ATHENSI FALLS.
After all these events culminating in the rescue of Bob and the
disastrous rout of the Janissaries at Korakum, Mr. Hampton decided
instead of returning to civilization without having accomplished his
main objective—namely, the exploration of the ruins of Korakum and the
gaining of entrance to Athensi—to stay and await the result of the
revolution.
The Korakum expedition had been timed by the Oligarchs to coincide with
an attack in force launched through the mountains against Captain
Amanassar’s main body of revolutionists in the field. There, too, the
Janissaries had been unsuccessful. Though not beaten so decisively as at
Korakum, they had been unable to penetrate the strong position held by
the rebels and, sullen and alarmed at the unexpected strength of the
opposition, they had fallen back to the shelter of the walls of Athensi.
In their retreat they carried off all the livestock for miles from the
country between Captain Amanassar and the city, stripping the poor
peasants of everything, and herding the young men into the city while
leaving the children and the old people to live as best they might.
Mr. Hampton made a trip to Captain Amanassar’s camp, into which the
stricken country people from the devastated districts were making their
way, and on his return reported many pitiable sights. The rebel leader’s
assurance that the fall of Athensi, in view of the two disasters to the
arms of its defenders, was inevitable, caused the American to decide to
stay.
He was moved by more than an explorer’s interest, moreover. Deeply
stirred by the ideals of these young Athensians, sons of a semi-savage
race dating from the dawn of time, who were resolved to redeem their
country from the rule of the Oligarchs who so long had held it in
thrall, he felt that his engineering experience would be valuable in the
final siege of the city and that later his knowledge of world affairs
would be worth much to Captain Amanassar when the latter and his
compatriots came to the point of opening communication with the outside
world.
Week by week the lines about Athensi grew tighter, with every sally of
the Janissaries repulsed. Reports from friends within the city, where
the revolutionists had many adherents, continued to reach the rebel
camp, and all were to the effect that famine was beginning to raise its
head amid the crowded population.
That great numbers of his countrymen should be starved to death or die
of plague, for sickness also broke out in Athensi, was not Captain
Amanassar’s object. On several occasions, he made overtures to the
Oligarchs looking to the surrender of the city on terms which would
spare their lives, but these were all rejected. The rulers of the priest
clan could not bring themselves to a realization that at last the power
they had exercised through uncounted centuries was seriously threatened,
and seemed bent on involving all in ruin rather than continue to live
shorn of power. To storm Athensi was an impossibility for Captain
Amanassar’s numerous but ill-equipped army, and apparently the only
thing to do was to play a waiting game.
Such a course, however, was repugnant to the rebel leader, whose heart
bled for the miseries of the cooped-up population, and he sought by
every known method of appeal to prevail on those residents who managed
to steal out of Athensi and reach his camp, to bring about an uprising
in the city which would open its gates to his forces.
At length, when the miseries of the city reached a point too great to be
borne any longer, his arguments prevailed. A half dozen of his
stoutest-hearted aides entered Athensi with a drove of lean cattle,
announcing boldly they had been burned out by the rebels and came to the
city for shelter. They disappeared amid the city warrens after being
admitted at the great gate, and then scattered to rouse the city to
fever pitch.
That night the Janissaries, going to change guard on the walls, were
attacked as they passed through the streets, and were driven back to the
shelter of the Inner City. The guard at the great gate was surprised and
overcome, and the gates opened to admit a force of picked warriors from
the rebel ranks, who had stolen up under cover of darkness.
The Janissaries posted on the walls in the vicinity of the gate were
overcome, although fighting desperately, and before help could reach
them from other parts of the walls, the main force of the rebels, which
had moved up by forced marches, entered the city.
Many of the Janissaries were cut down as they fell back to the Inner
City, where their heartless comrades refused to open the gates to admit
them lest the rebels also force their way in.
Dawn found Athensi in the possession of Captain Amanassar’s forces, with
the Inner City beleaguered on every side, and its fall only a matter of
time. Three weeks it managed to hold out and then its defenders weak
from hunger, were forced to seek unconditional surrender. The Oligarchs
were imprisoned to stand trial later for their crimes, and the surviving
Janissaries were disarmed and, although their lives were spared, they
were put to work as state peons repairing the ravaged countryside.
Bob, Jack, Frank and Roy Stone followed the first wave of the attack
into Athensi in a company of 200 rebels commanded by Jepthah. At Bob’s
special request, this group made its way through the tumultuous streets
to the Coliseum. It was a moonless night, and the great amphitheater lay
dark and mysterious outside the walls of the Inner City.
Around those walls raged a furious battle but in the Coliseum itself,
which the Janissaries had no idea of defending, all was silent. That is,
until the rebels with Bob at their head, clad again in the gladiator’s
armor he had worn on being rescued, entered the arena with their
wavering torches.
The tumult of the desperate fighting within the city was reduced to a
murmur down there, on the sand, at the base of those towering tiers of
seats. Yet here, too, it had penetrated and the poor captives, locked in
their quarters for the night, and awaiting the coming of the Sacrificial
Games, now only a week away, were awake and moving about restlessly.
As the light of the torches fell through the massive bars of the great
door set in the solid stone of the wall, and penetrated the interior of
the single great room where all the alien gladiators were quartered and
where Bob, too, had lived, the poor fellows crowded forward.
They did not know what the tumult in the city and now the arrival of
this armed force portended, but Bob was easily recognizable in his armor
and made friendly signs indicating he had come to release them. At the
same time, men armed with stout axes and wrenching bars attacked the
gate. It was stubborn and resisted all assaults a long time but
eventually gave way, and then the slaves threw themselves at Bob’s feet
and tried to kiss his hands. To these men, most of whom were Negroes,
although a few Berbers and Tuaregs were in the number, Bob’s sudden
rescue by airplane had appeared as a miracle. And now his return to
release them had an even greater effect on their primitive
intelligences.
While this was going on Jepthah headed another party which broke down a
similar gate on the other side of the arena, behind which were confined
the young Athensians destined to fight the slaves in the Sacrificial
Games. To one or two of them he was known, and when he spread the word
of the success of the revolution the joy of these young fellows,
snatched from their families by the Oligarchs to go to death, knew no
bounds.