initial commit of ebook 26419HEADmain

185 files changed, 23918 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/26419-8.txt b/26419-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5159c99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7921 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Life of Gordon, Volume I, by Demetrius
+Charles Boulger
+
+
+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 Life of Gordon, Volume I
+
+
+Author: Demetrius Charles Boulger
+
+
+
+Release Date: August 24, 2008  [eBook #26419]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GORDON, VOLUME I***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs, Richard J. Shiffer, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 26419-h.htm or 26419-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/4/1/26419/26419-h/26419-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/4/1/26419/26419-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully
+      as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other
+      inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an
+      obvious error is noted at the end of this e-book.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF GORDON
+
+MAJOR-GENERAL, R.E., C.B.; TURKISH FIELD-MARSHAL, GRAND
+CORDON MEDJIDIEH, AND PASHA; CHINESE TITU (FIELD-MARSHAL),
+YELLOW JACKET ORDER.
+
+
+   "_'Tis a name which ne'er hath been dishonour'd,
+And never will, I trust--most surely never
+By such a youth as thou._"
+
+                           --SWINTON ON ADAM GORDON.
+
+by
+
+DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER
+
+Author of "The History of China;" "England and Russia in Central
+Asia;" "Lord William Bentinck," Etc., Etc.
+
+With Portrait
+
+VOLUME I
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+T. Fisher Unwin
+Paternoster Square
+MDCCCXCVI
+[All rights reserved.]
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL GORDON
+A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN SHORTLY AFTER THE CRIMEA AND LENT BY HIS NIECE,
+MISS DUNLOP.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+As so many books of a more or less biographical nature have been
+written about General Charles Gordon, it is both appropriate and
+natural that I should preface the following pages with a statement of
+a personal character as to how and why I have written another.
+
+In the year 1881 I told General Gordon that I contemplated describing
+his career as soon as I had finished writing my "History of China."
+His laughing reply was: "You know I shall never read it, but you can
+have all my papers now in the possession of my brother, Sir Henry
+Gordon." My history took a very long time to write, and the third
+volume was not published until April 1884, when General Gordon was
+hemmed in, to use his own words, at Khartoum.
+
+For over two years General Gordon's papers and letters remained in my
+custody, and they included the Equator and Soudan correspondence,
+which was so admirably edited by Dr Birkbeck Hill in that intensely
+interesting volume, "Colonel Gordon in Central Africa." The papers
+relating to China and the Taeping Rebellion were freely used in my
+history. To them I have the privilege of adding in the present volume
+an authoritative narrative of the events that followed the execution
+of the Taeping Wangs at Soochow, and of thus rendering tardy justice
+to the part taken in them by Sir Halliday Macartney. Among the
+contents of the large portmanteau in which all these documents were
+stored, I noticed a thick bundle of letters, in somewhat faded
+handwriting, and an examination of their contents showed me that they
+were of the deepest interest as relating to the important events of
+the Crimean War, and to the first seven years of Gordon's service in
+the Army. I at once went to Sir Henry Gordon, who honoured me with his
+friendship and confidence in no less a degree than his distinguished
+and ever-lamented brother, and begged of him permission to publish
+them. He at once gave his consent, which was ratified by the late Miss
+Augusta Gordon, the hero's favourite sister. The letters appeared in
+July 1884, under the title of "General Gordon's Letters from the
+Crimea, the Danube, and Armenia." In the proper place I have told what
+Kinglake, the historian of the war, thought of them and their author.
+
+In the rush of books that followed the fall of Khartoum, no favourable
+opportunity for carrying out my original purpose presented itself;
+and, indeed, I may say that the anonymous biographical work I
+performed during the course of the year 1885 would have filled a
+large-sized volume. Moreover, the terrible events of the fall of
+Khartoum, and the failure of the relieving expedition, were too close
+at hand to allow of a just view being taken of them, and it was
+necessary to defer an intention which I never abandoned. It seemed to
+me that the tenth anniversary of the fall of Khartoum would be an
+appropriate occasion for the appearance of a Life claiming to give a
+complete view and final verdict on the remarkable career and character
+of the man, with whom his own friendly inclination had made me
+exceptionally well acquainted.
