"You can do anything with the point of a bayonet except rest upon it."Van Loon

It has been said that it was at this moment I offered a generalship in the Egyptian Army to Nagiyb. Some rumorists have put it that I tried to make a bargain for my life: others that it was a despairing attempt to save my throat. 

History, when it sorts out the documents. will know that neither was true. If the United States had already saved my life, whatever Nagiyb's instructions were. And the fact was that Nagiyb had been officially a general for three days. 

This amused me, and seemed not unreasonable since he had already assumed virtual command of the Army. I agreed to it. The other eight "requests" were all concerning salaries and promotions for the chief conspirators, and removal of some of my Palace officials. Some were good, some were hurtful. But none was worth civic riot and bloodshed. I agreed to them all, that might have been good enough the simple Army insurgents. They had gotten all they wanted. But it was not good enough for the fanatics of the Muslim Brotherhood. They wanted blood. The result was that the Army found itself marching against Ra’s al- Tiyn Palace, and still, in Nagiyb's own published words, "The troops themselves did not know that the orders they were taking and executing were being given by the Dobbat al-‘Ahrar ( the Free Insurgent Officers)."

Immediately after I had left Egypt, Nagiyb announced that he would not accept the rank I had offered him. Yet he had already asked for it before a shot was fired, and the four-page letter in his own handwriting, can be produced if it is ever necessary. 

We had a few hours to gather our possessions together I must admit that I have smiled wryly at the fantastic talk of what we are supposed to have taken with us. There were, of course, about 50 of us who went on the boat, including certain ADCs who accompanied me as far as Naples! There were, I think, about 150 boxes, trunks, suitcases and parcels, which sounds stupendous until you realize it comes to an average of three each.  And some of these were wrapped in brown paper and string. 

Believe me, we would have taken more if we could. It was not from modesty that we departed into exile with less than a month's supply of clothing. The unhappy fact was that nearly all our personal property was in Cairo, except for what we had taken with us to the Summer palace at Muntazah. 

By a trusted servant I sent word to my ex-wife Fariydah that the children had decided of their own free will to go with me. She acknowledged the message but did not come to say good-bye to her daughters. 

Early in the afternoon the Prime Minister telephoned that he would arrive at 5 p.m. with Mr. Caffery for final good-byes and that General Nagiyb himself wanted to say good-bye to me. 

Isee that Nagiyb has since, without any statement of mine being published, taken the trouble to deny that he asked to come and say goodbye to me, but has tried to make it appear that I insisted as one of the two terms upon which I signed my abdication, that he should see me off. 

But when a man sits down in his chair and realizes he is a dictator, strange things must happen in his brain, that the comparatively ordinary men can never fully understand. As a king I was answerable to Parliament for most of what I did. But a dictator takes his strength and shapes his conscience around the point of a bayonet. As Van Loon wrote: "You can do anything with the point of a bayonet except rest upon it." 

Poor `Aliy Mahir, who is not a young man, and who served my father before me, was again upon the brink of weeping. 

"Sir," he told me, "I promise you that I will swallow every insult and indignity for so long as my soul can endure, if by so doing I can remain in any position to help the Monarchy." I thanked him for this, and I knew that he meant it sincerely. I take it that the reason he is no longer in authority in Egypt is that he could swallow no more! 
 

(Story continues next month)