Khartum in the
effort to unravel the web of fate then closing in on the gallant Gordon.
The news of his doom reached England on February 5, 1885. Then it was
that Russia unmasked her designs. They included the appropriation of the
town and district of Panjdeh, which she herself had previously
acknowledged to be in Afghan territory. In vain did Lord Granville
protest; in vain did he put forward proposals which conceded very much
to the Czar, but less than his Ministers determined to have. All that he
could obtain was a promise that the Russians would not advance further
during the negotiations.

On March 13, Mr. Gladstone officially announced that an agreement to
this effect had been arrived at with Russia. The Foreign Minister at St.
Petersburg, M. de Giers, on March 16 assured our ambassador, Sir Edward
Thornton, that that statement was correct. On March 26, however, the
light troops of General Komaroff advanced beyond the line of demarcation
previously agreed on, and on the following day pushed past the Afghan
force holding positions in front of Panjdeh. The Afghans refused to be
drawn into a fight, but held their ground; thereupon, on March 29,
Komaroff sent them an ultimatum ordering them to withdraw beyond
Panjdeh. A British staff-officer requested him to reconsider and recall
this demand, but he himself was waived aside. Finally, on March 30,
Komaroff attacked the Afghan position, and drove out the defenders with
the loss of 900 men. The survivors fell back on Herat, General Lumsden
and his escort retired in the same direction, and Russia took possession
of the coveted prize[341].

[Footnote 341: See Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1885), for General
Lumsden's refutation of Komaroff's misstatements; also for the general
accounts, _ibid_. No. 5 (1885), pp. 1-7.]

The news of this outrage reached England on April 7, and sent a thrill
of indignation through the breasts of the most peaceful. Twenty days
later Mr. Gladstone proposed to Parliament to vote the sum of
L11,000,000 for war preparations. Of this sum all but L4,500,000 (needed
for the Sudan) was devoted to military and naval preparations against
Russia; and we have the authority of Mr. John Morley for saying that
this vote was supported by Liberals "with much more than a mechanical
loyalty[342]." Russia had achieved the impossible; she had united
Liberals of all shades of thought against her, and the joke about
"Mervousness" was heard no more.

[Foot