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diff --git a/24756.txt b/24756.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe733be --- /dev/null +++ b/24756.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3011 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of General Gordon, by Jeanie Lang + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of General Gordon + +Author: Jeanie Lang + +Release Date: March 5, 2008 [EBook #24756] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF GENERAL GORDON *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: He would lead the troops onwards with the little cane he +nearly always carried.] + + + + + + +THE CHILDREN'S HEROES SERIES + + + +THE STORY OF + +GENERAL GORDON + + +BY + +JEANIE LANG + + + + +LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, LTD., + +35 and 36 Paternoster Row, E.C. + +AND EDINBURGH + +1906 + + + + +TO + +ARCHIE AND BERTIE DICKSON + + +AND ALL BOYS WHO ARE GOING + +TO SERVE THEIR KING + +ON LAND OR SEA + + + + +PREFACE + + +DEAR ARCHIE AND BERTIE, + +When boys read the old fairy tales, and the stories of King Arthur's +Round Table, and the Knights of the Faerie Queen, they sometimes wonder +sadly why the knights that they see are not like those of the olden +days. + +Knights now are often stout old gentlemen who never rode horses or had +lances in their hands, but who made much money in the City, and who +have no more furious monsters near them than their own motor-cars. + +Only a very few knights are like what your own grandfather was. + +"I wish I had lived long ago," say some of the boys. "Then I might +have killed dragons, and fought for my Queen, and sought for the Holy +Grail. Nobody does those things now. Though I can be a soldier and +fight for the King, that is a quite different thing." + +But if the boys think this, it is because they do not quite understand. + +Even now there live knights as pure as Sir Galahad, as brave and true +as St. George. They may not be what the world calls "knights"; yet +they are fighting against all that is not good, and true, and honest, +and clean, just as bravely as the knights fought in days of old. + +And it is of one of those heroes, who sought all his life to find what +was holy, who fought all his life against evil, and who died serving +his God, his country, and his Queen, that I want to tell you now. + +Your friend, + +JEANIE LANG. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Chapter + + I. "Charlie Gordon" + II. Gordon's First Battles + III. "Chinese Gordon" + IV. "The Kernel" + V. Gordon and the Slavers + VI. Khartoum + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +He would lead the troops onwards with the little cane + he nearly always carried . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +The Corporal was butted downstairs + +The shell struck the ground five yards in front of him + +With his own hands he dragged him from the ranks + +Gordon appeared with soap, towels, a brush, a sponge, + and a fresh suit of clothes + +In the Soudan buying two children for a basketful of dhoora + +There rode into their camp Gordon Pasha + +Looking for the help that never came + + + + +THE STORY OF + +GENERAL GORDON + + +CHAPTER I + +"CHARLIE GORDON" + +Sixty years ago, at Woolwich, the town on the Thames where the gunners +of our army are trained, there lived a mischievous, curly-haired, +blue-eyed boy, whose name was Charlie Gordon. + +The Gordons were a Scotch family, and Charlie came of a race of +soldiers. His great-grandfather had fought for King George, and was +taken prisoner at the battle of Prestonpans, when many other Gordons +were fighting for Prince Charlie. His grandfather had served bravely +in different regiments and in many lands. His father was yet another +gallant soldier, who thought that there was no life so good as the +soldier's life, and nothing so fine as to serve in the British army. +Of him it is said that he was "kind-hearted, generous, cheerful, full +of humour, always just, living by the code of honour," and "greatly +beloved." His wife belonged to a family of great merchant adventurers +and explorers, the Enderbys, whose ships had done many daring things on +far seas. + +Charlie Gordon's mother was one of the people who never lose their +tempers, who always make the best of everything, and who are always +thinking of how to help others and never of themselves. + +So little Charlie came of brave and good people, and when he was a very +little boy he must have heard much of his soldier uncles and cousins +and his soldier brother, and must even have seen the swinging kilts and +heard the pipes of the gallant regiment that is known as the Gordon +Highlanders. + +Charles George Gordon was born at Woolwich on the 28th January 1833, +but while he was still a little child his father, General Gordon, went +to hold a command in Corfu, an island off the coast of Turkey, at the +mouth of the Adriatic Sea. The Duke of Cambridge long afterwards spoke +of the bright little boy who used to be in the room next his in that +house in Corfu, but we know little of Charles Gordon until he was ten +years old. His father was then given an important post at Woolwich, +and he and his family returned to England. + +Then began merry days for little Charlie. + +In long after years he wrote to one of his nieces about the great +building at Woolwich where firearms for the British army are made and +stored: "You never, any of you, made a proper use of the Arsenal +workmen, as we did. They used to neglect their work for our orders, +and turned out some splendid squirts--articles that would wet you +through in a minute. As for the cross-bows they made, they were grand +with screws." + +There were five boys and six girls in the Gordon family. Charlie was +the fourth son, and two of his elder brothers were soldiers while he +was still quite a little lad. + +It was in his holidays that the Arsenal was his playground, for on the +return from Corfu he was sent to school at Taunton, where you may still +see his initials, "C.G.G.", carved deep on the desk he used. + +At school he did not seem to be specially clever. He was not fond of +lessons, but he drew very well, and made first-rate maps. He was +always brimful of high spirits and mischief, and ready for any sort of +sport, and the people of Woolwich must have sighed when Charlie came +home for his holidays. + +One time when he came he found that his father's house was overrun with +mice. This was too good a chance to miss. He and one of his brothers +caught all the mice they could, carried them to the house of the +commandant of the garrison, which was opposite to theirs, gently opened +the door, and let the mice loose in their new home. + +Once, with the screw-firing cross-bows that the workmen at the Arsenal +had made for them, the wild Gordon boys broke twenty-seven panes of +glass in one of the large warehouses of the Arsenal. A captain who was +in the room narrowly escaped being shot, one of the screws passing +close to his head and fixing itself into the wall as if it had been +placed there by a screwdriver. + +Freddy, the youngest of the five boys, had an anxious, if merry, time +when his big brothers came back from school. With them he would ring +the doorbells of houses till the angry servants of Woolwich seemed for +ever to be opening doors to invisible ringers. Often, too, little +Freddy would be pushed into a house, the bell rung by his mischievous +brothers, and the door held, so that Freddy alone had to face the +surprised people inside. + +But the wildest of their tricks was one that they played on the cadets +at Woolwich--the big boys who were being trained to be officers of +artillery. "The Pussies" was the name they went by, and it was on the +most grown up of the Pussies that they directed their mischief. The +senior class of cadets was then stationed in the Royal Arsenal, in +front of which were earthworks on which they learned how to defend and +fortify places in time of war. All the ins and outs of these +earthworks were known to Charlie Gordon and his brothers. One dark +night, when a colonel was lecturing to the cadets, a crash as of a +fearful explosion was heard. The cadets, thinking that every pane of +glass in the lecture hall was broken, rushed out like bees from a hive. +They soon saw that the terrific noise had been made by round shot being +thrown at the windows, and well they knew that Charlie Gordon was sure +to be at the bottom of the trick. But the night was dark, and Charlie +knew every passage of the earthworks better than any big cadet there. +Although there were many big boys as hounds and only two little boys as +hares, the Gordons easily escaped from the angry cadets. For some time +afterwards they carefully kept away from the Arsenal, for they knew +that if the "Pussies" should catch them they need expect no mercy. + +From Taunton Charlie went for one year to be coached for the army at a +school at Shooters Hill. From there, when he was not quite sixteen, he +passed into the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. + +As a cadet, Charlie Gordon was no more of a book-worm than he had been +as a schoolboy. There was no piece of mischief, no wild prank, that +that boy with the curly fair hair and merry blue eyes did not have a +share in. But if he fairly shared the fun, Charlie would sometimes +take more than his fair share of blame or punishment. He was never +afraid to own up, and he was always ready to bear his friends' +punishment as well as his own for scrapes they had got into together. +Of course he got into scrapes. There was never a boy that was full of +wild spirits who did not. But Charlie Gordon never got into a scrape +for any thoughtless mischief and naughtiness. He never did anything +mean, never anything that was not straight, and true, and honourable. + +He had been at the Academy for some time, and had earned many +good-conduct badges, when complaint was made of the noise and roughness +with which the cadets rushed down the narrow staircase from their +dining-room. One of the senior cadets, a corporal, was stationed at +the head of this staircase, his arms outstretched, to prevent the usual +wild rush past. The sight of this severe little officer was too great +a temptation for Charlie Gordon. Down went his head, forward he +rushed, and the corporal was butted not only downstairs, but right +through the glass door beyond. The corporal's body escaped unhurt, but +his feelings did not, and Charlie was placed under arrest, and very +nearly expelled from the College. + +[Illustration: The Corporal was butted downstairs] + +When his term at Woolwich was nearly over, a great deal of bullying was +found to be going on, and the new boys were questioned about it by the +officers in charge. One new boy said that Charlie Gordon had hit him +on the head with a clothes-brush--"not a severe blow," he had to own. +But Charlie's bear-fighting had this time a hard punishment, for he was +put back six months for his commission. + +Until then he had meant to be an officer of Artillery--a "gunner," as +they are called. Now he knew that he would always be six months behind +his gunner friends, and so decided to work instead for the Engineers, +and get his commission as a "sapper." + +At college, as well as at school, his map-drawing was very good, and +his mother was very proud of what he did. One day he found her showing +some visitors a map he had made. His hatred of being praised for what +he thought he did not deserve, and his hot temper, sprang out together, +and he tore up the map and threw it in the grate. + +But almost at once he was sorry for his rudeness and unkindness, and +afterwards he carefully pasted the torn pieces of the map together for +his mother. + +"How my mother loved me!" he wrote of her long years afterwards. + +His hot temper was sometimes shown to his officers. He would bear more +than his share of blame when he felt that he deserved it, but when he +felt that blame was undeserved, his temper would flash out in a sudden +storm. + +One of his superiors at Woolwich once said, scolding him,--"You will +never make an officer." + +Charlie's honour was touched. His temper blazed out, and he tore off +his epaulettes and threw them at the officer's feet. + +He always hated his examinations, yet he never failed to pass them. + +When he was fifty years old, he wrote to his sister,--"I had a fearful +dream last night: I was back at the Academy, and had to pass an +examination! I was wide awake enough to know I had forgotten all I had +ever learnt, and it was truly some time ere I could collect myself and +realise I was a general, so completely had I become a cadet again. +What misery those examinations were!" + +When he was nineteen, Charlie Gordon became Sub-Lieutenant Charles +Gordon of the Royal Engineers. + +From Woolwich he went to Chatham, the headquarters of the Royal +Engineers, to have some special training as an Engineer officer. + +There he found his cleverness at map-drawing a great help in his work, +and for nearly two years he worked hard at all that an officer of +Engineers must know, and soon he was looked on as a very promising +young officer. + +In February 1854, he gained the rank of full lieutenant, and was sent +to Pembroke Dock to help with the new fortifications and batteries that +were being made there. + +Whatever Charlie Gordon did, he did with all his might, and he was now +as keen on making plans and building fortifications, as he had once +been in planning and playing mischievous tricks. + +When he returned to Pembroke thirty years later, an old ferryman there +remembered him. + +"Are you the gent who used to walk across the stream right through the +water?" he asked. + +And all through his life no stream was too strong for Gordon to face. + +Gordon had not been long at Pembroke when a great war broke out between +Russia on one side, and England, France, and Turkey on the other. It +was fought in a part of Russia called the Crimea, and is known as the +Crimean War. + +The two elder Gordons, Henry and Enderby, were out there with their +batteries, and, like every other keen young soldier, Charlie Gordon was +wild to go. + +After a few months at Pembroke, orders came for him to go to Corfu. He +suspected his father of having managed to get him sent there to be out +of harm's way. + +"It is a great shame of you," he wrote. But very shortly afterwards +came fresh orders, telling him to go to the Crimea without delay. + +A general whom he had told how much he longed to go where the fighting +was, had had the orders changed. + +On the 4th December 1854 his orders came to Pembroke. Two days later +he reported himself at the War Office in London, and on the evening of +the same day he was at Portsmouth, ready to sail. At first it was +intended that he should go out in a collier, but that arrangement was +altered. Back he came to London, and went from there to France. + +At Marseilles he got a ship to Constantinople, and just as fearlessly +and as happily as he had ever gone on one of his mischievous +expeditions as a little boy, Charlie Gordon went off to face hardships, +and dangers, and death in the Crimea, and to learn his first lessons in +war. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +GORDON'S FIRST BATTLES + +The Crimean War had been going on for several months when, on New +Year's Day 1855, Gordon reached Balaclava. + +The months had been dreary ones for the English soldiers, for, through +bad management in England, they had had to face a bitter Russian +winter, and go through much hard fighting, without proper food, without +warm clothing, and with no proper shelter. + +Night after night, and day after day, in pitilessly falling snow, or in +drenching rain, clad in uniforms that had become mere rags, cold and +hungry, tired and wet, the English soldiers had to line the trenches +before Sebastopol. + +These trenches were deep ditches, with the earth thrown up to protect +the men who fired from them, and in them the men often had to stand +hour after hour, knee deep in mud, and in cold that froze the blood in +their veins. + +Illness broke out in the camp, and many men died from cholera. Many +had no better bed than leaves spread on stones in the open could give +them. + +Some of those who had tents, and used little charcoal fires to warm +them, were killed by the fumes of charcoal. + +A "Black Winter" it was called, and the Black Winter was not over when +Gordon arrived. He had been sent out in charge of 320 huts, which had +followed him in the collier from Portsmouth, so that now, at least, +some of the men were better sheltered than they had been before. But +they were still half-starved, and in very low spirits. Officers and +men had constantly to go foraging for food, or else to go hungry, and +men died every day of the bitter cold. And all the time the guns of +the Russians were never idle. + +It was not a very gay beginning for a young officer's active service, +but Gordon, like his mother, had a way of making the best of things. +Even when, as he wrote, the ink was frozen, and he broke the nib of his +pen as he dipped it, "There are really no hardships for the officers," +he wrote home; "the men are the sufferers." + +Before he had been a month out, Gordon was put on duty in the trenches +before Sebastopol, a great fortified town by the sea. + +On the night of 14th February, with eight men with picks and shovels, +and five double sentries, he was sent to make a connection between the +French and English outposts by means of rifle-pits. It was a pitch +black night, and as yet Gordon did not know the trenches as well as he +had known the earthworks at Woolwich Arsenal. He led his men, and, +missing his way, nearly walked into the town filled with Russians. +Turning back, they crept up the trenches to some caves which the +English should have held, but found no sentries there. Taking one man +with him, Gordon explored the caves. He feared that the Russians, +finding them undefended, might have taken possession of them when +darkness fell, but he found them empty. He then posted two sentries on +the hill above the caves, and went back to post two others down below. +No sooner did he and these two appear below than "Bang! bang!" went two +rifles, and the bullets ripped up the ground at Gordon's feet. Off +rushed the two men who were with him, and off scampered the eight +sappers, thinking that the whole Russian army was at their heels. But +all that had really happened was that the sentries on the hill above, +seeing Gordon and his men coming stealthily out of the caves in the +darkness, had taken them for Russians, and fired straight at them. The +mischief did not end there. A Russian picket was stationed only 150 +yards away, and the sound of the shots made them also send a shower of +bullets, one of which hit a man on the breast, passed through his +coats, grazed his ribs, and passed out again without hurting him. But +no serious harm was done, and by working all night Gordon and his men +carried out their orders. + +It was not long before Gordon learned so thoroughly all the ins and +outs of the trenches that the darkest night made no difference to him. +"Come with me after dark, and I will show you over the trenches," he +said to a friend who had been away on sick leave, and who complained to +him that he could not find his way about. "He drew me a very clear +sketch of the lines," writes his friend, Sir Charles Stavely, +"explained every nook and corner, and took me along outside our most +advanced trench, the bouquets (volleys of small shells fired from +mortars) and other missiles flying about us in, to me, a very +unpleasant manner, he taking the matter remarkably coolly." + +Before many weeks were past, Gordon not only knew the trenches as well +as any other officer or man there, but he knew more of the enemy's +movements than did any other officer, old or young. He had "a special +aptitude for war," says one general. "We used to send him to find out +what new move the Russians were making." + +Shortly after his adventure in the caves, Gordon had another narrow +escape. A bullet fired at him from one of the Russian rifle-pits, 180 +yards away, passed within an inch of his head. "It passed an inch +above my nut into a bank I was passing," wrote Gordon, who had not +forgotten his school-boy slang. But the only other remark he makes +about his escape in his letter home is, "They (the Russians) are very +good marksmen; their bullet is large and pointed." + +Three months later, one of his brothers wrote home--"Charlie has had a +miraculous escape. The day before yesterday he saw the smoke from an +embrasure on his left and heard a shell coming, but did not see it. It +struck the ground five yards in front of him, and burst, not touching +him. If it had not burst, it would have taken his head off." + +[Illustration: The shell struck the ground five yards in front of him] + +The soldiers at Sebastopol were not long in learning that amongst their +officers there was one slight, wiry young lieutenant of sappers, with +curly hair and keen blue eyes, who was like the man in the fairy tale, +and did not know how to shiver and shake. + +One day as Gordon was going the round of the trenches he heard a +corporal and a sapper having hot words. He stopped and asked what the +quarrel was about, and was told that the men were putting fresh gabions +(baskets full of earth behind which they sheltered from the fire of the +enemy's guns) in the battery. The corporal had ordered the sapper to +stand up on a parapet where the fire from the guns would hail upon him, +while he himself, in safety down below, handed the baskets up to him. +In one moment Gordon had jumped up on to the parapet, and ordered the +corporal to stand beside him while the sapper handed up baskets to +them. The Russian bullets pattered around them as they worked, but +they finished their work in safety. When it was done, Gordon turned to +the corporal and said: "Never order a man to do anything that you are +afraid to do yourself." + +On 6th June there was a great duel between the guns of the Russians and +those of their besiegers. A stone from a round shot struck Gordon, and +stunned him for some time, and he was reported "Wounded" by the +surgeon, greatly to his disgust. All day and all night, and until four +o'clock next day, the firing went on. At four o'clock on the second +day the English and their allies began to fire from new batteries. A +thousand guns kept up a steady, terrible fire of shells, and, protected +by the fire, the French dashed forward and seized one of the Russians' +most important positions. Attacking and being driven back, attacking +again and gaining some ground, once more attacking and losing what they +had gained, leaving men lying dead and dying where the fight had been +fiercest, so the weary days and nights dragged past. + +"Charlie is all right," his brother wrote home, "and has escaped amidst +a terrific shower of grape and shells of every description. . . . He +is now fast asleep in his tent, having been in the trenches from two +o'clock yesterday morning during the cannonade until seven last night, +and again from 12-30 this morning until noon." + +Both sides agreed to stop fighting for a few days after this, in order +to bury the dead. + +The whole ground before Sebastopol was, Gordon wrote, "one great +graveyard of men, freshly made mounds of dark earth covering English, +French, and Russians." + +From this time until September the war dragged on. It was a dull and +dreary time, and as September drew near Gordon thought of happy days in +England, with the scent of autumn leaves, and the whir of a covey of +birds rising from the stubble, and he longed for partridge-shooting. +But they shot men, not birds, in the Crimea. "The Russians are brave," +he wrote, "certainly inferior to none; their work is stupendous, their +shell practice is beautiful." Gordon was never one to grudge praise to +his enemies. + +Every day men died of disease, or were killed or wounded. On 31st +August 1855, Gordon wrote that "Captain Wolseley (90th Regiment), an +assistant engineer, has been wounded by a stone." In spite of stones +and shells, Captain Wolseley fought many brave fights, and years +afterwards became Lord Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of the British +Army, a gallant soldier and a brilliant leader of men. + +On 8th September one of the chief holds of the Russians was stormed by +the French, who took it after a fierce fight and hoisted on it their +flag. This was the signal for the English to attack the great fort of +the Redan. With a rush they got to the ditch between them and the +fortress, put up their ladders, and entered it. For half-an-hour they +held it nobly. Then enormous numbers of fresh Russian troops came to +the attack, and our men were driven out with terrible loss. At the +same time, at another point, the French were driven back. Nothing was +left for the allied troops but to wait till morning. It was decided +that when morning came the Highland soldiers must storm and take the +Redan. But this the Russians gave them no chance to do. + +While Gordon was on duty in the trenches that night he heard a terrific +explosion. + +"At four next morning," he writes, "I saw a splendid sight. The whole +of Sebastopol was in flames, and every now and then great explosions +took place, while the rising sun shining on the place had a most +beautiful effect. The Russians were leaving the town by the bridge; +all the three-deckers were sunk, the steamers alone remaining. Tons +and tons of powder must have been blown up. About eight o'clock I got +an order to commence a plan of the works, for which purpose I went to +the Redan, where a dreadful sight was presented. The dead were buried +in the ditch--the Russians with the English--Mr. Wright" (an English +chaplain), "reading the burial service over them." + +The fires went on all day, and there were still some prowling Russians +in the town, so that it was not safe to enter it. + +When the allied forces did go in, they found many dreadful sights. For +a whole day and night 3000 wounded men had been untended, and a fourth +of them were dead. The town was strewn with shot and shell; buildings +were wrecked, or burned down. + +"As to plunder," wrote Gordon, "there is nothing but rubbish and fleas, +the Russians having carried off everything else." + +For some time after the fall of Sebastopol, Gordon and his men were +kept busy clearing roads, burning rubbish, counting captured guns, and +trying to make the town less unhealthy. + +He then went with the troops that attacked Kinburn, a town many miles +from Sebastopol, but also on the shores of the Black Sea. When it was +taken, he returned to Sebastopol. + +For four months he was there, destroying forts, quays, storehouses, +barracks, and dockyards; sometimes being fired on by the Russians from +across the harbour; never idle, always putting his whole soul into all +that he did. + +His work was finished in February 1856, and in March peace was declared +between Russia and Britain. + +The name of Lieutenant Gordon was included by his general in a list of +officers who had done gallant service in the war. + +By the French Government he was decorated with the Legion of Honour, a +reward not often given to so young a man. + +A little more than a year of hard training in war had turned Charlie +Gordon the boy into Gordon the soldier. + +In May 1856 Gordon was sent to Bessarabia, to help to arrange new +frontiers for Russia, Turkey, and Roumania. In 1857 he was sent to do +the same work in Armenia. + +The end of 1858 saw him on his way home to England, a seasoned soldier, +and a few months later he was made a captain. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +"CHINESE GORDON" + +For a year after his return from Armenia Gordon was at Chatham, as +Field-Work Instructor and Adjutant, teaching the future officers of +Engineers what he himself had learned in the trenches. + +While he was there, a war that had been going on for some years between +Britain and China grew very serious. + +Gordon volunteered for service, but when he reached China, in September +1860, the war was nearly at an end. "I am rather late for the +amusement, which won't vex mother," he wrote. He found, however, that +a number of Englishmen, some of them friends of his, were being kept as +prisoners in Pekin by the Chinese. The English and their allies at +once marched to Pekin, and demanded that the prisoners should be given +up. + +The Chinese, scared at the sight of the armies and their big guns, +opened the gates. But in the case of many of the prisoners, help had +come too late. The Chinese had treated them most brutally, and many +had died under torture. + +Nothing was left for the allied armies to do but to punish the Chinese +for their cruelty, and especially to punish the Emperor for having +allowed such vile things to go on in his own great city. + +The Emperor lived in a palace so gorgeous and so beautiful that it +might have come out of the Arabian Nights. This palace the English +general gave orders to his soldiers to pillage and to destroy. Four +millions of money could not have replaced what was destroyed then. The +soldiers grew reckless as they went on, and wild for plunder. +Quantities of gold ornaments were burned for brass. The throne room, +lined with ebony, was smashed up and burned. Carved ivory and coral +screens, magnificent china, gorgeous silks, huge mirrors, and many +priceless things were burned or destroyed, as a gardener burns up heaps +of dead leaves and garden rubbish. + +Treasures of every kind, and thousands and thousands of pounds' worth +of exquisite jewels were looted by common soldiers. Often the men had +no idea of the value of the things they had taken. One of them sold a +string of pearls for 16s. to an officer, who sold it next day for L500. +From one of the plunderers Gordon bought the Royal Throne, a gorgeous +seat, supported by the Imperial Dragon's claws, and with cushions of +Imperial yellow silk. You may see it if you go some day to the +headquarters of the Royal Engineers at Chatham, and you will be told +that it was given to his corps by General Gordon. + +After the sack of the Summer Palace Gordon had a very busy time, +providing quarters for the English troops, helping to distribute the +money collected for the Chinese who had suffered from the war, and +doing surveying and exploring work. On horseback he and a comrade +explored many places which no European had visited before, and many +were their adventures. + +But it was in work greater than this that "Chinese Gordon" was to win +his title. While Gordon was a little boy of ten, a Chinese village +schoolmaster, Hung-Tsue-Schuen, who came of a low half-gipsy race, had +told the people of China that God had spoken to him, and told him that +he was to overthrow the Emperor and all those who governed China, and +to become the ruler and protector of the Chinese people. + +Soon he had many followers, who not only obeyed him as their king, but +who prayed to him as their god. He called himself a "Wang," or king, +and his followers called him their "Heavenly King." He made rulers of +some thousands of his followers--most of them his own