"Hold on; resist; the help of the British will come," said Dr. Shedd
to the people. "Agha Petros with a thousand of our men has gone to
meet the British and he will come back with them and will throw back
the Turks."
The Turks and the Kurds came on from the north; many of the Armenian
and Assyrian men were out across the plains to the east getting in the
harvest; and no sign of succour came from the south.
II
Through the fierce hot days of July the people held on because Dr.
Shedd said that they must; but at last on the afternoon of July 30th
there came over all the people a strange irresistible panic. They
gathered all their goods together and piled them in wagons--food,
clothes, saucepans, jewelry, gold, silver, babies, old women,
mothers,--all were huddled and jumbled together.
The wagons creaked, the oxen lurched down the roads to the south, the
little children cried with hunger and fright, the boys trudged
along rather excited at the adventure yet rather scared at the awful
hullabaloo and the strange feeling of horror of the cruel Kurdish
horsemen and of the crafty Turk.
Dr. Shedd made one last vain effort to persuade the people to hold on
to their city; but it was impossible--they had gone, as it seemed, mad
with fright.
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