At
First They Refused To Return; Until At Length I Vowed That I Would Fire
Into Them Should They Accompany Us On The Following Morning.
Day broke
and it was a relief to have got rid of the brutal escort.
They had
departed, and I had now my own men, and the guides supplied by Kamrasi.
There was nothing to eat in this spot. My wife had never stirred since
she fell by the coup de soleil, and merely respired about five times in
a minute. It was impossible to remain; the people would have starved.
She was laid gently upon her litter, and we started forward on our
funeral course. I was ill and broken-hearted, and I followed by her side
through the long day's march over wild parklands and streams, with thick
forest and deep marshy bottoms; over undulating hills, and through
valleys of tall papyrus rushes, which, as we brushed through them on our
melancholy way, waved over the litter like the black plumes of a hearse.
We halted at a village, and again the night was passed in watching. I
was wet, and coated with mud from the swampy marsh, and shivered with
ague; but the cold within was greater than all. No change had taken
place; she had never moved. I had plenty of fat, and I made four balls
of about half a pound, each of which would burn for three hours. A piece
of a broken water-jar formed a lamp, several pieces of rag serving for
wicks. So in solitude the still calm night passed away as I sat by her
side and watched. In the drawn and distorted features that lay before me
I could hardly trace the same face that for years had been my comfort
through all the difficulties and dangers of my path. Was she to die? Was
so terrible a sacrifice to be the result of my selfish exile?
Again the night passed away. Once more the march. Though weak and ill,
and for two nights without a moment's sleep, I felt no fatigue, but
mechanically followed by the side of the litter as though in a dream.
The same wild country diversified with marsh and forest. Again we
halted. The night came, and I sat by her side in a miserable hut, with
the feeble lamp flickering while she lay as in death. She had never
moved a muscle since she fell. My people slept. I was alone, and no
sound broke the stillness of the night. The ears ached at the utter
silence, till the sudden wild cry of a hyena made me shudder as the
horrible thought rushed through my brain, that, should she be buried in
this lonely spot, the hyena would . . . disturb her rest.
The morning was not far distant; it was past four o'clock. I had passed
the night in replacing wet cloths upon her head and moistening her lips,
as she lay apparently lifeless on her litter. I could do nothing more;
in solitude and abject misery in that dark hour, in a country of savage
heathens, thousand of miles away from a Christian land, I beseeched an
aid above all human, trusting alone to Him.
The morning broke; my lamp had just burnt out, and, cramped with the
night's watching, I rose from my low seat, and seeing that she lay in
the same unaltered state, I went to the door of the hut to breathe one
gasp of the fresh morning air. I was watching the first red streak that
heralded the rising sun, when I was startled by the words, "Thank God,"
faintly uttered behind me. Suddenly she had awoke from her torpor, and
with a heart overflowing I went to her bedside. Her eyes were full of
madness! She spoke; but the brain was gone!
I will not inflict a description of the terrible trial of seven days of
brain fever, with its attendant horrors. The rain poured in torrents,
and day after day we were forced to travel, for want of provisions, not
being able to remain in one position. Every now and then we shot a few
guinea-fowl, but rarely; there was no game, although the country was
most favourable. In the forests we procured wild honey, but the deserted
villages contained no supplies, as we were on the frontier of Uganda,
and M'tese's people had plundered the district. For seven nights I had
not slept, and although as weak as a reed, I had marched by the side of
her litter. Nature could resist no longer. We reached a village one
evening; she had been in violent convulsions successively - it was all
but over. I laid her down on her litter within a hut; covered her with a
Scotch plaid; and I fell upon my mat insensible, worn out with sorrow
and fatigue. My men put a new handle to the pickaxe that evening, and
sought for a dry spot to dig her grave!
CHAPTER XIL
RECOVERED.
The sun had risen when I woke. I had slept, and, horrified as the idea
flashed upon me that she must be dead, and that I had not been with her,
I started up. She lay upon her bed, pale as marble, and with that calm
serenity that the features assume when the cares of life no longer act
upon the mind, and the body rests in death. The dreadful thought bowed
me down; but as I gazed upon her in fear, her chest gently heaved, not
with the convulsive throbs of fever, but naturally. She was asleep; and
when at a sudden noise she opened her eyes, they were calm and clear.
She was saved! When not a ray of hope remained, God alone knows what
helped us. The gratitude of that moment I will not attempt to describe.
Fortunately there were many fowls in this village; we found several
nests of fresh eggs in the straw which littered the hut; these were most
acceptable after our hard fare, and produced a good supply of soup.
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