The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-07
TIE oANvoNApE AND IT'S ErFEcrs.


efore Magdaa phi li) Correspondence Of tie London
Times.
Magdsla has been taken, and Theodorus, killed
his own hand, lies under the guard Of a British
ntry, in the last and strongest of the wondrous
cries of his strongholds. IL would be ahectaton
b pity tyrant who himself knew no pity, who
as az inscriptions and crafty as he was cruel,
nd who had indeed every reason TO style himself
be Scourge of God " sent to punish the people.
Yesterday nothing was left to the imagination;
be tragedy was forced In all its naked horror
pom our Tevolted senses. A strange smell, for
Phich there was no apparent cause, made some OF
ur party lock over the ledge Of a steep cliff, al
most within few yards of the spot from which
be guns were beginning to play upon hagdals,
nd there, on a ledge about fifty feet below them,
y two large heaps of msngled human bodies,
losely piled upon each other in CHASTITY confu-
on, their lips protruding from the mass in all
orts Of repulsiye attitudes and contortions, and
resenting altogether q scene of horror such as no
en- could adequately describe, could any pen be
ound 10 undertake the task.
OF the strength Of Msgdsla itself il is perhaps
impossible 10 give an adequate idea. IL Is pro-
ected by lofty, almost overhanging clifs, so pre-.
tipitous that cat could not climb them, except
1 two points, north and south, at each OF which
steep, narrow path leads up TO strong gate
yay. 1t was by the northern gateway, as being
bn the side commanded by Selassee, that our
troops had to effect an entrance. One
Snder makes many. In another instant every
n an anywhere near with rifle in his hand was
banging and blazing away as II all his prospects
in this world aud in the next depended upon the
number Of charges he could get rid OF in min
ue. This naturally created an impression that an
sotion was going on somewhere, and general
scamper was at once made 10 a spot which com
manded better view Of the plain before Mag
dala, and on which, 70 the great delight Of the
fcsmperers some of Theodorus's guns and NOR.
tars were Unexpectedly found. An artillery
officer, Lieutenant Nolan, happening TO be one of
the party, promptly resolved 70 use their own
he hpinO
considered apparently in the light of humorous
practical joke by few civilians aud "loafers"
escaped from their staff or regimental duties to
the front, sort Of comic seige Of Magdala was
carried on by force OF all arms, dresses and I'M
dresses for more than an hour.
One Of these excursions led, cd lily enough, to
the unearthDg of M. Bardel, the Frenchma1 who
has been suspected of poisoning Theodoruss
mind against the captves. On the first of the
enemy's guns being fred by Lieut.. Nolan,
woman rushed out franticallY from small tent
near the line of the IRE, evidently under the i'm
preston that her tent was about TO undergo
heavy cannonsde, and with vehement gesticuls-
tons offered TO captulate. The tent was entered,
and there in bed. TO the intense as.onishment Of
every one, was found European, who proved to
be NJ. Bardel.
After this incident the siege of Magdala was
resumed, and, to the intense qualification Of the
besieging force, one round shot from Theodorus'
own gun was sent bobbing along the ground
sufficiently near him and his small party to induce
them TO retreat into Magdala and desst from the
attempt they had hitherto been making TO carry a
gun up there, After this the firing ceased alto.
gether on the part Of the besieged, and became
very languid on the part Of the besiegers.
feel that as patriot, perhaps, the less say
OF this siege the better. For fully half an hour
The storming party remained, most Of them hud-
died helplessly in the path, and If Major Cooper,
who commanded them, had not found way into
the place over the stockade near the gate, there
might have been heavy loss OF life.
As 1t was, fifty determined men might have
done great mischief, but luckily rheodorus had
not apparently more than half dozen-his prin-
Cipal chiefs-who really meant TO die at their
post in his cause. At first the perfect TeU derfer
raised by the Sniders, the head Of the storming
column moved up the path, did, no doubt, admir-
able service. Volley followed volley with blind
ing. deafening vehemence and rapidily, and how
ers Of bullets ratified, without an instants inter-
mission, round every crack and creyice of the
gate and adjoining stockade, leaving scarcely an
inch Of wall Of rock UNEMPLOYED from which an
opposing shot could safely be fred such as might
well have shaken far cooler and more expert
eDced foe than the Abyssinan.
Magdala Is so remarkable stronghold-so en-
phatcally one In ten thousand that some of our
engineers, with something Of Sir Lucus Orig
gers feeling about pretty quarrel" are dis.
Rusted that it was not stouty defended and more
scientifically attacked.
THE FORTRESS REDUCED.
lMAgdala April 10 correspondence Of London TimsSl
Magdala was burned TINS afternoon, and dense
columns OF fame and smoke from its lofty sum.
mhs are still procaiming far and wide TO the won
deriDg tribes Of semi savage warriors who intest
the surrounding country that the reign OF their
greatest enemy is at an end, and the browning act
of England's vengeance performed. The town
itself was uninterestiDg, save from its accidental
associations as the prison Of our fellow country
men and other Europeans, even for Abyssinia a
charge so grave that no man. 1t is to be hoped,
would lightly bring it against any town calling IL
selfIChrlstan. II consisted of the ordinary collec
tion Of huts, most Of them built Of grass and
wood, with thalched conical roofs, and did not
boast even one building Of exceptional beauty or
importance. The church was one Of the meanest
and dirtest that We have seen In Abyssinia, while
The palace of the great Emperor Theodore differed
only from the surrounding huts Of his hufnblest
subjects in being larger. two-storied, and with q
matched roof, not conicsl but oblong, giving il
much the appearance OF an English barn, except
that no decent English farmer would allow any
apimal that he valued TO live in building 50 dark,
dirty and III ventilated.
In fha rEaho NJ Ne