Two or three native accounts of the storm of Tel-el-Kebir
have reached England. They all agree upon three points,—that the attack was a surprise, the Egyptian videttes having neglected their duty, owing, we imagine, to the extreme reluctance of Asiatics to move about at night, when spirits are abroad ; that the guns were sighted for 2,000 yards, the officers reckoning on immense slaughter by the shells while the British crossed the open ; and that the Egyptians, some Nubians excepted, were appalled by the hand-to-hand fighting. The Irish and High- landers struck them as irresistibly strong. One witness, an officer, says :—" It seemed so quick, they were scrambling over us, first over our right, and then rolling over all down the lino like a wave. We never expected war like this. Our soldiers stood fire at a distance very well. On August 5th many were killed, and they were not afraid of shell ; but these men came close up to us, and the only way to save life was to run away. The native soldier has never exercised this close way of fighting. No soldiers but the English could fight like that." The odd point is that these men, under Ibrahim, beat Turks, whose bravery is past question, on the open plain.
