But this gleam of brightness was destined to be followed by darker disaster far than that which seemed averted for the moment.  A mightier rebellion was arising in the Soudan, a vast tract of country annexed by the ambition of Ismail, the former Khedive of Egypt, to be ill governed by his officials and ravaged by the slave-trade.  These evils were checked for a few years by the strong hand of Charles George Gordon, already famous through his achievements in China, and invested with unlimited power by Ismail; but, that potentate being overthrown, the great Englishman left his thankless post, no longer tenable by him.  Then it seemed that chaos had come again; and a bold and keen, though probably hypocritical, dervish, self-styled the Mahdi, or Mohammedan Messiah, was able to kindle new flames of revolt, which burned with the quenchless fury of Oriental fanaticism.  His Arab and negro soldiers made short work of the poor Egyptian fellaheen sent to fight them, though these were under the command of Englishmen.  The army led by Hicks Pasha utterly vanished in the deserts, as that of Cambyses did of old.  The army under Baker Pasha did not, indeed, disappear in the same mysterious manner, but it too was routed with great slaughter.

The English Government, willing to avoid the vast task of crushing the revolt, had counselled the abandonment of the Soudan, and the Khedive’s Ministers reluctantly acquiesced.  But there were Egyptian garrisons scattered throughout the Soudan which must not be abandoned with the country.  Above all, there was Khartoum, an important town at the junction of the Blue and the White Nile, with a large European settlement and an Egyptian garrison, all in pressing danger, loyal as yet, but full of just apprehension.  These troops, these officials, these women and children, who only occupied their perilous position through the action of the Khedive’s Government, had a right to protection—­a right acknowledged by Her Majesty’s Ministers; but they wished to avoid hostilities.  General Graham, left in command on the Red Sea littoral, was allowed to take action against the Mahdi’s lieutenant who was threatening Suakim, and who was driven back with heavy loss; but he might not follow up the victory.

[Illustration:  General Gordon.]

The English Government hoped to withdraw the garrisons in safety, without force of arms.  They had been for some time urging on the Khedive that the marvellous influence which Gordon was known to have acquired in his old province should now be utilised, and that to him should be entrusted the herculean task of tranquillising the Soudan, by reinstating its ancient dynasties of tribal chiefs and withdrawing all Egyptian and European troops and officials.  Their plan was at last accepted; then Gordon, hitherto unacquainted, like the public at large, with the Government designs, was informed of them and invited to carry them out.  He consented; and, with the chivalric promptitude