He had spent a lifetime in the dubious services of foreign
governments,
punctuated by futile drudgeries at home; and now, after a long
idleness,
he had been sent for--to do what?--to look after the Congo for
the King
of the Belgians. At his age, even if he survived the work and the
climate,
he could hardly look forward to any subsequent appointment; he
would
return from the Congo, old and worn out, to a red-brick villa and
extinction. Such were General Gordon's prospects on January 7th,
1884. By January 18th, his name was on every tongue, he was the
favourite of the nation, he had been declared to be the one
living man
capable of coping with the perils of the hour; he had been
chosen, with unanimous approval, to perform a great task; and he
had left England on a mission which was to bring him not only a
boundless popularity, but an immortal fame. The circumstances
which led to a change so sudden and so remarkable are less easily
explained than might have been wished. An ambiguity hangs over
them-- an ambiguity which the discretion of eminent persons has
certainly not diminished. But some of the facts are clear enough.
The decision to withdraw from the Sudan had no sooner been taken
than it had become evident that the operation would be a
difficult and hazardous one, and that it would be necessary to
send to Khartoum an emissary armed with special powers and
possessed of special ability, to carry it out.
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