42 WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOHDAN news might yet come to her, for a British expedition had started for the relief of General Gordon, who had gone up early in the year to Khartoum, where it was hoped that the influence he had gained among the natives at the time he was in command of the Egyptian forces in the Soudan would enable him to make head against the insurrection. His arrival had been hailed by* the population, but it was soon evident to him that unless aided by England with something more than words Khartoum must finally fall. But his requests for aid were slighted. He had asked that two regiments should be sent from Suakim to keep open the route to Berber, but Mr. Gladstone’s government refused even this slight assistance to the man they had sent out, and it was not until May that public indignation at this base desertion of one of the noblest spirits that Britain ever produced caused preparations for his rescue to be made, and it was December before the leading regiment arrived at Korti, far up the Kile.

After fighting two hard battles, a force that had marched across the loop of the Kile came down upon it above Metemmeh. A party started up the river at once in two steamers which Gordon had sent down to meet them, but only arrived near the town to hear that they were too late, that Khartoum had fallen, and that Gordon had been murdered. The army was at once hurried back to the coast, leaving it to the Mahdists—more triumphant than ever—to occupy Dongola, and to push down, and possibly, as they were confident they should do, to capture Egypt itself. The news of the failure was a terrible blow to Mrs. Hilliard. She had hoped that when Khartoum was relieved some information at least might be obtained from prisoners as to the fate of the British officers at El Obeid. That most of them had been killed was certain, but she still clung to the hope that her husband might have escaped from the general massacre, thanks to his knowledge of the language and the disguise he had with him; and even that if captured later on he might be a prisoner; or that he