By The Naya's Orders
:
The Great White Queen
A SHORT time only did we remain in doubt as to the intention of the
populace. The suppressed excitement found vent even before the clouds of
choking smoke had rolled away. The signal had been given, and instantly
they responded with fierce yells, throwing themselves suddenly upon the
soldiers, using weapons that seemed to have been produced like magic.
Those who had effected our capture, dumbfounded, first by the appa
ling
explosion, and then by the hostile attitude of the people, released us
instantly, being compelled to fight for their lives back towards the
smoking ruins of the palace-gate.
Within a few moments the great broad thoroughfare, with its handsome
houses, became the scene of a most fierce and sanguinary conflict. Rifles
flashed everywhere, in the street, from the windows and roofs of
surrounding buildings, pouring a fire upon the soldiers so deadly that
few succeeded in escaping back to the place whence they came. With
startling suddenness I found myself in the midst of this stirring scene,
fighting for life beside Omar. Both of us had snatched rifles and
ammunition from fallen soldiers, while someone in the crowd had given me
a fine sword with bejewelled hilt, which I hastily buckled on in case of
emergency. Behind us a great barricade was being built of the first
things that came to hand. The houses were being divested of their
furniture by a hundred busy hands, and this, piled high, with spaces here
and there for the guns, soon presented a barrier formidable, almost
insurmountable. The erection of barricades was, we afterwards found, part
of the scheme, for in all the principal thoroughfares similar piles were
constructed, each being manned by a sturdy body of men, well-armed and
determined to hold in check and repulse the attack which they knew would,
ere long, be made upon them by the military.
The forces of Mo, feared on every hand for their daring and brilliant
feats were, we knew, not to be trifled with, and as word had been
secretly conveyed to Omar that the Naya, on hearing of the intention of
the people, had ordered her soldiers to institute an indiscriminate
massacre, we should have to fight hard to save our lives.
The barricade was soon completed, and quickly word spread from mouth to
mouth to get behind it. This we all did, to the number of about three
thousand; then came a period of waiting. It was not our object to renew
the attack, but to await reprisals. Apparently, however, the blowing up
of the palace-gate had utterly disconcerted the royal troops whose
barracks were in that vicinity, and we could see by the crowd of moving
torches that the soldiers were engaged in repairing the huge breach made
in the walls before marching forth to quell the insurrection.
In the darkness we waited patiently. A few desultory shots, fired by some
of our more adventurous partisans, who, climbing to the top of the
barricade, aimed where they saw the torches moving, broke the ominous
silence, but in distant parts of the city we could hear the rapid firing
of musketry, with now and then a loud thundering roar when a heavy
field-piece was discharged.
Each moment seemed an hour as we remained inactive behind that improvised
barrier of doors, shutters, furniture, iron gates and railings. Omar and
I were standing together beside one of the three Maxim guns by which our
position was defended, watching the preparations being made on the top of
the hill for assaulting us, when suddenly there was a bright flash, and
next instant a great shell fell behind us, bursting and dealing death and
destruction among our ranks. The air became rent by the shrill cries of
the wounded and the hoarse agonized exclamations of the dying, for this
first shot from the palace had been terribly effective, and fully fifty
of those anxious to bear their part in the struggle for liberty had been
killed, while many others were wounded. The shell had unfortunately
fallen right in the centre of the crowd.
Again another was discharged, but it whistled over our heads and exploded
far away behind us, shattering several houses, but injuring nobody. A
third and a fourth were sent at us, but neither were so effective as the
first. The breach in the wall where the gate had once been had now been
repaired, and the adherents of the Great White Queen were at last taking
the offensive.
Both Omar and myself had earlier that day, during our visit to the store
of arms, been instructed in the use of that terror of modern warfare, the
Maxim gun, and the one against which we stood with two men had been
allotted to us.
My companion, who had been watching with the deadly weapon ready sighted
to sweep the street, turned to ask news of Liola, whom we had not seen
since we were dragged from her father's house, and I had taken his place,
my hand ready to fire. Of Liola's fate I feared the worst. She had been
taken prisoner, and had probably been killed or injured in the fierce
melee.
Suddenly with wild yells, several hundred of the Naya's horsemen dashed
down the hill, their swords whirling, followed by a huge force of men
mounted and dismounted. I saw that at last they had come forth for the
attack, and without a second's hesitation bent and commenced a fire, the
terrible rattling of which held me appalled. The guns on either side
followed mine in chorus, and almost momentarily we were pouring out such
a hail of bullets, that amid the smoke and fire the great body of horses
and troops were mowed down like grass before the scythe. The foremost in
the cavalry ranks had no time to lift their carbines to reply, ere they
were swept into eternity, and those coming behind, although making a
desperate stand, fell riddled by bullets from our three terrible engines
of destruction.