relations--and +they also were named Wangs, or kings. They also had their own special +names, "The Yellow Tiger," "The One-Eyed Dog," and "Cock-Eye" were +amongst these. Twenty thousand of his own clansmen, many of them +simple country people, who believed all that he told them, joined him. +There also joined him fierce pirates from the coast, robbers from the +hills, murderous members of secret societies, and almost every man in +China who had, or fancied he had, some wrong to be put right. + +His army rapidly grew into hundreds of thousands. + +When this host of savage-looking men, with their long lank hair, their +gaudy clothes and many-coloured banners, their cutlasses and long +knives, marched through the land, plundering, burning, and murdering, +the hard-working, harmless little Chinamen, with their smooth faces and +neat pigtails, fled before them in terror. + +The Tae-Pings, as they came to be called, robbed them, slew them, +burned their houses and their rice fields, and took their little +children away from them. They flayed people alive; they pounded them +to death. Ruin and death were left behind them as they marched on. +Those who escaped were left to starvation. In some places so terrible +was the hunger of the poor people that they became cannibals, for lack +of any other food. + +In one city which they destroyed, out of 20,000 people not 100 escaped. + +"We killed them all to the infant in arms; we left not a root to sprout +from; and the bodies of the slain we cast into the Yangtse,"--so +boasted the rebels. + +A march of nearly 700 miles brought this great, murdering, plundering +army to Nanking, a city which the Wangs took, and made their capital. +The frightened peasants were driven before them down to the coast, and +took refuge in the towns there. Many of them had crowded into the port +of Shanghai, and round Shanghai came the robber army. They wanted more +money, more arms, and more ammunition, and they knew they could find +plenty of supplies there. So likely did it seem that they would take +the port, that the Chinese Government asked England and France to help +to drive them away. + +In May 1862 Gordon was one of the English officers who helped to do +this. For thirty miles round Shanghai, the rebels, who were the +fiercest of fighters, were driven back. In his official despatch +Gordon's general wrote of him:--"Captain Gordon was of the greatest use +to me." But he also said that Gordon often made him very anxious +because of the daring way in which he would go dangerously near the +enemy's lines to gain information. Once when he was out in a boat with +the general, reconnoitring a town they meant to attack, Gordon begged +to be put ashore so that he might see better what defences the enemy +had. + +To the general's horror, Gordon went nearer and nearer the town, by +rushes from one shelter to another. At length he sheltered behind a +little pagoda, and stood there quietly sketching and making notes. +From the walls the rebels kept on firing at him, and a party of them +came stealing round to cut him off, and kill him before he could run +back to the boat. The general shouted himself hoarse, but Gordon +calmly finished his sketch, and got back to the boat just in time. + +The Tae-Pings used to drag along with them many little boys whose +fathers and mothers they had killed, and whom they meant to bring up as +rebels. After the fights between the English troops and the Tae-Pings, +swarms of those little homeless creatures were always found. + +Gordon writes: "I saved one small creature who had fallen into the +ditch in trying to escape, for which he rewarded me by destroying my +coat with his muddy paws in clinging to me." + +In December 1862 Gordon, for his good service in China, was raised to +the rank of major. + +Very soon afterwards the Chinese Government asked the English +Government to give them an English officer to lead the Chinese army +that was to fight with, and to conquer, the Tae-Ping rebels. + +Already the Chinese soldiers had been commanded by men who spoke +English. One of these, an American adventurer, named Burgevine, was +ready to dare anything for power and money. + +To his leadership flocked scoundrels of every nation, hoping to enrich +themselves by plundering the rebels. + +Before long, Governor Li Hung Chang found that Burgevine was not to be +trusted, and the command was taken from him. + +It was then that the Chinese Government asked England to give them a +leader for their untrained army of Chinese and of adventurers gathered +from all lands. This collection of rag, tag, and bobtail had been +named, to encourage it, and before it had done anything to deserve the +name, the "Chun Chen Chuen," or the Ever-Victorious Army. + +But "The Almost Always Beaten Army" would have been a much truer name +for it, and the victorious Tae-Pings scornfully laughed at it. + +The English general in China had no doubt who was the best man for the +post. + +He named Major Charles Gordon, and on 25th March 1863 Gordon took +command, and was given the title of Mandarin by the Chinese. + +He knew that the idea of serving under any other monarch than his own +Queen would be a sorrow to his father. He wrote home begging his +father and mother not to be vexed, and telling them how deeply he had +thought before he accepted the command. + +By taking the command, he said, he believed he could help to put an end +to the sufferings of the poor people of China. Were he not to have +taken it, he feared that the rebels might go on for years spreading +misery over the land. "I keep your likeness before me," wrote this +young Major who had been trusted with so great a thing to do, to the +mother whom he loved so much. "I can assure you and my father I will +not be rash. . . . I really do think I am doing a good service in +putting down this rebellion." + +"I hope you do not think that I have got a magnificent army," he wrote +to a soldier friend. "You never did see such a rabble as it was; and +although I think I have improved it, it is still sadly wanting. Now, +both men and officers, although ragged and perhaps slightly +disreputable, are in capital order and well disposed." + +Before his arrival, the soldiers had had no regular pay. They were +allowed to "loot," or plunder, the towns they took, and for each town +taken they were paid so much. + +At once Gordon began to get his ragamuffin army into shape. + +He arranged that the soldiers were to get their pay regularly, but were +to have no extra pay for the places which they took. Any man caught +plundering a town that was taken was to be shot. He replaced the +adventurers of all nations, many of them drunken rogues, who were the +army's officers, by English officers lent by the British Government. +He drilled his men well. He practised them in attacking fortified +places, and he formed a little fleet of small steamers and Chinese +gunboats. The chief of these was the _Hyson_, a little paddle steamer +that could move over the bed of a creek on its wheels when the water +was too shallow to float it. + +The army, too, was given a uniform, at which not only the rebels but +the Chinese themselves at first mocked, calling the soldiers who wore +it "Sham Foreign Devils." + +But soon so well had Gordon's army earned its name of "The +Ever-Victorious Army," that the mere sight of the uniform they wore +frightened the rebels. + +In one month Gordon's army was an army and not a rabble, and the very +first battles that it fought were victories. + +With 3000 men he attacked a garrison of 10,000 at Taitsan, and after a +desperate fight the rebels were driven out. + +From Taitsan the victorious army went on to Quinsan, a large fortified +city, connected by a causeway with Soochow, the capital of the province. + +All round Quinsan the country was cut up in every direction with creeks +and canals. But Gordon knew every creek and canal in that flat land. +He knew more now than any other man, native or foreigner, where there +were swamps, where there were bridges, which canals were choked with +weeds, and which were easily sailed up. He made up his mind that the +rebels in Quinsan must be cut off from those in Soochow. + +At dawn, one May morning, eighty boats, with their large white sails +spread out like the wings of big sea-birds, and with many-coloured +flags flying from their rigging, were seen by the rebel garrison at +Quinsan sailing up the canal towards the city. In the middle of this +fleet the plucky little _Hyson_, with Gordon on board, came paddling +along. + +By noon they reached a barrier of stakes placed across the creek. +These they pulled up, sailed to the shore, and landed their troops +close to the rebel stockades. For a minute the Tae-Pings stood and +stared, uncertain what to do, and then, in terror, ran before Gordon's +army. + +There had been many boats in the creek, but the rebels had sprung out +of them and a left them to drift about with their sails up, so that it +was no easy work for the _Hyson_ to thread her way amongst them. Still +the little boat steamed slowly and steadily on towards Soochow. Along +the banks of the canal the rebels, in clusters, were marching towards +safety. On them the _Hyson_ opened fire, puffing and steaming after +them, and battering them with shells and bullets. + +Like an angry little sheep-dog driving a mob of sheep, it drove the +rebels onwards. Many lay dead on the banks, or fell into the water and +were drowned. One hundred and fifty of them were taken as prisoners on +board the _Hyson_. + +When they were less than a mile from Soochow, as night was beginning to +fall, Gordon decided to turn back and rejoin the rest of his forces. +Some of the rebels, thinking that the _Hyson_ was gone for good, had +got into their boats again, and were gaily sailing up the creek when +they saw the steamer's red and green lights, and heard her whistle. + +The mere glare of the lights and hoot of the whistle seemed to throw +them into a panic. In the darkness the flying mobs of men along the +canal banks met other rebels coming to reinforce them, and in the wild +confusion that followed the guns of the _Hyson_ mowed them down. About +10.30 P.M. the crew of the _Hyson_ heard tremendous yells and cheers +coming from a village near Quinsan, where the rebels had made a stand. +Gordon's gunboats were firing into the stone fort, and from it there +came a rattle and a sparkle of musketry like fireworks, and wild yells +and shouts from the rebels. The gunboats were about to give in and run +away when the little _Hyson_ came hooting out of the darkness. +Gordon's army welcomed him with deafening cheers, and the rebels threw +down their arms and fled. The _Hyson_ steamed on up the creek towards +Quinsan, and in the darkness Gordon saw a huge crowd of men near a high +bridge. It was too dark to see clearly, but the _Hyson_ blew her +whistle. At once from the huddled mass of rebels came yells of fear. +It was the garrison of Quinsan, some seven or eight thousand, trying to +escape to Soochow. In terror they fled in every direction--8000 men +fleeing before thirty. The _Hyson_ fired as seldom as she could, but +even then, that day the rebels must have lost from three to four +thousand men, killed, drowned, and prisoners. All their arms also, +they lost, and a great number of boats. + +Next morning at dawn, Gordon and his army took possession of Quinsan. +They had fought almost from daybreak until daybreak. "The rebels +certainly never got such a licking before," wrote Gordon. + +The Ever-Victorious Army was delighted with itself, and very proud of +its leader. But they were less well-pleased with Gordon when they +found that instead of going on to a town where they could sell the +things they had managed to loot, they were to stay at Quinsan. + +They were so angry that they drew up a proclamation saying that unless +they were allowed to go to a town they liked better, they would blow +their officers to pieces with the big guns. Gordon felt sure that the +non-commissioned officers were at the bottom of the mischief. He made +them parade before him, and told them that if they did not at once tell +him the name of the man who had written the proclamation, he would have +one out of every five of them shot. At this they all groaned, to show +what a monster they thought Gordon. One corporal groaned louder than +all the rest, and Gordon turned on him, his eyes blazing. So sure was +Gordon that this was their leader that, with his own hands, he dragged +him from the ranks. + +[Illustration: With his own hands, he dragged him from the ranks] + +"Shoot this fellow!" he said to two of his bodyguard. The soldiers +fired, and the corporal fell dead. + +The other non-commissioned officers he sent into imprisonment for one +hour. + +"If at the end of that time," said he, "the men do not fall in at their +officers' commands, and if I am not given the name of the writer of +that proclamation, every fifth man of you shall be shot." + +At the end of the hour the men fell in, and the name of the writer of +the proclamation was given to Gordon. The man had already been +punished. It was the corporal who had groaned so loud an hour before. + +This was not the only case that Gordon had in his own army. More than +once his officers were rebellious and troublesome. General Ching, a +Chinese general, was jealous of him. Ching one day made his men fire +on 150 of Gordon's soldiers, and treated it as a joke when Gordon was +angry. At the beginning of the campaign Gordon had promised his men +that they should have their pay regularly instead of plundering the +places they took. His own pay, and more, had gone to do this and to +help the poor. And now Li Hung Chang, the Governor, said he could not +pay the men; and no one but Gordon seemed to mind when Ching broke his +promise to prisoners who had been promised safety, and slew them +brutally. + +Disgusted with this want of honour and truth in the men with whom he +had to work, Gordon made up his mind to throw up his command. + +Just then, however, Burgevine, the adventurer, who had once led the +Emperor's army, again became very powerful. He gathered together a +number of men as reckless as himself, and joined the rebels. The +rebels made him a Wang, or King, and he offered so much money to those +who would serve under him that crowds of Gordon's grumbling soldiers +deserted and joined Burgevine. + +Burgevine and his followers were a grand reinforcement for the rebel +army, and things began to look serious. + +Gordon could not bear that the rebels should be allowed unchecked to +swarm over China and plunder and slay innocent people. Instead of +resigning he once more led the Ever-Victorious Army, and led it to +victory. + +Soochow, "The City of Pagodas," was besieged. There were twice as many +soldiers in the town as there were besiegers, and amongst them were +Burgevine and his men. In front of the city Gordon placed his guns, +and after a short bombardment that did much damage to the walls, he +ordered his troops to advance. A terrific fire from the enemy drove +them back. Again Gordon's guns bombarded the city, and were pushed +forward as far as possible. Then again the besiegers rushed in, but +found that the creek round the city was too wide for the bridge they +carried with them. But the officers plunged fearlessly into the water +and dashed across. Their men followed them, the Tae-Pings fled, and +stockade after stockade was taken. Gordon himself, with a mere handful +of men, took three stockades and a stone fort. + +In this siege, as in many other fights, Gordon had himself to lead his +army. If an officer shrank back before the savage