The brief account has delighted thousands of readers in Europe and
America.
Perhaps it is because he is careless of the sympathy of men
that Charles Gordon so readily wins it. Before the first of the six parts
into which the Journals were divided is finished, the reader has been won.
Henceforth he sees the world through Gordon's eyes. With him he scoffs
at the diplomatists; despises the Government; becomes impatient -
unreasonably, perhaps - with a certain Major Kitchener in the Intelligence
Branch, whose information miscarried or was not despatched; is wearied by
the impracticable Shaiggia Irregulars; takes interest in the turkey-cock
and his harem of four wives; laughs at the 'black sluts' seeing their
faces for the first time in the mirror. With him he trembles for the fate
of the 'poor little beast,' the Husseinyeh, when she drifts stern foremost
on the shoal, 'a penny steamer under cannon fire'; day after day he gazes
through the General's powerful telescope from the palace roof down the
long brown reaches of the river towards the rocks of the Shabluka Gorge,
and longs for some sign of the relieving steamers; and when the end of
the account is reached, no man of British birth can read the last words,
'Now mark this, if the Expeditionary Force - and I ask for no more than
two hundred men - does not come within ten days, the town may fall;
and I have done my best for the honour of our country. Good-bye,' without
being thrilled with vain regrets and futile resolutions. And then the
account stops short. Nor will the silence ever be broken. The sixth
instalment of the Journals was despatched on the 14th of December;
and when it is finished the reader, separated suddenly from the pleasant
companionship, experiences a feeling of loss and annoyance. Imagination,
long supported, is brushed aside by stern reality. Henceforward Gordon's
perils were unrecorded.
I would select one episode only from the Journals as an example of the
peculiarity and the sternness of Charles Gordon's character - his
behaviour towards Slatin. This Austrian officer had been Governor of
Darfur with the rank in the Egyptian service of Bey. For four years he
had struggled vainly against the rebellion. He had fought numerous
engagements with varied success. He had been several times wounded.
Throughout his province and even beyond its limits he bore the reputation
of a brave and capable soldier. The story of his life of suffering and
adventure, written by himself, is widely known, and he is thought by
those who have read it to be a man of feeling and of honour. By those
who enjoy his personal acquaintance this belief is unhesitatingly
confirmed. He had, however, committed an act which deprived him of
Gordon's sympathy and respect. During the fighting in Darfur, after
several defeats, his Mohammedan soldiers were discouraged and attributed
their evil fortune to the fact that their commander was an infidel under
the curse of the Almighty. Slatin therefore proclaimed himself a follower
of the Prophet, and outwardly at least adopted the faith of Islam.
The troops, delighted at his conversion and cheered by the hope of
success, renewed their efforts, and the resistance of the Governor of
Darfur was prolonged. The end, however, was deferred, not averted.
After the destruction of General Hicks's army Slatin was compelled to
surrender to the Dervishes. The religion he had assumed to secure victory
he observed to escape death. The Arab leaders, who admired his courage,
treated him at first with respect and kindness, and he was conducted to
the Mahdi in his encampment before Khartoum. There during the siege he
remained, closely watched but not imprisoned. Thence he wrote letters
to Gordon explaining his surrender, excusing his apostacy, and begging
that he might be allowed - not even assisted - to escape to Khartoum.
The letters are extant, and scarcely anyone who reads them, reflecting
on the twelve years of danger and degradation that lay before this man,
will refuse their compassion.
Gordon was inflexible. Before the arrival of the letters his allusions
to Slatin are contemptuous: 'One cannot help being amused at the Mahdi
carrying all the Europeans about with him - nuns, priests, Greeks,
Austrian officers - what a medley, a regular Etat-Major!' [JOURNALS AT
KHARTOUM.] He is suspicious of the circumstances of his surrender.
'The Greek. . . says Slatin had 4,000 ardebs of dura, 1,500 cows, and
plenty of ammunition: he has been given eight horses by the Mahdi.'
He will not vouch for such a man; but he adds, with characteristic
justice, 'all this information must be taken with reserve.'
At length the letters came. At the peril of his life, when ordered to
write and demand the surrender of the town, Slatin substituted an appeal
to Gordon to countenance his escape. This is the uncompromising minute
in the Journals: 'Oct. 16. The letters of Slatin have arrived. I have
no remarks to make on them, and cannot make out why he wrote them.'
In the afternoon, indeed, he betrays some pity; but it is the pity of
a man for a mouse. 'He is evidently not a Spartan. . . he will want some
quarantine . . . one feels sorry for him.' The next day he is again
inexorable, and gives his reasons clearly. 'I shall have nothing to do
with Slatin's coming here to stay, unless he has the Mahdi's positive
leave, which he is not likely to get; his doing so would be the breaking
of his parole which should be as sacred when given to the Mahdi as to any
other power, and it would jeopardise the safety of all these Europeans,
prisoners with Mahdi.'
Slatin's position, it should be observed, was not that of an officer
released on parole, but of a prisoner of war in durance in the enemy's
camp. In such circumstances he was clearly entitled to escape at his own
proper risk. If his captors gave him the chance, they had only themselves
to blame.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 19 of 126
Words from 18239 to 19248
of 127807
