JE VOUS PRIE,
Excellence, de m'honore avec une reponse. P.S. Si votre
Excellence ont peutetre entendu que j'ai fait quelque chose
contre l'honneur d'un officier et cela vous empeche de m'ecrir,
je vous prie de me donner l'occasion de me defendre, et jugez
apres la verite.' The unfortunate Slatin understood well enough
the cause of Gordon's silence. It was in vain that he explained
the motives of his conversion, in vain that he pointed out that
it had been made easier for him since he had, 'PERHAPS UNHAPPILY,
not received a strict religious education at home'. Gordon was
adamant. Slatin had 'denied his Lord', and that was enough. His
communications with Khartoum were discovered and he was put in
chains. When Gordon heard of it, he noted the fact grimly in his
diary, without a comment.
A more ghastly fate awaited another European who had fallen into
the hands of the Mahdi. Clavier Pain, a French adventurer, who
had taken part in the Commune, and who was now wandering, for
reasons which have never been discovered, in the wastes of the
Sudan, was seized by the Arabs, made prisoner, and hurried from
camp to camp. He was attacked by fever; but mercy was not among
the virtues of the savage soldiers who held him in their power.
Hoisted upon the back of a camel, he was being carried across the
desert, when, overcome by weakness, he lost his hold, and fell to
the ground.
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