Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/423

 ROYAL OBSEQUIES. 39$ tortures which by Negoro's orders he had already under- gone^ friendless and hopeless, was Dick Sands 1 The tîme, howevèr, for openîng the flood-gate had not yet arrived. First of ail, at a sîgn from the queen, the fourth wîfe, formîng the royal footstool had her throat eut by an executioner, her blood streaming into the grave. This barbarous deed was the commencement of a most frightful butchery. One after another, fifty slaves fell beneath the slaughtcrous knife, until the rîver-bcd was a very cataract of blood. For half an hour the shrîeks of the victims mingled wîth the imprécations of thcir murderers, without evoking one single expression of horror or sympathy from the gazing crowd around. At a second signal from the quecn, the barrîer, which retained the water above, was opened. By a refinement of cruelty the torrent was not admitted suddenly to the grave, but allowed to trickle gradually in. The first to be drowned were the slaves that carpcted the bottom of the trench, thcir frightful struggles bearing witness to the slow death that was overpowering them. Dick was immerscd to his knccs, but he could be seen. ihaking what might seem one last frantic effort to burst his bonds. " Steadily rose the water ; the strcam rcsumed îts proper course ; the last head disappcared beneath its surface, and soon therc remained nothing to indicate that in the depth below there was a tomb where a hundred victims had been sacrificed to the memory oi the King of Kazonndé. ■ Painful as they arc to describe, it is impossible to ignore the reality of such scènes.