nother all day long, but the advantage at the end of the
day lay with the Welshmen, who simply refused to be beaten and fought the
Turks to a standstill. Like the Scotsmen they had to wipe off a few old
scores, in addition to which there was the accumulated interest of six
months of waiting.

By these operations Gaza was isolated except from the north but, as the
Turks had no more reserves immediately available, little danger was to be
feared from that direction. During the night the Turkish commander, seeing
that the game was up, skilfully evacuated all the defences of Gaza, with
the exception of those at Atawina Ridge, from which, as will be seen by a
glance at the map, the defenders could best protect his rear from the
onslaught of the victorious troops advancing from the east. There was no
necessity, therefore, for an assault on Ali Muntar; its deserted slopes
were occupied without opposition the next day. It thus remained unconquered
to the end, and no one begrudged the barren victory, for many thousands of
British lives were saved in consequence.

By the time Gaza was occupied by our troops, the remaining Turkish defences
except Atawina had fallen into our hands. This, too, was evacuated when the
garrison had done their work of delaying our advance and protecting the
main retreating body. It was due to their dogged defence that a larger
number of prisoners were not taken by the British, and the two almost
bloodless retirements were admittedly very ably carried out.

Thus, in six days the patient labours of six months had on the one hand
been brought to nought, and on the other had been crowned by complete
success. The fall of Gaza gave us the key to the whole of the Maritime
plain of Palestine. It was one of the five great cities of the Philistines,
and the only one that had retained even a degree of its former greatness;
with the others the cry is "Ichabod!"

Of the town itself it is unnecessary to say more than that while there are
several fine modern buildings, amongst them a German school, and a mosque
which had suffered from our shells on account of the Turkish persistence in
using it as an observation post, the greater part of the town is like every
other Eastern town in its utter disregard of the elementary laws of
sanitation. The white roofs in a ring of cactus and amid the scarlet
blossoms of the pomegranate make a delightful picture seen from the top of
a neighbouring hill, but there is the usual compl