THE TRAITOROUS TASHAS. 141 They were tried by court-martial, and sentenced to death. Seven days afterwards they were executed in the inner yard, near the large square of the prison. They were hewn in pieces by a halberd. I saw the execution, so it is of no use your saying, 1 They were shot.' I tell you, according to Turkish military law, a military traitor is always sentenced to be cut to pieces. The two were bound up against the wall by chains and rings. Two soldiers armed with sharp hatchets approached them from out of the sides of a square we had formed. The prisoners' crime was read aloud, and their sentence. A hundred soldiers were present, some senior officers, but not Gordon Pasha. The senior bey cried out, ' Executioners, perform sentence on the traitors!' Immediately these advanced close, and lopped off first their arms above the elbows, then the legs above the knees; then cut their bodies in twain; then decapitated them They died not till they were cut asunder; then their heads fell on their breasts, and they expired with a hideous yell. Surely their fate was deserved. I cannot say whether Gordon Pasha knew of this manner of execution. I tell you this is the Turkish mode of punishing military traitors, and it is a just punishment."

The conclusion of this narrative was somewhat startling, and assuredly Gordon would never have consented to such an execution On the 19th of March he telegraphed to Sir E. Baring that the two pashas were placed in chains and would be tried on the following clay. There was no doubt that they had been guilty of a long course of the most atrocious treachery, and Gordon took the blame to himself for trusting them. Many things came up in evidence. Gordon had ordered the houses on the north side of the city to be loopholed, and had sent crowbars for the work. The crowbars were found buried on the south side of the river. Said Pasha had asked for a steamer with which to bring back his family.

He was absent two days, and then said his family was in Khartum, whereas it transpired that he had only brought back one slave. Gordon feared that these men had not only organized the rising of the tribes investing Khartum, but had actually dictated their movements and the cutting of the telegraph.