"We then remained there two and a half hours, and had silenced the fort all except one gun, when the signal was made to all the other small craft to assist _Condor_, and down they came and pegged away. I was not sorry, as the men were getting a bit beat. We were then recalled to the flagship, 'Captain repair on board,' and the admiral's ship's company gave us three cheers, and he himself on the quarterdeck shook me warmly by the hand, and told me he was extremely pleased.... I never saw such pluck as the Egyptians showed. We shelled them and shot them, but still they kept on till only one gun was left in action. It was splendid.... Nothing could have been more clever than the way the admiral placed his ships.... The wounded are all doing well. One man had his foot shot off, and he picked it up in his hand and hopped down to the doctor with it.... The troops hoisted a flag of truce the day after the action; and while we waited I sent to find out why it was they were marched away, having set fire to the town in many places. It has been burning ever since." ... The day after the bombardment, Captain Wilson (now Admiral of the Fleet Sir A. K. Wilson, V.C., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O) hauled down the flag of the Marabout Fort and presented it to me. It is now in the Museum of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. The commandant of Fort Marabout was so excellent an officer that when I was appointed provost-marshal and governor of the town by the admiral, I placed him on my staff to assist me in restoring order. {190} CHAPTER XX THE EGYPTIAN WAR (_Continued_) III. CHIEF OF POLICE The bombardment took place on the 11th July. On the 12th, as I have narrated, the Egyptian soldiery fired the city, looted it, and evacuated the defences. On the same day the Khedive was surrounded in his Palace at Ramleh by some 400 of Arabi's cavalry and infantry, a force subsequently reduced to about 250 men. That evening Admiral Seymour was informed that the Khedive was in danger. The admiral dispatched the _Condor_ to lie off Ramleh; and there we lay all that night, rolling heavily, with a spring on the cable to enable the guns to be trained upon the sandy lane down which the soldiers must advance if they intended to take the Palace. It was arranged that, if the Palace were attacked, the Khedive should hang a white sheet from a window, and I would at once take measures to secure his safety. The night went by without alarm; and next day Tewfik, escorted by a guard of native cavalry, went to the Ras-el-Tin Palace, where he was received by Admiral Seymour and a guard of Marines. Commander Hammill (who afterwards performed excellent service on the Nile), with a landing-party of 250 bluejackets and 150 Marines, had already taken possession of the Ras-el-Tin Peninsula.