enemy, Gordon would +take him gently by the arm and lead him into the thickest of the +battle. He himself went unarmed, and would lead his troops onwards +with the little cane he nearly always carried. Where the fire was +hottest, there Gordon was always to be found, caring no more for the +bullets that pattered round him than if they were hailstones. The +Chinese soldiers came to look on the little cane as a magic wand. +Gordon's "magic wand of victory," they called it. + +During the siege he found men in his own army selling information to +the rebels. One young officer, more out of carelessness, it seemed, +than from any bad wish, had written a letter giving information to the +enemy. + +"I shall pass over your fault this time," said Gordon, "if you show +your loyalty by leading the next forlorn hope." + +Gordon forgot this condition, but the young officer did not. He led +the next assault, was shot in the mouth, and fell back and died in the +arms of Gordon, who was by his side. + +A very wonderful old bridge, one of fifty-three arches, was destroyed +during the siege of Soochow, greatly to Gordon's regret. + +One evening he was sitting smoking a cigar on one of the damaged +parapets of the bridge when two shots, accidentally fired by his own +men, struck the stone on which he sat. At the second shot he got down, +entered his boat, and started to row across the creek in order to find +out by whom the shots had been fired. He was scarcely clear of the +bridge than the part on which he had been seated fell crashing into the +water, nearly smashing his boat. + +The Chinese were more sure than ever that it must be magic that kept +their general alive. Even when in a fierce fight he was severely +wounded below the knee, they believed that his magic wand had saved his +life. + +From Soochow and the rebels he succeeded in rescuing Burgevine and his +miserable followers, even although he knew that Burgevine was ready for +any deed of treachery towards him at any minute. + +One rebel stronghold after another fell before Gordon and his army, but +many and fierce were the fights that were fought before Soochow was +taken. + +The Wangs gave in at last. They agreed to surrender if Gordon promised +to spare the lives of the leading Wangs--six in all--to treat all the +other rebels mercifully, and not to sack the city. To all these +conditions Gordon, Li Hung Chang, and General Ching gladly agreed, and +that night one of the gates was thrown open, and the Ever-Victorious +Army took possession of Soochow. + +As a reward for their brave service, and to make up to them for the +loot they were not to have, Gordon asked Li Hung Chang to give his +troops two months' pay. Li refused, but presently gave them pay for +one month, and Gordon marched his grumbling soldiers back to Quinsan, +unable to trust them in a city where so much rich plunder was to be had. + +As Gordon left the city the Wangs, wearing no arms, and laughing and +talking, rode past him on their way to a banquet with Li Hung Chang. + +He never saw them alive again. + +He had some time to wait for the steamer that was to take him to +Quinsan, so, having seen his army marching safely off, he rode round +the walls of the city. In front of Li Hung Chang's quarters he saw a +great crowd, but so sure did he feel that Li would not break his solemn +promises that he did not feel uneasy. A little later a large number of +General Ching's men entered the city, yelling loudly, and firing off +their guns. This was so unlike the peaceful way that Gordon and Ching +had promised they should behave, that Gordon went and spoke to their +officers. + +"This will never do," he said. "There are still many rebels in the +city, and if our men get excited the rebels will get excited too, and +there will be fearful rioting." + +Just then General Ching appeared. He had fancied Gordon safely +steaming across the lake, and when he saw him he turned pale. + +In answer to Gordon's questions as to the meaning of the disturbance, +he gave some silly answer, which it was easy to see was untrue. Gordon +at once rode to the house of Nar Wang, the chief of the Wangs and the +bravest of them, to find out for himself what was wrong. On his way he +met crowds of excited rebels, and a large band of Ching's soldiers +laden with plunder. Nar Wang's house, he found, had been emptied of +everything by the thieving soldiers. An uncle of Nar Wang begged +Gordon to help him to take the women of Nar Wang's house to his own +home, where they would be in safety. Unarmed as he was, Gordon did so, +but when they got to the house of Nar Wang's uncle they found the +courtyard filled with thousands of rebel soldiers. The doors and gates +were shut at once, and Gordon was a prisoner. During the night more +and more rebels came to the house. They all said that Li Hung Chang +and Gordon had laid a trap for the Wangs and had taken them prisoners, +but none knew exactly what had happened to them. It was well for +Gordon that they did not. Probably they would have tortured him in one +of the many hideous ways the Chinese knew so well, and then put him to +death. At length Gordon persuaded his captors to allow him to send a +messenger to summon his own bodyguard, and also an order to some of his +other soldiers to seize Li Hung Chang, and not to let him go until the +Wangs had safely returned to their own homes. + +On the way the messenger met some of Ching's soldiers, who wounded him +and tore up Gordon's message. The rebels then allowed Gordon to be his +own messenger; but on the way he met more of Ching's men, who seized +him, because, they said, he was in company with rebels, and kept him +prisoner for several hours. + +When at last he got away and reached his own men, he sent a body of +them to protect the house of Nar Wang's uncle. General Ching arrived +just then. Gordon, furious with him for the looting and bad behaviour +of his men, fell on him in a perfect storm of rage, and Ching hurried +off to the city. + +He sent an English officer to explain to Gordon what had happened, but +this officer said he did not know whether the Wangs were alive or dead. +He said, however, that Nar Wang's son was in his boat, and that he +would be able to tell him. + +"My father has been killed," said the boy. "He lies dead on the other +side of the creek." + +Gordon crossed the creek in a boat, and on the banks lay the dead +bodies of the Wangs, headless, and frightfully gashed. Li Hung Chang +and General Ching had broken their promise, and Gordon's. The guests +of the banquet of Li Hung Chang had been cruelly murdered. + +Many were the excuses that the Chinese Governor had to offer; many were +the reasons that he gave for breaking faith so shamefully. + +But to none of his excuses or reasons would Gordon listen. It is said +that, in furious anger, he sought Li Hung Chang, revolver in hand, that +he might shoot him like a dog. But Li wisely hid himself, and Gordon +sought him in vain. He wrote to Li, telling him he must give up his +post as Governor, or Gordon and his army would attack all the places +the Chinese held, retake them, and hand them back to the rebels. His +anger and his shame were equally great. + +Li Hung Chang did the wisest thing that then could be done. He sent +for Halliday Macartney, a wise and brave English officer, and a friend +of Gordon's, and asked him to go to Gordon and try and make peace +between them. Macartney at once got a native boat with several rowers, +and started for Quinsan. It was the middle of the night when he +arrived, and Gordon was in bed. Very soon, however, he sent Macartney +a message, asking him to come and see him in his room. Macartney went +upstairs and found Gordon sitting on his bedstead in a badly lighted +room. When Gordon saw him, he stooped down, drew something from under +his bed, and held it up. + +"Do you see that? Do you see that?" he asked. + +Macartney stared in horror, scarcely able, in the dim light, to see +what it was. + +"It is the head of Nar Wang, foully murdered!" said Gordon, and sobbed +most bitterly. + +Halliday Macartney found it impossible then to get Gordon to forgive Li +for his treachery. For two months Gordon remained in quarters, while +inquiries, made at his demand, were being made about the death of the +Wangs. + +During this time the Chinese Government gave Gordon a medal that only +the bravest soldiers ever received, to show how highly they valued his +services as general. The Emperor also sent him a gift of 10,000 taels +(then about L3000 of our money) and many other costly gifts. When the +treasure-bearers appeared in Gordon's quarters, bearing bowls full of +gold on their heads, as if they had walked straight out of the Arabian +nights, Gordon, believing the Emperor meant to bribe him to say no more +about the murder of the Wangs, was in a white-heat of fury. With his +"magic wand" he fell on the treasure-bearers, and flogged the amazed +and terrified men out of his sight. + +Although the Government gave Gordon a medal for the way in which he had +fought, it was Li Hung Chang who took all the credit for the taking of +Soochow. + +He published a report telling how the army under him had taken it. But +while Gordon was under a daily fire of bullets, and daily ran a hundred +risks of losing his life, the wily Li, who sounded so brave on paper, +was safely sitting in Shanghai, miles away from the besieged city. + +Gordon had much cause for anger. There seemed every reason why he +should not forgive Li, and why he should leave China and its people to +the mercy of the rebels. + +But Gordon had learned what it means to say "Forgive us our +trespasses." And not only that, but he had taken the sorrows of the +unhappy people of China into his heart. Whatever their rulers might +do, he felt he could not desert them. He must free them from the +cruelties of their oppressors, the Tae-Pings, before he went home to +his own land. + +In February 1864 Gordon again took command. From then until 11th May +he was kept constantly fighting, and steadily winning power for the +Emperor of China. + +On 10th May Gordon wrote to his mother: "I shall leave China as poor as +I entered it, but with the knowledge that through my weak +instrumentality upwards of eighty to one hundred thousand lives have +been spared. I want no further satisfaction than this." + +On 11th May Gordon took Chanchufu, the last great rebel stronghold, and +the rebellion was at an end. "The Heavenly King" killed his wives and +himself in his palace at Nankin, and the other rebel chiefs were +beheaded. + +Before Gordon gave up his command, the Chinese Government again offered +him a large sum of money, but again he refused it. But he could not +well refuse the honour of being made a Ti-Tu, or Field-Marshal, in the +Chinese Army, nor the almost greater honour of being given the Yellow +Jacket. To us the giving of a yellow jacket sounds a foolish thing, +but to a Chinaman the Yellow Jacket, and peacock's feathers that go +with it, are an even greater honour than to an Englishman is that plain +little cross that is called "The Victoria Cross," and which is given +for valour. Gordon accepted the yellow jacket, as well as six +magnificent mandarin dresses, such as were worn by a Ti-Tu. "Some of +the buttons on the mandarin hats are worth L30 or L40," he wrote. A +heavy gold medal was struck in his honour and given to him by the +Empress Regent. It was one of the few belongings he had for which +Gordon really cared a great deal, and presently you will hear how he +gave even that up for the sake of other people. + +The Chinese Government told the British Government that Gordon would +receive no rewards from the Chinese for the great things he had done +for their country, and asked that his own Queen Victoria would give him +some reward that he would accept. This was done, and Major Gordon was +made a Lieutenant-Colonel and a Companion of the Bath. + +Not only in China was he a hero, but in England also. Gordon had saved +China from an army of conquering robbers, "first"--it was written in +the _Times_--"by the power of his arms, and afterwards, still more +rapidly, by the terror of his name." + +Li Hung Chang was ready to do anything that the hero wished, and so, +before he said good-bye to his army, Gordon saw that his officers and +men were handsomely rewarded. + +It was not wonderful that his army had learned to love him, for even +the rebels who feared his name loved him too. They knew that he was +always true and brave, honourable and merciful. + +Of him one of the rebels wrote: "Often have I seen the deadly musket +struck from the hand of a dastardly Englishman (tempted by love of loot +to join our ranks) when he attempted from his place of safety to kill +Gordon, who ever rashly exposed himself. This has been the act of a +chief--yea, of the Shield King himself." + +All England was ready to give "Chinese Gordon" a magnificent welcome +when he came home. Invitations from the greatest in the land were +showered upon him. + +But when, early in 1865, he returned, he refused to be made a hero of. + +"I only did my duty," he said, and grew quite shy and ashamed when +people praised and admired him. He would accept no invitations, and it +was only a very few people who were lucky enough to hear him fight his +battles over again. Sometimes in the evening as he sat in the +fire-light, in his father's house at Southampton, he would tell his +eager listeners the wonderful tale of his battles and adventures in the +far-off land of pagodas. + +And to them not the least wonderful part of what they listened to was +this, that the hero who was known all over the world as "Chinese +Gordon" was one who took no credit for any of the great things he had +done, and who was still as simple and modest as a little child. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE "KERNEL" + +Had you lived thirty-five or forty years ago at Gravesend, a dirty, +smoky town on the Thames near London, you might have read chalked up on +doors and on hoardings in boyish handwriting, these words-- + +"GOD BLESS THE KERNEL." + +And had you asked any of the ragged little lads that you met, who was +"The Kernel," their faces would have lit up at once, while they told +you that their "Kernel" was the best and bravest soldier in the world, +and that his name was Colonel Gordon. + +For six years after he left China, Gordon was Commanding Royal Engineer +at Gravesend, and these years, he said, were "the most peaceful and +happy of any portion of his life." + +His work there was done, as all his work throughout his life was done, +with all his might. + +When he first took command he was worried by the amount of time that +was wasted as he rowed from one port which he had to inspect, to +another, in a pair-oared boat. He put away the pair-oared boat and got +a four-oared gig, and soon had the men who pulled it trained to row him +in racing style. They might sometimes have waited for hours on the +chance of Colonel Gordon wanting them, but the minute his trim little +figure was seen marching smartly down to the jetty, there was a rush +for the boat. Almost before he was seated, the oars would be dipped +and the men's backs bent as if they meant to win a boat race. + +"A little faster, boys! a little faster!" Gordon would constantly say, +and when he jumped ashore and hurried off to his work, he would leave +behind him four very breathless men, who were proud of being the crew +of the very fastest boat pulled in those waters. + +The engineers under him he also trained never to lose any time,--always +to do a thing not only as thoroughly and as well as possible, but as +quickly as possible. + +He would land at a port, and run up the steep earthworks in front of +it, while his followers, many of them big, heavy men, would come +puffing and panting after him. + +One of his friends writes of him, "He was a severe and unsparing +taskmaster, and allowed no shirking. No other officer could have got +half the work out of the men that he did. He used to keep them up to +the mark by exclaiming, whenever he saw them flag: 'Another five +minutes gone, and this not done yet, my men! We shall never have them +again.'" + +The old-fashioned house, with its big old garden, which was Gordon's +home during those six years, saw many strange guests during that time. + +"His house," says one writer, "was school, and hospital, and almshouse +in turn--was more like the abode of a missionary than of a Colonel of +Engineers." + +In his working hours he worked his hardest to serve his Queen and +country. In the hours in which he might have rested or amused himself, +he worked equally hard. And this other work was to serve the poor, the +sick, the lonely, and to give a helping hand to every one of those who +needed help. The boys whose work was on the river or the sea, and the +"mud-larks" of Gravesend, were his special care. Many a boy who had no +work and no right home, he took from the streets, washed, clothed, fed, +and took into his house to stay with him as his guest. When he had +found work for those boys, either as sailors or in other ways, he would +give them outfits and money, and start them in life. For the boys who +were being sheltered by him, and for others from outside, he began +evening classes. There he taught them, and read to them, and did all +that he could to make them Christian gentlemen. His "Kings" he called +them, perhaps remembering the many Kings or "Wangs" who ruled in the +Tae-Ping army. + +A map of the world, hanging over his mantelpiece, was stuck full of +pins. Some one asked the meaning of this, and was told by Gordon that +they marked and followed the course of his boys on their voyages. The +pins were moved from point to point as the boys sailed onward. "I pray +for each one of them day by day," he said. + +Soon Gordon's class grew too big for his room to hold, and he then +began to have a class at the Ragged Schools. The mud-larks of +Gravesend needed no coaxing to go to "The Kernel's" class. Here was a +teacher who did not only try to teach them to be good and manly, and +straight and true, and _gentle_ men, but who, when he taught them +geography, could tell them the most splendid and exciting stories of +countries beyond the seas, where he himself had fought in great +battles. He never _preached_ at them, or looked solemn and shocked, +but made them laugh more than any one else ever did, and had the +merriest twinkle in his kind, keen eyes, that were like the sea, and +looked sometimes blue, sometimes grey. + +He found out one day that what his "Kings" most longed to do was to go +up to London to see the Zoo. No sooner did he know it than every plan +was made for the little campaign. He himself could not leave his work, +but he got some one else to take them, saw them safely off with their +dinner in baskets, and welcomed them back in the evening to a great +strawberry feast. + +Three or four of the boys who stayed with him got scarlet fever, and +far into the night he would sit with them, telling them stories, and +soothing them until they stopped tossing about and fell asleep. + +At first, when he came to Gravesend, he clothed two or three boys in +the year. But it was not long before he gave away, each year, several +hundreds of suits, and had to buy boys' boots by the gross. + +All this came out of his pay. Gordon was always well-dressed, +well-groomed, and looked like an officer and a gentleman, but upon +himself he spent next to nothing. + +His food was of the plainest, and sometimes of the scantiest. He would +tell, with a twinkle in his eye, what a surprise it was to the boys who +came to stay with him, expecting to be fed with all sorts of dainties, +to find that salt beef, and just what other things were necessary, was +what the Colonel had to eat. + +Constantly his purse and pockets were empty, for scarcely ever did any +one come to Gordon for help without getting it, and Gordon had no money +save his pay as a colonel. + +Often he had disappointments. There were people who were mean enough +to deceive him, and people with no gratitude in their hearts. + +One boy he found starving, in rags, and miserably ill. He fed him, +clothed him, had him doctored and nursed, and, when he was well, sent +him back to his parents in Norfolk. But neither boy nor parents ever +sent him one line of thanks. + +Another starving, ragged boy he took into his house. He fed, clothed, +and taught him, and at last found him a good place on a ship, and sent +him to sea. Three times did this little scamp run away from the ship, +and turn up filthy, starving, and in rags. The third time Gordon found +him in the evening lurking at the door, half dead with hunger and cold. +The boy was much too dirty to be brought into the house with other +boys, and Gordon looked at him for a minute in silence. He then led +him to the stable, gave him a heap of clean straw in an empty stall to +sleep on, and some bread and milk for supper. Early next morning +Gordon appeared with soap, towels, a brush, a sponge, and a fresh suit +of clothes. He poured a bucket of hot water into the horse trough, and +himself gave him a thorough scrubbing. + +[Illustration: Gordon appeared with soap, towels, a brush, a sponge, +and a fresh suit of clothes] + +We do not know what afterwards became of the boy. It would be nice to +think that he was the unknown man who came to the house of Sir Henry +Gordon, when the news of General Gordon's death was heard, and wished +to give L25 towards a memorial to him. "All my success and prosperity +I owe to the Colonel," he said. + +There were many boys--there are many men now--with good cause for +saying from their hearts, "_God bless the Colonel._" + +A boy, who worked in a shop, stole some money from his master, who was +very angry, and said he would have him put in prison. The boy's +mother, in a terrible state of grief, came to Gordon and begged him to +help her. Gordon went to the boy's master, and persuaded him to let +the boy off. He then sent the little lad to school for twelve months, +and afterwards found him a berth at sea. The boy has grown up into an +honest, good man. "God bless the Colonel," he, too, can say. + +Two afternoons a week Gordon went to the infirmary, to cheer up the +sick people there. And in all parts of Gravesend he would find out old +and bedridden men and women, sit with them, cheer them up with tales of +his days in Russia and China, and make them feel less lonely and less +sad. "He always had handy a bit o' baccy for the old men, and a screw +o' tea for the old women," it was said. + +One poor, sick old woman was told by the doctor that she must have some +dainties and some wine, which she had no money to buy. But each day a +good fairy brought them to her, and the good fairy was Colonel Gordon. + +A sick man, who lay fretting in bed, feeling there was nothing to do, +nothing to interest him, found each day a _Daily News_ left at his +door. Again the good fairy was Colonel Gordon. + +A big, rough waterman, tossing about in bed with an aching, parched +throat, and in a burning fever, also knew the good fairy. Night after +night the Colonel sat by his bed, tending him as gently as the gentlest +nurse, and placing cool grapes in his parched mouth. + +In the Colonel's big, old-fashioned garden, with its trim borders of +boxwood, one would find on summer days the old and the halt sunning +themselves. Many nice flowers and vegetables were grown in the garden, +but they did not belong to him. He allowed some of his poor people to +plant and sow there what vegetables they chose, and then to make money +for themselves by selling them. + +Presents of fruit and flowers sent to him at once found their way to +the hospital or to the workhouse. People saw that it was no use ever +to give Gordon any presents, because they at once went to those who +needed the things more than he did. + +To the poor he gave pensions of so much a week--from 1s. to L1. Some +of these pensions were still kept up and paid to the day of his death, +thirteen years later. + +He was always tender-hearted, always merciful, and he _always_ forgave. + +A soldier got tipsy, and stole five valuable patent locks. Gordon +asked the manager of the works from which they had been taken what he +meant to do. + +"The carpenters were to blame for leaving the locks about, so I am +going to let the soldier off," said the manager. + +"Thank you, thank you," said Gordon, as eagerly as if he himself had +been the thief. "That is what I should have done myself." + +One day a woman called on him and told him a piteous story. He left +the room to get her half-a-sovereign, and while he was gone she stole +his overcoat, and hid it under her skirt. When he came back with the +money, she thanked him again and again, and went away. As she walked +along the street, the overcoat--a brown one--slipped down. A policeman +noticed it, and asked her what it meant. The woman, too frightened to +tell a lie, said she had stolen it from "the Kernel." Back to Gordon's +house the policeman marched her. The coat was shown to Gordon, and the +policeman asked him to charge the woman with the theft, and have her +put in prison. But this Gordon refused to do. He was really far more +distressed than was the thief herself. At last, his eyes twinkling, he +turned to the woman. + +"You wanted it, I suppose?" he asked. + +"Yes," said the surprised woman. + +"There, there, take her away and send her about her business," he said +to the policeman, and the policeman could only obey. + +The gold medal which the Empress of China had had made for him +mysteriously disappeared, no one could tell how or where. Years +afterwards, by accident, it was found that Gordon had had the +inscription taken off it, and had sent it anonymously to Manchester, to +help to buy food for the people who were starving there because of the +Cotton Famine. It cost him so much to give it up that often, when he +meant that others should give up something that was to cost them a very +great deal, he would say, "You must give up your medal." + +"In slums, hospitals, and workhouse, or knee-deep in the river at work +upon the Thames defence," so he spent the six happiest years of his +life. + +In 1871, to the deep sorrow of all Gravesend, he was made British +Commissioner to the European Commission of the Danube, where he had +done good work fifteen years earlier. + +To his "Kings" at the Ragged Schools he left a number of magnificent +Chinese flags, trophies of his victories in China. They are still +carried aloft every year at school treats, and the name of their giver +is cheered until the echoes ring and voices grow hoarse. + +To the people of Gravesend, and to people of all lands who hear the +story of those six years, he left the memory of a man whose charity was +perfect, whose mercy was without limit, and whose faith in the God he +served was never-failing. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +GORDON AND THE SLAVERS + +Gordon went to his work on the Danube on 1st October 1871, and remained +there until 1873. + +On his return to England then, his short visit was a sad one. While he +was home his mother became paralysed, and no longer knew the son she +loved so much; and the death took place of his youngest brother, who +had shared his pranks in the long-ago happy days at Woolwich. + +In the same year the Khedive of Egypt asked Gordon to come, at a salary +of L10,000 a year, to be Governor of the tribes on the Upper Nile. + +Gordon accepted the post, but would not take more than L2000 a year. +He wished, he said, "to show the Khedive and his people that gold and +silver idols are not worshipped by all the world." He knew that the +money was wrung from the poor people of Egypt and that some of it was +the price of slaves, and he could not bear to enrich himself with money +so gained. + +The Soudan, or Country of the Blacks, which was now to be the scene of +Gordon's work, is one of the dreariest parts of Africa. + +In years not so long ago, the Egyptians had nothing to do with it. For +between Egypt and the Black People's country lay hundreds of miles of +sandy desert--desolate, lonely, without water. Behind its rocks the +wild desert tribes could hide, to surprise and murder peaceful traders +who tried to bring their camel caravans across the waste of sand. And +when the desert was crossed and the Soudan reached, the country was not +one to love or to long for. + +A wretched, dry land is the Soudan, a land across which hot winds +sweep, like blasts from a furnace, driving the sand before them. The +Nile wanders through it, but in the Soudan there is none of the green +and pleasant river country that we know, who know the Thames and the +Tweed, the Hudson or St. Lawrence. + +There is never a fresh leaf, never a blade of grass. The hills are +bare slopes, the valleys strewn with sand and stones. Tufts of rough +yellow grass and stunted grey bushes, a mass of thorns, grow here and +there on the yellow sand. The mimosa trees, sapless and dry, are thick +with thorns. The palms, called dom-palms, grow fruit like wood. The +Sodom apples, that look like real fruit, are poisonous and horrible to +the taste. + +Tarantulas, scorpions, serpents, white ants, mosquitoes, and every kind +of loathsome creature that flies and crawls is to be found there. + +When men are toiling through that land, dust in their throats, sand in +their eyes, and longing with all their hearts for the sight of +something green, and the touch and taste of fresh, cool, sparkling +water, sometimes they see a great wonder. + +In front of them suddenly appears a lake or river, sparkling and +shimmering. There is green grass at the water-side. White-winged +birds float on it, and trees dip their leafy branches into its +coolness. Sometimes great palaces and towers overlook it. Sometimes +it seems a lonely spot, quiet and peaceful, and delicious for the weary +wanderers to rest at. + +English soldiers have often started off running with their empty +water-bottles to fill them in that lake or river. Many, many +travellers have hastened towards it when they knew that they must have +water or die. But ever the mirage, as it is called, retreats before +them. That water is like magic water that no human being can ever +drink. The palaces and towers are like fairy palaces and towers into +which no real person ever enters. The green leaves and white birds, +the trees and the grass, are only a picture that the sun and the desert +make to madden thirst-parched men. + +"When Allah made the Soudan," say the Arabs, "he laughed." + +European traders were amongst the first to open a way into the Soudan. +The Egyptians knew that there was much fine ivory to be got there, but +were too lazy to try to get it. The Europeans, many of them +Englishmen, braved dangers and hardships, and made much money by the +ivory they bought from the black people of the desert land. Soon they +found there was something else for which they could get much higher +prices than any that they could get for elephants' tusks. They called +it "black ivory." By that they meant slaves. + +At once they began to raid, to harry, and to kidnap the black races of +the Soudan. They built forts and garrisoned them with Arabs, to whom +no cruelty was too frightful, no wickedness too great. They burned +down the