ding, the enemy
evidently not having expected such a reprisal. The work having been
completed, the arduous retirement commenced, the enemy following the
force up step by step the whole way back, at one time coming to
comparatively close quarters and necessitating a most careful
management of the rearguard.

'As Suk was reached after a trying march of twenty miles, the troops
being under fire most of the time, with scarcely any water and exposed
to a burning sun. The British casualties were seven men of the Dublin
Fusiliers wounded (one since dead) and one native and one gunner
slightly wounded.'

[Illustration: 2nd Lieut. H. St. G. S. Scott; 2nd Lieut. B. Maclear;
2nd Lieut. E. St. G. Smith; 2nd Lieut. J. P. Tredennick.

Bt.-Major E. Fetherstonhaugh; Lieut. A. H. D. Britton; Lieut. and
Qr.-mr. Burke; Major S. G. Bird, D.S.O.; Lieut. Haskard; Lieut.
Wheeler; 2nd Lieut. R. F. B. Knox; 2nd Lieut. J. P. B. Robinson; 2nd
Lieut. A. W. Newton.

Lieut. C. Garvice, D.S.O.; Capt. G. N. Cory, D.S.O.; Capt. M. Lowndes;
Lieut.-Col. H. T. Hicks, C.B.; Lieut. L. F. Renny; Capt. H. W.
Higginson; 2nd Lieut. E. F. E. Seymour; Lieut. A. de B. W. W. Bradford
(absent).

Officers of the 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers who embarked for
Aden.]

CHAPTER II.

THE RETURN HOME AND RECEPTION.

'I must to England.
I pray you give me leave.'

_Hamlet._

Early in October, 1903, the 2nd Battalion at length heard the good
news that the date of their departure from Aden had been definitely
fixed, and on the 23rd of the month it sailed in the s.s. _Soudan_,
arriving at Queenstown late in the evening of November 9th. The tour
of foreign service had lasted for twenty years all but two months, and
only one man in the whole battalion had seen it through from start to
finish without coming home, the present quartermaster, Lieutenant J.
Burke.

The 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers left England for Gibraltar on
January 9th, 1884, and in February, 1885, proceeded to Egypt, where it
was quartered first at Ramleh, and later on at Cairo. Early in 1886
the battalion went to India, headquarters being stationed successively
at Poona, Nasirabad, Karachi, Quetta, and Bombay.

In May, 1897, it was suddenly ordered to South Africa, and quartered
at Maritzburg, as already stated in the opening chapter.

The details were at Buttevant, County Cork, and thither the battalion
proceeded on their