+
+In 1893, therefore, I began to take steps to carry out my project, and
+to the notification of my intention and the application for assistance
+in regard to unpublished papers, I received from several of the
+principal representatives of the Gordon family encouraging replies.
+But at this time both Sir Henry Gordon and Miss Gordon were dead, and
+I discovered that the latter had bound her literary executrix, Miss
+Dunlop, a niece of General Gordon's, by a promise not to divulge the
+bulk of the unpublished papers during her lifetime. I am happy to
+say, however, that Miss Dunlop, without accepting any responsibility
+for what I have written, has with the greatest possible kindness read
+these pages, and assisted me to attain complete accuracy in the facts,
+so far as they relate to family and personal matters, but excluding
+altogether from her purview all military and political topics. For
+that co-operation, unfortunately restricted by the condition of the
+promise to Miss Gordon, I avail myself of this opportunity to express
+my grateful thanks; and I am also indebted to Miss Dunlop for the
+youthful unpublished portrait of Gordon which forms the frontispiece
+of this volume, and also for that of the house in which he was born.
+
+When I was first confronted with the difficulty that the unpublished
+papers would not be accessible to me, I contemplated the abandonment
+of my task; but a brief consideration made me conclude that, even
+without these documents, I had special knowledge, derived from Sir
+Henry Gordon and many other sources, that would enable me to deal with
+all the more important passages of General Gordon's life. The result
+must be judged from the Life itself; but I have not sought to make any
+partisan attack on anyone, although, when I have felt compelled to
+criticise and censure, I have done so with a full sense of
+responsibility as well as with reluctance. I may be pardoned the
+confidence I express when I say that I am sure nothing in the
+unpublished documents will affect the main conclusions to which I have
+come on the Khartoum mission, its inception and disastrous close.
+
+I am permitted by the courtesy of the proprietors of _The Times_ to
+reproduce in these pages the several articles and letters which
+originally appeared in the columns of that paper.
+
+It is a personal matter, of no interest except to myself, but I should
+like to state that the work would have been out much sooner but for a
+long and serious illness.
+
+                                   DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER
+
+  _29th August 1896._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  VOLUME I.
+
+  CHAP.                                                            PAGE
+
+    I. BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE                                           1
+
+   II. THE CRIMEA, DANUBE, AND ARMENIA                               16
+
+  III. THE CHINA WAR                                                 45
+
+   IV. THE TAEPING REBELLION                                         61
+
+    V. THE EVER-VICTORIOUS ARMY                                      78
+
+   VI. GRAVESEND AND GALATZ                                         127
+
+  VII. THE FIRST NILE MISSION                                       141
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+  PORTRAIT OF GENERAL GORDON, TAKEN SOON AFTER THE CRIMEA _Frontispiece_
+
+  HOUSE IN WHICH GENERAL GORDON WAS BORN               _To face page_ 16
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF GORDON.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE.
+
+
+Charles George Gordon was born on 28th January 1833, at No. 1 Kemp
+Terrace, Woolwich Common, where his father, an officer in the Royal
+Artillery, was quartered at the time. The picture given elsewhere of
+this house will specially interest the reader as the birthplace of
+Gordon. It still stands, as described by Gordon's father in a private
+memoir, at the corner of Jackson's Lane, on Woolwich Common.
+
+The name "Gordon" has baffled the etymologists, for there is every
+reason to believe that the not inappropriate connection with the
+Danish word for a spear is due to a felicitous fancy rather than to
+any substantial reality. There is far more justification for the
+opinion that the name comes through a French source than from a
+Danish. The Gorduni were a leading clan of Cæsar's most formidable
+opponents, the Nervi; a Duke Gordon charged among the peers of
+Charlemagne; and the name is not unknown at the present day in the
+Tyrol. The "Gordium" of Phrygia and the "Gordonia" of Macedonia are
+also names that suggest an Eastern rather than a Northern origin.
+History strengthens this supposition and entirely disposes of the
+Danish hypothesis. The first bearer of the name Gordon appeared in
+Scotland at far too near a date to the Danish descents upon that
+country to encourage the view that he was a member of that most
+bitterly hated race. Nowhere were the Danes more hated or less
+successful than in Scotland, yet we are asked to believe that the
+founder of one of the most powerful families in that kingdom belonged
+to this alien and detested people. The silence itself of the
+chronicler sufficiently refutes the idea that the first Gordon was a
+renegade or a traitor, as he must have been if he were a Dane.
