"The families betake themselves to the landing-place. Captain Fitz-Roy opposes their departure.[47] I then write him a letter. M. Fitz-Roy answers me verbally at seven in the evening, when the night commences, that the families are free, but that M. de Lesseps and all his _personnel_ shall pass the night in the town, for he expects to be attacked. There will be a battle in Ismailia, and he wishes that M. de Lesseps and all his _personnel_ should be there. 'I am the master, now,' says he. "These odious words were quite gratuitous, since M. de Lesseps and all the _personnel_, chiefs and employés, had declared that they would not go out of the town, and there had never been a question except as regards their families. "A part of the families preferred to return to town; the other part was enabled to embark in the boats sent by the ironclad Spanish frigate _Carmen_, and by the Austrian gunboat _Albatross_. "The night, happily, passed without any incident; the silence was broken only by the shells thrown by the _Carysfort_ and _Orion_ on Nefiché. At daylight Ismailia woke up in the midst of several thousands of English soldiers of the army. The Lake is full of transports and ships of war. "We learn then that in the night of the 19th to the 20th the English have disembarked at Port Saïd, but peaceably, and that Admiral Hoskins has taken possession of our offices, from whence M. Desavary, Principal Transit Agent at Port Saïd, had been expelled. Ships of war and transports entered the Canal without pilots, and without paying their dues.[48] "During the 20th and 21st the movement without pilots of the English vessels of war gave rise to complete confusion. The greater part got ashore, and several were obliged to disembark their troops on the bank before arriving at Ismailia, being incapable of extricating themselves by their own resources. Admiral Seymour has been forced to recognize this, and the hurry that he was in on the 21st to hand back the working to us is the proof of it.[49] "It is desirable to add that the British naval authorities tried to obtain the services of several of our pilots behind the backs of their superiors, and that all the pilots, without exception, refused to move without the order of the Company. "During all this crisis no _défaillance_ has been produced in all the _personnel_ from Port Saïd to Suez. The Company may well be proud of it." The substance of M. Victor de Lesseps' account of the occupation of Ismailia being telegraphed to the _Standard_ newspaper, the Lords of the Admiralty thought the matter of sufficient importance to be noticed, and on the 1st September communicated to the Foreign Office as follows:--