The London "Times" and the Spurious Parnell Letters.
A cartoon produced in an earlier chapter, entitled "Waiting," showed General Gordon gazing anxiously across the desert at the mirage which was conjured up by his fevered brain, taking the clouds of the horizon to be the guns of the approaching British army of relief. Early in 1885 the relief expedition started under the command of General Henry Stewart, and on February 7 there was published in Punch the famous cartoon "At Last," showing the meeting between Gordon and the relieving general. This was a famous Punch slip. That meeting never occurred. For on February 5, two days before the appearance of the issue containing the cartoon, Khartoum had been taken by the Mahdi. The following week Tenniel followed up "At Last" with the cartoon "Too Late," which showed the Mahdi and his fanatic following pouring into Khartoum, while stricken Britannia covers her eyes.
Tenniel's Famous Cartoon at the Time of Bismarck's Retirement.
The Times challenge to Charles Stewart Parnell was, of course, recorded in the caricature of Punch. The "Thunderer," it will be remembered, published letters, which it believed to be genuine, involving Parnell in the murders of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke in Phœnix Park, Dublin, in 1882. When these letters were proved to have been forged by Pigot, Punch published a cartoon showing the Times doing penance. Both of these cartoons were by Tenniel. "The Challenge" appeared in the issue of April 30, 1887, and "Penance" almost two years later, March 9, 1889.
L'enfant Terrible.
The Baccarat Scandal at Tranby Croft in 1891.