itself looked like a hideous slaughter-house, newly deluged with the blood of victims, and overstrown with a multitude of reeking carcasses. Dead steeds lay confusedly along the streets, with their golden caparisons soiled in the filthy compound of dirt and gore; their knights, some with limbs hacked off, others without their heads, still clenching their scymitars with the last despairing, yet desperate grasp of death, were flung near their war-horses, prostrate in a black puddle of their own life-blood. Their numerous followers* were cast around their masters, pierced with many balls, their faces depicting that malice, which raged in their hearts, sprung from their disappointment at not being able to bequeath their dying hatred to a successor.

Among the number of the slaughtered, Mahomed counted four hundred and seventy Mamlukes. Orders, however, had been generally circulated for their universal destruction, throughout the country. The Pacha's ministers of murder raged throughout the city, like a herd of ravenous tigers. Those who had private revenge to gratify, sought their victims among even the people, and in such a moment of licentiousness, fulfilled their purpose with impunity. Others of his myrmidons, again, went in bands, wherever the richest booty tempted their greediness, and tore down and pillaged, without mercy or moderation. Many private

* Each Mamluke had a running groom, or sceyo, who, on all occasions, attended his master, even in moments of the greatest peril.

individuals were assassinated in secret, or insolently felled down in the streets. The sanctity of the marriage bed was polluted, daughters were ravished, wives led away with yells of savage triumph. No one of sufficient authority was present to curb the atrocities of the soldiery. The shops had been closed, the inhabitants had very early run into their houses and secreted themselves, and their treasures, in the darkest hiding place they could find, while the streets afforded an open and free course for the military anarchy. The houses of the Mamlukes were the first to be stripped, for they were ever the most richly furnished. Nothing could exceed the violence, the rapacity, and the abominations evinced and perpetrated by Mahomed's unbridled army. Five hundred houses were sacked and destroyed. This continued for a day or two, until the Pacha had summoned sufficient courage to venture down from the citadel.

He was cautious in not doing this, until he saw that the first impulse of popular violence had subsided. He, then, most certainly endeavoured to repair every mischief. Both he, and Toussoun Pacha, went about the city, suppressing tumult, capitally punishing robbers and pillagers, and hunting out single Mamlukes, who, not having formed part of the fatal procession, had continued to secrete themselves in various parts of the city.

The Kiaya Bey beheaded them all without reserve. Some, however, escaped in the dress of Delhis, others disguised as women. They, foolishly, bent their flight towards Upper Egypt, where eventually, and with few exceptions, they were caught and slaughtered. The number of victims amounted, in the end, to upwards of a thousand. The heads of the principal beys were embalmed, and sent as a grateful present to the Divan of Constantinople; one only of the chiefs is supposed to have escaped, Amyn Bey by name, who, with his whole suite, took refuge in Syria. His escape was attributable to chance, for having been delayed, he only arrived at the citadel, at the moment that the Delhis were filing out of the gate. He waited till the troop had passed, but then, seeing the gate shut suddenly, and hearing, almost immediately after, the discharge of fire-arms, he put spurs to his horse, and, followed by his suite, only stopped when he was in safety.

Thus terminated the race of the far-famed Mamlukes of Egypt. They were the cause, however, of their own destruction. Had the advice of the aged Ibrahim been attended to, they might have still existed as a body. They would then have collected their numbers under one leader, according to whose commands all other subordinate beys would have acted, and the result would have been concentration of power, and unity of

purpose. Petty bickerings and private jealousies destroyed them: so true is the holy maxim, that a house divided against itself can never stand.

This massacre, when morally considered, will remain a bloody page in the history of man; politically interpreted, it was the surest measure for the growth and continuance of the peace and prosperity of the province. The Mamlukes were restless firebrands; they inflamed and destroyed whatever they touched. They were an imperium in imperio, ever in opposition to the Porte, for the weal or the woe of the province; and Egypt never saw one favourable sun under the blight the dense and destructive blight-spread far and wide by the Mamluke battalions. The Pacha's conscience, however, had, to all appearance, been little disturbed on recollection of the deed. He once heard that his conduct in this respect had been deeply censured in Europe. " I will have," said he, "a painting done, representing the murder of the Duke d'Enghien, and by its side will I place another of the Mamluke massacre. Let posterity decide on their respective merits!"

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CHAPTER VI.

Toussoun's Campaign against the Wahabees-The State of Arabia— Rise of the Wahab Sectarians-Abdul Wahab-His EducationPrinciples of Wahab Faith-Eben Sehood of Derayeh-His Successes in War-Death of Abdul Wahab-The Sheik AbdelazeezDestruction of Kebelah and of the Tomb of Hussein-Death of Abdelazeez-Sehood, his Son and Successor-The Sultan determines on Hostilities against the Wahabees.

He

BEFORE entering on Toussoun's campaigns against the Wahabees, it would not be lost time to cast a cursory glance at their history. Abdul Wahab, otherwise Abdul, the slave of the Most High, was the founder of the sect of the Wahabees. was the son of Suleiman, the chief of the Ayani, an Arabian tribe of the Ared. Suleiman's trade was that of a camel-driver, or of one who lets out camels for hire. His principal customers were the Mahomedans of India, who yearly travelled the fertile region of the Ared, on their way to Mecca. The trade was most lucrative, and Sulei