double-dealing and excuses for delay, it became evident that the sympathy of the army and the people was with those who perpetrated the massacre, and not with their unhappy victims. It then became necessary for England to take the matter into her own hands.
That Arabi Pacha was in any way responsible for the massacre is not pretended, for he was at the time in Cairo. But that he felt a keen regret for it, or that he took any decided measures to punish its perpetrators, I find no evidence. I fear that he was in this like his race — a true Arab in duplicity. He has shown many points of his character since that evening when I sat opposite to him at Cairo, and he touched his breast and forehead, and gave me the kiss of peace. He has been lifted up to a higher position, as the head not only of the army, but of the state. Perhaps I can judge him better now, can see him in his true proportions, and form a clearer idea of the real greatness or littleness of the man. I would judge him justly, with full recognition of all in him that is worthy of respect. I do not by any means regard him as a light and trifling character, to be dismissed with a sneer. He is a man of courage and capacity. No man could place himself at the head of a great national movement, as he has done, who did not possess both. Nor is he merely puffed up with conceit and vanity, with no serious purpose. There is in him an element of religious fanaticism, which makes him in dead earnest in anything he undertakes. Whatever education he has was obtained at the University of El Azhar in Cairo, which is the very centre and focus of Moslem fanaticism. One who was a fellow-student with him there, tells me that he was very religious and devout. Such a man is not a contemptible enemy. As to his patriotism, I neither dispute it nor doubt it, although I am very incredulous of
