Adolphe Belot

“ And you, Delange?"
"Not if I know it! She is far too pretty. All my anger fades away before her beauty. Why not take her with us? We can set her at liberty in eight or ten days, as by that time the Monbuttoos will have left the country. She is quite sharp enough, believe me, to discover the way back to her kingdom by herself."
"Yes," replied de Morin, "that is the only course open to us; we have no choice. But she is a very dangerous prisoner, and we must not let her out of our sight for a moment." ”

“ But she surprised him in the midst of a tribe of very attractive women, or very uncommon, as you will admits One of them, their Queen by right both of birth and beauty, appears to love him to the verge of criminality. For fear he should escape her, she throws herself upon him, tears him in pieces like a wild beast, and if she does not kill him it is only because she is robbed of her prey. Madame de Guéran is fully alive to these—petty details, shall we call them? She is very keen, and nothing escapes her. ”

“ When we reflect that this people, old as the hills, has stood still for centuries—nay, that, on the contrary, it has gone backward to the utmost extreme of barbarism! For one man possessed of intelligence, and displaying more civilization than the remainder, such as Munza, for instance, we see every moment of our lives scores of brutes, neither more nor less. From a tribe like that of the Monbuttoos, considerably ahead of their neighbours, we pass suddenly to the Domondoos, who differ from animals simply in their power of speech. ”

“ The plain thus became the scene of a horrible mêlée; lances, axes, knives and teeth took the place of arrows. Hand to hand they fought, and bled, and bit, and ate. It was a sight worthy of the infernal regions, a loathsome, revolting spectacle. In one place a group of soldiers might be seen to suddenly cease to fight, and take to dancing round their victims; some would seize on a corpse and cut the flesh to ribands, and others, for the purpose of rendering themselves invulnerable, as Munza had told us, would hack the bodies of their foes to get at the fat. ”

“ Within twenty-four hours to stumble across a husband and a rival!"
"Do not make yourself out to be worse than you really are," replied M. Périères in the same tone. "The husband owes his deliverance to you alone, and you are only regretting that he has been restored to us in so deplorable a state. As regards Desrioux, do you bear him any ill-will for having saved our lives and opened up for us a road to Europe? If it had not been for him, my dear fellow, we should at this moment be either lying dead on the ground, or, what would not be much better, prisoners of Walinda." ”

“ If we are attacked and conquered by the Walindis, it is death! If we are victors, we shall have to fight another battle with Munza to regain our freedom—and we have armed him against us! Eighty of his picked men are in possession of rifles and revolvers, all his troops have now some idea of fighting, and he is in a position to command them. We have taught him all we know! De Morin imparted to me, in confidence, these fears and, heaven knows, I share them. ”

“ With ten rifles I could have routed the whole tribe!
"Instead of vanquishing them, I am become their slave, the slave of a tribe of wild beasts! The Monbuttoos are right in stigmatising them with the degrading title, the Momvoos. The Monbuttoos! They are the refinement of civilisation compared with this tribe. The wretches have but one merit; they are not cannibals. On this side of Africa, cannibalism appears to cease on their frontier. But if they do not eat their prisoners, they make them suffer horribly, and I almost think they would display more humanity if they did eat them! ”

“ They drag each prisoner singly from the baskets, bring him to the front of the platform, show him to the crowd, and strangle or behead him forthwith. Each execution is welcomed with cries of joy and frenzied shouts; the spectators leap, dance, roll themselves on the ground, and become a maddened herd, whilst the amazons, delirious with delight, drag themselves along through the dust to kiss the feet of the Queen. ”

“ His inaction weighs upon him, the unknown unnerves him, the utter silence and void around us, which are day by day becoming more marked, make him uneasy. He longs, even at the risk of imprudence, to emerge from out the profound night in which we now are. As soon, too, as he again saw Madame de Guéran, who is regaining her strength, as soon as he could be by her side, and she could speak to him, his insane passion appeared to return in all its strength. ”