The fight with Samory's fugitives on the Way of the Thousand Steps had
been exciting enough, but in extent or bloodshed was not to be compared
with this. In that single onward rush of the Naya's troops hundreds were
killed, for, ceasing our fire for a moment or two while the smoke
cleared, we saw, lying in the street, great piles of men and horses, who
had fallen upon one another in their forward dash and died under our
frightful hail of lead.
A short pause, and the rifles and all the chorus of surrounding artillery
took up their thunder-song with increased energy. These works of man
outrivalled the natural elements by their tremendous booming and their
disastrous power. Shells from the palace walls fell upon us thick and
fast. No lightning's flash can accomplish such ruin as the modern
ordnance projectile. A few centuries back the thought would have been
incomprehensible; even so the visionary and ridiculed idea of to-day may
be realised in the future. The shots descended, a veritable storm of
lead, and several times the clouds of choking dust they set up enveloped
us; but we were undaunted, and continued to work the Maxim, spreading its
death-dealing rain up the broad thoroughfare and preventing any from
reaching our barricade.
The idea of the troops was no doubt to gradually force us back from the
external positions of the city into the central, and from the centre to
the east in the direction of the gate that gave access to the country. By
this means the fighting area would be compressed, and we should be
surrounded by a large body of our enemies who had massed outside the gate
to cut off our retreat. But the thundering boom of cannon and sharp
rattle of musketry on our right, showed that our comrades, barricaded in
a great thoroughfare running parallel with the one wherein we were, had
also set to work to repel their enemy.
Barricades had sprung up in all directions like magic. The four corners
of intersecting streets were the positions mostly chosen for them, and
every conceivable article was used in their construction. Women and
children vied with the men in activity and resourcefulness in the
erection of these improvised works of defence, and the work slackened not
even when shells and bullets fell about in dangerous proximity.
Our companions, the partisans of Omar to whom they looked to deliver
their country from the thraldom of tyranny, were fortunately not devoid
of those soldier-like qualities which in past ages had raised the
military renown of Mo to the greatest altitude; what they lacked mostly
outside of themselves were capable officering and generalship. There were
a few officers of the royal army among them, men who had become convinced
that a change of government was necessary, but the people were left to do
battle mainly on the principle of individual enterprise.
Time after time attacks, each increasing in strength and proving more
disastrous to us than the first, were made upon us. But our Maxims kept
up their rattle, and from every part of the great wall of paving stones,
furniture, trees and heaped-up miscellaneous articles, there poured out
volley after volley from bristling rifles.
The troops quickly found the street absolutely untenable, for each time
they made a rush to storm our position they were compelled to fall back,
and few indeed reached a place of safety amid our deadly fire. When we
had held the barricade for nearly an hour, Kona, Omar and myself being
close together bearing our part in repulsing our opponents, a loud roar
suddenly sounded before us and at the same instant a huge shell,
imbedding itself in our defences, exploded with a bright light and
deafening report.
The havoc caused was appalling. Half our barricade was blown completely
away, and besides killing and maiming dozens of our comrades, it
shattered several houses close by, and its force sent me down flat upon
my back. Instantly I struggled to my feet, and finding myself uninjured
save for a severe laceration of the hand, glanced round seeking my two
friends. But they were not there!
The shell had set part of the barricade on fire, and already the flames
were rising high, lighting up the terrible, lurid scene. Again I bent to
my Maxim and recommenced firing, but as I did so another shell, only too
well directed, struck the opposite end of our defences, and instantly a
disaster resulted similar to the first, while a house at the same moment
fell with a terrible crash, burying several unfortunate fellows beneath
its debris.
Instantly I saw that our defences were partially demolished, and as shell
after shell fell in rapid succession in our vicinity and exploded, our
gallant defenders, still determined to prove victors, rushed up the hill
to try conclusions with the Naya's troops. It was a wild, mad dash, and I
found myself carried forward in the onrush of several thousand excited
men. Meeting the remnant of the cavalry we fought with savage ferocity,
alternately being beaten and beating. I had lost Omar, Kona and Goliba,
half fearing that they had been blown to atoms by the shell, nevertheless
the courage of my comrades never failed, although gaining the top of the
hill and defeating the cavalry by sheer force of numbers, they were
driven back again at the point of the bayonet, while from the ruins of
the palace-gate a steady rifle fire was poured upon us at the same time.
Half-way down the hill we made a gallant stand, but again were compelled
to fall back in disorder. Soon we were driven from the main thoroughfare
into the minor streets, refuging in and fighting from the houses, whilst
our foe steadily and angrily pursued and closed in upon us, dislodging us
from our shelters and leaving few loop-holes for escape.
