THE DEPOSITION OF ISMAIL PASHA. 221 this hope and this delusion with a conviction impervious to the evidence of facts. He had no intellectual pursuits ; he was not a keen sportsman ; he took no interestin foreign countries or their politics, except in as far as they affected, or might affect, the fortunes of Egypt in connection with his own.

Gambling for lower stakes than a throne was not a habit for which he entertained the passion of so many Orientals. Even sensual pleasures attracted him, mainly as a means of passing the time, rather than as pursuits delectable in themselves. His one real life interest during his exile lay in the possibilities of his return to Egypt. The schemes evolved in that subtle brain were of the most fantastic character. At one time he looked to Italy, to France, to Germany, and even to England, to bring about, if not his reinstatement in power, his return to Egypt. At another period he counted on the Sultan, on Arabi, or the Mahdi, to assist him in the attainment of his ambition. This almost insane craving was known to everybody who came near him, and the knowledge was used unscrupulously by many of his hangers-on. His purse was always open to any suggestion that, by the expenditure of money, he could command services which might tell in favour of his restoration. The more circuitous, the more underhand, the more connected with intrigue these services might be, the more they appealed to his Oriental imagination. A cynical Frenchman, who had been formerly on intimate relations with Ismail in the days of his power, once