THE EVACUATION OF THE SOUDAN. 339 , banquet, Lord Derby, speaking on behalf of her Majesty's Ministers, stated their belief that, by the following New Year's day, there would not be a single British soldier left in Cairo. Shortly after the Convention had been concluded, rumours reached the Cairo bazaars of some terrible disaster having befallen the Khedive's forces in the Soudan. Finally the news arrived that Hicks and his army had been massacred, and that Khartoum and all the Egyptian garrisons in the Soudan lay at the mercy of the Mahdi.

The news fell like a bombshell, not only on the Khedivial Court, but on the Egyptian public. Appeals were made to the British Government to send troops to the Soudan, in order to retrieve the defeat of the Egyptian army, and to uphold the authority of the Khedive at Khartoum. These appeals met with no response, and were followed by a distinct intimation that Egypt must relinquish all idea of retaining the Soudan, and must withdraw her garrisons as soon as possible. This intimation, which was formally conveyed by our Consul-General to the Egyptian Ministry, created absolute consternation. Public opinion, in our sense of the word, can hardly be said to exist in Egypt. The nearest approach to such a thing I have ever noted was the almost unanimous outcry on the part of the Egyptians in favour of the Soudan campaign being carried on to the bitter end.

It so happened that I called to see Ismail Pasha, Avho was then on a flying visit to London, very