villages of the blacks. They stole their flocks and herds. +They burned or stole their crops. Their wives and little children they +tore from them, chained them in gangs, and took them across the desert +to sell for slaves. The men whom they could not take they slew. + +So great and shameless became this trade, that at last Europe grew +ashamed that any of her people should be guilty of it. There was an +outcry made. The Europeans sold their stations to the Arabs, and +quietly withdrew. The Arabs then agreed to pay a tax to the Egyptian +Government, which saw no harm in stealing people and selling them as +slaves, so long as some of the money thus gained went into the royal +treasury. + +And so the slave trade grew and grew, until, in 1874, out of every +hundred people of the land about eighty-four were slaves. The Arabs +trained some of the black boys they caught to be slave-hunters, and +taught them so well that they grew up even more wicked and cruel than +their masters. + +Before long the slavers became so powerful and so rich that they no +longer owned the Khedive as their king. Their king was Sebehr, the +richest and worst of them all--a man who used to have chained lions as +part of his escort, and who owned a great army of armed slaves. When +the slavers refused to pay a tax any longer, and when they had cut in +pieces the army the Khedive sent to quell them, the Khedive grew afraid. + +He knew that England and the other European Powers were angry with him +because he permitted slavery. And now that the slavers refused to obey +him, he was between two fires. + +So the Khedive and his ministers suddenly seemed to become very much +shocked at the wicked traffic in slaves in the Soudan, and asked +Colonel Gordon to come and help to stop it. + +Early in February Gordon arrived in Cairo. He had been but a few days +there when he wrote: "I think I can see the true motive now of the +expedition, and believe it to be a sham to catch the attention of the +English people." He felt he had been humbugged. Only in name was he +Governor, for the Egyptian Government only owned three stations in that +wide tract of country which he had been asked to come and govern. + +But Gordon never turned his back upon those who wanted help. The land +was full of misery. There were thousands of wretched people to fight +for and to set free. Humbugged or not, he must do the work he had come +to do, and on the 18th of February 1874 he started for the Soudan. + +The Egyptian troops and Gordon's own staff were amazed when they found +what sort of a man was the new Governor. They were used to the +Egyptian officials who never did any work they were not paid for, who +did not do it then if they could find any one else to do it for them, +and whose hands were constantly held out asking for bribes. + +Sebehr the slaver, when he went to Cairo, took with him L100,000 to +bribe the Pashas. It was as if some notorious criminal should go to +London with L100,000 gained by murders and thefts to bribe the British +Government. But what would be outrageous in our country was a very +usual thing in Egypt. + +As Gordon and his troops (200 Egyptian soldiers) sailed up the Nile in +their _dahabeah_, the boat was often blocked by the tangled water +weeds. And always one of the first to spring into the water and help +to pull the boat onwards was the new Governor. The old Nile +crocodiles, even, must have been surprised; but they did him no harm, +for they never touch any one who is moving. + +They landed at Berber, and after a fortnight's march across the desert +they reached the two or three thousand yellowish-white, flat-roofed, +mud-walled houses that made Khartoum, the capital of the Soudan. + +There eight busy days were spent. He issued proclamations; he held a +review; he visited the hospitals and the schools. "The little blacks +were glad to see me," he wrote; "I wish the flies would not dine on the +corners of their eyes." + +The grown-up people at Khartoum also seemed delighted to see "His +Excellency General Colonel Gordon, the Governor-General of the +Equator," as his title went. "They make a shrill noise when they see +you, as a salutation; it is like a jingle of bells, very shrill, and +somewhat musical," wrote Gordon. + +From Khartoum he sailed up the Nile to Gondokoro, and enjoyed like a +boy all the new sights he came across. + +Hoary old crocodiles lay basking on the sand, their hungry mouths +agape. Great hippopotamuses, "like huge islands," walked about in the +shallows, and sometimes bellowed and fought all night. Troops of +monkeys, "with very long tails stuck up straight like swords all over +their backs," came down to drink. Herds of elephants and of fierce, +coal-black buffaloes eyed the boat threateningly from the banks, while +giraffes, looking like steeples, nibbled the tops of trees. At +Khartoum the sight of flocks of English sparrows had gladdened Gordon's +heart. Now he saw storks and geese preparing to go north for the +summer, and many strange birds as well. He found out that some little +white birds that roosted in the trees near where he camped were white +egrets. Their feathers make the plumes of horse artillery officers, +and trim many hats and bonnets, so Gordon did not tell his men of his +discovery. "I do not want the poor things to be killed," he wrote. + +Not only strange birds and beasts were to be seen on the way to +Gondokoro. The wild black people came down to the banks to stare. +Some had their faces smeared with ashes, others wore gourds for +headdresses. Some wore neither gourds nor anything else. One +chieftain's full dress was a string of beads. At first he was afraid +to come near Gordon, but when he had been given a present of beads and +other things he grew very friendly. + +"He came up to me," says Gordon, "took up each hand, and gave a good +soft lick to the backs of them; and then he held my face and made the +motion of spitting in it." + +This was a mark of great politeness and respect. A chief of this tribe +once welcomed an English traveller by spitting into each of his hands, +and then into his face. The traveller, in a rage, spat back as hard as +ever he could, and the chief was overcome with joy at the traveller's +friendliness. + +Near Gondokoro, at St. Croix, Gordon came to the ruins of an Austrian +missionary settlement. Only a few banana trees, planted by the +missionaries, and some graves, marked where the Christian settlement +had been. Out of twenty missionaries who had gone there during +thirteen years, thirteen had died of fever, two of dysentery, and two, +broken in health, had had to go home. And yet they had not been able +to claim as a Christian even one of the blacks amongst whom they +worked. No wonder that the Austrian Government lost heart and gave up +the mission. + +When Gordon reached Gondokoro he saw that it was absurd to pretend that +the Khedive ruled any of the country outside its walls. No one dared +go half a mile outside without being in danger of his life from the +tribes whose wives and children and cattle the slavers had taken. + +Gordon felt that to make friends with those people, to show them that +he was sorry for them, and that he wished to help them, was the first +thing to be done if he was to be in reality their Governor. And so, as +he travelled on from point to point--back to Khartoum from Gondokoro, +to Berber, to Fashoda, to Soubat--he made friends wherever he went. +Quickly the black people came to love the man who punished or slew +their enemies, who took them from the slavers, and gave them back their +wives and children and cattle. He gave grain to some, set others to +plant maize, fed the starving ones, and always paid them for each piece +of work that they did for him. + +Sometimes, even, he would buy from them the children that they were too +poor to feed, and find good homes for them. + +One man sold him his two boys of twelve and eight for a basket of +dhoora (a kind of grain). He soon found that the blacks did not look +on the sale of human beings in the same way that he did. + +[Illustration: In the Soudan buying two children for a basketful of +dhoora] + +One man stole a cow, and when the owner found out the thief and came to +claim his cow, it was too late. The cow had been eaten. + +Next day Gordon passed the man's hut, and saw that one of his two +children was gone. + +"Where was the other?" he asked of the mother. + +"Oh, it had been given to the man from whom the cow had been stolen," +she replied with a happy smile. + +"But," said Gordon, "are you not sorry?" + +"Oh no! we would rather have the cow." + +"But you have eaten the cow, and the pleasure is over," said Gordon. + +"Oh, but, all the same, we would sooner have the cow!" + +Two little boys came smiling up to Gordon one day, and pressed him to +buy one of them for a little basketful of dhoora. Gordon bought one, +and both boys were delighted. + +"Do buy me for a little piece of cloth. I should like to be your +slave," said one little fellow that Gordon rescued from a gang of +slavers. It was this boy, Capsune, who years afterwards asked Gordon's +sister if she was quite sure that Gordon Pasha still kept his blue +eyes. "Do you think he can see all through me now?" he asked, and +said, "I am quite sure Gordon Pasha could see quite well in the dark, +because he has the light inside him." + +Most of the slaves that the Arab slavers had in their gangs were little +children. In one caravan that Gordon rescued there were ninety slaves, +very few over sixteen, most of them little mites of boys and girls, +perfect skeletons. They had been brought over 500 miles of desert, and +the ninety were all that lived out of about four hundred. + +When Gordon rescued them, they knew the gentle, tender Gordon, whose +tenderness was like a mother's. + +It was another Gordon that the slavers knew--a man terrible in his +anger. Having taken from the ruffianly Arabs who had so cruelly +treated the little children, their slaves, their stolen cattle, and +their ivory, he would have them stripped and flogged, and driven naked +into the desert. + +For two months he was at Saubat River, a lonely and desolate country, +the prey of slavers. It was so dull and dreary a place, that the Arab +soldiers were sent there for a punishment, as the Russians are sent to +Siberia. + +But Gordon was too busy to be dull. He was always so full of thought +for others, that he never had time to be sorry for himself. + +"_I am sure it is the secret of true happiness to be content with what +we actually have_," he wrote from Saubat. + +From there, too, he wrote: "I took a poor old bag-of-bones into my camp +a month ago, and have been feeding her up; but yesterday she was +quietly taken off, and now knows all things. She had her tobacco up to +the last." + +Looking out of his camp he saw a poor woman, "a wisp of bones," feebly +struggling up the road in wind and rain. He sent some dhoora to her by +one of his men, and thought she had been taken safely to one of the +huts. All through that wet and stormy night he heard a baby crying. +At dawn he found the woman lying in a pool of mud, apparently dead, +while men passed and repassed her, and took no notice. Her baby, not +quite a year old, sat and wailed in some long grass near her. The +woman was actually not dead, but she died a few days later. The baby +boy was none the worse for his night out, and drank off a gourd of milk +"like a man." Gordon gave him to a family to look after, paying for +him daily with some maize. + +Mosquitoes and other insects were a pest wherever he went, but at +Saubat he had the extra pest of rats. They ran over his mosquito nets, +ate his soap, his books, his boots, and his shaving-brush, and screamed +and fought all night, until he invented a clever trap and stopped their +thefts. + +When Gordon returned to Gondokoro, he found nearly all his own staff +ill with fever and ague. Out of ten only two were well,--one of these +having newly recovered from a severe fever. Two were dead, and six +seriously ill. Gordon himself was worn to a mere shadow, but he had to +act as doctor and as sick-nurse. The weather was cold and wet, and the +rain came into the tents. To his sister, Gordon wrote: "Imagine your +brother paddling about a swamped tent without boots, attending to a +sick man at night, with more than a chance of the tent coming down +bodily." Of course he got chilled, and ill too, and at last gave an +order that "all illness is to take place away from me." + +Nor was it only sickness amongst his friends that he had to sadden him. +He found that his Egyptian officials--some of them those he had most +trusted--were leaguing with the slavers, taking bribes, helping to undo +the good work he had already done, and trying to rouse his troops into +mutiny. The troops themselves were a great trial. They were lazy, +treacherous, chicken-hearted fellows, with no pluck. "I never had less +confidence in any troops in my life," Gordon said, and he declared that +three natives would put a whole company to flight. The native +Soudanese were as brave as lions. A native has been known to kill +himself because his wife called him a coward. The Arab soldiers when +on sentry duty would all go to sleep at their posts, and think no harm +of it. + +The climate of the Soudan did not suit them, and they died like flies. +Of one detachment of 250, half were dead in three months, 100 +invalided, and only twenty-five fit for duty, and yet the Egyptian +Government continued to send them instead of the black troops Gordon +asked for. + +From Gondokoro, Gordon moved to Rageef, and there built a station on +healthier ground, higher up from the marshes. He sent to Gondokoro for +ammunition for his mountain howitzer, and the commandant there thought +it a good chance to pawn off on him some that was so damp as to be +useless. With ten men and no ammunition, his Arab allies left him in a +place where no Arab would have stayed without 100 well-armed men. + +Gordon's German servant, and two little black boys that Gordon had +bought, followed in a small boat to Rageef with Gordon's baggage. + +The German came to Gordon with very grave face. + +"I have had a great loss," said he. Gordon at once thought that one of +the boys must have been drowned. + +"What?" he anxiously asked. + +"I saw a hippopotamus on the bank," said the man, "and fired at him +with your big rifle; and I did not know it would kick so hard, and it +kicked me over, and it fell into the water." + +Said Gordon, "You are a born idiot of three years old! How dare you +touch my rifle?" + +But the rifle was gone, and he had to smile as the little black boys +mimicked the German's fright when he dropped the rifle and laughed in +scorn at him. + +At Rageef, seeing he need expect no real help from the Egyptian +Government, Gordon began to form an army of his own, making soldiers of +the Soudanese,--the "Gippies," as our own soldiers now call them. And +the Gippies are as brave and soldier-like a body of troops as is to be +found. "We," they say, "are like the English; we are not afraid." He +enlisted men who had been slaves, and men who had been slavers. A +detachment of cannibals that he came across he also enlisted, drilled, +and trained, and turned into first-rate soldiers. + +The slavers grew afraid of Gordon Pasha, and of the army that he had +made. + +Where an Egyptian official would not have dared to go without a convoy +of 100 soldiers, and where a single soldier would have been sure to +have been waylaid and murdered, Gordon could now go in safety, alone +and unarmed. He would walk along the river banks for miles and miles, +only armed when he wished to shoot a