termination to abide with the garrison of Khartoum. 'I will not leave
these people after all they have gone through.' [Major-General Gordon
to Sir E. Baring, Khartoum, July 30; received at Cairo October 15.] He
tosses his commission contemptuously from him: 'I would also ask her
Majesty's Government to accept the resignation of my commission.'
[Major-General Gordon to Sir E. Baring (telegraphic), Khartoum, March
9.] The Government 'trust that he will not resign,' [Earl Granville
to Sir E. Baring, Foreign Office, March 13.] and his offer remains
in abeyance. Finally, in bitterness and vexation, thinking himself
abandoned and disavowed, he appeals to Sir Evelyn Baring personally:
'I feel sure, whatever you may feel diplomatically, I have your
support--and that of every man professing himself a gentleman--in
private'; [Major-General Gordon to Sir E. Baring (telegraphic), received
at Cairo April 16.] and as a last hope he begs Sir Samuel Baker to
appeal to 'British and American millionaires' to subscribe two hundred
thousand pounds to enable him to carry out the evacuation without, and
even in spite of, the Governments of Cairo and London; and Sir Samuel
Baker writes a long letter to the Times in passionate protest and
entreaty.

Such are the chief features in the wretched business. Even the
Blue-books in their dry recital arouse in the reader painful and
indignant emotions. But meanwhile other and still more stirring events
were passing outside the world of paper and ink.

The arrival of Gordon at Khartoum had seriously perplexed and alarmed
Mohammed Ahmed and his Khalifas. Their following was discouraged, and
they themselves feared lest the General should be the herald of armies.
His Berber proclamation reassured them, and as the weeks passed without
reinforcements arriving, the Mahdi and Abdullah, with that courage
which in several great emergencies drew them to the boldest courses,
determined to put a brave face on the matter and blockade Khartoum
itself. They were assisted in this enterprise by a revival of the
patriotic impulse throughout the country and a consequent stimulus to
the revolt. To discover the cause it is necessary to look to the Eastern
Soudan, where the next tragedy, after the defeat of Hicks, is laid.

The Hadendoa tribe, infuriated by oppression and misgovernment, had
joined the rebellion under the leadership of the celebrated, and perhaps
immortal, Osman Digna. The Egyptian garrisons of Tokar and S