at his ships really got the worst
of the fight, and that if the Danes had held on, he must have drawn off
with the loss of many of his vessels."

"I know nothing of these things, brother, nor where the towns you name
are, nor who are the Danes; but it seems to me that those great ships
with all their guns would be terrible assailants. As you say, these
forts are not fit for fighting; but this is because no foes have ever
come against us by sea for so many years. What could an enemy do if they
landed?"

"The Mamelukes are grand horsemen, Sidi, but horsemen alone cannot win a
battle; there are the artillery and infantry to be counted with, and it
is with these that battles are won in our days, though I say not that
cavalry do not bear their share, but alone they are nothing. One
infantry square, if it be steady, can repulse a host of them; but you
may ere long see the matter put to proof, for I hear that the officers
who came on shore this morning asked if aught had been heard of the
French fleet, which had, they say, sailed from Toulon to conquer Egypt.
It is for this that the English fleet has come here."

"Their bones will whiten the plains should they attempt it," the other
said scornfully. "But why should they want to interfere with us, and why
should you care to prevent them doing so if they are strong enough?"

"Because, in the first place, we are at war with them, and would prevent
them gaining any advantage. In the second place, because Egypt is a step
on the way to India. There we are fighting with one of the great native
princes, who has, they say, been promised help by the French, who are
most jealous of us, since we have destroyed their influence there, and
deprived them of their chance of becoming masters of a large portion of
the country."

The conversation had been carried on in Arabic. The speakers were of
about the same age, but Edgar Blagrove was half a head taller than his
Arab friend. His father was a merchant settled in Alexandria, where
Edgar had been born sixteen years before, and except that he had spent
some two years and a half at school in England, he had never been out of
Egypt. Brought up in a polyglot household, where the nurses were French
or Italian, the grooms Arab, the gardeners Egyptians drawn from the
fellah class, and the clerks and others engaged in his father's business
for the most part Turks, Edgar had from childhood spoken all these
languages with equal facility. He had neve