y alone and had landed a big force at Morto Bay whence we
could have forced the Sedd-el-Bahr Turks to fall back.

One thing is sure. Whatever happens to us here we are bound to win
glory. There are no other soldiers quite of the calibre of our chaps in
the world; they have _esprit de corps_; they are _volunteers_ every one
of them; they are _for it_; our Officers--our rank and file--have been
so _entered_ to this attack that they will all die--that we will all
die--sooner than give way before the Turk. The men are not fighting
blindly as in South Africa: they are not fighting against forces with
whose motives they half sympathise. They have been told, and told again,
exactly what we are after. They understand. Their eyes are wide open:
they _know_ that the war can only be brought to an end by our joining
hands quickly with the Russians: they _know_ that the fate of the Empire
depends on the courage they display. Should the Fates so decree, the
whole brave Army may disappear during the night more dreadfully than
that of Sennacherib; but assuredly they will not surrender: where so
much is dark, where many are discouraged, in this knowledge I feel both
light and joy.

Here I write--think--have my being. To-morrow night where shall we be?
Well; what then; what of the worst? At least we shall have lived, acted,
dared. We are half way through--we shall not look back.

As night began to settle down over the land, the _Queen Elizabeth_
seemed to feel the time had come to give full vent to her wrath. An
order from the bridge, and, in the twinkling of an eye, she shook from
stem to stern with the recoil from her own efforts. The great ship was
fighting all out, all in action. Every gun spouted flame and a roar
went up fit to shiver the stars of Heaven. Ears stopped with wax; eyes
half blinded by the scorching yellow blasts; still, in some chance
seconds interval, we could hear the hive-like b rr rr rr rr rr r r r r
of the small arms plying on the shore; still see, through some break in
the acrid smoke, the profile of the castle and houses; nay, of the very
earth itself and the rocky cliff; see them all, change, break, dissolve
into dust; crumble as if by enchantment into strange new outlines, under
the enormous explosions of our 15-in. lyddite shells. Buildings gutted:
walls and trenches turned inside out and upside down: friend and foe
surely must be wiped out together under such a fire: at least they are
stupefied--must cease