hippopotamus. + +Gordon's work was always much varied. Always, each bit of it was done +with all his might. + +He drilled savages, shot hippopotamuses, mended watches and musical +boxes for black chiefs, patched his own clothes and made clothes for +some of his men, invented rat-traps and machines for making rockets, +tamed baby lions and baby hippopotamuses, cleaned guns, raided the +camps of slavers, nursed the sick, and fed the hungry. And day and +night he worked to rid the land of slavery; to teach the black people +the meaning of justice, of mercy, and of honour. + +His food all the time was of the plainest--no vegetables, only dry +biscuits, bits of broiled meat, and macaroni boiled in sugar and water. +Ants and beetles often nested in the stores, and made them horrid to +the taste. "Oh, how I should like a good dinner!" he wrote to his +sister. + +In addition to all his other work, Gordon had the task of finding out +for himself the exact geography of that part of the Nile of which he +was Governor, and he had to do much exploring. + +While doing this he one day marched 18 miles through jungle, in pouring +rain. Another day, in the hottest season of that hot land, he marched +35 miles. + +As he and his men sailed up the Nile they met with many dangers. There +were rapids to pass, furious hippopotamuses to charge their boats, and +on the banks were concealed enemies, throwing their assegais with +deadly aim. And through all this he had only a pack of cowardly Arabs +to depend on for everything. + +A wizard belonging to one of the black tribes, sure that the white man +and his soldiers could only have come for some evil purpose, stood on +the top of a rock by the river, screaming curses at them and exciting +his tribe. + +"I don't think that's a healthy spot to deliver an address from," said +Gordon, taking up a rifle and pointing it at the wizard, who at once +ran away. + +"We do not want your beads; we do not want your cloth; we only want you +to go away," one tribe said to him. Gordon's heart was full of pity +for them. It was for them that he was spending his life, had they only +known it. + +The never-ending work and worry tried him badly. + +"Poor sheath, it is much worn," he wrote of himself from the dreary +land of marsh and forest into which he had come while laying down a +chain of posts between Gondokoro and the Lakes. + +The dampness of the marshes was poison to white men, and earwigs, ants, +mosquitoes, sandflies, beetles, scorpions, snakes, and every imaginable +insect and reptile seemed to do their best to make things unpleasant +for him. + +The turf was full of prickly grass seeds; the long grass cut the +fingers to the bone if people tried to pick it. The very fruit was +bitter and poisonous. Rain sometimes fell in unexpected torrents, so +heavy that he was flooded out of his tent. + +When he was dead tired, body and soul, Gordon would sometimes build +castles of what he would do when he got back to England. He would lie +in bed till eleven, and always wear his best fur coat, and travel first +class, and have oysters every day for lunch! + +In 1876 there seemed a chance of his really building his castles. + +He felt it was impossible to rid the land of slavery, with the Egyptian +officials, who did not wish to have it stopped, working hard against +him, and so, after three years of hard work, he threw up his post and +went home. + +No sooner was he gone than the Khedive realised how great a loss it +would be to him and to his country if Gordon were not to return. + +He begged him to come back, and he would make him Governor-General of +the Soudan, and help him in every possible way to carry out the work he +wished to do. + +So Gordon returned, and in February 1877 he started for the Soudan, +absolute ruler now of 1640 miles of desert, marsh, and forest. + +"So there is an end of slavery," he wrote to his sister, "if God wills, +for the whole secret of the matter is in that Government (the Soudan), +and if the man who holds the Soudan is against it, it must +cease." . . . "I go up alone with an infinite Almighty God to direct +and guide me, and am glad to so trust Him as to fear nothing, and, +indeed, to feel sure of success." + +From this time on, in every direction, the slavers were hunted and +harried and driven out of the land, as one drives rats from a farmyard. + +On every side he came on caravans packed with starving slaves, dying of +hunger and thirst, and set them free. The desert was strewn not only +with the bodies of camels, that the dry air had turned into mummies, +but with the bones and whitened skulls of the slave-dealers' victims. +Everywhere he had to look out for treachery and for lying, and be ready +to pounce on slaves cunningly concealed by the kidnappers. + +A hundred or more would sometimes be found being smuggled past, down +the Nile, hidden under a boatload of wood. + +Gordon, on a camel that he rode so quickly that it came to be called +the Telegraph, seemed to fly across the silent desert like a magician. +Daily, often all alone, he would ride 30 or 40 miles. In the three +years during which he governed the Soudan he rode 8490 miles. + +The black people knew that he was always willing to listen to their +troubles, always ready to help them. In the first three days of his +governorship he gave away over L1000 of his own money to the hungry +poor. + +Great chiefs, as well as poor people, came to see him and became his +friends. If one of them sat too long, Gordon would rise and say in +English: "Now, old bird, it is time for you to go," and the chief would +go away, delighted with the Governor's affability and politeness. +Those who begged, and continued to beg for things he could not grant, +knew a different Governor. + +"Never!" he would shout in an angry voice. "Do you understand? Have +you finished?" and they would hurry off, frightened at his flashing +eyes. + +When fighting was necessary, he led his men as he had led his Chinese +troops in past days. Like Nelson, he did not know the meaning of the +word "fear." + +News came to him that the son of Sebehr, king of the slavers, with 6000 +men, was about to attack a poor, weak little garrison that they could +have wiped out with the greatest ease. At once Gordon mounted his +camel, and, alone and unarmed, sped off across the desert, covering 85 +miles in a day and a half. On the way he rode into a swarm of flies +that thickly covered him and his camel. Of his arrival at the little +garrison he wrote to his sister: "I came on my people like a +thunderbolt. . . . Imagine to yourself a single, dirty, red-faced man +on a camel, ornamented with flies, arriving in the divan all of a +sudden. They were paralysed, and could not believe their eyes." + +Still more paralysed were the slavers when, at dawn next morning, there +rode into their camp Gordon Pasha, radiant in the gorgeous "golden +armour" the Khedive had given him. Fearlessly and scornfully Gordon +condemned them, and ordered them at once to lay down their arms. They +listened in silence and wonderment, and then weakly submitted to this +great Pasha who knew no fear. + +[Illustration: There rode into their camp Gordon Pasha] + +When the slavers' power had been broken and their dens harried out--not +without some heavy fighting--Gordon went on a mission from the Khedive +to the King of Abyssinia, one of the cruellest and most savage of cruel +kings. The Khedive wanted peace, but the Abyssinian King would not +have it, and treated Gordon with the greatest insolence. + +"Do you know that I could kill you?" he asked, glaring at Gordon like a +tiger. Gordon answered that he was quite ready to die, and that in +killing him the King would only confer a favour on him, opening a door +he must not open for himself. + +"Then my power has no terrors for you?" said the King. + +"None whatever," replied Gordon, and the King, who was used to rule by +terror, had no more to say. + +This mission over, Gordon, utterly worn out, and broken in health, +returned to Egypt, and resigned his post as Governor-General of the +Soudan. + +The slaves that he had set free used to try to kiss his feet and the +hem of his garment. To this day there is a name known in Egypt and in +the Soudan as that of a man who scorned money, who had no fear of any +man, who did not even fear death, whose mercy was as perfect as his +uprightness. And the name of that man is Gordon Pasha. + +"Give us another Governor like Gordon Pasha," was the cry of the +Soudanese when the Mahdi uprose to be a scourge to the Soudan. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +KHARTOUM + +Gordon left Egypt in December 1879, "not a day too soon," the doctor +said, for he was ill, not only from hard work, but from overwork. + +The burden he had carried on his shoulders through those years was the +burden of the whole of the Soudan. + +He was ordered several months of complete rest. But those days of rest +were only castles that Gordon had built in his day-dreams, when burning +days and bitter nights had made him long for ease. + +Early in 1880 he became Secretary to Lord Ripon, Viceroy of India. He +remained only a few months in India, and then went to China, in answer +to an urgent message from his old friend, Li Hung Chang. + +China and Russia were on the brink of a great war. The Chinese +courtiers wished to fight, but Li Hung Chang longed for peace. + +"Come and help me to keep peace," he said to Gordon. And "Chinese +Gordon" did not fail him. + +"I cannot desert China in her present crisis," he wrote. + +His stay in China was not long, but when he returned to England he had +made peace between two empires. + +He had only been home for a short time when again he was on the wing. + +One day at the War Office he met a brother officer, who complained of +his bad luck at having to go and command the Engineers at such a dull +place as the Island of Mauritius. + +"Oh, don't worry yourself," said Gordon, "I will go for you: Mauritius +is as good for me as anywhere else." + +For a year he remained there--a peaceful, if dull year, but in March +1882 he was made a Major-General, and relieved from his post. + +For a short time he was in South Africa, trying to put to rights +affairs between the Basutos--a black race--and the Government at the +Cape. The Government, who had asked him to come, treated him badly, +and even put his life in danger. He made them very angry by telling +them that they were wholly in the wrong, and that he would not fight +the Basutos, who had right and justice on their side; and, having +failed in his mission, he returned to England. + +To find the rest and peace he so much needed, Gordon now went to the +Holy Land. + +Long ago, the day before a brave warrior was made a knight, he spent +the hours from sunset till dawn alone in a chapel beside his armour, +watching and praying. This was called "watching his armour." + +Gordon was "watching his armour" now. Often he saw no one for weeks at +a time. He prayed much, and the books he read were his Bible, his +Prayer Book, Thomas a Kempis, and Marcus Aurelius. He wandered over +the ground where the feet of the Master he served so well had trod +before him. He was much in Jerusalem. He went to where the grey +olives grow in the Garden of Gethsemane. His own Gethsemane was still +to come. + +In those quiet days he planned great work that he meant to do in the +East End of London. + +But there was other work for him to do. "We have nothing to do when +the scroll of events is unrolled but to accept them as being for the +best," he once wrote. + +In December 1883 he suddenly returned to London, and soon it was known +that he was going, at the request of the King of the Belgians, to the +Congo, to help to fight the slavers there. "We will kill them in their +haunts," said Gordon. + +Meantime, fresh things had been happening in the Soudan. + +When Gordon left Egypt in 1879, he said to an English official there: +"I shall go, and you must get a man to succeed me--if you can. But I +do not deny that he will want three qualifications which are seldom +found together. First, he must have my iron constitution; for Khartoum +is too much for any one who has not. Then, he must have my contempt +for money; otherwise the people will never believe in his sincerity. +Lastly, he must have my contempt for death." + +Such a man was not found, and well might the black people long for the +return of Gordon Pasha, the only Christian for whom they offered +prayers at Mecca. + +When he went away, under the rule of the greedy Egyptian pashas the +slave trade began again. Once more packed caravans of wretched slaves +dragged across the desert, and the land was full of misery and of +rebellion. + +In 1881 the discontented Soudanese found a leader. + +From the island of Abbas on the Nile, Mahommed Ahmed, a dervish or holy +man, from Dongola, proclaimed to the people of Egypt and of the Soudan +that he was a prophet sent from heaven to save them from the cruelty of +their rulers. + +_El Mahdi el Muntazer_, or The Expected One, he called himself, and +said he was immortal and would never die. + +Soon he had many followers. He was attended by soldiers, who stood in +his presence with drawn swords, and he had all the power of a king. +Because he was Mahdi, his followers all had to obey him. And as he was +Mahdi, he himself did exactly as he pleased, and what he liked to do +was all that was wicked and cruel. + +The Governor-General at Khartoum, seeing that the Mahdi was growing +much too powerful, sent two companies of soldiers to take him prisoner. +The Mahdists made a trap for them, fell on them with their swords and +short stabbing spears, and destroyed them. More troops were sent, and +also destroyed. Then came a small army, and of that army almost no man +escaped. + +"This is in truth our Deliverer, sent from Heaven," said the wild +people of the Soudan, and they flocked in tribes to join the Mahdi. + +It was not long before he owned a great army, and there have never been +any soldiers who fought more fiercely and with more magnificent +courage, and who feared death less, than those followers of a savage +dervish. + +The Mahdi laid siege to one of the chief cities of the Soudan. It fell +before him, and sack and massacre followed. + +An army of 11,000, under the command of a brave English officer, was +then sent to attack the Mahdi. Like all the troops that had gone +before them, they were led into a trap, and, out of 11,000 men, only +eleven returned to Egypt. + +From one victory to another went the Mahdi. His troops, armed with +weapons taken from those they had slain, were rich with plunder. + +Only two Englishmen were now left in the Soudan. At Khartoum were +Colonel Coetlogan and Mr. Frank Power, correspondent of the _Times_. + +Colonel Coetlogan telegraphed that it was hopeless for the Egyptian +troops in the Soudan to hold out against the Mahdi. Soldiers were +deserting daily, and people on every hand were joining the victorious +army of the ruffian who claimed to have been sent from Heaven. Colonel +Coetlogan begged for orders for the loyal troops to leave the Soudan +and seek safety in Egypt. + +Gordon believed that if the Soudan were given up to the Mahdi, there +would presently be no limit to the tyrant's power. All the slavery and +misery from which Gordon had tried to free the land would be worse than +ever before. Egypt and Arabia might also, before long, take as their +king the Mahdi who ruled the Soudan. + +He held that at all costs Khartoum must be defended, and not handed +over to the Mahdi, as Colonel Coetlogan and many others advised. + +In England this belief of General Gordon, who knew more about the +Soudan than any other living man, soon became known. + +All his plans for going to the Congo were made, and he had gone to +Brussels to take leave of the King of the Belgians when a telegram came +to him from the English Government. + +"Come back to London by evening train," it said. And, leaving all his +luggage behind him, Gordon went. + +Next morning he interviewed Lord Wolseley and some members of the +Cabinet. He was asked if he would undertake a mission to the Soudan, +to try to resettle affairs there, to bring away the Egyptian garrisons, +and to divide, if possible, the country amongst the petty sultans whom +he thought strong and wise enough to keep order. + +Gordon was ready to go, and, to go at once. "I would give my life for +these poor people of the Soudan," he said. + +Late that afternoon he started. + +Lord Wolseley has told the story of his going:-- + + +"There he stood, in a tall silk hat and frock coat. I offered to send +him anything he wanted. + +"'Don't want anything,' he said. + +"'But you've got no clothes.' + +"'I'll go as I am!' he said, and he meant it. + +"He never had any money; he always gave it away. I know once he had +L7000. It all went in the establishment of a ragged school for boys. + +"I asked him if he had any cash. + +"'No,' was his calm reply. 