hat new nation
will not forget, foremost among the heroes of his race, to write the
name of Mohammed Ahmed.

CHAPTER II: THE FATE OF THE ENVOY

All great movements, every vigorous impulse that a community may feel,
become perverted and distorted as time passes, and the atmosphere of
the earth seems fatal to the noble aspirations of its peoples. A wide
humanitarian sympathy in a nation easily degenerates into hysteria.
A military spirit tends towards brutality. Liberty leads to licence,
restraint to tyranny. The pride of race is distended to blustering
arrogance. The fear of God produces bigotry and superstition. There
appears no exception to the mournful rule, and the best efforts of men,
however glorious their early results, have dismal endings, like plants
which shoot and bud and put forth beautiful flowers, and then grow rank
and coarse and are withered by the winter. It is only when we reflect
that the decay gives birth to fresh life, and that new enthusiasms
spring up to take the places of those that die, as the acorn is
nourished by the dead leaves of the oak, the hope strengthens that the
rise and fall of men and their movements are only the changing foliage
of the ever-growing tree of life, while underneath a greater evolution
goes on continually.

The movement which Mohammed Ahmed created did not escape the common fate
of human enterprise; nor was it long before the warm generous blood of
a patriotic and religious revolt congealed into the dark clot of a
military empire. With the expulsion or destruction of the foreign
officials, soldiers, and traders, the racial element began to subside.
The reason for its existence was removed. With the increasing disorders
the social agitation dwindled; for communism pre-supposes wealth, and
the wealth of the Soudan was greatly diminished. There remained only the
fanatical fury which the belief in the divine mission of the Mahdi had
excited; and as the necessity for a leader passed away, the belief in
his sanctity grew weaker. But meanwhile a new force was making itself
felt on the character of the revolt. The triumph no less than the
plunder which had rewarded the Mahdi's victories had called into
existence a military spirit distinct from the warlike passions of the
tribesmen--the spirit of the professional soldier.

The siege of Khartoum was carried on while this new influence was taking
the place of the original forces of revolt. There was a period when a
n