The plan of operations, shortly stated, was to surround the barracks in which the Government soldiers were quartered, and then to establish a line of sentries across the narrow neck of land which separates the European from the native town, and to bar escape from the former. In a few minutes the work was completed. The soldiers, who were nearly all asleep, were ordered to surrender, and 160 of them fell in and laid down their arms. They were then permitted to return to their barracks, two officers only being detained in custody. The seamen were then posted right across from Lake Menzaleh to the sea, and some temporary earthworks were thrown up across the neck of land already referred to. Upon Captain Seymour, of the _Iris_, devolved the delicate duty of securing the Canal Company's offices at Port Saïd, and of preventing any information being telegraphed through it to the Company's other stations. After Captain Seymour had occupied the office of the principal transit agent of the Canal Company, a midshipman, not more than fifteen years of age, was told off with a party of bluejackets to take possession of the Company's telegraph apparatus. The Company's employés stood aghast with solemn faces. Such an act of desecration had never been even dreamt of. Presently the Company's Telegraph Agent arrived, full of dignity and importance, and, apparently unconscious of what had taken place, walked towards his office. He was stopped at the entrance by the small midshipman, who said with a very good French accent, "On ne passe pas." The Frenchman (all the important posts in the Company are filled by Frenchmen) looked at the diminutive object in front of him with dignified astonishment, and demanded, "Qui êtes-vous? Que voulez-vous ici?" "Je suis ici pour empêcher le monde d'entrer," answered the midshipman. The Frenchman, quite bewildered, looked round, and from the long faces of his colleagues was able to guess the truth. His anger and humiliation at first prevented his uttering a word. It was not so much that his office had been seized, but that such an important mission should have been confided to so small a midshipman. This was the bitterest sting of all. Had he been suppressed by a troop of soldiers with fixed bayonets, his dignity at least would have been saved, though the result might have been the same. "Ces sacrés Anglais veulent se moquer de nous en nous envoyant un gamin comme cela," was his remark to his brother officials. Resistance was, however, in vain, and the Company's staff had to submit to the inevitable.[44] Of course the vital point to be seized was Ismailia, a task which the presence of the Egyptian force at the railway junction at Nefiché, just outside the town, rendered especially perilous.