A proclamation had been issued
sanctioning slavery in the Sudan. Gordon, arguing that he was
powerless to do away with the odious institution, which, as soon
as the withdrawal was carried out, would inevitably become
universal, had decided to reap what benefit he could from the
public abandonment of an unpopular policy. At Khartoum the
announcement was received with enthusiasm, but it caused
considerable perturbation in England. The Christian hero, who had
spent so many years of his life in suppressing slavery, was now
suddenly found to be using his high powers to set it up again.
The Anti-Slavery Society made a menacing movement, but the
Government showed a bold front, and the popular belief in
Gordon's infallibility carried the day.
He himself was still radiant. Nor, amid the jubilation and the
devotion which surrounded him, did he forget higher things. In
all this turmoil, he told his sister, he was 'supported'. He gave
injunctions that his Egyptian troops should have regular morning
and evening prayers; 'they worship one God,' he said, 'Jehovah.'
And he ordered an Arabic text, 'God rules the hearts of all men',
to be put up over the chair of state in his audience chamber. As
the days went by, he began to feel at home again in the huge
palace which he knew so well. The glare and the heat of that
southern atmosphere, the movement of the crowded city, the dark-
faced populace, the soldiers and the suppliants, the reawakened
consciousness of power, the glamour and the mystery of the whole
strange scene--these things seized upon him, engulfed him, and
worked a new transformation on his intoxicated heart.
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