ter now who is to blame for the want of
wisdom in not recognising in time that Gordon was the man for the
occasion. That blunder, whosever fault it was, not only lost the Soudan
to Egypt, but caused the death of many of our brave soldiers, to say
nothing of Gordon himself. The Egyptian Government blundered on a
little longer, till it was too late, and then the request that Gordon
might be sent was telegraphed home.

Nubar Pasha, who was the first to invite Gordon to Egypt many years
before, was now the first to see that he ought to be sent for. This
astute minister had only just come into office, and within eight days
he got Sir Evelyn Baring to telegraph to England for Gordon. There can
be little question now that the fatal delay of a single month sealed
the fate of the Soudan. Hicks Pasha's force was annihilated in November
1883, but it was not till January 11, 1884, that General Gordon
received a telegram from his old friend and comrade, Lord Wolseley,
urging him to come to town at once for consultation, and though he did
not lose a single day he did not reach Cairo till January 24th. By that
time he ought to have been at Khartoum.

Before proceeding further, it may be well to say that so little was
General Gordon known at this time by his countrymen, that a country
gentleman, who was a magistrate and a deputy-lieutenant in
Pembrokeshire, a county in which Gordon had formerly been stationed,
remarked, on seeing the fact mentioned in the paper that "Chinese
Gordon" was going out. "I see the Government have just sent a Chinaman
to the Soudan. What can they mean by sending a native of that country
to such a place?" This story, which is mentioned by Sir William Butler,
is quite characteristic of the ignorance that prevailed about the
Khartoum hero, previous to his being selected as the one man who could
save Egypt from its troubles, and our Government from an awkward
position.

In a letter to his brother, dated 17th January, Gordon says, "I saw
King Leopold to-day; he is furious." It must have been a great trial to
that kind-hearted monarch to have all his philanthropic plans thus
upset, and he made Gordon promise that he would, if spared, go to the
Congo when the Soudan was settled. So hard up for money was Gordon at
this time that he had to borrow from the king enough to pay for his
journey to London. Fortunately it occurred to Lord Wolseley to ask
Gordon, a few hours before he was to start by the evening mail, if h