The carnage was awful; quarter was refused. It seemed as though our hope
was a forlorn one; the general and ruthless massacre ordered by the Great
White Queen had actually begun!
The loss of our barricade paralysed us. Yet we could hear the roar and
tumult, and seeing the reflection of fires in other parts of the city,
only hoped that our comrades there were holding their own valiantly as we
had struggled to do. Ever and anon loud explosions sounded above the
thunder of artillery, and it became apparent that the royal troops were
engaged in blowing up any defences they could not take by assault.
From where I had sought shelter behind a high wall with a lattice window
through which I continually discharged my rifle into the roadway, I saw
massacres within walls and without. The troops had poured down upon us in
absolutely overwhelming numbers, and no resistance by our weakened force
could now save us. One fact alone reassured me and gave me courage. In
the bright red glare shed by the flames from a burning building, among a
party who made a sally from the opposite house I caught a momentary
glance of the lithe, active figure of Omar, fighting desperately against
a body of the Naya's infantry and leading on his comrades with loud
shouts of encouragement.
"Do your duty, men!" he gasped. "Let not your enemies crush you!"
But the melee was awful. Once again our partisans were driven back, and
the street was strewn with bodies in frightful array, left where they
fell, uncovered, unattended.
The thick black cloud of smoke which hung over the City in the Clouds and
on either side of it obscured the rising dawn and intensified the horrors
of the awful drama. Fires raged in every direction, making the air hot;
it was close through the smoke cloud above and the absence of wind,
foetid with the odour of human blood that lay in pools in every street
and splashed upon the houses. The sight was majestic, terrible,
never-to-be-forgotten; in the midst of it the terror and stupefaction
were almost beyond human endurance. On all sides were heard the roar of
flames, the breaking of timbers and the crashing in of roofs and walls.
Fire and sword reigned throughout the magnificent capital of Mo; its
people were being swept into eternity with a relentless brutality that
was absolutely fiendish.
Into the hearts of the survivors of the gallant force who had so readily
constructed our barricade and so valiantly defended it, despair had
entered. There was now no hope for the success of our cause. The forces
of tyranny, oppression and misrule were fast proving the victors, and in
that fearful indiscriminate shooting down of men, women and children that
was proceeding, all knew that sooner or later they must fall victims.
I had seen nothing of Kona or Goliba since the wrecking of our
barricade, but Omar, I was gratified to observe, was stationed at a
window of the opposite house from which he directed well-aimed shots at
those below. A body of fully five hundred infantry were besieging the
house wherein a large number of our comrades had taken shelter,
determined to put them to the sword; yet so desperate was the resistance
that they found it impossible to enter, and many were killed in their
futile endeavours. At length I noticed that while the main body covered
the movements of several of their companions the latter were preparing a
mine by which to blow it up. With the half-dozen men beside me we kept up
a galling fire upon them, but all in vain. The mine was laid; only a
spark was required to blow the place into the air.
Knowing that if such a catastrophe were accomplished we, too, must suffer
being in such close proximity to it, we waited breathlessly, unable to
escape from the vicinity of the deadly spot.
Suddenly, as one man, more fearless than the others, bent to fire the
mine, the soldiers, with one accord, rushed back, and scarce daring to
breathe I waited, fearing each second to see the house and its garrison
shattered to fragments and myself receive the full force of the
explosive.
But at that instant, even as I watched, a loud exultant shout broke upon
my ear, and looking I saw approaching from the opposite end of the street
a great crowd of people rushing forward, firing rapidly as they came.
They were our comrades. Their shouts were shouts of victory!
"Kill them!" they cried. "Let not one escape. They have killed our
brothers; let us have revenge! The Naya shall die, and Omar shall be our
Naba!"
The man bending over the explosive sprang back in fear without having
applied the fatal spark, and his companions, taken thus completely by
surprise, stood amazed at this sudden appearance of so large a body of
the populace. But the rifles of the latter in a few seconds had laid low
several of their number, and then, making a stand, they lowered their
weapons. A loud word of command sounded, and as if from one weapon a
volley was fired full upon the victorious people. For a few moments its
deadly effect checked their progress, but an instant later they resumed
their onward rush, and ere a second volley could be fired they had flung
themselves upon their opponents, killing them with bayonet, sword and
pistol.
Their rush was in too great a force to be withstood. As in other parts of
the city, so here, they compelled the troops to fly before them, and shot
them down as they sped back up the hill towards the great stronghold.
In those few fateful minutes the tables had suddenly been turned. While
we, fighting hard in that hot corner, had imagined that we had lost, our
comrades in other parts of the city had won a magnificent victory, and
had come to our rescue at the eleventh hour.
Truly it was everywhere a fierce and bloody fight.