Page:Domestic Life in Palestine.pdf/424

Rh other valuables. They looked very barbarous and fierce, elated as they were with success and plunder. They had charge of a band of handcuffed prisoners from Arrabeh, who were to be conveyed to the galleys at 'Akka.

The poor boys, after this sight, were more alarmed and distressed than ever, for we had not been able to ascertain with certainty the fate of their fathers, though it was said that they had escaped beyond Jordan.

It was reported that the town had been quite destroyed, all the women and children barbarously murdered, and nearly all the men killed or taken prisoners. We did not discover, till some time afterward, that this was, to a great extent, an Oriental exaggeration. The poor boys were left in terror, suspense, and doubt. They could not tell whether they were orphans or no. The youngest boy, who was about ten or eleven, said to me one day, "If my father has been killed, God grant that I may live to be a strong man, that I may revenge his death!" It was difficult sometimes to know how to soothe or answer the excited children.

There were several other refugees from Arrabeh in town, but they were all soon taken prisoners, and conducted to ’Akka. My little protégés, or dakhiels as they were called, seemed to be forgotten. My brother removed them to a neighboring house, where they were taken care of by Moslems.

On Friday, May 6th, after the post had come in, my brother handed my packet to me, and then went out. I was absorbed in letters from England, when, suddenly, four of my protégés burst into the room, and jumped on to the broad divan where I was seated. Two of them got behind me, and threw their arms over my neck, and the other two tried to cover themselves with the skirt of my dress. They were all crying and trembling violently, and could only say, sobbingly, "Ana dakhaliek! Ana dakbaliek!"

Before I had learned from them the cause of their new trouble, the Governor, attended by two military officers and several common soldiers, fully armed, entered the room.