+
+In all probability the first Gordon, who helped Malcolm Canmore, and
+received in return a large grant of lands in Berwick, which became
+known as the Gordon country, was one of the many Norman knights
+attracted to the Court of Edward the Confessor. Accepting for the
+occasion the popular legendary version of Shakespeare, rather than the
+corrected account of modern historians, he may be supposed to have
+found his way north to the camp of Siward, where the youthful and
+exiled Scotch Prince had sought shelter from Macbeth, and it is no
+undue stretch of fancy to suggest that he took his part in the
+memorable overthrow of that usurper at Dunsinane, and thus obtained
+the favour of his successor. The growth of the Gordon family in place
+and power was rapid. To the lands on the borders was soon added the
+Huntly country on Deeside, where Aboyne Castle now stands, and in a
+very short period the Gordons ranked among the most powerful and
+warlike clans of Scotland. As Sir Walter Scott wrote of Adam Gordon,
+in words which might be appropriately applied to the subject of this
+biography:
+
+  "'Tis a name which ne'er hath been dishonour'd,
+  And never will, I trust--most surely never
+  By such a youth as thou!"
+
+Be its remote origin what it may, no name has appeared more
+prominently or more honourably in the British Army Lists during the
+last century and a half than that of Gordon. One of the most famous of
+our regiments bears and has nobly upheld the name. In honourable and
+friendly rivalry with the equally numerous and equally distinguished
+clans of Grant and Cameron, the Gordons have figured on every
+battlefield from Minden to Candahar, thus establishing at the same
+time the political wisdom of Chatham, who first turned the Highlanders
+from a cause of danger into a source of strength, and the military
+ardour and genius of their own race. Thus it came to pass that the
+spirit of remote warlike ages was perpetuated, and that the profession
+of arms continued to be the most natural one for any bearer of the
+name Gordon. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the
+practice of his nearest relations, as well as the traditions of his
+race, marked out Charles Gordon for a soldier's career.
+
+Passing over an uncertain connection with the General Peter Gordon,
+who rose high in the Russian service under Peter the Great, the
+nearest direct ancestor of whom we can speak with absolute confidence
+was Charles Gordon's great-grandfather David Gordon, who served as a
+lieutenant in Lascelles' regiment of foot--afterwards the 47th
+Regiment--at the battle of Prestonpans. Although the majority of the
+clans were still loyal to the Stuarts, it seems from this that some of
+them had entered the Hanoverian service probably in that most
+distinguished regiment, the First Royal Scots, which a few years
+before Culloden had fought gallantly at Fontenoy. At Prestonpans David
+Gordon had the bad fortune to be made prisoner by the forces of
+Charles Edward, and he found on the victorious side the whole of the
+Gordon clan, under the command of Sir William Gordon of Park, a
+younger son of the Earl of Huntly. As he was able to claim kindred
+with Sir William, David Gordon received better treatment than he might
+have expected, and in a short time was allowed to go free, either on
+an exchange of prisoners or more probably on his parole. This incident
+is specially interesting, because, after making every allowance for
+the remoteness and vagueness of the old Highland custom of cousinship,
+it seems to bring Charles Gordon's ancestry into sufficiently close
+relationship with the main Gordon stem of the Huntlys. After his
+release David Gordon does not appear to have taken any further part in
+the war which terminated at Culloden, and he emigrated shortly
+afterwards to North America, where his death is recorded as having
+taken place at a comparatively early age at Halifax in the year 1752.
+
+That he came of gentle blood is also proved by the fact that the Duke
+of Cumberland stood sponsor to his son, who bore the Duke's names of
+William Augustus. This second Gordon, of the particular branch that
+has interest for us, also entered the army, and held a commission in
+several regiments. The most memorable event in his life was his taking
+part in Wolfe's decisive victory on the heights of Abraham. In 1773 he
+married a lady, Miss Anna Maria Clarke, whose brother was rector of
+Hexham in Northumberland, and by her had a family of four daughters
+and three sons. Of the latter, two died at an early age, and only the
+youngest, William Henry, born in 1786, survived to manhood. He is
+especially interesting to us, because he was the father of General
+Gordon.
