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Their muskets were loaded, and hardly had the count arranged his plan of attack, than the gates of Uargla were opened and a band of horsemen rode forward to meet him. The Frenchmen allowed the Arabs to approach close to them and then fired their first salvo. A second one followed, and through the narrow streets the Count of Monte-Cristo and his men entered Uargla.
We must go back with our story four days. Sixty leagues from Uargla an immense caravan was encamped. Not a tree or a green leaf could be seen for miles around, and yet it was here that Monte-Cristo cast his tent.
The lion-killer is invincible!" After an exhausting ride of three long hours they beheld the minarets of Uargla. Monte-Cristo divided his men in two companies; one he commanded with Jacopo and Medje, the other he placed in charge of Coucou.
"'This time you shall not escape from me, he declared, and the ride was continued for three days and three nights before we came to a final halt. "I found myself in Uargla, that terrible city in whose streets blood flows in streams. I was brought into a solid tower of Kiobeh, and the fearful attendants, who saw in me a priestess of Allah, again surrounded me.
"Yes," said Maldar to himself when the saint had gone, "they shall all die, and the stream of their blood will be the spring out of which Allah's warriors shall drink courage." Lost in the immensity of the desert, Uargla, the queen of the oases, was, up to thirty years ago, little known.
He was now within four days' journey of Uargla, and began to hope that perhaps he would find what he was seeking. When night came, Monte-Cristo withdrew with Spero to his tent. The count wrote to Haydee. A courier went north every day, but Monte-Cristo had not yet been able to send Mercedes any consolation.
Before he had left the ship, the count had called his son aside, and putting a map before him, he pointed with his finger to Uargla and said: "This is the place we must go to in Uargla we shall find what we are looking for." Monte-Cristo knew that in the centre of the desert the queen of the oases, Uargla, lay, and that it was the principal refuge of sedition.
Before the vision of the older man rose the atrocious scenes at Uargla. He saw Spero, a bold, brave boy, scaling the towers he heard his firm words, "Papa, let us die" and felt the soft, childish arms wind about his neck. This was Fanfaro. The other watcher was Gontram. Coucou, Bobichel and Madame Caraman were paralyzed with grief.
"Then I say to you, Maldar Mohammed ben Abdallah, the hour for revenge has come. Death to the Giaours!" He paused for a moment; then continued: "Where are the Khouans?" "At Uargla." "Where are the Christian prisoners? Have my commands been obeyed?"
A strange rumor next reached me that a marabout was preaching immediate massacre, and I knew not whether Captain Joliette was alive or dead. I could now walk about Uargla where I pleased, and I determined one evening to wrap myself in my veil and take advantage of the strange superstition in which I was still held. The sentinel trembled when he saw me.
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