ntry does not require my services." The
generosity of that sovereign in the matter of the compensation for his
Commission did not render that condition void, and however irritating
the King may have found the circumstances, Gordon broke neither the
spirit nor the letter of his engagement with his Majesty by obeying
the orders of his own Government.

Late the same evening I was present at his brother's house to receive
an account for publication of his plans on the Congo, but surrounded
by so large a number of his relatives summoned to see their hero, many
of them for the last time, it was neither convenient nor possible to
carry out this task, which was accordingly postponed till the
following morning, when I was to see him at the Charing Cross Hotel,
and accompany him by the early boat train to Dover. On that night his
last will was signed and witnessed by his uncle, Mr George Enderby,
and myself. The next morning I was at the hotel before seven, but
instead of travelling by this early train, he postponed his departure
till ten o'clock, and the greater part of those three hours were given
to an explanation, map in hand, of his plans on the Congo. The
article, based on his information, appeared in _The Times_ of 17th
January 1884, but several times during our conversation he exclaimed,
"There may be a respite," but he refused to be more definite. Thus he
set out for Brussels, whether he was accompanied by his friend
Captain (now Colonel) F. Brocklehurst, who was undoubtedly acting as
the representative of the authorities. I believe I may say with
confidence that if he did not actually see the King of the Belgians on
the evening of the same day, some communication passed indirectly,
which showed the object of his errand, for although his own letter
communicating the event is dated 17th, from Brussels, it is a fact
within my own knowledge that late in the evening of the 16th a
telegram was received--"Gordon goes to the Soudan."

The first intimation of something having happened that his brother Sir
Henry Gordon received, was in a hurried letter, dated 17th January,
which arrived by the early post on Friday, 18th, asking him to "get
his uniform ready and some patent leather boots," but adding, "I saw
King Leopold to-day; he is furious." Even then Sir Henry, although he
guessed his destination, did not know that his departure would be so
sudden, for Gordon crossed the same night, and was kept at
Knightsbridge Barracks in