Lord Cromer : a biography . near the gates of Bourre and Mesalamieh. On thismorning of Monday, January 26, the moon, just past its firstquarter, set at one oclock. From that hour until the earliestdawn profound darkness wrapped the dying city and thehostile camps. It is certain that the Arabs as they approachedthe ramparts were met by the feeblest resistance. Hunger hadnow brought to the lowest point the spirit of a garrison neverstrong; but whether actual treachery added its black help tofamine, or whether the wretched soldiery fell back from theparapets in panic before the first onset of the
Lord Cromer : a biography . near the gates of Bourre and Mesalamieh. On thismorning of Monday, January 26, the moon, just past its firstquarter, set at one oclock. From that hour until the earliestdawn profound darkness wrapped the dying city and thehostile camps. It is certain that the Arabs as they approachedthe ramparts were met by the feeblest resistance. Hunger hadnow brought to the lowest point the spirit of a garrison neverstrong; but whether actual treachery added its black help tofamine, or whether the wretched soldiery fell back from theparapets in panic before the first onset of the enemy, willprobably never be accurately known. Once the lines weregained by the enemy the city lay at the mercy of its before daybreak they appear to have advancedcautiously into the town, and as the winter dawn was breakingthey reached the neighbourhood of the palace. Here, certainthat the entire city was now in their possession, they gave ventto those shrill shouts of triumph with which the soldiers of. THE LAST ACT OF THE TRAGEDY 183 Islam celebrate victory. It was at this hour—just as day wasbreaking—that Gordon, roused from one of those short andtroubled slumbers which for months had been his only rest,quitted the palace, and moved at the head of a small party ofsoldiers and servants towards the church of the AustrianMission. This building lay to the east of the palace, fromwhich it was separated by an open space of ground. Somemonths earlier the church had been made the reservemagazine of the town ; the surrounding houses were clearedfrom its vicinity, and it had been silently selected as the spotwhere a last desperate resistance might be maintained if everthe final moment of the defence of Khartoum should arrive. That supreme moment had now indeed come. Walking afew yards in advance of his party, which did not number morethan twenty men, Gordon drew near the church. The shortand mysterious dawn of the desert was passing into broaderday—over the
Size: 1297px × 1927px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidlordcromerbi, bookyear1897
