The Fight For The Emerald Throne

: The Great White Queen

THROWN into utter confusion by the great press of people well armed and

determined, the soldiers, who had fought so desperately, and who intended

to blow up the house that Omar and his companions had made their

stronghold, fled precipitately up the hill, but so rapid and heavy was

the firing, that few, if any, got out of the street alive.



On seeing the chances thus suddenly turned in our favour we poured forth
< r /> into the street again, and joining our forces with those of our rescuers,

rushed with them into the main thoroughfare leading to the palace,

scrambling over the debris of our barricade and the heaps of bodies

that blocked our passage. A hurried question, addressed to a man rushing

along at my side, elicited glad tidings. So fiercely had the people

fought that the troops sent out to quell the rising had been utterly

routed everywhere, while many of the regiments had turned in our favour

and had actually held several of the barricades, winning brilliant

victories.



"It is yonder, at the palace, where the resistance will be greatest," the

man cried excitedly, blood streaming from a ghastly wound on his brow.

"But our cause is good. The Naya shall die!"



"To the Palace!" screamed the infuriated mob. "To the Palace!"



And forward the frantic dash was made at redoubled pace until we came to

the pile of fallen masonry, which had, a few hours ago, been the great

impregnable gateway that closed each day at sunset, and opened not till

sunrise, save for the Great White Queen herself.



Here the place seemed undefended until we came close up to it, when

without warning we were met with a withering rifle fire that laid low

dozens of our comrades. The man who had been so enthusiastic a moment

before and who had told me of our successes, was struck full in the

breast by a ball and fell against me dead.



For a moment only did we hold back. Dawn was spreading now, but the

heavy black smoke obscured the struggling daylight. Suddenly there

sounded just at my rear Omar's well-known voice, crying:



"Forward! Forward, my brethren. I, Omar, your prince, lead you into the

palace of my father. To-day there commenceth a new and brighter era for

our beloved land. Falter not, but end the struggle valiantly as ye have

commenced it. Forward!"



His words sent a sudden patriotic thrill through the great concourse of

armed men, who instantly sprang forward, and regardless of the blazing

lines of rifles before them climbed the ruins and engaged the defenders

hand to hand. It was a brilliant dash and could only have been

accomplished by the courage inspired by Omar's words, for the odds were

once more against us, and the rapid fire from behind the ruins played the

most frightful havoc in our ranks. In the midst of the crowd I clambered

up, sword in hand, over the huge masses of masonry and rubbish, and

springing to earth on the other side, alighted in a corner where the

picked guards of the Naya were making a last desperate stand.



At first the struggle had been a hand-to-hand one, but they had

retreated, and were now firing heavy volleys that effectively kept us at

bay.



Almost at the same moment as I sprang down I heard behind me fiendish

yells and the clambering of many feet. In an instant I recognised it as

the savage war cry of the Dagombas, and next second a hundred half-naked

blacks, looking veritable fiends in the red glare, swept down headlong to

the spot where I stood and, headed by Kona brandishing his spear, dashed

straight upon the defenders. The effect of this was to cause the others

to spring forward as reinforcements, and quicker than the time occupied

in relating it, this position, an exceedingly strong one, fell into our

hands. So infuriated were the Dagombas by the excesses committed by the

soldiery in various parts of the city, that they vented their savage

wrath upon the defenders until the butchery became awful, and I doubt

whether a single man escaped.



The soldiers holding the next court, seeing this disaster, placed, ere we

could prevent them, two field-pieces behind the closed gate wherein holes

had been hacked, and with the walls crowded with men with rifles they

began to pour upon us a deadly hail of shot and shell. Once, for a moment

only, Niaro, the provincial governor I had met at Goliba's, fought beside

me, but after exchanging a few breathless words we became again

separated. Little time elapsed ere one and all understood that to remain

long under this galling fire of the palace guards would mean death to us,

therefore it required no further incentive than an appeal from Omar to

cause us to storm the entrance to the court.



"Well done, friends," he shouted. "We have broken down the first defence.

Come, let us sweep away the remainder, but spare the life of the Naya.

Remember I am her son. Again, forward! Zomara giveth strength to your

hands and courage to your hearts. Use them for the purpose he hath

bestowed them upon you."



In the forward movement in response to these loudly-uttered words fearful

cries of rage and despair mingled with hoarse shouts of the vanquished.

Rifles flashed everywhere in the faint morning light, bullets kept up a

singing chorus above our heads, and about me, in the frightful tumult,

gleamed naked blood-stained blades. At first the guards, like those in

the outer court, made a desperate resistance, but soon they showed signs

of weakness, and I could distinguish in the faint grey dawn how gradually

we were driving them back, slowly gaining the entrance to the court,

which, I remembered, was a very large and beautiful one with cool

colonnades, handsome fountains and beautiful flowering trees of a kind I

had never seen in England.



