"I had the honour to receive your letter of the 6th July, in which you state that you had been informed that two guns had been mounted and that other works are going on on the sea-shore, and in reply I assure you that these assertions are unfounded, and that this information is like the intimation given to you about the blocking up of the entrance to the harbour, of the falseness of which you were convinced. I rely on your feelings of humanity, and beg you to accept my respects. "(Signed) TOULBA, "Commandant of Forces." The Khedive during this period retained great self-possession. He realized perfectly the difficulties of his position, and sent for Sir Auckland Colvin, to whom he explained that should a bombardment be resolved upon he was determined to remain faithful to Egypt. He could not, he said, desert those who had stood by him during the crisis, nor could he, merely to secure his personal safety, abandon Egypt when attacked by a foreign Power. In the event of a bombardment taking place, His Highness announced his intention of retiring to a palace on the Mahmoudieh Canal, and added that the more rapidly the affair was conducted, the less danger there would be for himself personally. On the 9th, Admiral Seymour telegraphed to the Admiralty that "there was no doubt about the armament. Guns were being mounted in Fort Silsileh. He should give foreign consuls notice at daylight to-morrow, and commence action twenty-four hours after, unless forts on the isthmus and those commanding the entrance to the harbour were surrendered." The information upon which Seymour proposed to act was partly a declaration made by Lieutenant Dorrien, of the _Invincible_, and which (omitting immaterial parts) was as follows:-- "On the morning of the 9th day of July, 1882, at about 7.30 a.m., I drove through the Rosetta Gate, and ... reached the old quarantine station, where I ... proceeded on foot to the fort marked on Admiralty Chart 'Tabia-el-Silsileh,' and when within fifty yards of the said fort I observed inside two working parties of Arabs about 200 strong, under the superintendence of soldiers, parbuckling two smooth-bore guns--apparently 32-pounders--towards their respective carriages and slides, which were facing in the direction of the harbour, and which seemed to have been lately placed ready for their reception." On the 10th, the Admiralty telegraphed to the Admiral directing him to substitute for the word "surrendered" the words "temporarily surrendered for the purposes of disarmament." The same day, the Admiral sent his ultimatum to the Military Commandant, in the terms following:--