[Footnote 379:  Gordon’s Journals, pp. 347-351; also Parl.  Papers, Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 85 and 127-131 for another account.  See, too, Sir F.R.  Wingate’s Mahdism, chaps. i.-iii., for the rise of the Mahdi and his triumph over Hicks.]

This catastrophe decided the history of the Sudan for many years.  The British Government was in no respect responsible for the appointment of General Hicks to the Kordofan command.  Lord Dufferin and Sir E. Malet had strongly urged the Khedive to abandon Kordofan and Darfur; but it would seem that the desire of the governing class at Cairo to have a hand in the Sudan administration overbore these wise remonstrances, and hence the disaster near El Obeid with its long train of evil consequences[380].  It was speedily followed by another reverse at Tokar not far from Suakim, where the slave-raiders and tribesmen of the Red Sea coast exterminated another force under the command of Captain Moncrieff.

[Footnote 380:  J. Morley, Life of Gladstone, vol. iii. p. 146; Sir A. Lyall, Life of Lord Dufferin, vol. ii. chap. ii.]

The Gladstone Ministry and the British advisers of the Khedive, among whom was Sir Evelyn Baring (the present Lord Cromer), again urged the entire evacuation of the Sudan, and the limitation of Egyptian authority to the strong position of the First Cataract at Assuan.  This policy then received the entire approval of the man who was to be alike the hero and the martyr of that enterprise[381].  But how were the Egyptian garrisons to be withdrawn?  It was a point of honour not to let them be slaughtered or enslaved by the cruel fanatics of the Mahdi.  Yet under the lead of Egyptian officers they would almost certainly suffer one of these fates.  A way of escape was suggested—­by a London evening newspaper in the first instance.  The name of Gordon was renowned for justice and hardihood all through the Sudan.  Let this knight-errant be sent—­so said this Mentor of the Press—­and his strange power over men would accomplish the impossible.  The proposal carried conviction everywhere, and Lord Granville, who generally followed any strong lead, sent for the General.

[Footnote 381:  Morley, Life of Gladstone, vol. iii. p. 147.]

Charles George Gordon, born at Woolwich in 1833, was the scion of a staunch race of Scottish fighters.  His great-grandfather served under Cope at Prestonpans; his grandfather fought in Boscawen’s expedition at Louisburg and under Wolfe at Quebec.  His father attained the rank of Lieutenant-General.  From his mother, too, he derived qualities of self-reliance and endurance of no mean order.  Despite the fact that she had eleven children, and that three of her sons were out at the Crimea, she is said never to have quailed during that dark time.  Of these sons, Charles George was serving in the Engineers; he showed at his first contact with war an aptitude and resource which won the admiration of all.  “We used