At last, after a fierce struggle, in which the defenders very nearly

succeeded in driving us out or slaughtering us where we stood, the

field-pieces were silenced, a charge of explosive was successfully placed

beneath the gate and a loud roar followed that shook every stone in that

colossal pile.



The ponderous door was shattered and the defenders disorganised by the

suddenness of the disaster. Almost before they were aware of it we had

poured in among them. Then the slaughter was renewed, and the scenes

witnessed on every hand frightful to behold.



Kona and his black followers fought like demons, spearing the soldiers

right and left, always in the van of the fray. Omar and Kona were

apparently sharing the direction of the attack, for sometimes I heard the

voice of one raised, giving orders, and sometimes the other. But, however

irregular the mode of proceeding might have been from a military

standpoint, success was ours, for half an hour later the two inner

courts, strenuously defended by the Naya's body guard, were taken, and

judging from the fact that the firing outside had become desultory it

seemed as though hostilities in the streets had practically ceased.



At this juncture some man, a tall, powerful fellow who was distinguishing

himself by his valiant deeds, told me that the military down in the city,

finding the populace so strong, had, after a most terrific fight, at

last ceased all opposition and declared in favour of the Prince Omar.

This, we afterwards discovered, was the actual truth. The carnage in the

streets had, however, been appalling, before this step had been resolved

upon, but when once the declaration had been made, the remnants of the

Naya's army were, at the orders of the leaders of the people, marched

without the city wall on the opposite side to the great cliff, and there

halted to await the progress of events.



Meanwhile, we were still hewing our way, inch by inch, towards the centre

of the palace of the Great White Queen. So desperate was the conflict

that the perspiration rolled from us in great beads, and many of my

comrades fell from sheer exhaustion, and were trampled to death beneath

the feet of the wildly-excited throng.



Soon, driving back the final ring of defenders, and shooting them down to

the last man, we dashed across the central court, where the polished

marble paving ran with blood, and battering down the great gilded doors,

that fell with a loud crash, gained our goal, entering the spacious Hall

of Audience, in the centre of which, upon its raised dais, under the

great gilded dome, stood the historic Emerald Throne.



The magnificent hall was deserted. The bloodshed had been frightful. The

courts were heaped with dead and dying. Several chairs were lying

overturned, as if the courtiers and slaves had left hastily, and even

across the seat of royalty one of the Naya's rich bejewelled robes of

state had been hastily flung down. This, snatched up by one of the

Dagombas, was tossed away into the crowd, who gleefully tore it to shreds

as sign that the power of the dreaded Naya was for ever broken.



To the exultant shouts of a thousand wild, blood-bespattered people, the

great hall echoed again and again. The faint light showed too plainly at

what terrible cost the victory had been won. Their clothes were torn,

their faces were blackened by powder, from their superficial wounds blood

was oozing, while the more serious consequences of sword-cuts and

gun-shots had been hastily bound by shreds of garments. Flushed by their

victory, they were a strange, forbidding-looking rabble. Yet they were

our partisans; a peaceful, law-abiding people who had been oppressed by a

tyrannical rule and long ripe for revolt, they had seized this

opportunity to break the power of the cruel-hearted woman who was

unworthy to hold sway upon that historic throne.



"Let us seek the Naya! She shall not escape! Let us avenge the deaths of

our fathers and children!" were the cries raised when they found the Hall

of Audience deserted. Apparently they had expected to find the Great

White Queen seated there, awaiting them, and their chagrin was intense at

finding her already a fugitive.



"She dare not face us!" they screamed. "All tyrants are cowards. Kill

her! Let us kill her!"



But Goliba, whom I was gratified to see present and unharmed, sprang upon

the dais, and waving his arms, cried:



"Rather let us first place our valiant young prince upon the Emerald

Throne. Let him be appointed our ruler; then let us seek to place the

Naya in captivity."



"No," they cried excitedly. "Kill her!"



"Give her alive to Zomara!" suggested one man near me, grimly. "Let her

taste the punishment to which she has consigned so many hundreds of our

relatives and friends."



Heedless of these shouts, Goliba, stretching forth his hand, led Omar,

whose torn clothes and perspiring face told how hard he had fought,

towards the wonderful throne of green gems, and seating him thereon,

cried:



"I, Goliba, on behalf of these, the people of our great kingdom, enthrone

thee and invest thee with the supreme power in place of thy mother, the

Naya."



Loud deafening cheers, long repeated, rose from the assembled multitude,

and the soldiers dying in the courts outside knew that the revolt of the

people had been successful; that right had won in this struggle against

might. Then, when the cries of adulation became fainter, and with

difficulty silence was restored, Omar rose, and raising his sword, upon

which blood was still wet, exclaimed in a loud, ringing voice:



"I, Omar, the last descendant of the royal house of Sanom, hereby

proclaim myself Naba of Mo."