“ It is quite possible, indeed, that our compatriot has not always been insensible to the beauty of this female savage, and that she, on her side, is infatuated about the first white man she has ever seen, just as Munza is about the first white woman brought to his notice. This sort of thing is by no means rare in Africa. But a man of intellect like M. de Guéran, a Parisian, is not very likely to surrender the habits of a life-time, civilization, and a wife such as his, simply to spend his days in the society of a native of Ulindi! ”

“ I will take you to the woman you love, and who is worthy of your love; you will take me from the one I hate, and love, and, above all, fear. It is not one bit too much to put France, the Mediterranean, and the greater portion of Africa between her and me, for by so doing I shall be putting away from myself all possibility of return or cowardice. ”

“ The Queen will never revenge herself by attacking you in your dominions; you live too far away, and you are too powerful. But I, as her next-door neighbour, shall have to bear the brunt of her vengeance, and she will make me pay dearly for the damage I have done in concert with you. If, on the contrary, she defeats us, she will not rest until she has taken possession of my kingdom—a long-cherished wish on her part. I would rather that she did not recognize any of my soldiers in the ranks of your army. ”

“ I am a prisoner, and," he added, pointing to the amazons, "I have some terrible gaolers. But here comes the Queen, time presses, listen to me—I will persuade Walinda that I did not wish to escape with you. I will ask and obtain your liberty. But that is all I can do. Do not attempt to speak to her, or to make any proposals for peace; that would only be a confession of weakness and fear. Moreover, she is no longer at liberty to avoid war; her army is in too great a state of excitement. Return to your people—to mine, as soon as you can. You will be attacked without delay. ”

“ This moral prostration from which Madame de Guéran was suffering, and the fever which kept her a prisoner in her hut, presented, at all events, one advantage. Munza, whose passion had seemed to increase, a circumstance which placed us in a perpetual state of anxiety lest we should have to repress some folly on his part, became gradually calmer as his idol was no longer visible.
Love in a negro, there is no disguising the fact, is exclusively material; the heart is not concerned in it, and memory vanishes with the disappearance of the object beloved. ”

“ We push as far as possible ahead of the army to revel, free and untroubled, in the glorious beauty of the scene.
At length the roll of our drums is echoed by a similar sound from afar, shouts are heard, men run to meet us, soldiers appear. Kadjoro is advancing to welcome his ally Munza. Despite the simplicity of his manner and customs, he has seized on the opportunity for display. An African sovereign could never deny himself that pleasure. ”

“ You are decidedly off your head to-day; the most simple things escape you. As soon as ever our caravan reaches the plateau whence Desrioux first burst upon our gaze, all the men can insert their lances, after the fashion of levers, underneath the rock, which is simply leaning against the cliff. One good heave all together will suffice to overturn it; its base will roll over on to the plain just as its summit has already done, and the road to the mountain will once more be closed against the natives of these parts. ”

“ Shall we quarrel with Desrioux? Have we dared to quarrel with each other? No, we recoiled from such an act of injustice, and we shall recoil again. Moreover, as I have already said, Desrioux, thanks to his coup de theâtre, has saved our lives, and people as a rule do not fall foul of their saviours. Reflection must show us that we have only one thing to do— to get back to Paris as soon as possible, and console ourselves as best we may, and if we can."
Just as this conversation came to an end, the caravan emerged from the defile through which it had been wending its way. ”

“ Sickness, also, instinctively repels them; accustomed to look down upon a woman and to regard her as a beast of burden, she becomes to them a useless incumbrance and devoid of existence from the moment she succumbs to bodily suffering. I am persuaded that Munza, infatuated yesterday, and ready to become so again to-morrow, is to-day so calm and tranquil in mind that, if it were not for his pride and obstinacy, he would let us proceed on our journey without opposition. ”

“ That tribe, according to what I have been told, is more humane than the Domondoos; they will, perhaps, let me regain my strength in their country, recover my health, and, later on, continue my journey.
"My journey! As if I could think even of carrying out my project—as if, in my state of weakness and destitution, I could dream of filling up the blank between the discoveries of Schweinfurth and those of Speke and Grant!
"And yet—hope has not abandoned me altogether. I cannot have undergone all these perils to die now. ”

