by assault,
the Naya had been deposed, and Omar enthroned Naba in her stead. Then,
feeling that safety was assured, I ventured forth, but ere I had gone far
I met a body of strange fighting men. They were Arabs, and proved to be
men from this stronghold of our enemy Samory. After a strenuous attempt
to cross the city they had been repulsed by the people, leaving many
dead, and in their retreat towards the city-gate they seized me and bore
me away in triumph here."

"How long hast thou been in Koussan?"

"Twenty days ago we arrived, after fighting our way back and losing half
our force in skirmishes with the hostile savages of the forest. I was
brought here to Samory's harem as slave, attired in the garments I now
wear, loaded with jewels torn from the body of one of his favourites,
who, incurring his displeasure, had been promptly strangled by the chief
of the negro eunuchs, and placed in an apartment with three other slaves
to do my bidding, there to await such time as it should please my Arab
captor to inspect me. I was contemplating death," she added, dropping her
deep blue eyes. "If your attack upon the Kasbah had not been delivered I
should most assuredly have killed myself to-day ere the going down of the
sun."

"It was fortunate that I recognized thee, or thou wouldst have been
hacked to pieces by the keen blades of our savage allies," I said.

"Take me hence," she urged panting. "I cannot bear to hear the shout of
the victor and the despairing cry of the vanquished. It is horrible.
Throughout the night we, in the women's quarters, have dreaded the fate
awaiting us if the invaders, whom we thought were savages of the forest,
should gain the mastery and enter the palace. From the high windows
yonder we witnessed the fight, knowing that our lives depended upon its
issue, and judge our dismay and despair when, soon after dawn, we saw the
Arabs overwhelmed and the Kasbah fall into the hands of their conquerors.
Many of my wretched companions killed themselves with their poignards
rather than fall into the hands of the blacks, while the majority hid
themselves only to be afterwards discovered and butchered. Ah, it is all
terrible, terrible!"

"True," I answered. "Yet it is only revenge for the depredations and
heartless atrocities committed by these people upon the dwellers in thy
border lands. Even at this moment Samory hath a great expedition on the
northern confines of Mo, making a vigorous attempt to invade t