His eccentricities grew upon him. He found it more and more
uncomfortable
to follow the ordinary course. Official routine was an agony to
him. His
caustic and satirical humour expressed itself in a style that
astounded
government departments. While he jibed at his superiors, his
subordinates
learned to dread the explosions of his wrath. There were moments
when his
passion became utterly ungovernable; and the gentle soldier of
God, who
had spent the day in quoting texts for the edification of his
sister, would
slap the face of his Arab aide-de-camp in a sudden access of
fury, or set
upon his Alsatian servant and kick him until he screamed.
At the end of three years, Gordon resigned his post in Equatoria,
and prepared to return home. But again Providence intervened: the
Khedive offered him, as an inducement to remain in the Egyptian
service, a position of still higher consequence-- the Governor-
Generalship of the whole Sudan; and Gordon once more took up his
task. Another three years were passed in grappling with vast
revolting provinces, with the ineradicable iniquities of the
slave-trade, and with all the complications of weakness and
corruption incident to an oriental administration extending over
almost boundless tracts of savage territory which had never been
effectively subdued.
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