156 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

arrived from Dongola that Ismail Sadyk, who had been drinking hard from the time he set foot on board the vessel carrying him into exile, had died suddenly from a stroke of apoplexy, and had been buried at Dongola. The affair caused great excitement in Cairo ; and in order to dispel the rumours current in the bazaars, two European doctors were despatched to Dongola to hold a post-mortem examination. The doctors, whose good faith there was no ground to suspect, reported that they had examined a corpse, represented to be that of the Mufettish, which had been buried at Dongola, and that the deceased had died a natural death. The identity, however, of the corpse with that of the late Minister of Finance was not established as clearly as could have been desired. Nor did the allegation, that he had been engaged in any treasonable conspiracy against the Khedivial dynasty, meet with much credence. It was known to his colleagues that ever since the commencement of the Goschen-Joubert inquiry into the finances of Egypt, the unfortunate Minister had been greatly alarmed by a conviction that the true causes of Egyptian indebtedness must infallibly be brought to light; that he had urged his Highness to have the whole facts of the financial position laid before the envoys ; and that he was open to the suspicion of contemplating full disclosures on his own account, in the event of the Khedive's refusing to * follow his advice. In the opinion of an Oriental ruler, and especially a ruler