t his death and
his enemies triumphed--and Galileo and Hampden and Cromwell and John
Howard were all too soon. Who's to be judge of that? God Almighty puts
it into some men's minds to work for a thing that's a great, and maybe
an impossible, thing, so far as the success of the moment is concerned.
Well, for a thing that has got to be done some time, the seed has to
be sown, and it's always sown by men like Claridge Pasha, who has shown
millions of people--barbarians and half-civilised alike--what a true
lover of the world can do. God knows, I think he might have stayed and
found a cause in England, but he elected to go to the ravaging Soudan,
and he is England there, the best of it. And I know Claridge Pasha--from
his youth up I have seen him, and I stand here to bear witness of what
the working men of England will say to-morrow. Right well the noble
lord yonder knows that what I say is true. He has known it for years.
Claridge Pasha would never have been in his present position, if the
noble lord had not listened to the enemies of Claridge Pasha and of this
country, in preference to those who know and hold the truth as I tell
it here to-day. I don't know whether the noble lord has repented or not;
but I do say that his Government will rue it, if his answer is not the
one word 'Intervention!' Mistaken, rash or not, dreamer if you like,
Claridge Pasha should be relieved now, and his policy discussed
afterwards. I don't envy the man who holds a contrary opinion; he'll be
ashamed of it some day. But"--he pointed towards Eglington--"but there
sits the minister in whose hands his fate has been. Let us hope that
this speech of mine needn't have been made, and that I've done injustice
to his patriotism and to the policy he will announce."

"A set-back, a sharp set-back," said Lord Windlehurst, in the Peers'
Gallery, as the cheers of the Opposition and of a good number of
ministerialists sounded through the Chamber. There were those on
the Treasury Bench who saw danger ahead. There was an attempt at a
conference, but Kimber's seconder only said a half-dozen words, and sat
down, and Eglington had to rise before any definite confidences could
be exchanged. One word only he heard behind him as he got up. It was the
word, "Temporise," and it came from the Prime Minister.

Eglington was in no mood for temporising. Attack only nerved him. He was
a good and ruthless fighter; and last night's intoxication of success
was still in his b