Fire and Sword in the sudan : a personal narrative of fighting and serving the dervishes, 1879-1895 . ched three Black soldiers ; one named Shatta,formerly belonging to Ahmed Bey Dafallas slave body-guard, carried in his hands a bloody cloth in which some-thing was wrapped up, and behind him followed a crowd ofpeople weeping. The slaves had now approached my tent,and stood before me with insulting gestures; Shatta undidthe cloth and showed 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 Igazed silentl
Fire and Sword in the sudan : a personal narrative of fighting and serving the dervishes, 1879-1895 . ched three Black soldiers ; one named Shatta,formerly belonging to Ahmed Bey Dafallas slave body-guard, carried in his hands a bloody cloth in which some-thing was wrapped up, and behind him followed a crowd ofpeople weeping. The slaves had now approached my tent,and stood before me with insulting gestures; Shatta undidthe cloth and showed 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 Igazed silently at this ghastly spectacle. His blue eyes werehalf-opened; the mouth was perfectly natural; the hair ofhis head and his short whiskers were almost quite white. * Is not this the head of your uncle, the unbeliever ? saidShatta, holding the head up before me. * What of it ? said I quietly. A brave soldier, who fellat his post. Happy is he to have fallen ; his sufferings areover. * Ha, ha ! said Shatta, « so you still praise the unbeliever;but you will soon see the result; and, leaving me, he went. 09 THE SIEGE AND FALL OF KHARTUM 207 off to the Mahdi, bearing his terrible token of victory ;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 was the endof the brave soldier who had fallen at his post—the end ofa man whose courage and utter disregard of fear were re-markable, 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 , on the 21st Gordons four steamers hadarrived. Then, why did they not send some Englishmenon board, no matter how few, and despatch them instantlyto Khartum ? If they could only have been seen in thetown, the garrison would have taken fresh hope, an
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1898
