their own policy. The
representative they had sent on an exceptional errand to relieve and
bring back a certain number of distressed troops, and to arrange if he
could for the formation of a new government through the notabilities
and ancient families, reports at an early stage of his mission that in
his opinion there is no solution of the difficulty, save by resorting
to offensive measures against the Mahdi as the disturber of the peace,
not merely for that moment, but as long as he had to discharge the
divine task implied by his title. As it was of course obvious that
Gordon single-handed could not take the field, the conclusion
necessarily followed that he would require troops, and the whole
character of his task would thus have been changed. In face of that
absolute _volte-face_, from a policy of evacuation and retreat to one
of retention and advance, for that is what it signified, the
Government would have been justified in recalling Gordon, but as they
did not do so, they cannot plead ignorance of his changed opinion, or
deny that, at the very moment he became acquainted with the real state
of things at Khartoum, he hastened to convey to them his decided
conviction that the only way out of the difficulty was to "smash up
the Mahdi."

All his early messages show that there had been a change, or at least
a marked modification, in his opinions. At Khartoum he saw more
clearly than in Cairo or in London the extreme gravity of the
situation, and the consequences to the tranquillity of Lower Egypt
that would follow from the abandonment of Khartoum to the Mahdi. He
therefore telegraphed on the day of his arrival these words: "To
withdraw without being able to place a successor in my seat would be
the signal for general anarchy throughout the country, which, though
all Egyptian element were withdrawn, would be a misfortune, and
inhuman." In the same message he repeated his demand for the services
of Zebehr, through whom, as has been shown, he thought he might be
able to cope with the Mahdi. Yet their very refusal to comply with
that reiterated request should have made the authorities more willing
and eager to meet the other applications and suggestion of a man who
had thrust himself into a most perilous situation at their bidding,
and for the sake of the reputation of his country. It must be recorded
with feelings of shame that it had no such effect, and that apathy and
indifference to the fate of its gallant agent were