Captured

Recent events in Spanish Morocco were far from reassuring for the Spaniards. For long, the Spanish have had the support of Raisuli,* so-called '"famed Moroccan bandit," but a fortnight ago. . . .

Raisuli, bloated like a balloon, suffering agony from dropsy in the legs, Jay amid rich carpets and cushions on the floor of his palace stronghold in the mountains near Tazreut. Heavy fighting had been going on outside, but. now all was quiet. Suddenly, there was the trampling of many feet and into the room swept some Moorish officers of Sultan Muhammad, otherwise

Abd-el-Krim, Moorish rebel against the Spaniards and Moroccan Sultan Mulay Yussef. These officers commanded Raisuli to surrender, informed him that his life would be spared if he did Abd-el-Krim's bidding. Raisuli surrendered, ordered his 16-year-old son and his nephew, Mulai, to proceed to Sheshuan and surrender themselves to the brother of the great Moorish rebel of the Riff country. He signed a letter addressed to Abd-el-Krim himself, stating that, if illness had not prevented him, he would have presented himself in person. Only a short time before, he had written rudely to the same person in answer to a demand for surrender, telling the Riff leader in Arabic vernacular to go and eat coke; but circumstances alter cases, and Raisuli went so far to the other extreme as to offer his youngest daughter in marriage to Abd who, apparently, accepted the offer. But Raisuli, Lord of the Mountains, as he was called, was not to get off so easily. Abd ordered him and his family transferred to the Riff country, the rough mountainous district in the interior of the Spanish Moroccan zone. Allegedly, he is to stand trial by court martial for high treason. The verdict is already known, as is the sentence: Raisuli is not to be executed, for he is a descendant of the Prophet and must not be killed; he is to be condemned to reside for the remainder of his life within the four walls of Abd-el-Krim's palace at Ait Hamara.

It was easier to order Raisuli's removal than to accomplish it, however. No mule and no prancing Arab steed could be found strong enough to support his grotesque corpulence and a special litter had to be constructed to bear his great weight. A strange cavalcade left Tazreut. First, marched 20 fierce Riffian guards, armed hip and thigh. Second, came a huge, ill-fashioned sedan chair, supported at each corner by a pole and carried by 16 husky men. Inside the sedan box was Raisuli, reclining on soft carpets and magnificent cushions. Over his paunchy, shapeless face he wore a turban; under if, his little black eyes rolled and blazed alternately in pain and fury. His black-dyed beard was partially hidden in the soft, white woolen garments which swathed his bloated body. Third, came four of Raisuli's favorite wives, perched on Spanish mules and attended by three armed and terrifying Negro eunuchs.

At one point of the journey, an intrepid journalist forced an interview.

"Why do you come to me?" blazed

Raisuli. "I have said I did not wish to

see any one. I want nothing but to die."

"I want to know if you have a message for the outside world."

"The outside world can forget Raisuli," he roared. "Raisuli wishes to forget the outside world. I have asked to die and I want to die. Raisuli will never be a prisoner where Raisuli reigned as lord. Let them kill me at once. They have taken my horse and my saddle. Let them take my body, too. The prophet awaits me in Heaven."

"Spain abandoned you, is that not

so?"

"Spain. Do not say that word to me," he exploded. "The Lord of the Mountains served Spain once. The Lord of the Mountains is a prisoner. Who are these strangers who come to taunt Raisuli? Let me tear out my beard and die."

Thus was Mulay Hamed, a Ben Solomen Ben Raisuli, a man who had defied emperors, kings and republics, reduced to impotence; and the consequences of his fall may be fatal to Spanish rule.

-- Raisuli's name was first internationally known when he kidnapped Perdicaris, U.S. citizen, and his stepson, a British subject, from their summer house in Tangier, held them for ransom--an event which inspired U. S. Secretary of State John Hay's famed telegram: "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead." Perdicaris and his stepson were eventually freed, but not until Raisiuli's ransom and terms had been met.