With Kitchener in the Soudan : a story of Atbara and Omdurman Read online

  " I brought myself to it, you obstinate girl! I have pleased myself, haven't I? If a man chooses a path for himself he must not grumble because he finds it rather rougher than he expected. I have never for a single moment regretted what I have done, at any rate as far as I myself am concerned."

  " Nor I, for my own sake, dear. The life of a governess is not so cheerful as to cause one regret at leaving it."

  And so Gregory Hartley and his wife went out to Alexandria, and established themselves in three bright rooms in the upper part of a house that commanded a view of the port and the sea beyond it. The outlay required for furniture was small indeed: some matting for the floors, a few cushions

  for the divans which ran round the rooms, a bed, a few simple cooking utensils, and a small stock of crockery sufficed.

  Mr. Ferguson, the manager of the branch, had at first read the letter that Gregory had brought him with some doubt in his mind as to the wisdom of his principal in sending out a man who was evidently a gentleman. This feeling, however, soon wore away, and he found him perfectly ready to undertake any work to which he was set.

  There was, indeed, nothing absolutely unpleasant about this. He was at the office early, and saw that the native swept and dusted the offices. The rest of the day he was either in the warehouse, or carried messages, and generally did such odd jobs as were required. A fortnight after his arrival one of the clerks was kept away by a sharp attack of fever, and as work was pressing, the agent asked Gregory to take his place.

  " I will do my best, sir, but I know nothing of mercantile accounts."

  " The work will be in no way difficult. Mr. Hardman will take Mr. Parrot's ledgers, and as you will only have to copy the storekeeper's issues into the books, five minutes will show you the form in which they are entered."

  Gregory gave such satisfaction that he was afterwards employed at office work whenever there was any pressure.

  A year and a half passed comfortably; at the end of twelve months his pay was raised another ten shillings a week. He had, before leaving England, signed a contract to remain with the firm for two years. He regretted having to do this, as it prevented his accepting any better position should an opening occur; but he recognized that the condition was a fair one after the firm paying for his outfit and for two passages. At the end of eighteen months Gregory began to look about for something better.

  "I don't mind my work a bit," he said to his wife, "but if only for the sake of the boy" (a son had been born a few months after their arrival), "I must try to raise myself in the scale a bit. I have nothing to complain about at the

  office?; far from it. From what the manager said to me the other day, if a vacancy occurred in the office I should have the offer of the berth. Of course it would be a step, for I know from the books that Hardman gets two hundred a year, which is forty more than I do."

  "I should like you to get something else, Gregory. It troubles me to think that half your time is spent packing up goods in the warehouse, and work of that sort; and even if we got less I would much rather, even if we had to stint ourselves, that your work was more suitable to your past, and such that you could associate again with gentlemen on even terms."

  "That does not trouble me, dear, except that I wish you had some society among ladies. However, both for your sake and the boy's, and I own I should like it myself, I will certainly keep on the look-out for some better position. I have often regretted now that I did not go in for a commission in the army. I did want to, but my father would not hear of it. By this time, with luck, I might have got my company; and though the pay would not have been more than I get here, it would, with quarters and so on, have been as much, and we should be in a very different social position. However, it is of no use talking about that now, and indeed it is difficult to make plans at all. Things are in such an unsettled condition here, that there is no saying what will happen.

  "You see, Arabi and the military party are practically masters here. Tewfik has been obliged to make concession after concession to them, to dismiss ministers at their orders, and to submit to a series of humiliations. At any moment Arabi could dethrone him, as he has the whole army at his back, and certainly the larger portion of the population. The revolution could be completed without trouble or bloodshed, but you see it is complicated by the fact that Tewfik has the support of the English and French governments; and there can be little doubt that the populace regard the movement as a national one, and directed as much against foreign control and interference as against Tewfik, against whom they have

  no ground of complaint whatever. On the part of the army and its generals, the trouble has arisen solely on account of the favouritism shown to Circassian officers.

  " But once .a revolution has commenced it is certain to widen out. The peasantry are everywhere fanatically hostile to foreigners. Attacks have been made upon these in various country districts, and should Arabi be triumphant the position of Christians will become very precarious. Matters are evidently seen in that light in England, for I heard to-day at the office that the British and French squadrons are expected here in a day or two. If there should be a row, our position here will be very unpleasant. But I should hardly think that Arabi would venture to try his strength against that of the fleets, and I fancy that trouble will in the first place begin in Cairo, both as being the capital of the country and beyond the reach of armed interference by the powers. Arabi's natural course would be to consolidate his power throughout the whole of Egypt, leaving Alexandria severely alone until he had obtained absolute authority elsewhere.

  "Anyhow it will be a satisfaction to have the fleet up, as at the first rumour of an outbreak I can get you and baby on board one of the ships lying in harbour. As a simple measure of precaution, I would suggest that you should go out with me this evening and buy one of the costumes worn by the native women; it is only a long blue robe enveloping you from head to foot, and one of those hideous white cotton veils falling from below the eyes. I will get a bottle of iodine, and you will then only have to darken your forehead and eyelids, and you could pass unsuspected through any crowd."

