of life"); but a bullet
struck him in the forehead, and he fell dead at the feet of his young
wife. The Dervishes forced their way into the house, broke in the door
of the room where the dead man lay stretched out on the bed, killed
another Greek, and clove open the head of the little son, a boy of
twelve years of age, with an axe, scattering his brains over his
unfortunate mother, who was sitting beside him. She saved her little son
of six months old by saying he was a girl. The mother herself was not
killed, as she was with child, but she was reserved to become the wife
of Abderrahman Wad en Nejumi.

Aser, the American consul, fell down dead on seeing his brother beheaded
before his eyes. The males of most of the Coptic families were
massacred, but the women were spared. I know several of these poor women
who, from continuously weeping over the cruelties of that terrible 26th
of January, have become quite blind.

Those men whose lives were spared have to thank Providence that either
they fell into the hands of those less cruel than their comrades, or
that they did not quit their houses for two days, at the end of which
time the first wild passions of these murderers had cooled down.

The fate of seven Greeks was a sad one; these were all together in one
house, for, through a merciful Providence, they had fallen into less
cruel hands. It was past noon, and they were rejoicing at having escaped
from the general massacre. Then a certain George Clementino entered.
This Clementino had originally come from El Obeid, and had frequently
been sent by the Mahdi with messages to Gordon, and when he returned
from Khartum to the Mahdi, the latter treated him with much favour.

When the capture of Khartum was known in Omdurman, Clementino hastened
to the town, with the intention of rescuing any compatriots he could
find, and he soon heard of the seven surviving Greeks. Full of delight
at their safety, he congratulated them, and advised them to make their
way to the house of Manoli, the Greek who, with his wife and nephew, had
escaped by concealing themselves in the dove-cot.

It was Clementino's intention to collect all the Greeks here, and then
take them to Omdurman. The seven Greeks trusted to their compatriot's
name and influence to protect them, but Dervishes were on the watch to
stop them. As they were following Clementino to Manoli's house, which
was only a short distance off--indeed, they had only gone a few
steps--they