+
+Like his father and grandfather, William Henry Gordon chose the
+profession of a soldier, and entered the Royal Artillery. He saw a
+great deal of active service, being with his corps in the Peninsula
+and at Maida, commanding at a later period the Artillery at Corfu and
+Gibraltar, and attaining before his death in 1865 the rank of
+Lieutenant-General. He was also connected with the Woolwich Arsenal as
+Director of the Carriage Department. He has been described as an
+excellent officer if a somewhat strict disciplinarian, and his firm
+character of noble integrity lived again in his sons. He married, in
+1817, Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Enderby, a merchant whaler,
+one of those west country worthies who carried on the traditions of
+Elizabeth to the age of Victoria. It would not be possible to present
+a complete picture of Gordon's mother, and therefore none will be
+attempted here; but all the available evidence agrees in describing
+her as a paragon of women, and as having exercised an exceptional
+influence over her children. Gordon himself bore the most expressive
+testimony to her virtues and memory when, long years afterwards, he
+closed an exordium on the filial affection due to a mother with the
+outburst--"Oh! how my mother loved me!"
+
+Such in brief were the forebears of the hero who comes next after
+Nelson in national veneration. To understand him and his career, it
+must be remembered that he came of a gallant race, with a quick sense
+of honour, seeing clearly the obvious course of duty, and never
+hesitating in its fulfilment. These qualities were not peculiar to the
+man, but inherited from his race, and as they had never been
+contaminated by the pursuit of wealth in any form, they retained the
+pristine vigour and fire of a chivalrous and noble age. What was
+personal and peculiar to Charles Gordon had to be evolved by
+circumstance and the important occurrences with which it was his lot
+to be associated throughout his military and public career, but his
+soldierly talent and virtue must be mainly assigned to the traditions
+and practice of his ancestors.
+
+Of the five sons of General William Henry Gordon and Elizabeth
+Enderby, Charles George Gordon was the fourth. His eldest brother,
+Henry William Gordon, born in 1818, had entered the army, first in the
+8th Regiment, and transferred in a short time to the 59th, when, at
+the early age of ten, Charles Gordon was sent off to school at
+Taunton. The selection of this school in the western country was due
+to the head-master, Mr Rogers, being a brother of a governess in the
+Gordon family. Little is known of his early childhood beyond the fact
+that he had lived, before he was ten, at Corfu, where his father held
+a command for some years. The Duke of Cambridge has publicly stated
+that he recollects, when quartered at Corfu at this period, having
+seen a bright and intelligent boy who occupied the room next to his
+own, and who subsequently became General Gordon. At Taunton Gordon
+remained during the greater part of five years, enjoying the
+advantages of one of the most excellent grammar schools in the West of
+England, and although he failed to make any special mark as a scholar,
+I find that, whether on account of his later fame or for some special
+characteristic that marked him out from the general run of boys, his
+name is still remembered there by something more than the initials cut
+upon his desk. If he distinguished himself in anything it was in
+map-making and drawing, and he exhibited the same qualifications to
+the end of his career. How careful and excellent the grounding at
+Taunton school must have been was shown by the fact that, after one
+year's special coaching at Mr Jefferies' school at Shooter's Hill,
+Gordon passed direct into the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. It
+is noteworthy that during the whole of the period we are now
+approaching, he never showed the least tendency to extravagance, and
+his main anxiety seems to have been to save his parents all possible
+expense, more especially because they had a large family of daughters.
+To the end of his life, and in each successive post, Gordon was the
+slave of duty. At this time, and during the years that follow, down to
+the Chinese campaigns, his guiding thought was how to save his family
+the smallest expense on his account, and yet at the same time to hold
+his head high, and to show himself worthy of his race.
+
+Gordon entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1848, when he
+had not completed his sixteenth year, and during the four years he
+remained there he gave some evidence of the qualities that
+subsequently distinguished him, at the same time that he showed a
+lightness of disposition which many will think at strange variance
+with the gravity and even solemnity of his later years. Among his
+fellow-students he was not distinguished by any special or exclusive
+devotion to study. He was certainly no bookworm, and he was known
+rather for his love of sport and boisterous high spirits than for
+attention to his lessons or for a high place in his class. More than
+once he was involved in affairs that, if excusable and natural on the
+score of youth, trenched beyond the borders of discipline, and the
+stories of life at the Academy that he recited for many years after he
+left were not exactly in harmony with the popular idea of the ascetic
+of Mount Carmel.
