I sincerely say that though I prefer to be here than anywhere else, I would sooner be dead than live this life.
-General Gordon, Letter Home from Sudan, Written 7 years before he got his wish at the point of a Mahdist spear on the steps of the Governor’s Palace, Khartoum on January 26, 1885
KhairAllah would have been shocked by Gordon’s death wish. We Belong to Allah, And to Him We are Returning, says the Quran, but even a Trail Boss would not hazard to guess his final ETA, much less his ETA in Egypt off the Darb al-’Arba’īn.