BODYGUARDS THAT HAVE NOT GUARDED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 127, 26 June 1909, Page 3

BODYGUARDS THAT HAVE NOT GUARDED.

When Yildiz Kiosk surrendered to the Young Turks the oilier day, the Sultan's Albanian bodyguard got off much more lightly than has usually been the cas'e aforetime in regard to the private mercenaries of other despots Under similar circumstances. There were altogether five thousand of them, and of these fewer than five hundred died fighting, while at least four thousand of them surrendered at discretion. SIAUOTITEKED FIVE THOUSAND. Compare this with the fate of King Louis the Sixteenth's Swiss Guards at Versailles during the First French Revolution. There were five thousand of these, also, but none surrendered when the bloodthirsty- ninb of armed revolutionists burst into the palace, nor were anv spared. When the day's fighting ended at evening, there were live Ihouj sand dead bodies-where that number or living men hail been when morning broke. When Mahmoud, the Afghan invader, made himself master of Ispahan, the Shah's guard of :j(KM men deserted th"ir master ami went over to the conqueror, lie .took them into his pay, but a day or two afterwards he altered his mind and had them all put to ileath. j An even more revolting massacre was that perpetrated by a former Sultan of Turkey, also strangely enough named Mahmoud, upon his bodyguard of Janizaries. He owed his throne to them, but he feared them nevertheless, and resolved to suppress them. , BANNEK IW.FT.mUSD BY THE - _ SULTAN. A' mutiny was accordingly excited amongst them, and then, in accordance with a prearranged plan, the Sultan himself unfurled the sacred green banner of Islam, and led his regular soldiers -.gainst them. At least twenty thousand were mown down with grapeshot. Another still more dreadful occurrence of the kind was' brought about through the massacre by the people of Nishapur of the nrivate bodyguard of Oengis ■! Khan. • The Tnrtar invader, in revenge, ( carried fire, and sword throughout the, district, killing no fewer than 1,747,00 ft J human beings.