. Battles of the nineteenth century . t Sir Garnet calculatedto reach the enemys works just before the firstgleam of dawn—so nicely was everything plannedbeforehand. The long sojourn at Ninth Hill,wrote General Hamley, while waiting for themoment to advance was of a sombre kind : wesat in silence on our horses or on the sand, whilecomrades moving about appeared as black figurescoming out of the darkness, unrecognisable 202 BATTLES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. except by their voices. A skirmish had takenplace some days before near this spot, in whichmen and horses were slain, and token
. Battles of the nineteenth century . t Sir Garnet calculatedto reach the enemys works just before the firstgleam of dawn—so nicely was everything plannedbeforehand. The long sojourn at Ninth Hill,wrote General Hamley, while waiting for themoment to advance was of a sombre kind : wesat in silence on our horses or on the sand, whilecomrades moving about appeared as black figurescoming out of the darkness, unrecognisable 202 BATTLES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. except by their voices. A skirmish had takenplace some days before near this spot, in whichmen and horses were slain, and tokens of it werewafted to us on the breeze. Once there was afalse alarm on the right, and the prostrate mensprang to their feet; but it turned out to be onlya body of British cavalry moving across the frontof the line. At last, in the lowest undertone, word waspassed along all the line to advance, and soonnothing was heard but the swish-swish ofthe battalions footing it warily across the sandas if it had been snow — silence otherwise. ARAIU PASHA. and darkness around and above, with the starsshining down as they had done in the time ofthe Pharaohs and the other dynasties of Egj-ptiankings lying entombed in the Pyramids. Wellmight the British troops have been impressedwith the suspense of the moment and the awfulsolemnity of the scene. Directing poles hadbeen previously fixed in the sand by the Engi-neers, but they proved of little or no use, theonly effective finger-posts being the everlastingstars, and even these were now and then obscuredby clouds. Sometimes the mounted men of theHeadquarters Staff, moving up to the columnswith Avhispered instructions, were mistaken forprying Bedouins ; but silence and discipline werewonderfully well preserved, and fonvard, everforward, moved the invisible and barely audiblemasses of fighting men. Once the HighlandBrigade lay down to rest for twenty minutes,and this was the occasion of some confusionwhich was like to have ended in a calamity.
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