"I have summoned you here," said the Khalifa, after a long pause, "not to judge you, but to show you that, in spite of the frequent attempts to cast suspicion on you, I have in no way withdrawn my confidence in you. Had I believed what the man said, I should not have imprisoned him; no doubt you have enemies here, and there are probably envious people who are jealous of your being near me. But beware! where there is no fire, there is no smoke." He then signed to me to withdraw, and soon afterwards the assembly broke up.
That night I asked one of my comrades whom I knew I could trust, to tell me what the Khalifa had said after I had left. He told me that Abdullahi admitted the man was a liar, but that there might be some truth in his statement; he had also said I might possibly have enemies in Cairo who were intriguing against me. This had also occurred to me whilst I was speaking, but I did not mention it, as I hesitated to throw down all my cards; now that he had thought of it himself, my silence had stood me in good stead, for I could bring forward this argument in my defence, should some fresh accusation be brought against me. But how long was I to continue in this wretched position? How long was I to keep up this constant strain of always standing on the defensive; how much longer could my present relations with the Khalifa last? I knew he was only waiting for an opportunity to make me harmless, for he was perfectly well aware that I was at heart his enemy; but in truth I thanked God most fervently that he treated me with greater leniency than he did the rest. How difficult it was to carry out Madibbo's advice; but how true it was that he who lives long sees much!
The following morning, after prayers, as I was on my way home, I was overtaken by Gereifawi, who had succeeded Adlan and was on friendly terms with me. "You are a rare visitor," said I, shaking hands with him; "please God you have good reasons for it!" "Yes," said he; "but I am come to disturb you. I require your house; and I must ask you to leave it to-day. I will give you one in place of it which lies to the southeast of the mosque, and in which the Khalifa's guests are usually housed; it is somewhat smaller than your own, but you have only the road between it and the mosque, and this will thoroughly suit a pious man like you!" "All right," said I; "but tell me privately who sent you here, the Khalifa or Yakub?" "Ah, that is a secret!" said he, laughing; "but after your conversation yesterday with the Khalifa, you can surely understand the reason; probably," he continued ironically, "our master, out of his great love for you, wishes to have you in close proximity to himself; your house is scarcely two hundred paces from his own. When may I come and take over your old house?" "I shall have finished moving by the evening," said I; "it will take me some little time to remove the fodder for my horse and mule. Is the house I am to have uninhabited?" "Of course it is. I have given orders for it to be cleaned, and will now return to make the necessary arrangements; but you had better begin moving at once, and I hope your new house will bring better luck than your old one," said Gereifawi, leaving me.
Undoubtedly this was a very clear case of want of confidence in me on the Khalifa's part. He was anxious to remove me from the neighbourhood of the ammunition stores and powder magazine, which, in case of war, I was supposed to seize. I now called together my household, and told them to begin moving at once. They cursed the Khalifa freely, and called down all the punishments of Heaven on his head. Little by little, year by year, they had gone on building. They had dug wells fifty feet deep, had planted lemon and pomegranate trees, which were just about to bear fruit, and had, so to speak, made themselves comfortable. For me, the move was quite immaterial. How I had prayed to leave this house, though not in this way! However, as Gereifawi had said, perhaps the new house would bring me better luck; and I was by no means the only man who had been turned out of his abode at short notice. The whole portion of the city lying north of the Khalifa's house had been vacated at a moment's notice by the Ashraf and their relatives; and they had not even been allowed to remove their furniture, nor had they received the smallest compensation. They had been given a patch of stony ground to the west of the town, where they had been ordered to build fresh houses. After all, I was better off than they. Recent events had depressed me considerably, and I saw that the situation was now becoming almost unbearable; but more trouble was in store for me which was to throw completely into the background that of which I now complained.
One of my acquaintances, a Darfur merchant who had frequently travelled backwards and forwards to Egypt, Alexandria, and Syria, and who had gradually understood the various nationalities, realised that I was an Austrian. He had surmised correctly that, although a captive for many years, and shut off from all communication with my own people, I still took an intense interest in all that concerned my native land. He spoke to me in the mosque, told me hurriedly about affairs in Egypt, and then handed me an Egyptian newspaper of old date which, he said, had accidentally come into his hands in Alexandria, and which contained an article about Austrian affairs. Hurrying home, I opened the paper, and found, to my dismay, the news of the death of our Crown Prince Rudolf. I cannot describe the distress which this news caused me. I had served in his regiment; and I had never given up hope that some day I should return home, and have the pleasure of assuring him that, under all the strange and sad circumstances of my eventful life, I had always endeavoured to uphold the honour of an officer belonging to the Imperial regiment. But what were the trials and troubles of one obscure individual in comparison with this great national calamity,—nothing!
