GORDON'S LAST HOUR.

Western Star, Issue 1339, 23 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

GORDON'S LAST HOUR.

f STOUT OF AN EYE WITNESS. The f Daily • Telegraph publishes a communication from Suakin, which gives an interview with a Greek who was present at General Gordon's death. He says : —I went up the stairs, being sent by the men below, who were vociferating " Gordon Pasha!" Gordon coolly left the balcony. "Fly," said the other two, " while there is yet time. Go in at the little door and take the boat." " Shall I fly and leave my post?' Gordon replied indignantly. ' That would, indeed, be a disgrace. I shall not fly." He then went into his inner room and donned his full uniform and sword. Then came he l forth, and grandly drew himself up to his full height; on his visage was a look of scorn. "Whom seek ye?" he asked, gazing on the sea of fierce, angry faces of the dervishes he saw below, and hearing the clamour of the angry voices. " Gordon Pasha," they cried aloud. ," You want him, do you ? " he replied; "lam he; come up hither." Again Georgio Demetrio and tbe Greek Consul urged him to fly, but he spurned their advice, crying, " Shame! Would you have me abandon my post ignominiously? He could have escaped at the rear. I have said before that the dervishes were ordered not to kill Gordon, but to stay in the court-yard—in fact, they had been ordered to kill no one in the seraglio. There were 500 of them. Then came up some of the Mahdi's Generals—one Nasr, brother of A.bou Girgeh, another nephew of Abd el Rahman el Nedjoi Jumi. The dervishes allowed them to pass, seeing they were men in authority. They ascended the stairs and asked for the Pasha. Gordon met them saying, "I am Gordon Pasha." He then handed them his sword, in military fashion, intimating that he knew they had taken I'the place, and that consequently he surrended according to the usage of war. But Nasr snatched hold of his sword at the same time, and in a brutal and most cowardly manner he struck Gordon an unexpected blow. The Pasha would, of course, have fought desperately to the last had he not thought be would have been treated in an honourable manner. He fell and rolled down the stairs, and as he rolled another General speared him in the left side—it was a grievous wound. Thus died Gordon. I was there a spectator to the ghastly deed. Some say Gordon l^ was cut up in little pieces, but others relate that tbey embalmed his body and took it to the Mahdi. There were bodies cut up; but I am inclined to believe these were the bodies of the Consnl and doctor, not Gordon's