456 Seven Years in the Sottdan.

Hicks Pasha near El-Obeid, the other of Baker Pasha in the neifjhbourhood of Suakim, is well known. Then Egypt called on Gordon for help, but only when the Soudan Avas already in full insurrection. Gordon accepted the mission, but without possibility of success, as he hurriedly wrote in his travelling diary, forwarded fifteen days before his death, his last words being : "All is lost, and if help does not arrive witliin fifteen days T am a dead man."

Emin Bey, who knew in what a critical position Gordon now was, might with a contingent of his troops, which numbered more than four thousand men, have saved Gordon, but he thought it more prudent to remain in Lado, whitlier the Mahdists could scarcely go in great numbers because of the difficulty of communication.

It would be useless to make a long story about well-known facts. The long siege of Khartoum b}' the Mahdists, the treachery of the officers of the Egyptian army, and of the latter itself, opened the gates of the cit} to the rebels.

Gordon alone, in the Government palace, furnished Avith a fcAv carabines, fired more than four hundred and fiftA shots against the rebels from the windoAv. There were present the Austrian Consul, Hansal, and a Greek physician. Gordon had exhausted his ammunition, and seeing that further shedding of blood Avould be useless, attired himself in his full general's uniform, and, accompanied by the aboA'enamed gentlemen, descended, smoking a cigarette, to the door of the palace, Avhere, with a calm and resigned aspect, stroking the handle of his revoher and addressing Avords of encouragement to the Greek physician, he awaited events.

The rebels had stopped short at fifty paces from where Gordon and his companions stood. Suddenly, a ball fired from some person among the Mahdists struck Gordon in the forehead, and lie fell dead.