It may have seemed to you that Harry Forsyth took the death of the
Egyptian soldier rather callously, seeing that he was not used to such
scenes, and that he ought to have been a little more impressed. But you
see he had resided in Egypt, and been some way up the Nile before; and
in hot countries people not only live a good deal, but die a good deal,
in the open air, so that he had seen human bodies; and more than once,
in the course of his journeys, he had come upon one such lying much as
you will see that of a dog on the mud of a tidal river at home at low
water.
It is astonishing how soon we grow hardened to such spectacles. And
then, unless he has become exceptionally cosmopolitan, a Briton finds it
very difficult to reckon an African, or even an Asiatic, as _quite_ a
human being. Of course he knows that he is so, just as much as himself.
He knows, and perhaps vehemently asserts, if necessary, that even the
lowest type of negro is a man and a brother, and not a connecting link
between man and monkey. But he cannot _manage_ to feel that he is of
the same value as a European, or to look upon his corpse with a similar
awe.
In the early days of the Australian colonies, an officer in a Scottish
regiment quartered out in that hemisphere caught a native robbing his
garden, chased him with a club, and hit him harder than he intended, so
that the man fell down and never got up again, for which the officer was
sorry, though held justified. About that time bad news from home
oppressed his spirits to such an extent that his soldier-servant, who
was much attached to him, and was allowed considerable freedom of speech
in consequence of his value and fidelity, thought fit to remonstrate.
He attributed his master's lowness of spirits entirely to his brooding
over the accident, and said one morning when he had brushed the clothes
and brought the shaving-water--
"I ask your pardon, meejor; but it's sair to see you take on so aboot
the likes of that heathen body. A great traveller I was conversing with
last night, and a respectable and trustworthy man, sir, told me that
there's thousands and thousands of them up the country."
He thought that his master was fretting over the wanton destruction of a
rare specimen, a sort of dodo!
Howard and Forsyth left Khartoum and strolled towards the plain where
the Egyptian army lay. A town of tents, well pitched indeed, and
dressed in parallel lines, and kept fairly clean--the English officers,
though they had had all their work cut out, had at length taught the
Egyptians that--but wanting in all those little embellishments which
distinguish an English or French encampment, especially if it is at all
permanent. No little flags to mark the companies; no extemporised
miniature gardens; no neat frames to hang recently-cleaned accoutrements
on. The sentries mooned up and down, carrying their rifles as if they
were troublesome, heavy things, they longed to threw down, that they
might put their hands in their pockets.
In one block of tents, however, which they passed through there was a
great difference.
The sentry stood to his front and shouldered arms, as he saw Howard
approach, smartly and with alacrity. The men were cleaning their arms
as if they took pride in the task, not like paupers picking oakum;
others were laughing loudly, or playing like schoolboys, and Harry
noticed they were all black.
"These niggers look much finer fellows than the rest," he observed.
"I should think they were!" replied Howard. "These are Nubians, and I
wish we had more of them. They hate the Arabs, too, and that is another
good thing."
"What a lot of camels!" exclaimed Harry, as, passing over the top of a
little hill, they came in sight of lines and lines of those ships of the
desert, lying down, kneeling, standing; "and how strong they smell. One
might fancy oneself in a menagerie."
"Yes; Hercules himself could not have kept that quarter clean; the
Augean stables were nothing to it. But look at these fellows we are
coming to now. You seem to be a bit of a military critic; what do you
think of them, and how do you like their mounts?"
They were now passing a small camp on the further side of the mound they
had crossed. Three rows of tents, and aligned with each on the reverse
flank a line of horses picketed--small, almost ponies, thin in the
flank, wiry, but extremely rough. There had been no pains taken in
grooming them evidently. As for the men loafing or swaggering about,
those who were fully dressed were so stuck all over with arms--pistols,
swords, daggers--that one wondered if they were suddenly attacked what
weapon they would have recourse to first, and if they would make up
their minds in time.
"I am no critic at all," said Harry, laughing, "though every Englishman
thinks he is a judge of horseflesh, and I fancy those might possess
endurance, if not up to much weight. As for the men, they seem to fancy
themselves more than the Egyptians; but a more villainous, blood-
thirsty, thievish-looking set of scoundrels, it has never been my luck
to see herded together."
"You are not far out," said Howard, laughing. "I should not like one of
them to come across me if I were wounded and helpless, and had anything
worth stealing about me, let me be friend or foe. But they are useful
for scouting, and there are only three hundred of them. They are called
Bashi-Bazooks, you know."
