The event was foreshadowed.  On the 5th of December the Egyptian Council of Ministers, presided over by the Khedive in person, decided on their own initiative to despatch an official letter expressing in warm terms their gratitude for the financial help offered them by her Majesty’s Government.  ‘I am desired,’ said Boutros Pasha, ’to beg your lordship to be good enough to convey to his lordship the Marquess of Salisbury the expression of the lively gratitude of the Khedive and the Egyptian Government for the great kindness which her Majesty’s Government has shown to them on this occasion.’ [Egypt, No. 1, 1897.]

On the 6th of December EP500,000, together with EP15,600 interest and costs, in gold, was conveyed in boxes in a cart from the Egyptian Treasury to the offices of the Caisse de la Dette.  The effect was tremendous.  All Cairo knew of the difficulty.  All Cairo witnessed the manner in which it had been overcome.  The lesson was too plain to be lost on the native mind.  The reverse of the French diplomacy was far greater even than its success had appeared.  For many years French influence in Egypt had not received so heavy a blow; yet even in the short space of time which this story covers it was to receive a still more terrible wound.

CHAPTER V:  THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR

Shortly before midnight on the 12th of March, 1896, the Sirdar received instructions from Lord Cromer authorising an expedition into the Dongola province and directing him to occupy Akasha.  The next morning the news was published in the Times, ostensibly as coming from its correspondent in Cairo:  and the Egyptian Cabinet was convened to give a formal assent by voting the decree.  On the 14th the reserves were called out.  On the 15th the Khedive reviewed the Cairo garrison; and at the termination of the parade Sir H. Kitchener informed him that the earliest battalions would start for the front that night.

The Egyptian frontier force had always been kept in a condition of immediate readiness by the restless activity of the enemy.  The beginning of the long-expected advance was hailed with delight by the British officers sweltering at Wady Halfa and Sarras.  On Sunday, the 15th of March, three days after the Sirdar had received his orders, and before the first reinforcements had started from Cairo, Colonel Hunter, who commanded on the frontier, formed a small column of all arms to seize and hold Akasha.  At dawn on the 18th the column started, and the actual invasion of the territory which for ten years had been abandoned to the Dervishes began.  The route lay through a wild and rocky country—­the debatable ground, desolated by years of war—­and the troops straggled into a long procession, and had several times for more than an hour to move in single file over passes and through narrow defiles strewn with the innumerable boulders from which the ‘Belly of Stones’ has derived its name.  The right