On the 13th of July a General Order was issued by the Duke of Cambridge, by command of the Queen, conveying her congratulations to the Volunteers on the completion of the twenty-first year of their existence, and expressing her regret that she was unable to hold a review of the citizen soldiers in Windsor Great Park. On the afternoon of the following day her Majesty reviewed 11,000 regular troops in Windsor Great Park. This was a brilliant affair, the 5th and 7th Dragoon Guards winding up the display with a most dashing charge. On the 19th of July the Queen and the Princess Beatrice left Windsor and took up their quarters at Osborne where, on the 28th, her Majesty received a party of eight officers and men of the 24th Regiment, who brought with them the colours of that corps, which had been rescued from the hands of the Zulus by two ensigns at the cost of their lives. Her Majesty inspected the colours, and spoke with brief and simple eloquence of the bravery and loyalty of the regiment, touching with manifest emotion on the death of the ensigns who had sacrificed their lives for their standards. Curiously enough, Indian telegrams published about this time in the newspapers showed that at the battle of Maiwand the majority of the officers of the 66th Regiment were killed in the vain attempt to defend their colours; in fact, the regiment lost 400 out of its strength of 500 in this action. The attention of military men was thus drawn to the practice of carrying colours into action, and it was argued that it was one more honoured in the breach than the observance. History hardly records a case where a regiment has been rallied on its colours. On the other hand, a hundred fights besides Isandhlwana and Maiwand testify that many valuable lives have been lost in defending them. Nor are colours necessary as incentives to bravery, for the Rifle regiments (whose record is one of unsullied glory) never carried any colours, though they fought fully as well as the regiments that encumbered themselves with flaunting banners.[166] On the 21st of August the Queen crossed over to Portsmouth, and inspected the 1st battalion of the Rifle Brigade previous to its departure for India. The regiments were not drawn up in line in spick and span order, but were visited by her Majesty as they sat at mess in undress uniform on board the troopship, and, as she made a minute inspection of their quarters, the novelty of the scene apparently interested and amused her very much. The exceptional honour thus conferred on the Riflemen was due to the close connection of the corps with the Royal Family.[167]