The officers and men of the Fleet were ordered back to {186} their ships. I went on board the flagship and reported to the admiral the condition of the town. With the trifling force at his disposal, it was impossible that he should send a landing-party ashore. Had he done so, in contravention of his orders, the handful of British seamen and Marines would have had no chance against the thousands of Egyptian soldiers who, under Arabi's instructions, were waiting in their barracks under arms, ready to turn out at the first attempt at intervention on the part of the Fleet. During the ensuing month there poured out of Alexandria an immense number of refugees of all nations and every class of society. These were placed on board various vessels and were dispatched to the ports of their several countries. I was placed in charge of these operations; which included the chartering of ships, their preparation for passengers, and the embarkation of the refugees. In the course of the work there fell to me a task rarely included even among the infinite variety of the duties of a naval officer. My working-party was stowing native refugees in the hold of a collier, when a coloured lady was taken ill. She said: "Baby he come, sare, directly, sare, myself, sare." And so it was. We rigged up a screen, and my coxswain and I performed the office of midwives thus thrust upon us, and all went well. On the 10th July all merchant vessels and all foreign men-of-war left the harbour, and the British Fleet prepared for action. Admiral Seymour's squadron consisted of fifteen vessels: the ironclads _Alexandra_ (flagship), Captain C. F. Hotham; _Superb_, Captain T. Le Hunte Ward; _Sultan_, Captain W. J. Hunt-Grubbe; _Téméraire_, Captain H. F. Nicholson; _Inflexible_, Captain J. A. Fisher; _Monarch_, Captain H. Fairfax, C.B.; _Invincible_, Captain R. H. M. Molyneux; _Penelope_, Captain S. J. C. D'Arcy-Irvine: the torpedo-vessel _Hecla_, Captain A. K. Wilson; gunboats _Condor_, Commander Lord C. Beresford; _Bittern_, Commander Hon. T. S. Brand; _Beacon_, Commander G. W. Hand; _Cygnet_, Lieutenant H. C. D. Ryder; _Decoy_, Lieutenant A. H. Boldero; and dispatch vessel {187} _Helicon_, Lieutenant W. L. Morrison. The coast fortifications extended over a front of rather more than nine miles, from Fort Marabout on the south-west to Fort Silsileh on the north-east. Midway between the two, projects the forked spit of land whose northern arm encircles the new Port, and whose southern arm, extending in a breakwater, encloses the old Port. The twelve forts or batteries mounted in all 261 guns and mortars. [Illustration: THE BOMBARDMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, 11TH JULY, 1882. FROM CHART DRAW BY AUTHOR AT THE TIME]