+
+As the reader treasures up the boyish escapades of Nelson and Clive,
+so will enduring interest be felt in those outbreaks of the boy
+Gordon, which made him the terror of his superiors. They are recorded
+on the unimpeachable evidence of his elder brother, and some of them
+were even narrated by Gordon himself to his niece nearly thirty years
+after they happened. Sir Henry is the writer.
+
+     "Charles Gordon with a brother (William Augustus) more unruly
+     than himself, finding the time hang heavily upon their hands
+     during the vacation, employed themselves in various ways. Their
+     father's house (at Woolwich) was opposite to that of the
+     Commandant of the Garrison, and was overrun with mice. These were
+     caught, the Commandant's door quietly opened, and the mice were
+     transferred to new quarters. In after life (that is in 1879, when
+     in the Soudan) Charles Gordon wrote to one of his nieces: 'I am
+     glad to hear the race of true Gordons is not extinct. Do you not
+     regret the Arsenal and its delights? 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 crossbows we had made, they were grand with screws. One
+     Sunday afternoon twenty-seven panes of glass were broken in the
+     large storehouses. They were found to have been perforated with a
+     small hole (ventilation), and Captain Soady nearly escaped a
+     premature death; a screw passed his head, and was as if it had
+     been screwed into the wall which it had entered. Servants were
+     kept at the door with continual bell-ringings. Your uncle Freddy
+     (a younger brother) was pushed into houses, the bell rung, and
+     the door held to prevent escape. Those were the days of the
+     Arsenal.'"
+
+Sir Henry continues:
+
+     "But what Charles Gordon considered as his greatest achievement
+     was one that he in after years often alluded to. At this time
+     (1848) the senior class of Cadets, then called the Practical
+     Class, were located in the Royal Arsenal, and in front of their
+     halls of study there were earthworks upon which they were
+     practised from time to time in profiling and other matters. The
+     ins and outs of these works were thoroughly well known to Charles
+     Gordon and his brother, who stole out at night--but we will leave
+     him to tell his own story. He says: 'I forgot to tell----of how
+     when Colonel John Travers of the Hill Folk (he lived on Shooter's
+     Hill) was lecturing to the Arsenal Cadets in the evening, a crash
+     was heard, and every one thought every pane of glass was broken;
+     small shot had been thrown. However, it was a very serious
+     affair, for like the upsetting of a hive, the Cadets came out,
+     and only darkness, speed, and knowledge of the fieldworks thrown
+     up near the lecture-room enabled us to escape. That was before I
+     entered the curriculum. The culprits were known afterwards, and
+     for some time avoided the vicinity of the Cadets. I remember it
+     with horror to this day, for no mercy would have been shown by
+     the Pussies, as the Cadets were called.'"
+
+After he entered the Academy the same love of fun and practical joking
+characterised him. Sir Henry writes: "After he had been some time at
+the Academy and earned many good-conduct badges, an occasion arose
+when it became necessary to restrain the Cadets in leaving the
+dining-hall, the approach to which was by a narrow staircase. At the
+top of this staircase stood the senior corporal, with outstretched
+arms, facing the body of Cadets. This was too much for Charlie Gordon,
+who, putting his head down, butted with it, and catching the officer
+in the pit of the stomach not only sent him down the stairs, but
+through the glass door beyond. The officer jumped up unhurt, and
+Gordon was placed in confinement and nearly dismissed.
+
+"Upon another occasion, when he was near his commission, a great deal
+of bullying was going on, and in order to repress it a number of the
+last comers were questioned, when one of them said that Charlie Gordon
+had on one occasion hit him on the head with a clothesbrush. The lad
+admitted it was not a severe blow; nevertheless Charlie Gordon was for
+this slight offence put back six months for his commission, which
+turned out well in the end, since it secured for him a second
+lieutenancy in the Royal Engineers in place of the Royal Artillery."
+This alteration in the branch of the service to which he was attached
+was due to his own act. He decided that, as his contemporaries would
+be put ahead of him, he would work for the Engineers instead of the
+Artillery.
+
+Even to the end of his life there were two sides to his character.
