378 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

thing one can say is that, when they refused their consent, they deprived Gordon of his last chance of escaping from the Soudan, without, as he considered, betraying the trust he had undertaken.

Whether at this time Gordon could, or could not, have effected his retreat from Khartoum, must always remain an open question. My impression is that the chances were in favour of his escape, if he had been willing to take to flight. The moot point whether it was, or was not, his duty to remain at Khartoum, is one which depends upon how far Gordon was right in thinking it was due to his own honour not to abandon the post he had accepted. No honest man can blame Gordon, if he decided on remaining faithful to his charge, and, by so doing, to imperil, and, as the event proved, to forfeit his life. I have never quite been able to sympathize with the. unreasoning admiration entertained for Gordon by his fellow-countrymen. But I should be ashamed of England, if the story of the gallant stand made by him in the Soudan, and of his stern resolve to lose his life sooner than desert the people he had taken under his protection, had not roused an outburst of popular passion at home, which no Government could resist. By the end of April, Mr. Gladstone had most reluctantly been forced to admit the necessity of sending a British army to rescue Gordon, and the military preparations were forthwith commenced. Even then, however, the Government seems to have clung tenaciously to the hope that something might turn up so as to avert the