22 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.
journey, though Sir Samuel Baker had said that the effort would be
too late. It is probable, also, that though he was not less certain of the establishment of a settled government in the Soudan, he did
not entirely agree with the conclusions of the ministry, though
he apparently accepted without demur the terms of his instruc-
tions. He is reported to have said just before his departure from
London : " I go to cut the dog's tail off. I've got my orders, and I'll do it cofitc que cotite." It was with his usual calm and singularly undemonstrative confidence that he said good-bye to the friends who saw him off by the train, which was delayed for a quarter of an hour that there might be a last word or two on the subject of his mission, before he and Colonel Stewart, who had been appointed his military secretary, started on that long last journey to the Soudan.
Nine days afterwards a characteristic telegram was received
from Cairo by the garrison at Khartum signed "Gordon," and saying: "You are men, not women. Be not afraid. I am
coming."
When Gordon resigned his governor-generalship of the Soudan
in 1879, and, after concluding the mission to Abyssinia which he
had undertaken at the request of the new khedive, left Massowa
for England, he had formed, and with some reason, an unfavourable
opinion of Tewfik Pasha. He somewhat resented the deposition
of Ismail, who had always treated him personally with considera-
tion, and had placed the utmost confidence in him. " You say
I do not trust Englishmen," the ex-khedive had said on one occasion. " Do I not trust Gordon Pasha? I trust him thoroughly, for he is an honest man, and not a diplomatist, but an adminis-
trator." Gordon was one of those whom Ismail had deceived by failing to support him, and by allowing the influence of officials
at Cairo to thwart the plans of the governor-general, but there
was no ill feeling. The subject of Ismail's rule was one of those about which Gordon changed his mind. " It is a blessing for
Egypt that he is gone," he said in 1879.1 Yet some of his later expressions intimate that he was afterwards strongly in
favour of a restoration of Ismail to the viceroyalty.
1 Vol. i. p. 211.