-station, by which water
is raised to a higher level for the supply of Alexandria.
The khedive has a summer palace at Ramleh, and here are a large number
of pretty villas, the summer abodes of the merchants of Alexandria. It
was an important position, for here any advance upon the city from the
east could be readily checked.
Thursday was a busy day for the police and troops in Alexandria, for a
high wind got up and fanned the masses of embers into flames again, and
serious fires broke out in several places. The boys were busily engaged
all day. They acted now as aides-de-camp to Lord Charles Beresford,
carrying his orders to the various working parties, and making
themselves generally useful.
Lord Charles had established himself with his officers in an empty
house, and the three boys had a room assigned to them here. The party
all messed together. In the evening Lord Charles said to the officers,
"I hear that the khedive's people have got news that Arabi is damming up
the Sweet-water Canal. We shall have a deal of trouble if he does. There
is very bad news, too, from the country. They say that everywhere
except at Cairo the natives have risen and massacred the Europeans.
Arabi has ordered all the able-bodied men in the country to join the
army."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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