"Yes," said Harry; "from _Bash_, a head; _da_, without; _zook_, brains.
So called, as the `Old Skekarry' said, because they live on their wits:
_lucus a non lucendo_."
"My dear fellow," remonstrated Howard, "have I come all this way from
conventional England to the wilds of Africa to hear once more that
dreadful quotation? Go on; give us _Sic vos non vobis_, and follow it
up with _Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis_, or any other little
House-of-Commons delicacy; only don't say _et nos_, as some of the
senators, who cannot, alas! Be flogged for it, often do."
Harry apologised, and they now approached the English officers'
quarters, the Egyptian flag marking that of the General commanding the
expedition.
"Wait here a little," said Howard; "I will see if the chief is
disengaged and able to see you," and he entered the tent.
Harry sat down on a rude lounging chair he found just outside under the
shade of a palm-tree, and tried to reflect, not with any great success.
He was thoroughly bewildered with the events of the morning, following
the variations of hope and despondency produced by the near approach to
the object of his journey, and then finding it elude him, which had
occurred twice in the last few weeks. Without knowing it, he was
becoming a practical fatalist, inclined to do what seemed best at the
moment, and let things slide, forming no plans for a future which was so
very uncertain. Not a bad state of mind this for a hot country, where
worry of mind is especially trying. Perhaps that is why Asiatics
encourage it so much.
It was not long before Howard came to the tent door and beckoned Harry
in. On entering, he saw the General seated at a table covered with
writing materials, finishing a despatch for which an orderly was
waiting. He was dressed in a sort of loose tunic, with pantaloons and
riding-boots, and the sword which trailed by the side of his chair was
straight. A pith helmet stood on the table before him, and altogether
he looked like an Englishman, and not at all like a Pasha, as from the
name Harry somewhat absurdly expected.
Presently Hicks Pasha looked up, and Harry at once recognised one who is
born for command. There was no mistaking the bright eye, which seemed
to look _into_ the man it rested upon; the firm and manly features, the
_will_ expressed in the strong nervous hand. But it is in vain to
attempt to explain this, which at the same time everybody can
understand. The school-boy with his master, the soldier with his
officer--every subordinate knows instinctively if it is of any use
"trying it on." Not that he looked like one who would be harsh or
tyrannical. On the contrary, his face was lit up by a courteous smile
as Howard introduced his newly-found friend.
"Glad to see you," said the General, offering his hand. "The country is
in a disturbed state for travellers, and I fear that you will hardly get
out of it without some risk. The river is still open to Berber, and you
might get across from there to Suakim. But I cannot promise to help you
much."
"It is not my object to get out of the country at present," said Harry;
"quite the reverse. I thought that perhaps you might be able to make
use of me in some way, and wished to volunteer my services. I can make
myself understood in Arabic, if that is any use."
"Well, we have an interpreter," replied Hicks Pasha. "If you had served
we might be glad of you, but you are too young for that."
"I learned my drill as a volunteer," said Harry, "and I have been
successful at Wimbledon as a shot."
"Well, but I cannot put you in the ranks with natives," said the
General, laughing, "and I cannot take you about as a sort of animated
machine-gun. Can you ride?"
"Yes," replied Harry, who indeed had a very fair seat on horseback.
"I might make use of you then to gallop for me, or to go out with the
scouts, as you speak Arabic. Well, we will attach you as a volunteer
cadet to a company _pro tem_, at all events. An Englishman is always
useful to control the fire in action. But you must understand I do not
guarantee you any pay; we will put you on rations, and if your
commission is made out and confirmed I will do my best to obtain arrears
for you; but you must take your chance of all that."
Harry said that he quite understood, and only asked to be allowed to
accompany the expedition to El Obeid in any capacity. And then the
interview was over, and Harry left the tent, feeling quite as grateful
as he had expressed himself, and glad also to serve under such a chief.
It is curious how little things turn our minds in one direction or the
opposite. Twenty-four hours before, Harry Forsyth had no sympathy
whatever with the Turks and Egyptians, while he thought the wild tribes
of the Soudan fine fellows, and worthy of the independence they sought
to establish. Indeed, he had seen too much of the shameless corruption
and cruel extortion of Egyptian officials to feel differently.
