[Page Heading: MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES]

Major French was quickly able to distinguish himself in the retreat.
For Buller was a believer in cavalry and used it wherever possible. In
his dispatch on the retreat he paid French the following handsome
tribute:

"I wish expressly to remark on the excellent work that has been done
by a small detachment of the 19th Hussars, both during our occupation
of Abu Klea and during our retirement. Each man has done the work of
ten; and it is not too much to say that the force owes much to Major
French and his thirteen troopers."

The flying column occupied just two months in its fruitless
expedition. But no more trying experience was ever packed into so
short a time. On that march across the Bayuda desert history has only
one verdict. It is that pronounced by Count von Moltke on the men who
accomplished it:--"They were not soldiers but heroes." None of the men
earned the title more thoroughly than Major French and his troopers.
"During the whole march from Korti," says Colonel Biddulph, "the
entire scouting duty had been taken by the 19th Hussars, so that each
day they covered far more ground than the rest of the force."[5] The
enemy themselves came to respect the little force of cavalrymen. "Even
the fierce Baggara horsemen appeared unwilling to cross swords with
our Hussars," wrote one who accompanied the column. Major French and
his regiment had firmly established their reputation.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _With the Camel Corps up the Nile_, by Count Gleichen, by