A whole
flock of telegrams flew to Cairo from every stopping-place. Sir
Evelyn Baring was patient and discrete; he could be trusted with
such confidences; but unfortunately Gordon's strange exhilaration
found other outlets. At Berber, in the course of a speech to the
assembled chiefs, he revealed the intention of the Egyptian
Government to withdraw from the Sudan. The news was everywhere in
a moment, and the results were disastrous. The tribesmen, whom
fear and interest had still kept loyal, perceived that they need
look no more for help or punishment from Egypt, and began to turn
their eyes towards the rising sun.
Nevertheless, for the moment, the prospect wore a favourable
appearance. The Governor-General was welcomed at every stage of
his journey, and on February 18th he made a triumphal entry into
Khartoum. The feeble garrison, the panic-stricken inhabitants,
hailed him as a deliverer. Surely they need fear no more, now
that the great English Pasha had come among them. His first acts
seemed to show that a new and happy era had begun. Taxes were
remitted, the bonds of the usurers were destroyed, the victims of
Egyptian injustice were set free from the prisons; the immemorial
instruments of torture the stocks and the whips and the branding-
irons were broken to pieces in the public square. A bolder
measure had been already taken.
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