Throughout the whole business the authority of the Khedive was not only ignored, but remonstrances from foreign powers were of no effect. Arabi was determined to make himself ruler of Egypt, and to assert his position by force of arms. His formal dismissal as Minister of War, on 22nd July, was the last weak attempt by the Khedive to maintain his sovereign authority. But Arabi paid no attention to it, and continued his warlike preparations. His position at Kafr-dawar was strategically a strong one, for he was entrenched there at a point where the isthmus, running inland between Lake Medieh and Lake Mareotis, is only about four miles broad. He thus commanded both the Mahmoudieh Canal and the railway to Cairo, which ran past his camp. Arabi's intention was to hold his own at this position till the annual rise of the Nile was at its fullest in August, when he counted upon being able to flood the country, and seriously impede hostile operations against him. {75} The rising had now assumed all the character of an organised rebellion, and was a standing menace to British commerce passing through the Suez Canal; and as the crisis came to be more clearly realised in this country, further relays of troops were despatched. In the subsequent operations against Arabi the Black Watch took a prominent part. After its return from Cyprus and Gibraltar in 1879, the regiment was brigaded for a time at Aldershot. It was then located partly at Maryhill barracks, near Glasgow, and at Edinburgh Castle, under the command of Colonel R. K. Bayly. Captain Wauchope served at Maryhill from May 1881 till August 1882. [Sidenote: The 42nd leaving Edinburgh]