( 209 ) CHAPTER XII. EMBARKATION OF TROOPS. Arrival of Last Battalion of Zebehr’s Soudanese—Bad Arrange ments as to Pay and Rations—Mahomed Aly will not ADVANCE TO RELIEVE SlNKAT—MANY THINGS WANTING FOR the Army, but Delay no longer possible—Arrangements for Water—Embarking Troops—Abyssinians object to be CLOTHED—Sl'iriXX RETURNS FROM TrINKITAT—FANATIC BoY —Heartrending Letter from Tewfik Bey—My Husband’s Answer—Telegraph Ship Chiltern—Scare of Garrison- Departure of my Husband in the Zagazig—Extraordinary Way of pulling Camels into the Boats—A. Spy from Tokar —Adventures of Levi the Merchant—Firing at Night— Return of Levi—Messenger comes in from Berber. The last battalion of Zebehr’s Soudanese has come. They are hardly able to march ; they do not know how to fix bayonets; their commanding officer, a most intelligent, French-speaking Turk, and the smartest native officer here, reports that his officers are the very worst he has ever seen—fancy the worst of the Egyptian officers !—that they are lieutenants and sub-lieutenants who have been many years on the retired list, and that none are fit to drill a company. The want of discipline of the proved by their rapid refusal to P men was soon