'When I left Brussels I had to borrow L25 +from the King to pay my hotel bill with.' + +"'Very well,' I said, 'I'll try and get you some, and meet you at the +railway station with it.' + +"I went round to the various clubs, and got L300 in gold. I gave the +money to Colonel Stewart, who went with him: Gordon was not to be +trusted with it. A week or so passed by, when I had a letter from +Stewart. He said, 'You remember the L300 you gave me? When we arrived +at Port Said a great crowd came out to cheer Gordon. Amongst them was +an old Sheikh to whom Gordon was much attached, and who had become poor +and blind. Gordon got the money, and gave the whole of it to him!'" [1] + + +Before he started, he gave away some trinkets and things that he +prized. It was as if he knew something of what lay before him. + +At Charing Cross, the Duke of Cambridge (who had known him since he was +a merry little boy at Corfu), Lord Wolseley, and others, came to bid +him Godspeed. + +He took with him Colonel Donald Stewart, whom he had chosen as his +military secretary. Even in the rush before the train started he found +time to say to one of Colonel Stewart's relations: "Be sure that he +will not go into any danger which I do not share, and I am sure that +when I am in danger he will not be far behind." + +When, on January 18, 1884, Gordon went out to the Soudan like one of +the Crusaders of old, all England was proud and glad. + +In Egypt the people were gladder still. + +Said the Arabs who had served under him: "The Mahdi's hordes will melt +away like dew, and the Pretender will be left like a small man standing +alone, until he is forced to flee back to his island of Abbas." + +The Khedive again made him Governor-General of the Soudan, and, on the +26th of January 1884, Gordon started for Khartoum. + +At Khartoum the people were in a panic. Colonel Coetlogan had his +troops in readiness for flight. The rich people had already escaped. +The poor who had not fled were in terror lest the Mahdi and his hosts +might come any day and massacre them. + +Across the desert spread the telegraph message: "_General Gordon is +coming to Khartoum_." + +"_You are men, not women. Be not afraid; I am coming,_" followed +Gordon's own message to the terrified garrison. + +More swiftly than ever before, he crossed the lonely desert. Many +skeletons of men and of camels, of oxen and of horses, now lay +bleaching in the scorching sun on that dreary waste of treeless +desolation. + +On 18th February he reached Khartoum, and was greeted as their +deliverer by the people, who flocked around him in hundreds, trying to +kiss his hands and feet. + +"I come without soldiers," he said to them, "but with God on my side, +to redress the evils of the land." + +At once he was ready, as in past days, to listen to tales of wrong from +the poorest, and to try to set them right. He had all the whips and +instruments of torture that Egyptian rulers had used piled up outside +the Palace and burned. In the gaol he found two hundred men, women, +and children lying in chains and in the most dismal plight. Some were +innocent, many were prisoners of war. Of many their gaolers could give +no reason for their being there. One woman had been imprisoned for +fifteen years for a crime committed when she was a child. + +Gordon had their chains struck off, and set them free. At nightfall he +had a bonfire made of the prison, and men, women, and children danced +round it in the red light of the flames, laughing and clapping their +hands. + +All the sick in the city he sent by the river down to Egypt. + +In Khartoum itself, by the mercy of its Governor, peace soon reigned. + +"Gordon is working wonders," was the message Mr. Power sent to England. + +But the Mahdi's power was daily growing, and he feared no one. When +Gordon sent him messages of peace he sent back insolent answers, +calling upon Gordon to become a Mussulman, and to come and serve the +Mahdi. + +"If Egypt is to be quiet, the Mahdi must be smashed up," Gordon +telegraphed to the English Government. + +By means of his steamers he laid in stores. The defences of Khartoum +he strengthened by mines and wire entanglements. He made some steamers +bullet-proof, and on 24th August was able to write that they were doing +"splendid work." His poor "sheep," as he called his troops, were being +turned into tried soldiers. "You see," he wrote, "when you have steam +on, the men can't run away, and must go into action." + +Daily, from the top of a tower that he had built, he would gaze long +with his glass down the river and into the country round. From there +he could see if the Mahdi's armies were approaching, or if help were +coming to save Khartoum and the Soudan. All the time he kept up the +hearts of the people, and encouraged work at the school and everywhere +else. + +In his journal he wrote: "I toss up in my mind, whether, if the place +is to be taken, to blow up the Palace and all in it, or else to be +taken, and, with God's help, to maintain the faith, and if necessary +suffer for it (which is most probable). The blowing up of the Palace +is the simplest, while the other means long and weary humiliation and +suffering of all sorts. I think I shall elect for the last, not from +fear of death, but because the former is, in a way, taking things out +of God's hands." + +"Haunting the Palace are a lot of splendid hawks. I often wonder +whether they are destined to pick out my eyes." + +Gradually the Mahdi's forces were gathering round the city. Their +drums rang in the ears of the besieged like the sound of a gathering +storm. The outlying villages were besieged, and many of those +villagers went over to the enemy. In some cases Gordon managed to +drive back the rebels from the parts they attacked, and bring back arms +and stores taken from them. More often the troops that were expected +to defend Khartoum put Gordon to shame by their feebleness and +cowardice, and suffered miserable defeat. Once, when attacking the +Mahdists, five of Gordon's own commanders deserted, and helped to drive +their own soldiers back to Khartoum. + +As the year wore on, the siege came closer. Daily the Palace and the +Mission House were shelled, and men were killed as they walked in the +streets. + +Money was scarce, and Gordon had little bank-notes made and used in +place of money, so that business still went on. But food grew scarcer +than money. Biscuits were the officers' chief food; dhoora that of the +men. + +Again and again news was sent to him: "The English are coming." + +Again and again he found that the English army that was to relieve +Khartoum had not yet started. + +"The English are coming!" mocked the dervishes. + +Day by day, Gordon's glass would sweep the steely river and the yellow +sand for the first sight of the men who were coming to save him and his +people. + +At last, with sinking heart, he wrote: "The Government having abandoned +us, we can only trust in God." + +"When our provisions, which we have, at a stretch, for two months, are +eaten, we must fall," wrote, to the _Times_, Frank Power, a brave man +and a true friend of Gordon. + +In April the telegraph wires were cut by the enemy. After that, news +from England was only rarely to be had, and only through messengers who +were not often to be trusted. + +Still hoping that an English army was coming, Gordon determined to send +his steamers half way to meet it. It meant that his garrison would be +weaker, should the Mahdi make any great attack, but Gordon felt that +England _could_ not fail him, and that in a very short time the +steamers would return, bringing a splendid reinforcement. + +On September 10th, three steamers, with Colonel Stewart and Frank Power +in command, sailed down the Nile. + +Gordon was left the only Englishman in Khartoum. + +"I am left alone . . . but not alone," he wrote. + +The steamer with Stewart and Power on board ran aground. The crew was +treacherously taken by a native sheikh, and Stewart, Power, and almost +all the others were cruelly murdered and their bodies thrown into the +Nile. + +The news of the death of his two friends, and the ruin of his plan to +hasten on the relief of Khartoum, cut Gordon's brave heart to the quick. + +Before Mr. Power left, Gordon had given him a little book that he +loved. It is called _The Dream of S. Gerontius_. Gordon had marked +many passages in it. + +Here are some:-- + + "_Pray for me, O my friends._" + + "Now that the hour is come, my fear is fled . . ." + "Into thy hands + O Lord, into Thy hands . . ." + +So it seemed that even then Gordon knew that Death was drawing near +him, and was greeting with a fearless face the martyrdom that he was +soon to endure. + +Yet all the while he never wavered, and his bravery seemed to give +courage to the feeblest hearted. + +He who had never taken any pride in decorations or in medals--save +one--tried to cheer his soldiers by having a decoration made and +distributed--"three classes: gold, silver, pewter." + +A Circassian in the Egyptian Service, speaking of Gordon in after +years, said: "He never seemed to sleep. He was always working and +looking after the people." + +In the early days of those dark months, Frank Power had written of him +that all day he was cheering up others, but that through the night he +heard his footfall overhead, backwards and forwards, backwards and +forwards, sleepless, broken in heart, bearing on his soul the burden of +those he had no power to save. + +At dawn he slept. All day he went the rounds, cheering up the people, +seeing to the comfort of every one, feeding the starving as well as he +could. For two days at a time he would go without food, that his +portion might go to others. They were living on roots and herbs when +the siege was done. + +All the night he spent on the top of his tower, watching and praying. +Many times in the day did men see the spare figure standing on that +yellow-white tower, staring, with eyes that grew tired with longing, +into the far-away desert, looking for the help that never came. + +[Illustration: Looking for the help that never came] + +But, after many delays, an English army was actually on the march. + +It was a race of about 1800 miles up the Nile from the sea--a race +between Victory and the Salvation of the beleaguered city and its +defender on one side, and Defeat, Death, and the Mahdi on the other. + +Lord Wolseley, who commanded the expedition, offered L100 to the +regiment that covered the distance first. + +Some fierce battles were fought on the way, and many brave lives were +lost. + +On 14th December 1884, Gordon wrote to his sister: "This may be the +last letter you will receive from me, for we are on our last legs, +owing to the delay of the expedition. However, God rules all, and, as +He will rule to His glory and our welfare, His will be done. . . . + +"I am quite happy, thank God, and, like Lawrence, I have '_tried_ to do +my duty.'" + +On the same day he wrote in his journal: + +"I have done my best for the honour of our country. Good-bye.--C. G. +Gordon." + +The last message of all was one that bore no date, and was smuggled out +of Khartoum in a cartridge case by one who had been his servant:-- + +"What I have gone through I cannot describe. The Almighty God will +help me." + +In the camp of the Mahdi lay an Austrian prisoner, Slatin Pasha. + +On the 15th of January 1885 he heard vigorous firing from Khartoum. +Gordon and his garrison were preventing the Mahdists from keeping in +their possession a fort which they had just taken. + +In the days that followed, the firing went on, but Gordon's ammunition +was nearly done, and he and his men were weak and spent with hunger. + +On the night of the 25th Slatin heard "the deafening discharge of +thousands of rifles and guns; this lasted for a few minutes, then only +occasional shots were heard, and now all was quiet again." + +He lay wide awake, wondering if this was the great attack on Khartoum +that the Mahdi had always planned. + +A few hours later, three black soldiers entered the prison bearing +something in a bloody cloth. They threw it at the prisoner's feet, and +he saw that it was the head of General Gordon. + +When the relieving army reached Khartoum, they found the Mahdi's +banners of black and green flaunting from its walls, and the guns that +had so bravely defended it turned against them. They had come too late. + +A traitor in the camp had hastened the end, and Gordon had fallen, +hacked to pieces, while trying to rally his troops. + +For hours after he fell, massacre and destruction went on in the city. + +Fourteen years later, Lord Kitchener and his soldiers avenged that +massacre, and marched into Khartoum. + +The Mahdi was dead. He who boasted that he was immortal had died from +poison given him by a woman whom he had cruelly used. The Mahdi's +successors had fallen before a conquering English army. + +When the Mahdists sacked and burned the Governor's Palace, they forgot +to destroy the trees and the rose bushes that Gordon with his own hands +had planted. + +And in a new and lovely garden, beside a new Palace from which a brave +Scottish soldier rules the Soudan, the roses grow still, fragrant and +beautiful. + +Khartoum is a great town now, peaceful and prosperous. + +The Gordon College, where the boys of the Soudan are taught all that +English schoolboys learn, is the monument that England gave to a hero. +A statue of him stands in one of the squares, and to it came a poor old +black woman to whom Gordon had been very kind. + +"God be praised!" she cried, "Gordon Pasha has come again!" + +For a whole day she sat beside the statue, longing for a look from him +who had never before passed her without a friendly nod. + +"Is he tired? or what is it?" she asked. + +After many visits, she came home one evening quite happy. + +"The Pasha has nodded his head to me!" she said. + +And so, in the hearts of the people of the Soudan, Gordon Pasha still +lives. + +Winds carry across the desert the scent of the roses that he planted, +and that drop their fragrant leaves near where his blood was shed. + +And to the Eastern country for whose sake he died, and to our own land +for whose honour his life was given, he has left a memory that must be +like the roses--for ever fragrant, and for ever sweet. + + + +[1] _Strand Magazine_, May 1892. 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