  "But what are you going to do, Gregory?"

  " I will get a native dress too; but you must remember that though, if possible, I will come to you, I may not be able to do so; and in case you hear of any tumult going on, you must take baby and go down at once to the port. You know enough of the language now to be able to tell a boatman to take you off to one of the steamers in the port. As soon as

  I get away I shall go round the port, and shall find you without difficulty. Still, I do not anticipate any trouble arising rith-out our having sufficient warning to allow me to come and see you settled on hoard ship, and I can then keep on in the office until it closes, when I can join you again. Of course, all this is very remote, and I trust that the occasion will never arise; still, there is no doubt that the situation is critical, and there is no harm in making our preparations for the worst.

  " At any rate, dear, I beg that you will not go out alone till matters have settled down. We will do the shopping together when I come back from the office. There is one thing that I have reason to be grateful for. Even if the worst comes to the worst and all Christians have to leave the country, the object for which I came out here has been attained. I have not heard you cough for months, we have laid by fifty pounds, and I have written some forty stories, long and short, and if we go back I have a fair hope of making my way, for I am sure that I write better than I used to do; and as a good many of the stories are laid in Egypt the local colouring will give them a distinctive character, and they are more likely to be accepted than those I wrote before. Editors of magazines like a succession of tales of that kind.

  "For the present there is no doubt that the arrival of the fleet will render our position here more comfortable than it is at present; the mere mob of the town would hesitate to attack Europeans when they know that three or four thousand sailors could land in half an hour. But on the other hand, Arabi and
his generals might see that Alexandria was, after all, the most important position, and that it was here foreign interference must be arrested. I should not be surprised if, on the arrival of the ships, Tewfik, Arabi, and all the leaders of the movement come here at once. Tewfik will come to get the support of the fleet, Arabi will come to oppose a landing of troops. The war in the beginning of the century was decided at Alexandria, and it may be so again. If I were sure that you would come to no harm, and I think the chances of

  that are very small, I own that all this would be immensely interesting, and a break to the monotony of one's life here. One thing is fairly certain. If there is anything like a regular row all commercial work will come to an end until matters are settled, in which case, even if the offices are not altogether closed and the whole staff recalled to England, they would be glad enough to allow me to leave instead of keeping me to the two years' agreement that I signed before starting."

  " I should hardly think that there will be a tumult here, Gregory; the natives all seem very gentle and peaceable, and the army is composed of the same sort of men."

  "They have been kept down for centuries, Annie; but there is a deep fanatical feeling in every Mussulman's nature, and at any rate the great proportion of the officers of the army are Mussulmans. As for the Kopts, there would be no danger of trouble from them; but the cry of death to the Christians would excite every Mahomedan in the land almost to madness. Unfortunately, too, there is a general belief, whether truly founded or not, that although the French representative here is apparently acting in concert with ours, he and all the French officials are secretly encouraging Arabi, and will take no active steps whatever. In that case it is doubtful whether England would act alone. The jealousy between the two peoples here is intense. For years the French have been thwarting us at every turn; and they may very well think that, however matters might finally go, our interference would make us so unpopular in Egypt that their influence would become completely paramount.

  "Supremacy in Egypt has always been the dream of the French. Had it not been for our command of the sea they would have obtained possession of the country in Napoleon's time. Their intrigues here have for years been incessant; their newspapers in Egypt have continually maligned us, and they believe that the time has come when they will be the real, if not the nominal, rulers of Egypt. The making of the Suez

  Canal was quite as much a political as a commercial move, and it has certainly added largely to their influence here; though in this respect a check was given to them by the purchase of the Khedive's shares in the canal by Lord Beaconsfield, a stroke which, however, greatly increased the enmity of the French here and heightened their efforts to excite the animosity of the people against us. Well, I hope that whatever comes of all this, the question as to whose influence is to be paramount in Egypt will be finally settled. Even French domination would be better then the constant intrigues and trouble that keep the land in a state of agitation. However, I fancy that it will be the other way if an English fleet comes here and there is trouble. I don't think we shall back down, and if we begin in earnest we are sure to win in the long run. France must see that, and if she refuses to act at the last moment it can only be because Arabi has it in his power to produce documents showing that he was all along acting in accordance with her secret advice."

  A week later, on the 20th of May, the squadrons of England and France anchored off Alexandria. The British fleet consisted of eight ironclads and five gun-boats, carrying three thousand five hundred and thirty-nine men and one hundred and two guns, commanded by Sir Frederick Seymour. Two days before the approach of the fleet was known at Cairo, the French and English consuls proposed that the Khedive should issue a decree declaring a general amnesty, and that the president of the council, the minister of war, and the three military pashas should quit the country for a year, This request was not complied with.

  The ministry resigned in a body on the day the fleet arrived, on the ground that the Khedive acquiesced in foreign interference. A great meeting was held of the chief personages of state, and the officers and the representatives of the army at once told the Khedive that they refused to obey his orders and only recognized the authority of the Porte.

