Flashman And The Tiger

[9]. Sir Garnet (later Viscount) Wolseley confirmed his reputation as Britain’s first soldier by his suppression in 1882 of the Egyptian army’s revolt against the Khedive. The rebellion was led by Arabi Pasha, an ardent nationalist and anti-European, and after the massacre of more than a hundred foreigners at Alexandria, the port’s defences were bombarded by the Royal Navy and Egypt was invaded by Wolseley’s force which eventually numbered 40,000. He gained control of the Suez Canal, and when his advance guard was attacked by Arabi at Kassassin on August 28, the Egyptian infantry were routed by a moonlight charge of the British cavalry, in which the Life Guards and the Blues of the Household Brigade ("Tin Bellies", to Flash-man) were prominent. Sir Baker Russell’s horse was shot under him, but he mounted another, presumably with Flashman’s assistance. Arabi’s army of about 40,000 was strongly entrenched at Tel-el-Kebir, but after a remark-able night march of six miles in silence, Wolseley’s force made a surprise dawn attack, headed by the Highland Brigade, who overwhelmed the Egyptian position. About 2000 of the defenders were killed for the loss of 58 British dead and 400 wounded and missing. Cairo was occupied after a forced march, Arabi was captured and exiled to Ceylon, and the rebellion had been crushed in 25 days. (See Charles Lowe, "Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir", in Battles of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Major Arthur Griffiths, 1896.)

[10]. One can only take Flashman’s word for it that there was a "strong shave" (rumour) in the clubs about Gordon as early as the beginning of October. The situation in the Sudan did not begin to look critical until after the wipe-out of Hicks' command by the Mahdi at Kashgil early in November, and Gordon’s name does not appear to have been mentioned in official circles until some weeks later, when Gordon himself was still contemplating service in the Congo. No doubt Flashman’s instinct for self-preservation made him unusually prescient.

[11]. The first official journey of the famous Orient Express began at the Gare de l’Est, Paris, on the evening of Sunday, October 4, 1883. The great train was the brainchild of Georges Nagelmackers of Liege, founder of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits, and realised his dream of a through express of unsurpassed luxury which should run to the ends of Europe. That first train consisted of the locomotive, two baggage cars, two sleeping-cars, and a dining salon which was to become justly famous; about forty passengers (all male as far as Vienna, where two ladies came aboard), made the inaugural trip from Paris to Constantinople, among them ministers of the French and Belgian governments, several journalists including Blowitz, a Turkish diplomat, Mishak Effendi (identified by Flashman), and Nagelmackers himself. It is interesting, in view of the alias supplied by Blowitz for Flashman in Berlin five years earlier, that on the Orient Express Blowitz shared Voiture 151 with a Dutchman named Janszen. Blowitz got a book out of the trip, which was a memorable one even by his standards, for in Constantinople he obtained the first interview ever granted by the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul-Hamid II; in Bucharest he also inter-viewed the King of Roumania. And being Blowitz, he thoroughly enjoyed the luxury and conviviality of the journey, especially the dining salon. One cannot blame him; as all who have travelled on it agree, there is no train like the Orient Express. (See Michael Barsley, Orient Express: The Story of the World’s Most Fabulous Train, 1966; Blowitz, Memoirs. For the stops and times of Flashman’s journey, see Express Trains, English and Foreign, by E. Foxwell and T. C. Farrer, 1889.)