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"You never told me you were leaving us at Khartum," the girl stammered. "I thought " But, though we knew what she thought, she could go no further before an audience. "My business prevents me from staying at the hotel," Anthony explained. "And though I shall see you, never again will you see poor Ahmed Antoun." "I don't understand," Monny said. "I know. But that was what we agreed upon.
The only mode of improving the access to the Sudan, seeing the impoverished state of Egyptian finances, and the mode to do so without an outlay of more than £10,000, is by the Nile." It may seem that an account of the fall of Khartum is out of place in a volume which deals only with formative events. But this is not so.
It should further be noted that Gordon's telegrams showed his belief that the Mahdi's power was overrated, and that his advance in person on Khartum was most unlikely . It is not surprising, then, that Lord Granville telegraphed to Sir E. Baring on February 22 that the public opinion of England "would not tolerate the appointment of Zebehr Pasha ." Already it had been offended by Gordon's proclamation at Khartum that the Government would not interfere with the buying and selling of slaves, though, as Sir Evelyn Baring pointed out, the re-establishment of slavery resulted quite naturally from the policy of evacuation; and he now strongly urged that Gordon should have "full liberty of action to complete the execution of his general plans ."
Figari Bey states that at low stages the water of the Nile contains little or no sediment, and that the greatest proportion occurs about the end of July, and of course, while the river is still rising. Experiments at Khartum at that season showed solid matter in the proportion of one to a thousand by weight.
Bodies of men were now sent out on all sides to pacify the country, and the sirdar, who had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Kitchener of Khartum, started on an expedition up the Nile in a gunboat, in order to settle the difficult question arising from the occupation of Pashoda by a French corps under Major Marchand. The ability and strategy of this French commander were of a very high order.
A war followed with Abyssinia, and, after the army, led by Egyptian officers, had been beaten twice, Gordon went to Massowah to negotiate with the Abyssinian monarch, Atti Johannes. He next proceeded to Khartum, and vigorously undertook the suppression of the slave-trade. Gordon's death at Khartum, in 1884, is one of the greatest tragedies of modern history.
Will you?" "If you ask me like that yes. I trust you. Though I don't understand." "That's what I want. Say this. 'I believe that we shall be happy; and I trust without understanding, that it will be proved at Khartum." Monny repeated the words after him. And although I was that vile worm, an eavesdropper, I was so happy that I could have picked Biddy up in my arms, and waved her like a flag.
The colours lost their violence and blended delicately into one rose hue, the rose lingered for a little, and, fading in its turn, left a sky of the purest emerald green transfused with light from beneath rim of the world. "If only they had let us go last year westward to the Nile," he said with a sort of passion. "Before Khartum had fallen, before Berber had surrendered. But they would not."
On December 14 Gordon had a last opportunity of sending news from Khartum, and the diary which the messenger took with him closes with these words: "I have done the best for the honour of our country. Good-bye." After the sending-off of the diary impenetrable darkness hides the occurrences of the last weeks in Khartum. One or two circumstances, however, were made known by deserters.
Immediately after the battle, Sir Charles Wilson determined to use the Egyptian flotilla to make an immediate advance. The steamers were protected, and a small relief force started on January 24th. They came in sight of Khartum on the 28th, but were fired upon from every side. At this moment, a native called from the bank that the city had fallen, and that the heroic Gordon had been killed.
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