IOO EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

spent fifteen years in the prison for a crime committed when she was a girl.

At nio-ht the town was brilliantly illuminated, the bazaar was hung with gay cloth and lighted with coloured lamps, the priests houses were decorated, and there was a grand display of fireworks by the negro population. Afesh Bey Shilook, a negro who had won the Lemon of Honour under Bazaine in Mexico, was made a commandant of troops remaining in Khartum. It was then decided that all the white troops should go to Omdurman, on the other side of the White Nile, and should be sent down the river in detachments, with their families and the Europeans who desired to go; and that the Soudanese should stay in Khartum.

It was thought that the conciliatory measures adopted by Gordon would keep the road perfectly open and maintain quiet in Khartum till everything could be settled and the place given up to the Soudanese under a regular government. The proclamations were hailed with delight as the only means of saving the garrison.

Egyptians and Europeans (the latter principally Greeks) professed to have the greatest confidence in him and his measures, as they foresaw that useless loss of life would thereby be prevented, and it was believed that the recognition of the Mahdi as ruler of Kordofan would prevent him from advancing on Khartum.

Colonel Wylde, who had been to the Abyssinian frontier, reported that the country there was quiet, and the people of the territory round the frontier near Kassala were still loyal to the khedive; but the loyal tribes had been neither protected nor strengthened, Kassala itself was besieged from the north by the followers of Osman Digma, and the camel-drivers conveying goods from Suakim, Berber, and Kassala to Massowa were asking for protection, as the Massowa tribes would otherwise be compelled to join the Mahdi, — Egyptian influence was at an end, the Egyptian soldiers being regarded with contempt. The attitude of Abyssinia led to the endeavour of Admiral Hewett to conclude some negotiations with Johannes and Ras-el-Ullah, but, as we have seen, without any definite result. There continued to be great anxiety as to the possible fate of Kassala; for, as the capital