And now, because he wanted to get to El Obeid on the chance of catching
Daireh, and because English officers of position and experience
commanded an Egyptian army, and the General of it had a "presence" which
inspired him with confidence and respect, he was ready to take up arms
in defence of a cause which had nothing, so far as he knew, to recommend
it, except that a certain amount of civilisation, the wearing of
trousers and petticoats, banking, railways, and steam navigation were on
one side, and a very primitive mode of life with nudity, or getting on
to it, on the other. True, that there is the question of the slave
trade, and that iniquitous business is kept up entirely by the Arabs,
but that very important matter had no weight at that time with Harry,
who merely knew that the slaves he had met were almost as free and much
better off than the Fellaheen or peasantry of Egypt.
"You must now come and make the acquaintance of my particular chief,"
said Howard, as they left. "You must know that I am an irregular
volunteer like yourself; at least, my appointment as surgeon requires
confirmation."
And so they went to the medical quarters, and Harry was introduced to
the head of that department, who took a professional view of the advent
of the new-comer, and observing that he was very young for the work
before him, asked if he was acclimatised.
But when he learned that he had got through the hot season without any
serious illness, he concluded that he had as good a chance of standing
the campaign as any one. That same evening, Harry made acquaintance
with the other English officers, to the company of one of whom he was
next day posted in orders. And then came the matter of getting uniform,
a horse, and a sword, which was accomplished at once, without much
difficulty in the shops of Khartoum; and he found himself once more
Europeanised.
There was no time for delay, as the expedition was to set out in a few
days. The seniors received Harry kindly and cordially enough, but they
were extremely hard-worked, every man having to do the duty of ten.
They were full of high spirits and confidence, however, sure of
defeating the Mahdi, recapturing El Obeid, and conducting the campaign
to a satisfactory conclusion, and the men caught a great deal of their
spirit.
The mass of them had fought under Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir, and had there
conceived a great idea of the prowess of their conquerors. English
officers they imagined could not be defeated, and led by them they felt
certain of victory. They were also much inspirited by the martial music
with which the air was always filled. The bugle bands were really good,
and some of the native airs lively and harmonious, but the constant
beating of their tam-tams would have been somewhat trying to a nervous
person, to whom quiet was the first condition of happiness.
Plenty was found for Harry to do, and as he showed zeal, alacrity, and
intelligence, he soon became a favourite. "Send the young 'un" was
often the decision come to when a matter requiring promptitude and
gumption, and which the seniors could not well leave work in hand to
attend to, had to be done. The great ambition of a subaltern in any
capacity, civil or military, should be that his superior may learn to
trust him; and Harry Forsyth succeeded in that.
He was happier now than he had been for a long time, for he was too much
occupied with his new duties to worry about Daireh and the missing will.
And if a shadow of melancholy came over him, it was when he thought of
the cottage at Sheen, and the anxiety his mother and sister would be in
on his behalf. He wrote a long letter home, giving an account of all
his proceedings and his present occupation, and sent it off the day
before the march across the desert commenced.
At length the camp was struck, and the army was on the march--7,000
infantry, 120 cuirassiers, 300 Bashi-Bazooks, and 30 guns with rocket
battery. There were some 1,000 camp followers, and 6,000 camels and
horses. At first the route of this seemingly never-ending cavalcade lay
along the Nile bank.
Then it was committed to the desert. One hundred and eighty miles of
trackless, parched waste lay between them and El Obeid. The first few
days had indeed been weary work; the ground was full of broad, deep
cracks, for it had been under water when the Nile rose, and on the river
receding the fierce sun had had this effect upon the mud. Mimosa shrub
also grew thickly in parts; and it was important that the men should not
straggle, for that was the opportunity the Arabs were on the look-out
for, and so many fearful disasters had already occurred from this very
cause. For the soldiers, if the fierce children of the desert rushed
upon them unexpectedly when they were in loose formation, were as
helpless as sheep, though, when in a compact body, and under the
immediate eyes of their English officers, they could fight steadily
enough, as was proved at the battle of Marabia in the spring of that
same year, when they inflicted very severe losses upon the Arabs, whom
they totally defeated at little cost to themselves.
But though the march had been toilsome, the river was near at hand, and
the worst enemy of the desert, _thirst_, was not to be dreaded. But now
they were to leave the Nile behind them, and depend for their water
supply entirely on the wells, which were understood to be at certain
places on the line of march, though these were often found to be at much
greater distances than had been represented.
