the principal survivor after Zebehr's
invasion of Darfour, already described, to be the true Sultan of that
State; and secondly, Suleiman, the son of Zebehr, and the nominal
leader of the slave-dealers. While the former was in open revolt, the
latter's covert hostility was the more to be dreaded, although
Suleiman might naturally hesitate to throw off the mask lest his
revolt might be the signal for his father's execution at Cairo--Zebehr
having been detained there after his too confiding visit a few years
before. It was therefore both prudent and necessary to ignore Suleiman
until Haroun had been brought into subjection, or in some other way
compelled to desist from acts of hostility.

General Gordon's plan was simple in the extreme. Leaving the Nile with
500 men, he determined to collect _en route_ the efficient part of the
scattered garrisons, sending those who were not efficient to the river
for transport to Khartoum, and with this force to relieve the garrison
at Fascher, the most distant of the large towns or stations in
Darfour. It will be understood that these garrisons numbered several
thousand men each, while Gordon's relieving body was only a few
hundreds; but their _morale_ had sunk so low that they dared not take
the field against an enemy whom their own terror, and not the reality,
painted as formidable. Even before he began his advance, Gordon had
taken a fair measure of the revolt, which he expressed himself
confident of suppressing without firing a shot. At Dara, the place
which in the Mahdist war was well defended by Slatin Pasha, he
released 1800 troops; but he was kept in inactivity for some weeks
owing to the necessity of organising his force and of ascertaining how
far Suleiman, with his robber confederacy of 10,000 fighting men at
Shaka--only 150 miles south-east of Dara--might be counted on to
remain quiet. During this period of suspense he was compelled to take
the field against a formidable tribe called by the name of the
Leopard, which threatened his rear. It is unnecessary to enter upon
the details of this expedition, which was completely successful,
notwithstanding the cowardice of his troops, and which ended with the
abject submission of the offending clan.

Having assembled a force of a kind of 3,500 men, he resolved to make a
forced march to Fascher, and then with the same promptitude to descend
on Shaka, and settle the pending dispute with Suleiman. These plans he
kept locked in his ow