ABSTRACT
W h a t e v e r may have been, in the past, the wear and tear of the siege, the anxiety of the watchful nights, the sickening sense of desertion without, and the possibility of treachery within, Gordon had had the comforting presence, stimulating counsel, and sincere friendship of Stewart and Power to bring sunshine into his life. When the Abbas disappeared beyond the horizon he was left without a friend, alone among an almost unbroken mass of ebony faces, cinnamon brows, and Arabs. There were a few struggling Europeans, it is true, but they were sons of climes which had no affinity with England and they had become merged into the local population. He had willingly made this sacrifice as the price of his final appeal to Britain.