Again cheers rang through the vaulted hall, and presently, when the

excitement had once more died down, he added, gazing round with a regal

air:



"About me here I see those who have borne arms in my cause, and to each

and every one I render thanks. How much we may all of us deplore the loss

of so many valuable lives death is nevertheless the inevitable result of

any recourse to arms. At least, we have the satisfaction of knowing that

our cause was a just one, and by the sacred memory of our ancestors I

swear that my rule shall be devoid of that cruelty and tyranny that have

disgraced the later pages of my beloved country's history. I, Omar, am

your ruler; ye are my people. Obey the laws we promulgate and the good

counsels of our advisers, and security both of life and property shall be

yours. From this moment human sacrifices to our great god Zomara--to whom

all praise be given for this victory of our arms--are abolished. But our

first and foremost word from this, our seat of royalty, is that the life

of the Naya shall be spared. Your Naba hath spoken."



A visible look of disappointment overspread the countenances of those

around me. All had, in their wild enthusiasm, desired to wreak their

vengeance upon the unjust queen, but this royal decree forbade it. There

even went forth murmurs of disapproval, and Omar, hearing them, said in a

loud, serious voice:



"A Sanom hath never allowed his kinsman to be murdered, therefore

although the Naya hath plotted to take my life, she shall be held

captive, and not die. Let not a hair of her head be touched, or he who

lifteth his hand against her shall be brought before me, and I will not

spare him. Enough blood hath been already shed since the going down of

the sun; let not another life be wasted."



Then calling Goliba, Kona, Niaro, and myself up to his side upon the

royal dais, he continued:



"These, my friends, who have assisted me to gain this, my kingdom, are

deserving of reward, and this shall at once be given them. Goliba, whom

all know as a sage and upright man----"



Cheers, long and ringing, here interrupted his words. When quiet had been

restored he continued:



"Goliba shall retain his position as chief of our royal councillors, and

shall be also Grand Vizier of Mo. Niaro, a trusty governor to whom all

who have appealed have met with justice, is appointed Custodian of the

Gate of Mo, in place of Babila, for whom we all mourn. To Kona, head man

of the Dagombas of the forest, I owe my life, and he shall be chief of

our army and of our body-guard, and his native followers shall themselves

be the principal members of the guard. And Scarsmere," he said, turning

towards me, "Scarsmere hath been my friend and companion across the great

black water; he knoweth not fear, for together we have been held by

Samory and Prempeh, and have yet managed to preserve our lives. Since I,

your Naba, left Mo by the Way of the Thousand Steps, and entered the land

of the white men, Scarsmere hath been my friend and companion, therefore

all shall treat him with due respect, for although he cometh from the

wonderful land afar he shall be Governor of this our city and Keeper of

our Treasure-house. He is the trusted and faithful friend of your Naba,

and all shall regard him as highest in favour."



"We greet thee, Goliba!" enthusiastically cried the surging crowd. "We

greet thee, Niaro, Custodian of the Gate! We greet thee, Kona, a savage

but great chieftain! Thou art head of our army! We greet thee, Scarsmere,

the friend of our royal Naba, and Governor of Mo! We, the people, accept

you, and have confidence in your rule. Ye are all great, and are worthy

of the offices to which ye have been raised. May your names be exalted

above all others, and your faces be as beacons unto us!"



And they shouted themselves hoarse in cheering, seeing in the

enthronement of the young Naba the dawn of a just and beneficent rule.

Their adulations became louder, and even more profuse, when Omar

proceeded to appoint others, well known and popular, to various offices

connected with the palace.



"Happy," cried the white-bearded sages who had taken their places behind

the throne--"happy is the prince whose trust is in Zomara and whose

wisdom cometh from the King of the River."



"Happy," cried the people, humbling themselves--"happy is our Naba, the

favourite of the Crocodile-god, the one from whose wrath all flee."



"That," replied Omar, "O people, is too much even for the Naba of Mo to

hear. But may Zomara approve of my thoughts and actions! So shall the

infernal powers destroy the wretches that employ them, and the arrows

recoil upon those who draw a bow upon us. But, O sages, though your

numbers are reduced your integrity is more tried and approved; therefore

let Omar, your Naba, partake of the sweetness of your counsels and learn

from aged experience the wisdom of the sons of earth. Ye shall tell me

from time to time what the peace and sincerity of my throne requireth

from me, for human prudence alone is far too weak to fight against the

wiles of the deceitful."



I stood beside the royal seat, deep in thought, silently gazing upon the

thousand upturned, grimy faces. It had indeed been a curious turn of

events that had conspired to place my friend upon the throne of an

autocrat, and also to give, into my own unaccustomed hands, the rule and

control of this most magnificent and extensive capital, and all the

wondrous treasures of the royal house of the Sanoms.