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fire," an equivocal instruction which the French refused
to send to their squadron. Seymour demanded that all
work be stopped (July 6), though at the moment none was
being done. Three days later, on information that work
was being resumed, the Admiral notified the Consuls that
he would open fire in twenty-four hours unless all the
forts were surrendered. The Powers and the Porte were
informed, and the Sultan begged for more time to con-
sider his action, which was refused. At 7 a.m. on
July in fire was opened, and by 5.30 p.m. the forts
were practically destroyed. The Egyptian troops then
retired, leaving Alexandria in flames to be looted by the
mob, during which disorders several Europeans were
murdered. Thereafter (July 13 and 14) British marines
were landed and order was restored. Arabi was later
charged with having fired the town to cover his retreat,
and for this the commander of the rear guard, Suleiman
Pasha Sami, was hanged. But there was evidence that
the fire began with Seymour's shells and was spread by
the mob, which included disbanded soldiers. There
seems also to be little in the other charge that the
Egyptian troops escaped by misuse of the white flag, for
there was no desire to prevent their withdrawal, and the
white flag had been the required signal for surrender of
the forts.
Sir Beauchamp Seymour*s guns shattered more im-
portant structures than the ancient stone forts of
Mehemet AH. The bombardment almost shook down the
British Government, Bright resigned, and Gladstone
was forced by Chamberlain and Hartington to abandon
his pacifist principles, as usual covering his change of
direction with a smoke-screen of verbiage. He assured
Parliament, for example, that England was not engaging
in war with Egypt, but in "the operations of war/* a