368 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

Moreover, at this period, even if Nubar had had a free hand, the circumstances of the time precluded the possibility of carrying out any constructive programme. Strange as it may seem to us nowadays, there existed at this period a very general apprehension throughout the native population that the Mahdi's forces were about to invade Egypt, and march upon the Delta, British policy was utterly unintelligible to the native mind. Our insistence on the evacuation of the Soudan seemed to the native Egyptians to be dictated by fear of the Mahdi, while they were by no means certain whether the British army had the power to resist the advance of his victorious legions. The Mahdi's successes had been great in fact, and their magnitude had been exaggerated by the rumours of the bazaars. In spite, too, of the terror which the idea of a Soudanese raid inspired in Egypt, the Mahdi commanded an amount of popular sympathy, which had never been enlisted on behalf of Arabi.

After all, he was fighting the battle of Islam against the infidel. He had agents in every part of Lower Egypt, who were in constant communication with his messengers. It was discovered that between Cairo and Suakin there was a regular telegraphic service carried on by native traders in these cities, who, under the guise of business orders, conveyed news of the political situation and of the military preparations to Suakin, and who caused these telegrams, on their arrival at the Red Sea port, to be sent on by camel to the headquarters of the