+Private grief, much disappointment, and a long solitary existence,
+contributed to make him a melancholy philosopher, and a sometimes
+austere critic of a selfish world, but beneath this crust were a
+genial and generous disposition that did not disdain the lighter side
+of human nature, a heart too full of kindness to cherish wrath for
+long, and an almost boyish love of fun that could scarcely be
+repressed. If this was the individual in his quieter and contemplative
+moods, an energy that never tired, and a warlike spirit that only
+needed the occasion to blaze forth, revealed the man of action. It may
+be pronounced a paradox to say so, but to the end of his life the true
+Gordon was more of the soldier than the saint.
+
+Even in the midst of his escapades at the Academy, something of the
+spirit of the future hero revealed itself. However grave the offence
+or heavy the punishment, he was never backward in taking his share--or
+more than his share--of the blame for any scrape into which he and his
+friends were brought by their excessive high spirits. On more than one
+occasion his ardour and sense of justice resulted in his being made
+the scapegoat of worse offenders, and it seems probable that he
+generally bore more than his proper share of the blame and punishment
+for acts of insubordination. But there were limits to his capacity of
+suffering and sense of guilt, and when one of his superiors declared
+that he "would never make an officer," he touched a point of honour,
+and Gordon's vigorous and expressive reply was to tear the epaulettes
+from his shoulder and throw them at his superior's feet. In this
+incident the reader will not fail to see a touch and forecast of
+greatness. He was ever willing to pay the penalty of youthful
+indiscretion, but he was sensitive to the reproach of honour, and his
+exuberant spirits detracted in no respect from his sense of the
+nobility of his profession. His earnestness saved him from the
+frivolity into which a light heart and good health might have led him,
+and compensated for his disinclination to devote all his spare time to
+the severer studies of his college.
+
+On June 23rd, 1852, nearly four years after he entered the Royal
+Military Academy, Charles Gordon passed out with the rank of second
+lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. Notwithstanding some remissness in
+his work, he had passed through all his examinations--"Those terrible
+examinations," as he said long years afterwards--"how I remember them!
+Sometimes I dream of them,"--and in accordance with the regulations in
+force he was sent to Chatham for the purpose of completing there his
+technical training as an engineer officer. Chatham, as is well known,
+is the Headquarters of the Royal Engineer Corps, to which it stands in
+the same relation as Woolwich to the Artillery. There Gordon remained
+until February 1854, constantly engaged on field work and in making
+plans and surveys, at which his old skill as a draughtsman soon made
+him exceptionally competent. This kind of work was also far more
+congenial to him than the cramming at the Academy, and he soon gained
+the reputation of being an intelligent and hard-working subaltern. In
+the month named he attained the grade of full lieutenant, and on
+taking his step he was at once ordered to Pembroke Dock, then one of
+the busiest naval dêpots and most important military arsenals in the
+country. The war clouds were already lowering over Eastern Europe, and
+although all hope of maintaining peace had not been abandoned,
+arrangements were in progress for the despatch, if necessary, of a
+strong naval and military expedition to the Black Sea.
+
+At Pembroke, Gordon was at once employed on the construction of the
+new fortifications and batteries considered necessary for the defence
+of so important a position, and in one of his letters home he wrote:
+"I have been very busy in doing plans for another fort, to be built at
+the entrance of the haven. I pity the officers and men who will have
+to live in these forts, as they are in the most desolate places, seven
+miles from any town, and fifteen from any conveyance." Seclusion and
+solitude had evidently no charms for him at that period. In another
+letter about this time he wrote expressing his relief at being "free
+from the temptations of a line regiment," and concluded with the
+self-depreciatory remark that he was "such a miserable wretch that he
+was sure to be led away." In yet another letter from Pembroke, written
+not many weeks after his arrival, he reveals something of the deep
+religious feeling which was no doubt greatly strengthened by his
+experiences in the Crimea, and which became stronger and more
+pronounced as years went on. In writing to his favourite sister in the
+summer of 1854, he gives the following interesting bit of biographical
+information: "You know I never was confirmed. When I was a cadet I
+thought it was a useless sin, as I did not intend to alter (not that
+it was in my power to be converted when I chose). I, however, took my
+first sacrament on Easter Day (16th April 1854) and have communed ever
+since."
