65 après avoir été promené pendant trois jours par "toute la ville, fut décapité sur la place de Sainte Sophie, avec ses compagnons d'infortune." 66 Jamque dies infanda aderat, mihi sacra parari Et salsæ fruges et circum tempora vitæ. I have preferred to give in M. Mengin's own words, to translating them into English, the foregoing account of the fall of Dereyah and of Abdullah's surrendering himself to the Turks, because as I possess no information on these subjects but from the public prints of the day, I consider this to be the fairest method both to the reader, to M. Mengin, and to myself. No one can fail to perceive how inferior in talent Abdullah was to his father, Saoud:-to this inferiority the Arabs are willing to ascribe their depression and his misfortunes; but Abdullah has never been accused of want of personal courage, though in judgment, political sagacity, and that species of generosity which attaches such soldiers as are the Arabs to their chief, it is acknowledged he was eminently deficient; nor did he possess that invaluable spirit of patience, which leads men exalted to high command, and having great things to perform, to listen to counsel; or, if he did listen, he possessed not the spirit of discernment, to reject the bad and follow the good. The bitter fate of himself and his family seems plainly to have been brought on by his want of conduct and judgment. To me it M is curious to see that the misfortunes of my old friends the Persians, in their warfare with the Russians, and the Wahaubys in their war with the Turks, originated in the same cause, each brought undisciplined infantry, and magnificent irregular cavalry, to stand against the fire of artillery: the result of the experiment was the same. The narrative I have submitted to the candour of the reader affords abundant proofs that if Abdullah had confined his defence to the mode of warfare in which the Arabs are so expert, and consequently so formidable, of harassing and distressing an enemy by sudden and unlooked-for attacks, -by charging their convoys of provisions,-by shortening, by various means, their supply of water, it is difficult to imagine how a Turkish army could have been long kept together, on a parched desert, under a burning sun. There were, however, two mistakes committed by Abdullah, so fatal and so glaring in themselves, that I feel confident the reader has not passed them over-the first at Raas, when he had intercepted the Turkish communication between Khahara and Medina; when, by this means, their camp depended for its daily supply on two or three villages whose means were nearly exhausted; and when the cavalry of the Wahaubys was constantly hovering round their camp and scouring the country, he signed an ignominious peace, which, after all, was not ratified by Mohammed Ali Pacha. The second, his singular supineness, or rather infatuation, in not beating up the Turkish camp and army on the 26th of May, when the dreadful explosion took place, which fired the one, and threw the other into the utmost dismay and confusion,-he fatally and unaccountably remained inactive till the next day, when his enemy had had time to recover from his panic. He must have known, even if Dereyah was captured, that the whole Nedjd was not conquered. It might have been from humanity, it might have been from affection to his family, that he did not attempt to fly from Dereyah ;* but the confidence he placed in Turkish generosity and faith must have been infatuation; and the more extraordinary, because it was against the maxims of his creed and the experience and consent of his countrymen. By the Arabs the lesson has been dearly purchased; but years hence may prove that its price did not exceed its future value. I wish not to attempt to dim one ray of Ibrahim Paçha's glory. I feel unwilling to impeach one atom of his merit. But if all M. Mengin relates passed, I consider his chief glory to have been the manner in which he acted towards the fallen prince, (always, bien entendu, that when he received his submission, he did not hold out to him false hopes "He that hath a wife and children, hath given hostages to "Fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises of virtue "or mischief."-BACON. of life. This is a species of glory of all others to a Turk the most honorable. His merit, notwithstanding all his errors and oversights, is, that he shewed himself possessed of decision, of presence of mind, of bravery, of great kindness, when occasion required, to his soldiers, by parting with that which to a Turk is the unum necessarium— money; and by, at last, an aptitude to receive counsel. But there are clouds over the character of himself and his father, which, to use an Oriental metaphor, a stronger sun than the sun of my pen can alone disperse. Whenever the completed and appointed time of any kingdom or people arrives, He who measures all human affairs by rules inscrutable to weak man, seldom gives them much other means to judge of his divine designs, than by putting on the stage a weak leader, for those who are to be punished; and an able one for those who are to execute the mandate of his wrath. END OF THE WAHAUBY. |