20 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

Egyptians so soon as order was re-established and institutions with some reasonable prospect of stability were created. They could not leave Egypt to anarchy, but, on the other hand, they did not, and ought not to withdraw any of the assurances they had given. The task was likely to be more difficult than they had supposed, and to take a longer time than they had anticipated.

This was just before the engagement of the services of General Gordon to go to Khartum, and at that time, as we have seen, the

condition of the beleaguered garrison and the people at Sinkat was desperate, and General Baker Pasha was preparing to go to its relief, with what result we already know.

Notwithstanding General Gordon's alleged previous reluctance to undertake the mission that was now offered him, he exhibited

his usual amazing energy, promptitude, and fearlessness directly he had consented to go to Khartum. On the 7th of January he had come from Brussels to England on a short farewell visit to

his sister, for he had accepted a high commission from the King of the Belgians to go to the head of the Congo to endeavour

to suppress slavery there and to organize the government of the territory. He had only been at Southampton a few hours when, in

reply to inquiries put to him by the editor of an evening paper,1 he made the communication which we have read. On the 16th he

returned to Brussels to take his final instructions, and was ready

to start on his journey to the Congo when he received a telegram

from the government, which brought him back to London on the

iSth. A few hours of earnest consultation decided him to under-

take the arduous duty proposed by the ministry, and on being asked when he could start for the Soudan he replied that he should

be ready to go by that night's Indian mail train from Charing Cross. There were only a few minutes in which to take leave of

his friends, and much of his baggage had to be sent after him. At Charing Cross he was met by the Duke of Cambridge, who had known him from boyhood, by Lord Wolseley, his comrade in the

Crimea, Colonel Brocklehurst, and Mr. Robert Gordon, his nephew

and Lord Hartington's secretary. Lord Wolseley carried the

1 The Pall Mall Gazette.