Again and again my mind turned to the grief of our beloved Emperor, to whom we Austrians look up as to a father. What must he have felt and suffered!
Here in the midst of this unsympathetic crowd my mind was filled with these sad thoughts; but I did not dare show that I was affected. It required all my self-control to hide from the rude gaze of the Mahdists the expressions of distress which came over my face when I thought of my beloved home; and, in the internal struggle which was going on almost continuously, I sometimes longed for the time when an end should be put to my wretched existence. To-day all the old sores had broken out afresh. The man would have done me a far greater service had he kept back the newspaper. It had only brought fresh trouble upon me, and depressed me more than ever. My comrades at the Khalifa's door—ignorant of the real cause of my sorrow—advised me to appear as cheerful as possible, and to show no displeasure about my enforced removal to another house, as the Khalifa was sure to have instructed his spies to watch me carefully, and see how I took his unwelcome order. I therefore tried to look as unconcerned as possible, and, to account for my depression, I pretended to be unwell,—what a life of dissimulation! Fortunately the Khalifa was busied with other matters. A letter had reached him from Ahmed Wad Ali at Gallabat, complaining of the treatment he received at the hands of his superior, Zeki Tummal; and, a few days afterwards, he arrived, in order to make his complaint personally. He said that in his own name, and in the name of all the other Emirs, he refused to put up with the continual insults and arbitrary confiscation of property on the part of Zeki, whom he also accused of conspiring to make himself independent. The Khalifa knew perfectly well that most of these complaints arose from Zeki's unpopularity with his assistants. He therefore wrote to him to at once refund all the confiscated property, and to accord to his Emirs the treatment to which their position entitled them. At the same time, he instructed Ahmed Wad Ali to return forthwith to Gallabat, and gave him secret orders to watch closely his chief's movements, and personally report to him.
Abu Girga, who by this time had been recalled from Kassala, and had been replaced there by Mussaid, being a Dongolawi, was considered by the Khalifa to be a source of danger in Omdurman. Under the pretext, therefore, of sending reinforcements to Reggaf, he despatched him with two steamers up the White Nile, and, at the same time, Omar Saleh was recalled to give a report of affairs in Equatoria. Abu Girga was nominated Emir of the whole country, and commander of all the rifle and spear men; but, at the same time, Mukhtar Wad Abaker, one of the Khalifa's relatives, was appointed to superintend him.
A few days after the steamers had left, the Khalifa fell seriously ill with an attack of typhus fever. All Omdurman watched the course of the illness with the most intense anxiety, for his death would have been the signal for a complete change in the administration of the country. Khalifa Ali Wad Helu, who, according to Mahdist law, should be the successor, watched the illness with almost breathless interest; and his followers and tribe showed such deep concern that they fell under the suspicion of wishing to seize the reins of government. The Khalifa's powerful constitution, however, got the better of the malady; and it seemed as if the wretched inhabitants of the Sudan had not been sufficiently punished, and that God did not yet intend to remove from them this terrible scourge. After an illness of about three weeks, Abdullahi took the first possible opportunity of appearing before his followers, who greeted him with frantic acclamations,—the outcome, in the majority of cases, of a desire merely to make a noise. Only his own relatives and some of the western Arabs really rejoiced at his recovery. But the Khalifa had no delusions about the imaginary sentiment to which his followers had given vent during his illness. He knew perfectly well that in showing the preference to his own tribe, he had given umbrage to many of the western Arabs, who, being strangers in the land, it was most necessary to retain on his side. The inhabitants of the Nile valley and of the Gezira, the majority of whom were Jaalin and Danagla, were his enemies; but, disarmed, and their property confiscated, he had made them powerless, and every now and then he sent considerable detachments of them to reinforce Darfur, Gallabat, and Reggaf. He did not hide from himself that Khalifa Ali and his followers were anxious to step into his shoes; but he knew that they would never be foolish enough to attempt to carry out their plans by main force, as the Ashraf had done.
Now that I had my abode close to him, he was more suspicious than ever of me. He continually inquired of my comrades if this strict supervision did not make me indignant, and he did all he could to find fault with my conduct; but, fortunately, the mulazemin were on friendly terms with me, and always reported favourably of me. At the same time, they secretly warned me that the Khalifa's dislike of me was increasing, and that I must be most careful.