encouraged
to delay their departure by his arrival. He therefore considered that
his honour was involved in their safety. Henceforward he was inflexible.
Neither rewards nor threats could move him. Nothing that men could offer
would induce him to leave Khartoum till its inhabitants were rescued.
The Government on their side were equally stubborn. Nothing, however
sacred, should induce them to send troops to Khartoum, or in any way
involve themselves in the middle of Africa. The town might fall; the
garrison might be slaughtered; their envoy--But what possibilities they
were prepared to face as regards him will not be known until all of this
and the next generation are buried and forgotten.

The deadlock was complete. To some men the Foreign Office might have
suggested lines of retreat, covered by the highest official praise, and
leading to preferment and reward. Others would have welcomed an order to
leave so perilous a post. But the man they had sent was the one man of
all others who was beyond their control, who cared nothing for what they
could give or take away. So events dragged on their wretched course.
Gordon's proposals became more and more impracticable as the best
courses he could devise were successively vetoed by the Government,
and as his irritation and disappointment increased. The editor of his
Journals has enumerated them with indignant care. He had asked for
Zubehr. Zubehr was refused. He had requested Turkish troops. Turkish
troops were refused. He had asked for Mohammedan regiments from India.
The Government regretted their inability to comply. He asked for a
Firman from the Sultan to strengthen his position. It was 'peremptorily
refused.' He proposed to go south in his steamers to Equatoria. The
Government forbade him to proceed beyond Khartoum. He asked that 200
British troops might be sent to Berber. They were refused. He begged
that a few might be sent to Assuan. None were sent. He proposed to
visit the Mahdi himself and try to arrange matters with him personally.
Perhaps he recognised a kindred spirit. The Government in this case very
naturally forbade him.

At last the quarrel is open. He makes no effort to conceal his disgust.
'I leave you,' he says, the 'indelible disgrace of abandoning the
garrisons.' [Major-General Gordon to Sir E. Baring (telegraphic),
received at Cairo April 16.] Such abandonment is, he declares, 'the
climax of meanness.' [Ibid, despatched April 8.] He reiterates his
de