is difficult to judge what his future might have been but for this one
man and the Nile Expedition, which proved the turning point in
French's career as it did in that of his regiment.

Then, as ever, French was a man who had to wait for his opportunities.
He was thirty-two years of age before he saw this, his first piece of
active service. Where Kitchener found, or made, opportunities for
military experience, French was content to wait the turn of events. So
it has been all through his life. He has never forestalled Destiny; he
has simply accepted its call. But when an opportunity presented itself
he always seized it, and the Nile Expedition was no exception to the
rule. Major French, without Staff College training, without the usual
diplomas, was to prove himself once and for all a master tactician.




CHAPTER II

WITH THE NILE EXPEDITION

A Forlorn Hope--Scouting in the Desert--The Battle of Abu
Klea--Metammeh--The Death of Gordon--A Dangerous
Retreat--"Major French and His Thirteen Troopers."


Sir John French's first experience of actual warfare was a bitter one.
If ever the British Government bungled one of their military
enterprises more thoroughly than another, it was the Nile Expedition
of 1884-5. What began as a forlorn hope ended in complete failure, and