Before six ou the morning of Saturday, Arabi, having re-
ceived information that the advanced guard at Kassassin Lock was weak, made an attack in force. He moved out his whole army, opened fire with thirty guns• upon the camp ; and when the British. turned out, attempted to make a flank attack with his cavalry, while the infantry " rushed " the Railway. The Household Brigade, however, outflanked the horsemen, and the main body of the infantry, said to have been 17,000 strong, were driven back by the Royal Marines, the King's Rifles, and the York and Lancaster Regiment. By eleven o'clock the action was over, with trifling loss on either
side. The skirmish was in itself unimportant, but it showed that the enemy were not prepared to face the Eure• peans in the • open at any odds whatever, and spread among the soldiers a contempt for their adversaries which a few days after produced most important results. The repulse.may, more- over, have greatly shaken the confidence of the Egyptians. Sir Garnet Wolseley was earnestly pressed to follow up the success, but he refused, and was, of course, greatly criticised at home. He occupied himself with bringing up his troops from Ismailia, and on Tuesday found himself with 11,000 bayonets, 2,000 sabres, and 60 guns, and ample munitions ready at the front.
