120 THE WAR IN THE SOUDAN.

CHAPTER XXX.

WHAT NOW ?

The protagonist dead, little interest attaches to the fate of the deuteragonist : General Gordon no more, the public cares not much what is left to his would-be rescuers to do. At first indeed was raised a great hue and cry.

The Mahdi, every one cried out, must be “ smashed,” and Gordon avenged ; and for a time all read eagerly of what was being done in Egypt and the Sou¬ dan. We need not here, however, linger over the details of this phase of the war. Suffice it to say that new problems sprang up, and the news of what England was doing in Egypt varied from day to day.

The fighting around Suakim and against Osman’s hordes now became more fierce, one battle in particular, when, because of the omission to advance with scouts, the enemy dashed unawares upon the troops and many of our soldiers’ lives were sacrificed, creating a large amount of notice not unmixed with severe criticism. The Suakim-Berber railway, too, was vigorously pushed forward, and as late as the middle of April large sums were voted for the railway lines to be built along the banks of the Nile.

Soon, however, Russia’s advance towards Herat absorbed all attention, and the Soudan problem was for the time left unsolved.

In this state it now exists ; and it must be left to a future edition to complete the story of The War in the Soudan and the Causes which Led to it.