be provided by the non-payment of the next coupon due.

It is impossible to resist the conclusion that if General Gordon had
had his way, the Arabi revolt would have been averted; the Khedive
Ismail, the ablest member of his house, would not have been deposed;
and an English occupation of Egypt, hampered by financial and
diplomatic shackles that neutralise the value of its temporary
possession, need never have been undertaken. But _dis aliter visum_.
It is equally impossible to resist the conclusion that the forces
arrayed against Gordon on this occasion were such as he could not
expect to conquer.

The concluding scenes of the affair need only be briefly described. M.
de Lesseps had never swerved from his original purpose to refer the
matter to Paris, but even Gordon was not prepared for the duplicity he
showed in the matter, and in which he was no doubt encouraged by the
prevalent feeling among the foreigners at Cairo. The first point in
all tortuous diplomacy, Eastern or Western, is to gain time; and when
General Gordon, intent on business, called on Lesseps the next
day--that is to say, two days after his arrival from Khartoum--the
French engineer met him with the smiling observation that he was off
for a day in the country, and that he had just sent a telegram to
Paris. He handed Gordon a copy, which was to this effect: "His
Highness the Khedive has begged me to join with M. Gordon and _the
Commissioners of the Debt_ in making an inquiry into the finances of
Egypt; I ask permission." Gordon's astonished ejaculation "This will
never do" was met with the light-hearted Frenchman's remark, "I must
go, and it must go."

Then General Gordon hastened with the news and the draft of the
telegram to the Khedive. The copy was sent in to Ismail Pasha in his
private apartments. On mastering its contents, he rushed out, threw
himself on a sofa, and exclaimed, "I am quite upset by this telegram
of Lesseps; some one must go after him and tell him not to send it."
Then turning to Gordon, he said, "I put the whole affair into your
hands." Gordon, anxious to help the Khedive, and also hoping to find
an ally out of Egypt, telegraphed at great length to Mr Goschen, in
accordance with the Khedive's suggestion. Unfortunately, Mr Goschen
replied with equal brevity and authority, "I will not look at you; the
matter is in the hands of Her Majesty's Government." When we remember
that Gordon was the properly-appointed representative of an