y Ismail Wad el Andok, in revenge for his defeat at
Golfan-Naima. Roversi's maid-servant, Aisha--a black girl brought up in
Constantinople--and his man-servant, Hajji Selim, reported that they had
found his shoes in the forest, and his dead body in a hut. The
unfortunate young Roversi was barely thirty years of age, a Protestant
by religion, and a man for whom we all cherished a great affection. The
date of his death was probably the 3rd of November, 1882. A few days
after this date Mek Omar and his men arrived in the camp, bringing our
Delen blacks with them. The latter at once came to see us, and soon
afterwards all of them--both boys and girls--were sold as slaves, whilst
the more grown-up youths were drafted into the Mahdi's army. Two of the
girls, one an Abyssinian and the other a black, became concubines of the
Mahdi. A cruel fate soon overtook Mek Omar: it was reported that he had
concealed some of the captured booty, and he was at once put in chains
by the Mahdi's order. Shortly afterwards he sent for us, and Bonomi and
I paid him a visit. We found him shackled with two chains on his feet,
and a chain about fifteen feet long round his neck; the poor man was
completely bowed down with the weight of these chains, and begged us
most humbly to intercede for him, as he told us it was the Mahdi's
intention to have him beheaded. The condition of this unfortunate
individual so touched us, that Bonomi went to the Mahdi and represented
that it was really the Nubas who had stolen the booty, and so Mek Omar
was released.

As we slowly began to recover from our illness, the thought of release
was constantly in our minds. We applied to the powerful Elias Pasha,
whom we had known very well in El Obeid. This blind old pasha received
us kindly, but said that Abdel Kader Pasha in Khartum, was furious with
him for having joined the rebels; he therefore said that our best course
was to apply daily to the Mahdi, who in time might perhaps be moved to
grant our release. We followed his advice, but it was no easy matter to
make our way through the crowd of fanatics who surrounded his hut day
and night, all struggling to get a sight of his face which, it was said,
shed rays of light. Pushed about, shoved in every direction, and
insulted, we might perhaps succeed in reaching the doorway; but here we
were stopped by the guards, and it was almost impossible to pass them.
However, after superhuman efforts, we succeeded twice in interviewing