ab shouted; and at full gallop they rode
across and joined the Mamelukes. Then, heralded by a tremendous
artillery fire, the French line advanced, pouring heavy volleys of
musketry into the cavalry, and upon the defenders of the entrenchments.
In two or three minutes the infantry were seen to be throwing away their
guns, leaping from the entrenchments, and flying in a disordered crowd
towards the river. Had the French possessed any cavalry, not one of the
fugitives could have escaped. The Mamelukes, seeing that all was lost,
had ascertained that Mourad had ridden towards Gizeh, and now started to
endeavour to rejoin him; while among the Arabs the cry rose, "To the
desert!" and, turning their horses, they galloped away, passed the foot
of the Pyramids, and out into the desert, where they halted, seeing that
once out of reach of the fire of the French guns, there was no fear
whatever of their being pursued.

"It is the will of Allah," the sheik said, as he and his party
dismounted. "Truly you were right, friend Edgar; we know not how to
fight. Who could have dreamt that men on foot could have withstood the
charge of five thousand horsemen? And yet the Mamelukes fought, as
always, bravely."

"They did indeed, sheik," Edgar agreed. "They did all that was possible
for men to do, but against such a fire of infantry and artillery
horsemen are powerless. Had our infantry been as well trained as those
of the French, and instead of remaining in the entrenchments, where they
could render no assistance whatever, marched against the French infantry
and broken their squares, the Mamelukes would then have been able to
dash down upon them, and not a French soldier would ever have reached
their ships again; but without infantry the horsemen could do nothing."

"Then you think that all is lost, Edgar?"

"Assuredly all is lost for the present, sheik. Mourad Bey and the party
with him may get away, but the rest are penned in between the French and
the river, and few of them will escape. As for the infantry, they are a
mere mob, and even if they get away they will never venture to stand
against the French. Napoleon will enter Cairo to-morrow, and there he
will remain. Numbers of horses will fall into the hands of the French.
They will take many more in Cairo, and before long they will have
cavalry as well as infantry, and then no part of the country will be
safe from them."

"Then is Egypt to fall altogether under the rule of the Frenc