The flying column occupied just two months in its fruitless expedition. But no more trying experience was ever packed into so short a time. On that march across the Bayuda desert history has only one verdict. It is that pronounced by Count von Moltke on the men who accomplished it:--"They were not soldiers but heroes." None of the men earned the title more thoroughly than Major French and his troopers. "During the whole march from Korti," says Colonel Biddulph, "the entire scouting duty had been taken by the 19th Hussars, so that each day they covered far more ground than the rest of the force."[5] The enemy themselves came to respect the little force of cavalrymen. "Even the fierce Baggara horsemen appeared unwilling to cross swords with our Hussars," wrote one who accompanied the column. Major French and his regiment had firmly established their reputation. FOOTNOTES: [1] _With the Camel Corps up the Nile_, by Count Gleichen, by permission of Messrs. Chapman and Hall. [2] _With the Camel Corps up the Nile_, by Count Gleichen, by permission of Messrs. Chapman and Hall. [3] _With the Camel Corps up the Nile_, by Count Gleichen, by permission of Messrs. Chapman and Hall. [4] For this and much other valuable information the writer is indebted to Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood. [5] _The Nineteenth and their Times_, by Col. J. Biddulph, by permission of Mr. John Murray. CHAPTER III YEARS OF WAITING Second in Command--Maintaining the Barrow tradition--The Persistent Student--Service in India--Retires on Half-pay--Renewed Activities--Rehearsing for South Africa. After the success in the Soudan Major French had not long to wait for promotion. A few days after General Buller's tribute he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of his regiment. So that he came back to England as second in command of the 19th Hussars. From this time onward he became entirely absorbed in his profession. It is true that he had always been interested in it; but there is no question that Barrow was the man who had shown him the fascination of scientific generalship. While making the reputation of the 19th, Barrow had unhappily lost his own life. He died as the result of re-opening an internal wound while tent-pegging in the following year. French determined to carry on his work, and at Norwich the training of the 19th Hussars rapidly became famous throughout the Army. One young officer, now General Bewicke Copley,[6] was attached to the 19th from another regiment in order to study their methods. He tells how he was greatly struck by the brilliant work which French was doing. His strict discipline and his terrific ideas of what training meant, may have struck some of his young subalterns as scarcely yielding them the ideal existence of the _beau sabreur_. Probably they were right; but they were being licked into a state of amazing efficiency.