Abd-el-Kader resolved to attack them. Suddenly
descending upon them he swept through their encampments, slew numbers,
and carried off a great booty. A French battalion stationed among them
vainly strove to arrest his progress. An Arab chief, one of his old
followers, boldly singled him out, rode up, and fired at him
point-blank. The ball missed, and Abd-el-Kader shot the traitor dead
with his pistol.
The Sultan knew that all was lost unless he could obtain external aid.
The smala was now reduced to his own deira, a bare thousand souls,
wandering about in miserable fashion. After another desperate engagement
with Lamoriciere during which the Arab women cheered on the warriors,
and Abd-el-Kader and his men fighting in the presence of their wives and
children performed new prodigies of valor, he succeeded in safely
establishing the noncombatants on the territory of Morocco.
Bugeaud, now become a marshal, wrote to his Government declaring that
all serious warfare was finished. In the summer of 1844, the violation
of Abderrahman's territory by French troops under Lamoriciere and Bedeau
led to some warfare, in which the Moroccan troops were twice defeated.
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