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toum"; that he will receive no Turkish or other troops for
military expeditions, and "that if with this knowledge he continues
at Khartoum, he should state to us the cause and intention with
which he so continues."*

This heartless telegram was amplified in a despatch of the
1st of May (Blue-Book, No. 20, 1884), the concluding paragraph of
which was: "with respect to his request for Turkish troops with a
view to offensive operations (this to a closely beseiged man!) General
Gordon cannot too clearly understand that these operations cannot
receive the sanction of Her Majesty's Government, and that they
are beyond the scope of his mission." When his Lordship declared
that he believed that in Khartoum "the market was well supplied,"
it is not easy to determine whether he thought himself civilly
sneering or insolently jocose.

Meanwhile, before this cold-blooded repulsiveness could reach
Khartoum, the sad conviction that a man might "smile and smile"
and have no noble humanity in him, had been forced upon Gordon.

Before quoting his words it is right to mention that efforts
were made in April to arouse the Ministry to their duty to
England and to their own pledges.

On the 21st April Gladstone, suo more, denied that Gordon was in
danger : there were peculiar events near Khartoum – "the general
effect being . . . that Gordon is hemmed in–that is to say, that
there are bodies of hostile troops in the neighbourhood, forming
more or less of a chain around it. I draw a distinction between
that and a town being surrounded. . . . It may be the opinion of
hon. gentlemen opposite that General Gordon is in imminent
danger. In our view that is an entirely erroneous opinion." this
was in the Commons.

In the other House Lord Carnarvon was told by Lord Granville
on the 22nd April, in a speech which bristled with equivocation :
"I have no fear as to the personal safety of General Gordon in
Khartoum now." Of course not ; the noble Lord had no fear as to
the safety of anyone but himself ; and Gordon had no fear for
himself ; but if any other man than Gordon had been in Khartoum
it was probable that the streets of Khartoum would have been
reeking with the blood of the garrison before Lord Granville
declared that he was without fear for Gordon.†

* Sir E. Baring duly forwarded the request in one of the few messages which reached
Gordon, who, on 31st July, wrote and succeeded in sending messages by way of
Massowah, where they arrived on the 25th September. He devoted a postscript to the
noble Lord's request. "'You ask me to state cause and intention in staying at Khar-
toum, knowing Government intends to abandon Soudan,' and in answer I say I stay at
Khartoum because Arabs have shut us up and will not let us out."

† Lord Carnarvon was indignant at the answers he received but contempt was
mingled with his indignation when he spoke to a friend in the House about the refusal