[Illustration: _R. Caton Woodville._] [_By permission of Fishburn & Jenkin, Doré Gallery, New Bond Street, publishers of the large Engraving._
THE GORDON MEMORIAL SERVICE: THE SUPREME MOMENT OF LORD KITCHENER'S CAREER AS SIRDAR, September 4, 1898.
The battle of Omdurman and the capture of Khartoum were followed by a ceremony surely as touching as any in history. To the roar of a salute from the gunboat on the Nile, the British and Egyptian flags were run up side by side, and cheers for the Queen were led off by the Sirdar himself. Then, amidst a silence broken only by the guns, "four chaplains," says Mr. G. W. Steevens--"Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist--came slowly forward and ranged themselves, with their backs to the palace, just before the Sirdar. The Presbyterian read the Fifteenth Psalm. The Anglican led the rustling whisper of the Lord's Prayer. Snow-haired Father Brindle, best beloved of priests, laid his helmet at his feet, and read a memorial prayer bareheaded in the sun. Then came forward the pipers and wailed a dirge, and the Sudanese played 'Abide with me.' Perhaps lips did twitch just a little to see the ebony heathens fervently blowing out Gordon's favourite hymn; but the most irresistible incongruity would hardly have made us laugh at this moment. And there were those who said the cold Sirdar himself could hardly speak or see, as General Hunter and the rest stepped out according to their rank and shook his hand. What wonder? He has trodden this road to Khartoum for fourteen years, and he stood at the goal at last."]
[Sidenote: DEC. 1899.] _Lord Kitchener as a General._]
His experience was wide and various. It was not only in the conduct of war, but also in civil administration that he had made for himself a name. Though he never courted popularity and had no influence of any kind, his sheer ability carried him forward. That unerring judge of men who trained Sir Alfred Milner, Lord Cromer, selected Kitchener as Sirdar in 1892. The new Egyptian commander made of the army under his charge a miracle of efficiency at an insignificant cost. Quietly, methodically, he organised and prepared for the reconquest which, he knew, must come in time, when the conscience of the British nation awoke. He made no mistakes; he took the utmost pains to find out what the enemy was doing, conscious that victory in war largely depends upon perfect information. The Egyptian Intelligence Department was as efficient as the Egyptian Army. And when at last the long-desired hour struck and the British and Egyptian troops marched southward into the desert "to avenge Gordon," everything was ready, everything went like clockwork. Firket, the Atbara, and Omdurman followed in regular and mechanical succession. The man "who had made himself a machine" did his work surpassingly well. All that the nation heard about its new general delighted it. The very gossip which was meant to discredit him only increased his reputation. His dislike for triflers and idlers, his aversion from all kinds of favouritism, his determination to insist upon strict discipline, competence, and knowledge in those whom he employed, might estrange from him the darlings of fortune, but were a recommendation to the people of England. He was outwardly cold and stern, like many deep natures, but no general is unpopular with his troops if he always succeeds. With Lord Kitchener the men felt instinctively that every thing would be foreseen, all precautions taken, and nothing overlooked. They knew that everyone would do his duty, or if not that the Sirdar would want to know the reason why.