lost, and my friend Forbes had arranged with Colonel Wellesley, who had left for Eng land, to break the news of my death to my mother; luckily before he reached England a wire from me rectified the mistake. On another occasion, in the advance of Hicks Pasha's army against El Obeid in the Soudan, walking down Fleet friends with Sir Louis Cavagnari, and after the signing of the Treaty of Gundamuk he gave me the pens used on that occasion. Come and have a look at them." In a little glass-covered frame by the A street in Constantinople. Street I noticed the announcement of my death in the evening papers. So twice I have been numbered with the majority. At the close of the Russian campaign I went to Syria and sketched the Eastern ceremonies in Jerusalem for my paper." "And what was your next campaign?" "Afghanistan. In that I became great side of his writingtable are the identical pens, and also an autograph letter from Sir Louis Cavagnari to the artist. "When showing these to a Frenchman who was visiting my studio, he wittily marked, 'Ah! re and this is all that re mains of the Treaty of Gundamuk.' And that is right, for shortly after it was treacherously broken and my friend Sir Louis Cav agnari mas It was almost sacred with his followers. the first news I received on landing at Sydney." "And when did you paint your first picture for the Academy?" 66 After I had been a tour round the world. From Afghanistan I was commissioned for Australia. Journeying through India, I dined with the Viceroy, Lord Lytton, at Simla; then I visited Bombay, and arrived at Sydney for the opening of the Exhibition. Australia with its civilisation and open-handed hospitality was a delightful experience after the hardships of war. I visited Tasmania en route for New Zealand, and having stayed in Auckland, came home via San Francisco, Honolulu, across the Rockies to New York, seeing en route the Mormons and the commercial life of Chicago, and then I two generals met with mutual admiration and heartily shook hands, and then quietly walked to and fro arm-in-arm, chatting over their past experiences. Skobeleff was an excellent General, for he was always in touch with his men and officers. It was A gentleman of Adowa, Abyssinia. been so many. I think perhaps it was young General Skobeleff-a most daredevil soldier. I remember after the declaration of peace on the plains of San Stefano the English and American correspondents arranged a meeting between General Skobeleff and Baker Pasha, the two men who for months had attracted the attention of the civilised world. The looking Constantinople that, the conversation turning on the motifs that inspired the various armies, I pointed out. to him that his soldiers were imbued with almost as much fanaticism for the Orthodox Church and their great White Czar as the fanatic Turk who had hown such guest-have something that inspires your troops.' "C'est la gloire,' replied the French 666 Oh, yes, I think so,' I replied, 'perhaps the most seductive of all-"British interests," at which the General laughed and characteristically expressed his admiration for our soldiers and his wish to meet them and try their strength." 66 And what is the most disagreeable sight you have witnessed?" "The massacre at Port Arthur. Not only the soldiers but the coolies took part in the three days' bloody work-it was, in tact, a coldblooded butchery. The citizens, in virtue of the Japanese commander's proclamition, were killed in their shops, their My dragoman in Syria. 253 stiffened bodies bent in the act of kowtowing. Any Chinaman was fair game for slaughter. I saw a number of badly wounded pigs in one village running The American contingent of Bluejackets in Cairo. 254 Refugees on the road to Larissa. A snap-shot by Mr. Villiers. about with their heads nearly severed from their bodies." After some weeks' rest in the north with his bon camarade Archibald Forbes, where Mr. Villiers enjoyed the hospitality of Mar Lodge and Invercauld, as a guest, with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, of the Duke of Fife, and where he was initiated into the mysteries of deer-stalking and all the characteristics of Highland hunting life, once more Mr. Villiers' roving spirit asserted itself and he started for the land of the Pharaohs. It was at Alexandria that he met with an amusing incident in the midst of a night of horror. "We started to penetrate into the town at sundown, stumbling over dead. bodies and débris of looted shops, and the howls of starving dogs added in no small degree to the horrors of the night. The town and sky were lurid with red flames. As Cameron and I reached the Place de Consuls we saw suspicious looking objects lying amongst the trees. As they did not show fight we cautiously approached them. An exclamation of horror came from Cameron, for the bodies, on nearer inspection, were headless and armless. "Here's good colouring for our telegrams,' exclaimed Cameron. "What a stir this will make at the British breakfast table!" "We moved nearer to the horrible spectacle-and"-Mr. Villiers pauses, and concludes with a smile "they were simply dressmakers' dummies looted from the shops, and from which the clothes had been stolen. They had been thrown to the flames." It was this gallant war artist who crossed the Desert with the Gordon relief column and was the only correspondent who got as far as Metemneh; of the rest, two were shot dead, and the rest remained at Gubat. He has also marched with the Servians against the Bulgarians, and with the British troops in Burmah against King An incident on the Nile-the wreck of the Nasef-el-Keer. |