CHAPTER IX.
Offers of exchange—Report of the death of the King of France—Festivities—Sham fight—Two French soldiers—M. Lanternier—Meurice gets worse—Baths at Mascara—Lanternier’s prison—His wife and daughter sent to the Emperor of Morocco—Little Benedicto.
One evening at sunset, when Meurice and I returned to our tent, after spending the day in a garden near the camp, Ben Faka told me that the Sultan desired to see me. I went to his tent, where he gave me two letters, one for Meurice and the other from General Rapatel for myself. I opened the latter, and informed the Sultan of its contents, which were to this effect: General Rapatel offered Abd-el-Kader the choice of ten Arab prisoners, in exchange for the six Frenchmen and Italians, and ten others in exchange for Mahomed Ben Hussein, the ex-Bey of Medeah; adding, that the European prisoners might be sent at once to some French town, and that Abd-el-Kader should receive the Arabs in exchange for them immediately upon their return from Marseilles.
At this sentence Abd-el-Kader smiled, and said “You shall go as soon as my Arabs arrive at the camp.”
The Bey of Medeah, who was our ally, had been taken prisoner by the Bey of Milianah, loaded with chains, and thrown into the dungeons of Ouchda, a town on the frontier of Morocco, where he still languishes, exposed to the most cruel treatment, and in constant danger of being starved to death by his inhuman gaolers.
After consulting the marabouts who surrounded him, Abd-el-Kader ordered me to write word, that he demanded twenty prisoners in exchange for the six Europeans, and that he would give up the Bey of Medeah in exchange for all the prisoners at Marseilles. I remonstrated with him on the unreasonableness of his terms, and suggested that he should split the difference, and take fifteen Arabs as ransom for us. To this he agreed, and I wrote to the General and to my family. As I was sealing the letters, Abd-el-Kader said, that he hoped I had written all that I wished to say; and that I should not be deterred by fear of his displeasure from writing anything that I saw, or from expressing any opinion upon his manner of treating his prisoners; “For,” said he, “a Sultan so great and holy as I fears no one upon earth.”
I hastened to take Meurice his wife’s letter, and to inform him of the favourable dispositions of Abd-el-Kader; and I had the satisfaction of seeing him fall asleep with a smile on his face. I crept close to him to warm his frozen limbs; but the night was so cold, that in the morning when we wanted to rise Meurice’s legs were benumbed, and he was forced to lie upon the ground. All his blood had rushed to his head, which caused him the most violent pain. At about eleven o’clock I carried him out into the sunshine, in hopes that the warmth might do him good.
On the 28th of October Abd-el-Kader received a letter from Morocco, announcing the death of the King of France. I believe that the Emperor of Morocco meant Charles X., but Abd-el-Kader thought it was Louis Philippe, and immediately spread a report that the King of the French had been assassinated, that a civil war had broken out in France, and that all the troops stationed at Algiers were about to be recalled.
This news excited universal joy; the troops prepared to celebrate the retreat of the French in a manner worthy of the greatness of the occasion, and three whole days were spent in festivities, both at Mascara and in the camp. These consisted chiefly in sham fights, in which the first division of cavalry, dressed in bluejackets and red trowsers, and without haicks or bernouses, represented the French, and were headed by Abd-el-Kader; the second, with their flowing haicks and bernouses, were the Arabs. The two troops were drawn up at a considerable distance from each other.
Abd-el-Kader first detached ten of his French corps as skirmishers, who were met by the same number of the opposite party. The assailants on both sides started at a foot’s pace, and by degrees urged on their horses to a gallop. When they were within five-and-twenty paces of each other, they shouted “Ah! ah! ah!” fired off their rifles, waved their haicks and bernouses, drew their sabres, and acted a fight hand to hand. Ten more horsemen were then detached from each troop, and galloped into the midst of the mêlée, whereupon the first two bands retreated to their respective posts, while the others continued the fight. Sometimes the forty horsemen kept up the struggle, until the arrival of fresh auxiliaries on one side turned the chances against the other, who then retreated at full gallop, brandishing their sabres, firing off their rifles, and uttering loud cries. Then a pursuit was acted, till both parties had galloped enough, and returned to their stations. At one moment the confusion became excessive; the mêlée was thick and violent, bernouses fluttered, sabres flashed, and a cloud of dust concealed the combatants, whose fierce wild shouts rung in our ears. Suddenly the drums on both sides beat the recall, and the chiefs restored order; the horsemen gave a few moments of rest to their horses, and then the racing and struggling, the strange evolutions and single combats began again with as much vehemence as ever.