Go! Be
mindful of this, and hold your troops in readiness to march. Taher
Pacha will already have received my orders to join you; and Youssouf
Bey, my lieutenant, is also ready to take the field. You will follow
him rapidly, and, united, you will give battle to the Mamelukes." He
then dismissed Mohammed with a gracious salutation.
As the latter passes out through the antechamber, his head humbly
bowed down, he whispers to himself: "The black body-guard would slay
those who should threaten your life! Cousrouf Pacha, I am glad you
rely on your black body-guard!"
CHAPTER XII
THE ABDUCTION.
OSMAN BEY BARDISSI was encamped on the plain of Darmanhour with his
Mamelukes, awaiting the arrival of L'Elfi Bey and his forces. Spies
and scouts had announced that the Turkish army was advancing from
Cairo in two columns, and that Taher Pacha was approaching from
another direction--from Upper Egypt-at the head of seven thousand
men.
Bardissi's countenance lighted up with joy when the Bedouin sheik
Arnhyn brought this intelligence.
"The decisive moment, the day of battle is at hand. If we are
victors, how Sitta Nefysseh will smile on us, how happy she will
be!"
Yes, the decisive moment is at hand. Perhaps Nefysseh's cold heart
will be touched, perhaps she will bestow upon the victor a glorious
reward--herself.
But why does not L'Elfi come? Without him Bardissi cannot, he well
knows, venture to give battle, for he, with his men and the
Mamelukes of Elmar Bey, is too weak to engage an enemy of such
superior strength.
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