r when his position was secure, and
aid, as he thought, was close at hand:--

"The news of Hicks's defeat was known in Cairo three weeks after
the event occurred; since that date up to this (29th October
1884) nine people have come up as reinforcements--myself,
Stewart, Herbin, Hussein, Tongi, Ruckdi, and three servants, and
not one penny of money. Of those who came up two, Stewart and
Herbin, have gone down, Hussein is dead; so six alone remain,
while we must have sent down over 1500 and 700 soldiers, total
2200, including the two Pashas, Coetlogon, etc. The regulars, who
were in arrears of pay for three months when I came, are now only
owed half a month, while the Bashi-Bazouks are owed only a
quarter month, and we have some L500 in the Treasury. It is quite
a miracle. We have lost two battles, suffering severe losses in
these actions of men and arms, and may have said to have
scrambled through, for I cannot say we can lay claim to any great
success during the whole time. I believe we have more ammunition
(Remington) and more soldiers now than when I came up. We have
L40,000 in Treasury _in paper_ and L500. When I came up there was
L5000 in Treasury. We have L15,000 out in the town in paper
money."

At the point (14th December) when the authentic history of the
protracted siege and gallant defence of Khartoum stops, a pause may be
made to turn back and describe what the Government and country which
sent General Gordon on his most perilous mission, and made use of his
extraordinary devotion to the call of duty to extricate themselves
from a responsibility they had not the courage to face, had been doing
not merely to support their envoy, but to vindicate their own honour.
The several messages which General Gordon had succeeded in getting
through had shown how necessary some reinforcement and support were at
the very commencement of the siege. The lapse of time, rendered the
more expressive by the long period of silence that fell over what was
taking place in the besieged town, showed, beyond need of
demonstration, the gravity of the case and the desperate nature of the
situation. But a very little of the knowledge at the command of the
Government from a number of competent sources would have enabled it to
foresee what was certain to happen, and to have provided some remedy
for the peril long before the following despairing