Fire and sword in the Sudan - a personal narrative of fighting and serving the Dervishes, 1879-1895 (1896) (14780387705)

Identifier: fireswordinsuda00slat (find matches)

Title: Fire and sword in the Sudan : a personal narrative of fighting and serving the Dervishes, 1879-1895

Year: 1896 (1890s)

Authors: Slatin, Rudolf Carl

Subjects:

Publisher: London : Arnold

Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto

Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

Text Appearing Before Image:

ff; then there was a movement in thedirection of my tent; and I could see plainly they werecoming towards me. In front, marched three Black sol-diers ; one named Shatta, formerly belonging to AhmedBey Dafallas slave body-guard, carried in his hands abloody cloth in which something was wrapped up, andbehind him followed a crowd of people weeping. Theslaves had now approached my tent, and stood beforeme with insulting gestures; Shatta undid the cloth andshowed me the head of General Gordon! The blood rushed to my head, and my heart seemed tostop beating; but, with a tremendous effort of self-control,I gazed silently at this ghastly spectacle. His blue eyeswere half-opened ; the mouth was perfectly natural; the hairof his head, and his short whiskers, were almost quite white. ** Is not this the head of your uncle the unbeliever?said Shatta, holding the head up before me. What of it? said I, quietly. *A brave soldier whofell at his post; happy is he to have fallen; his sufferingsare over.

Text Appearing After Image:

o u o O C Soc THE SIEGE AND FALL OF KHARTUM. 341 ** Ha, ha! said Shatta, so you still praise the unbe-liever; but you will soon see the result; and, leaving me,he went off to the Mahdi, bearing his terrible token ofvictory; behind him followed the crowd, still weeping. I re-entered my tent. I was now utterly broken-hearted : Khartum fallen, and Gordon dead ! And this wasthe end of the brave soldier who had fallen at his post, — theend of a man whose courage and utter disregard of fear wereremarkable, and whose personal characteristics had givenhim a celebrity in the world which was quite exceptional. Of what use was the English army now? How fatalhad been the delay at Metemmeh ! The English advancedguard had reached Gubat on the Nile, on the 20th ofJanuary, at 10 A. M.; on the 21st, Gordons four steamershad arrived. Then why did they not send some English-men on board, no matter how few, and despatch them in-stantly to Khartum? If they could only have been seenin the town, the garri

1896 books internet archive document fireswordinsuda 00 slat book illustrations high resolution images from internet archive canada dervishes persia iran

1896

University of Toronto

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