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Great White Queen, The

<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> <h3>BY THE NAYA'S ORDERS.</h3> 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 appalling 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. [209] 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[210] 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[211] 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 mêlée. 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[212] 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<ins class="err" title="Transcriber's Note: added missing period">.</ins> 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[213] 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[214] 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 débris. 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[215] 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[216] 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 mêlée 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, f&oelig;tid 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[217] 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.[218] 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. <hr class="full" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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