Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1883 — The Night Attack in Egypt [ARTICLE]

The Night Attack in Egypt

One of Sir Garnet’s anecdotes about Td-el-Kebir is not yet out of date. He had timed the night attack to begin at a certain hour, and reports to be brought to him from the different bodies of troops that they had actually reached their positions. Surrounded by his staff, he sat waiting on horseback, and in his nervous impatience he was continually pulling out a repeater he carried, andringingthe hour. The night was extremely dark, the repeater very old, and Sir Garnet grew frequently anxious lest the moment of the attack should pass before everything was ready. The staff said what they could to reassure their chief, and somebody shrewdly suggested that perhaps the old repeater was too fast Just then a faint light dawned on the eastern sky and grew swiftly brighter, and before long, the horizon and all that quarter of the heavens were radiant with the hues of early morn. Sir Garnet threw down his watch with an exclamation of despair, and, turning to the staff said: You see, gentlemen, it is too late, it will be broad daylight before the troops can reach the enemiy’s lines.” “But why?” queried one bold man, “the hour fixed is not past” “It must be past” retorted Sir Garnet “look at the light in the Aj.* “Yea,” responded the bold man, “I see the light It is the comet”