  At Alexandria all trade ceased at once when it became known that the troops were busy strengthening the forts, mounting cannon, and preparing for a resistance. That this was done by the orders of Arabi, who was now practically dictator, there could be no question. The native population became more and more excited, being firmly of belief that no vessels could resist the fire of the heavy guns, and that any attempt on the part of the men-of-war to reduce the place would end in their being sunk as soon as fighting began. The office and stores were still kept open, but Gregory's duties were almost nominal, and he and Mr. Parrot, who was also married, were told by the manager that they could spend the greater portion of their time at their homes. Part of Gregory's duties consisted in going off to vessels that came into the port with goods for the firm, and seeing to their being brought on shore, and he had no difficulty in making arrangements with the captain of one of these ships for his wife and child to go on board at once should there be any trouble in the town.

  " If you hear any sounds of tumult, Annie, you must disguise yourself at once and go down to the wharf. I have arranged with our boatman, Allen, whom you know well, as we have often gone out with him for a sail in the evening, that if he hears of an outbreak he shall bring the boat to the steps at the end of this street and take you off to the Simoon. Of course I shall come if I can, but our house is one of those which have been marked off as being most suitable for defence. The men from half a dozen other establishments are to gather there, and, as belonging to the house, I must aid in the defence. Of course, if I get sufficient warning I shall slip on my disguise and hurry here and see you down to the boat, and then make my way back to our place. But do not wait for me. If I come here and find that you have gone, I shall know that you have taken the alarm in time, and shall return at once to the office. Of course, if the outbreak commences near here, and you find that your way down to the water is blocked, you will simply put on your disguise, stain your face, and wait till I come to you, or till you see that the way to the water is clear.

  " Do not attempt to go out into a mob; there are not likely to be any women among them. However, I do not anticipate a serious riot. They may attack Europeans in the street, but with some fourteen or fifteen men-of-war in the port they are not likely to make any organized assault; Arabi's agents will hardly precipitate matters in that way. Hard as they may work, it will take a month to get the defences into proper order, and any rising will be merely a spasmodic outbreak of fanaticism. I don't think the danger is likely to be pressing until, finding that all remonstrances are vain, the admiral begins to bombard the port."

  " I will do exactly as you tell me, Gregory. If I were alone I could not bring myself to leave without you, but I must think of the child."

  "Quite so, dear; that is the first consideration. Certainly if it comes to a fight I should be much more comfortable with the knowledge that you and baby were in safety."

  The Egyptian soldiers were quartered for the most part outside the town, and for some days there was danger that they would enter and attack the European inhabitants; but Arabi's orders were strict, that until he gave the command they were to remain quiet. The British admiral sent messages to Tewfik insisting that the work upon the fortifications should cease, and the latter again issued orders to that effect, but these were wholly disobeyed. He had indeed no shadow of authority remaining, and the work continued night and day. It was, however, as much as possible concealed from observation, but search-lights being suddenly turned upon the forts at night, showed them to be swarming with men. Things went on with comparative quiet till the 10th of June, although the attitude of the natives was so threatening that no Europeans left their houses except on urgent business.

  On that day a sudden uproar was heard, pistols were fired, and t
he merchants closed their stores and barricaded their doors. Gregory was in the harbour at the time, and, jumping into his boat, rowed to the stairs and hurried home. He found that his wife had already disguised herself, and was in readiness to leave. The street was full of excited people. He slipped on his own disguise, darkened his face, and then, seizing a moment when the crowd had rushed up the street at the sound of firearms at the other end, hurried down to the boat and rowed off to the Simoon.

  " I must return now, dear," he said. " I can get in at the back gate — I have the key, as the stores are brought in through that way. I do not think that you need feel any uneasiness. The row is evidently still going on, but only a few guns are being fired now. Certainly the rascals cannot be attacking the stores, or you would hear a steady musketry fire; by the sound, the riot is principally in the foreign quarter, where the Maltese, Greeks, and Italians congregate. No doubt the police will soon put it down."

  The police, however, made no attempt to do so, and permitted the work of massacre to take place under their eyes. Nearly two hundred Europeans were killed. The majority of these dwelt in the foreign quarter, but several merchants and others were set upon while making their way to their offices, and some seamen from the fleet were also among the victims. The British consul was dragged out of his carriage and severely injured; the consulate was attacked, and several Frenchmen were killed in the streets.

  The Khedive hurried from Cairo on hearing the news. Arabi was now sending some of his best regiments to Alexandria, while pretending to be preparing for a raid upon the Suez Canal, He was receiving the assistance of Dervish Pasha, the Sultan's representative, and had been recognized by the Sultan, who conferred upon him the highest order of Medjidie. In the meantime a conference had been held by the Powers, and it was decided that the Sultan should be entrusted with the work of putting down the insurrection, he being nominally lord paramount of Egypt. But conditions were laid down as to his army leaving the country afterwards. The Sultan sent an evasive reply. The Khedive was too overwhelmed at the situation to take any decisive course. France hesitated, and England determined that, with or without allies, she would take the matter in hand.