The rebel camp was reported to consist of 6,000 men, with six batteries of rifled guns, one battery of Gatlings, and 300 marine artillery, besides Bedouins. They were intrenching themselves behind earthworks on the line of railway.
The Khedive now announced that Arabi had been suspended from his functions as Minister of War. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in communicating to the Admiral the dismissal of Arabi, stated that "the publication of the Decree was deferred for fear of seeing reproduced in Cairo and other towns the disorder which had taken place in Alexandria."
On the 18th, the troopship _Orontes_ arrived from Malta, but through some unaccountable blundering of the authorities, she came without a single soldier.
By this time order was beginning to be re-established in Alexandria; the fires, too, had either burnt themselves out or been extinguished. The Egyptian Post Office was reopened in the town, and the work of clearing the streets was proceeded with rapidly. For this purpose many natives and others out of employment were utilized.
The first day's work in street-clearing was marked by the first public execution. A negro, who had been caught setting fire to some houses, was, after a court-martial, tied to a tree in the Place Mehemet Ali, and shot by a party of sailors. The people too began to return to the town. These, however, required to be watched, as they were almost to a man Arabists, and ready to resume the work of incendiarism and plunder on the first opportunity. Looters were still to be found lurking in odd corners, notably in the Minet-el-Bassel quarter, where there were stores containing sugar and grain.
The sanitary condition of the town now began to give rise to apprehension. Disagreeable odours, indicating the presence of dead bodies, were perceived proceeding from many of the houses. These were, no doubt, the victims of the pillagers, left to lie where they fell.
On the 18th the land defence of the city was definitely assumed by the army, assisted at the Rosetta Gate by marines from the ships, and elsewhere by the bluejackets with their Gatling guns.
At this period it was found that the supply of provisions in Alexandria was running short, and steps had to be considered for stopping the return of the European fugitives.