Among the European colonists the presence of Marchand at Fachoda produced a ferment compared to which the deep but publicly restrained excitement of the Egyptians was indifference. With the single exception of the Greeks, their sympathies were wholly anti-English, so much so indeed that it might be said that among them the chief gauge of a man's patriotism was the measure of his professed hatred to England and everything English. But, as with the Egyptians, the individuals of each race were, perhaps as often as not, moved rather by self-interest and the Pickwickian desire to shout with the crowd that is a characteristic of the Latin races, than by any real hostility, and thus, though apparently solidly united in their enmity to England, they, like the Egyptians, were in reality divided into two camps, the one prepared to welcome almost any change and the other quite content with the occupation.
It was not, therefore, until Marchand had actually abandoned Fachoda that the public regained its normal tranquillity. In the interval he had passed through Cairo on his way to Paris, but though, as was but just, he had a cordial reception, there was no demonstration of public feeling. It was then an almost foregone conclusion that the French Government would withdraw whatever claim it could have made, yet even when Marchand had returned to the Soudan to put the final stamp of failure on his brilliant success by hauling down the flag it had cost such heroism to hoist, even then there were in Egypt some who were still hopeful that, in spite of all, the wheel of fate might yet take another turn. Fortunately the decision that the French should withdraw by pushing on to the Red Sea avoided all risk of further incident, and so with the news of the departure of the expedition from Fachoda the last hope of the anti-English party left it and the public, Egyptian and European, quietly and silently accepted the event as the seal of British supremacy in Egypt.
Thus once more the irony of fate made sport of the strenuous efforts of England's foes, and rendered their hostility contributory to her strength. All that it could do to hamper and hinder the reconquest of the Soudan had been done by the anti-English party with no greater result than to strengthen, if not altogether to establish, England's claim to an absolute share in the possession of the country. So Marchand struggled onward on his magnificent march and succeeded in his daring ambition to plant the tricolour on the banks of the Nile only, in the end, to give English influence and authority in Egypt the unchallenged supremacy England had not sought and that it had been his chief aim to render for ever unattainable by her.