“ We are tempted to forget Africa and to imagine ourselves in Normandy. Goats frisk about the hills, cattle find luxuriant pasture in the plains, and diminutive shepherds armed with miniature lances and clubs keep watch over the flocks and herds. Pretty girls, with upright carriage and shapely limbs, bearing huge jars on their heads, wend their way towards the river. In front of the huts, under a sort of verandah composed of banana branches, the family take their ease, from the hoary-headed ancient to the toddling infant just taking his first lessons in walking. ”

“ Delange continues to deplore, very cheerfully all the same, the filial affection of Dr. Desrioux, which led to his taking that loving son's place. But, above all, he envies Pommerelle who, after having risked his life once as far as Monaco, has not hit upon the happy idea of journeying two thousand leagues farther to bring us reinforcements and cigars.
"He is a selfish egotist," says Delange. "He prefers whispering soft nothings into the ear of that questionable flame of his, who will hook him in the end! And he will have missed seeing Ulindi! A country of adorable, but unapproachable women!" ”

“ I prefer being physically eaten by the Niam-Niam to being morally devoured by that she-cannibal of the Boulevard Haussman. In a word, my dear fellow, just as a reformed rake, they say, makes a model husband, so a sedentary being like myself becomes, the very moment he turns wanderer, capable of any eccentricity, gives himself up to every extravagance, thinks no journey formidable enough, and would scale the moon, if she had not been for a considerable period placed out of reach of dilatory, and, for that, very reason, over bold travellers like your humble servant. ”

“ November 25th.—At last the caravan is in sight, just as we had given up all hope of ever seeing it again. Warned of its arrival, we have all of us emerged from our tents. Yes! There is no doubt about it. There is Ali in front. He recognizes us, and hurries to meet us. Why such haste, if he has no news of M. de Guéran? The Arab and the negro, when they are conscious of failure, dissemble and try to hide their want of success. Our interpreter must have some great news for us—our fate is on the point of being decided. ”

“ M. Périères, without paying the slightest attention to the words of the too susceptible Delange, said to M. de Morin—
"How can she attack us if we start to-day? She would not follow us up the mountain."
"Why not?"
"What road would she take?"
"The same that we are going to take," replied de Morin. "Up this rock suspended in mid-air. If we can scale it, encumbered with our baggage, our provisions, and our wounded, will the amazons, whose activity you have had every opportunity of remarking, find any difficulty in following us?" ”

“ Our consciences would, in this way, be quite clear; our rifles would have done no harm, and in a few moments we should put an end to a struggle which could not fail to be more bloody the longer it lasted.
At a signal from de Morin, away flew the arrows, and a simultaneous report of fire-arms was heard.
The Domondoos were completely routed; some ran in terror across the plain, others sought a refuge in the tall grass, whilst very many were so paralyzed by fright that they lay down flat on their faces, or went on their knees and held out their arms to implore our pity. ”

“ Miss Poles was not in a position to accompany them, being engaged in effecting some necessary repairs to her toilet, which had suffered considerable damage in a desperate struggle against three amazons, to whom she had given the coup de grâce with her revolver. Gratitude impelled her to welcome her deliverers, but coquetry withheld her from appearing before strangers, Europeans, fellow-countrymen, perhaps, with her dress in tatters, her sleeves tucked up to her shoulders, her hair dishevelled, her face as red as the middle of the fire, and her spectacles anyhow. ”

“ But they need not be uneasy; we are not going to take part in the massacre. It is a matter entirely between the Monbuttoos and the Domondoos, and we Europeans have nothing whatever to do with it. Nevertheless, the Nubians and Dinkas of our escort were eager to fight. Neither our society, which they had enjoyed for six months, the examples of moderation and humanity we had given them, nor their own semi-civilized state could subdue their warlike nature; the old original African blood rushed to their heads, and they felt impelled to put themselves in motion, to shout, strike, and kill. ”