The progress was very slow, for they had to march in square--the leading
battalion in line, the rear also in line, the right and left faces
moving in fours, or in column, according to circumstances. In the
centre were the camels and other baggage animals, with the two things
which were as necessary to existence as air to breathe--ammunition and
water.
When, through inequality of ground or any other cause, the lines bulged,
or the columns were broken, it was necessary to halt till all closed up
again, and this of course delayed the march very much. Ten miles a day
were the utmost they could accomplish without running most unjustifiable
risk. The irregular cavalry now proved of extreme value; preceding the
army, scattered out in front and on each flank, they were bound to come
upon any ambushed enemy in time to gallop back and warn the main body,
who would then be able to close up, and present a front on every side,
which the enemy would find no opening to break in at.
On the fourth day, as the troops were passing over a plain of sand which
stretched away to the horizon all round, without a shrub to break the
monotony, only here and there a block of rock, or the skeleton of a
camel, showing where some wretched overtried animal had sunk under the
too great presumption upon his wonderful powers of endurance, the scouts
gave notice of Arab approach, and a figure could be seen coming over the
summit of a sand-hill, thus proving that the ground, though apparently
flat, was undulating.
Field-glasses were turned towards the object, which could then be
recognised as a man mounted on a camel, and the distance beyond him was
eagerly scanned for the host of which he was assumed at first to be the
precursor. But no one else appeared; he was quite alone, and he came
directly towards the troops.
As he was well mounted, and they were moving to meet him, it was not
long before he was quite close, and then it could be seen that he was
dressed in robe and turban, with a shawl round his waist, and that these
garments, as well as his face, were stained with blood. And he leaned
forward on his camel, as if well-nigh exhausted with wounds and fatigue.
When the officer out with the scouts met and accosted him, he demanded
to be led to the chief, and when he was accordingly brought before the
General, he said--
"I am the Sheikh Moussa. Neither I nor any of my tribe have
acknowledged the Mahdi, whom we hold to be a False Prophet and impostor.
Whereupon he sent a body of troops to attack the village where seven
families of us dwelt. They came at the rising of the moon, and set fire
to our huts, but we flew to arms, and thrice drove them back, slaying
two for one. But they were ten to one, and at each onset we were fewer
and more weary. At last the fight turned to mere slaughter. I sought
my dromedary and fled, in hopes of vengeance. They have slain my wife,
my children, my slaves; there is a blood feud between the Mahdi and me.
Then I remembered that the Turks led by Englishmen were at Khartoum,
preparing for an attack upon my enemy, and I said, I will seek the
English Turk, the Hicks Pasha, and I will say, `I would be avenged upon
my enemy, but I am alone, and what can one arm do? I have a sharp
sword, I have a far-killing gun, I have a blood feud with your enemy.
Let me fight in your ranks.' I rode part of a night, and a day, and a
second night; I had only filled my water-bottle once. It ran dry; my
wounds grew stiff. I said, `I shall never reach Khartoum, I shall die
unavenged. It is Allah's will; praise to Allah, and the One Prophet,
for whom I am.' When lo! The English-led Turk army has risen up and
gone forth to meet me. It is Fate."
He had a drink of water given to him, and then the General asked him if
he knew El Obeid well.
"Every street, every corner of the ramparts," he replied. "Did I not
take part in the defence when the Mahdi--may his grave be defiled!--was
driven from them with slaughter?"
"You may ride with us," said the General. "Look to his cuts, Howard,"
he added, seeing him close by, with a sponge and a bandage already in
his hand.
It was a sparing drop of water that was used, and that was presently
drunk with avidity, defiled as it was. Howard declared the cuts to be
mere flesh wounds of no consequence.
"I am the most unlucky fellow that ever was!" he exclaimed; "I never do
get any gun-shot wounds, hardly."
The Sheikh Moussa certainly proved an acquisition that day, for he took
them a route diverging somewhat from that which they had been following,
and so cutting off some three miles of their journey to the wells where
they were to halt till the moon was up. And three miles when the water
is running low are a matter of tremendous import to the traveller in the
desert. After that the General often sent for the Sheikh Moussa to ride
with him on the march; and he questioned him, and compared his answers
with the maps and plans he had. And the more he was tested the more
genuine did the man appear. The tribe, too, to which he claimed to
belong was known to be friendly, and not as yet overawed into owning
allegiance to the Mahdi.
And so the square dragged slowly on from well to well through the long
scorching mornings and the bright moonlight nights, and was swallowed up
in the desert.