n at once
decided to go to Cairo. He writes:--

"I am a wreck, like the portion of the _Victory_ towed into
Gibraltar after Trafalgar; but God has enabled me, or rather has
used me, to do what I wished to do--that is, break down the
slave-trade.... To-day I had a telegram from Darfour, saying,
'Haroun [another great slave-dealer, second only in importance to
Zebehr] had been killed and his forces dispersed.' God has truly
been good to me. 'Those that honour Me I will honour.' May I be
ground to dust, if He will glorify Himself in me; but give me a
_humble heart_, for then He dwells there in comfort."

"The new Khedive is most civil," he writes from Cairo, "but I no longer
distress myself with such things. God is the sole ruler, and I try to
walk sincerely before Him." In spite of his treatment by the deposed
Khedive, he always had a real affection for him, and he says: "It pains
me what sufferings my poor Khedive Ismail has had to go through;" but
later on he writes: "Do not fret about Ismail Pasha; he is a
philosopher, and has plenty of money. He played high stakes and lost.
He is the cleverest man in Europe. I am one of those he fooled, but I
bear him no grudge. It is a blessing for Egypt that he has gone."

Colonel Gordon had quite determined not to remain under the new
Khedive, so he terminated, as he then thought for ever, his connection
with the Soudan, little thinking how inseparably his name was yet to be
associated with that country. It may give us some idea of the energy of
the man when it is mentioned that during the last three years he had
ridden 8500 miles on camels or mules. Such violent exertion in a hot
country was greatly to the detriment of his health. In one of his
letters he says:--

"From not having worn a bandage across the chest, I have shaken my
heart or my lungs out of their places; and I have the same feeling
in my chest as you have when you have a crick in the neck. In
camel-riding you ought to wear a sash round the waist, and another
close up under the armpits; otherwise, all the internal machinery
gets disturbed."

Before finally quitting the service of the Khedive, Gordon felt that he
would like to put affairs between Egypt and Abyssinia on a more
satisfactory footing, though it was through no fault of his that they
were in such a bad condition. In spite, therefore, of his state of
health, he left Cairo on August 30, 1879, on