+
+Charles Gordon was still occupied on the Pembroke fortifications when
+war broke out with Russia on the Eastern Question. His father was at
+the time stationed at Gibraltar in command of the Royal Artillery, and
+was never employed nearer the scene of hostilities during the war. But
+his two elder brothers were at the front--the eldest, the late Sir
+Henry Gordon, at Balaclava, where he served in the Commissariat, and
+the next brother, the late General Enderby Gordon, with his battery
+under Lord Raglan. At the battle of the Alma, fought on 20th September
+1854, Enderby Gordon specially distinguished himself, for he worked
+one of the two guns of Turner's Battery, which exercised such a
+decisive influence on the fortunes of the day. Readers of Kinglake's
+"History" will remember that it was the flank fire of these two guns
+which compelled the Russian battery of sixteen guns on the Causeway to
+retire and thus expose the Russian front to our attack. It is a little
+curious to find that while one brother was thus distinguishing himself
+in the first battle of the war, another was writing from Pembroke Dock
+as follows: "---- says there were no artillery engaged in the battle
+of the Alma, so that Enderby was safe out of that." Enderby Gordon
+also distinguished himself at Inkerman, where he acted as aide-de-camp
+to General Strangeways. He subsequently earned the reputation of a
+good officer during the Indian Mutiny, and when he died he had, like
+his father, attained the rank of Lieutenant-General, and received
+besides the Companionship of the Bath. One characteristic incident has
+been recorded of him. As he commanded a column in India, he had only
+to ask for promotion to obtain it; this he declined to do, because he
+would thus have stepped over a friend.
+
+In General Gordon's own letters from the Crimea there are frequent
+references to his eldest brother, Henry Gordon, a man of whom it may
+be said here that the best was never publicly known, for during a long
+and varied career, first in the combative branch of the army as an
+officer of the 59th Regiment, and then as a non-combative officer in
+the Ordnance Department, he showed much ability, but had few
+opportunities of special distinction. In several of General Gordon's
+transactions Sir Henry was closely mixed up, especially with the Congo
+mission; and I should like to say, of my own knowledge, that he was
+thoroughly in sympathy with all his projects for the suppression of
+the slave trade, had mastered the voluminous Blue Books and official
+papers, from the time of Ismail to the dark days of Khartoum, in so
+thorough a manner that the smallest detail was fixed in his brain, and
+had so completely assimilated his brother's views that an hour's
+consultation with him was almost as fertile a source of inspiration
+as it would have been with the General himself. I believe that the
+original cause of Sir Henry's influence over his brother was that he
+disclaimed having any, and that he most carefully avoided any attempt
+to force his advice on his younger brother, as so many of our elders
+deem to be their right and prerogative. General Gordon was a bad
+listener to advice at any time or from anyone. He acted almost
+entirely on his own judgment, and still more on his own impulse. His
+first thoughts were his best thoughts, or, perhaps, as Tennyson says,
+"his third thoughts, which are a maturer first." Sir Henry knew the
+ingrained and unalterable character of his brother, and adapted
+himself to it, partly through affection and partly through admiration,
+for in his eyes Charles Gordon was the truest of heroes. No man ever
+possessed a truer or more solicitous friend than General Gordon found
+in him. Sir Henry was thoroughly devoted to him and his interests, and
+carried out all his wishes and instructions to the very letter.
+
+Having said this much about the relations between Gordon and his
+brother, it would be an inexcusable omission to pass over the still
+more striking sympathy and affection that united him with his sisters.
