While washing himself at his tent door at a quarter to six in the morning, he was astonished by a volley fired into the camp from the surrounding scrub. He found that the bush on every side of him was full of turbaned forces. Getting his men in hand immediately, he returned the fire.

Those of his porters who were not armed with muzzleloaders, broke open the ammunition boxes, and, taking the chassepots, kept up an erratic fire in every direction but the one most necessary. This ill -directed fire was, however, enough to prevent the Arabs from rushing the camp, and Cassar charged out with his soldiers at any point where the enemy approached too closely. This continued for over four hours, when, for a reason unknown to Cassar at the time, the Arabs withdrew for an hour and twenty minutes. The explanation, as we afterwards