Of the three ex-governors of Darfur, Bahr-el-Ghazal, and
Equatoria, Emin Pasha had disappeared, Lupton Bey had died, and
Slatin Pasha was held in captivity by the Mahdi. By birth an
Austrian and a Catholic, Slatin, in the last desperate stages of
his resistance, had adopted the expedient of announcing his
conversion to Mohammedanism, in order to win the confidence of
his native troops. On his capture, the fact of his conversion
procured him some degree of consideration; and, though he
occasionally suffered from the caprices of his masters, he had so
far escaped the terrible punishment which had been meted out to
some other of the Mahdi's European prisoners-- that of close
confinement in the common gaol. He was now kept prisoner in one
of the camps in the neighbourhood of Khartoum. He managed to
smuggle through a letter to Gordon, asking for assistance, in
case he could make his escape. To this letter Gordon did not
reply. Slatin wrote again and again; his piteous appeals, couched
in no less piteous French, made no effect upon the heart of the
Governor-General. 'Excellence!' he wrote, 'J'ai envoye deux
lettres, sans avoir recu une reponse de votre excellence. ...
Excellence! j'ai me battu 27 FOIS pour le gouvernement contre
l'ennemi--on m'a feri deux fois, et j'ai rien fait contre
l'honneur--rien de chose qui doit empeche votre excellence de
m'ecrir une reponse que je sais quoi faire.
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