+From his first appointment into the service he corresponded on
+religious and serious subjects with his elder sister, the late Miss
+Gordon, who only survived her brother a few years, with remarkable
+regularity, and as time went on the correspondence became more, rather
+than less constant, and in his letters to her were to be found his
+most secret thoughts and aspirations. Most of the letters from the
+Crimea were addressed to his mother; but, in an interesting volume
+published in 1888, Miss Gordon presented the world with the remainder
+of her brother's letters, spread over thirty active and eventful
+years. One of General Gordon's most cherished objects, resembling in
+that, as in other respects, Lord Lawrence, was to add to the comfort
+of his sisters, and when he left England on his last fatal mission to
+Egypt, his will, made the night before he left for Brussels, provided
+that all he possessed should be held in trust for the benefit of his
+well-beloved sister, Mary Augusta, and that it was to pass only on her
+death to the heirs he therein designated. It is not necessary to enter
+into fuller particulars on this subject, but it may be proper to say
+that his affection for his other sisters was not less warm or less
+reciprocated. Of his six sisters, of whom two alone survive, it is
+only necessary to refer here (in addition to Miss Gordon) to the
+youngest, who married Dr Andrew Moffitt, who was not merely head
+medical officer with the Ever Victorious Army, but Gordon's right-hand
+man in China. Dr Moffitt was a man of high courage; on one occasion he
+saved Gordon's life when a Taeping attempted to murder him in his
+tent, and an English officer, who served with the Force, has described
+him in these two lines: "He was imbued with the same spirit as his
+future brother-in-law; he was a clever Chinese scholar and an A1
+surgeon." Dr Moffitt, who received a gold medal and order, besides the
+Red Button of a Mandarin, from the Chinese Government for his
+brilliant services against the Taepings, died prematurely. To say less
+about these family relations would be an omission; to say more would
+be an intrusion, and they may be left with the reflection that as no
+one who knew him will dispute the depth and the strength of General
+Gordon's sentiments as a friend, his feelings towards the members of
+his own family cannot well be impugned.
+
+Some account of the personal appearance of General Gordon will be
+deemed necessary, and may be appropriately given at this stage,
+although the subject is a dangerous one, because so very few people
+form the same impression about any one's appearance. There has been
+much discussion as to General Gordon's exact height, and I have been
+to much pains to obtain some decisive evidence on the subject.
+Unfortunately no such records as to height, etc., are kept about
+officers, and my search proved fruitless, more especially as the
+records at Woolwich for the period required were destroyed by fire
+some years ago. The best evidence I have obtained is that of General
+Gordon's tailors, Messrs Batten & Sons, of Southampton, who write: "We
+consider, by measurements in our books, that General Gordon was 5 ft.
+9 in." As he had contracted a slight stoop, or, more correctly
+speaking, carried his head thrown forward, he looked in later life
+much less than his real height. The quotations at the end of this
+chapter will show some difference of opinion. His figure was very
+slight, but his nervous energy could never be repressed, and he was
+probably stronger than his appearance suggested. The suggestion of
+delicate health in his look and aspect, arising, as he was led to
+believe, but erroneously, from _angina pectoris_, or some mysterious
+chest pain, may have induced a belief that he was not robust, but this
+seems to have been baseless, because throughout his life, whether in
+the trenches of Sebastopol, the marshes of the Yangtse delta, or the
+arid plains of the Soudan, he appears to have equally enjoyed
+excellent health.
+
+The only specific mention of serious illness was during his stay in
+the Soudan as Governor-General, when the chest pains became acute.
+These were at length traced to an enlarged liver, and perhaps the
+complaint was aggravated by excessive smoking. In the desert, far
+removed from medical aid, he obtained much relief from the use of
+Warburg's Tincture.
+
+In his ordinary moods there was nothing striking about the face. The
+colour of the eye was too light--yet the glance was as keen as a
+rapier, and, as the little Soudan boy Capsune, whom he had educated,
+said, "Gordon's eyes looked you through and through"--the features
+were not sufficiently marked, the carriage of the man was too
+diffident and modest to arrest or detain attention, and the
+explanation of the universal badness of the numerous photographs taken
+of him at all stages of his career is probably to be found in the
+deficiency of colouring and contrast. Everything in his appearance
+depended on expression, and expression generally baffles the
+photographer. Perhaps the least objectionable of all these
+portraitures is the steel plate in Dr Birkbeck Hill's volume on
+"Gordon in Central Africa," and that not because it is a faithful
+likeness, but because it represents a bust that might well be imagined
+to belong to a hero. It was only when some great idea or some subject
+in which he was interested seized his imagination that one could
+perceive that the square jaw denoted unshakable resolution, and that
+the pale blue eye could flash with the fire of a born leader of men.
+In tranquil moments no one would have been struck by a casual glance
+at his face, but these were rare, for in congenial company, and with
+persons he trusted, Gordon was never tranquil, pacing up and down the
+room, with only brief stops to impress a point on his listener by
+holding his arm for a few seconds, and looking at him intently to see
+if he followed with understanding and interest the drift of his
+remarks, lighting cigarette after cigarette to enable him to curb his
+own impetuosity, and demonstrating in every act and phrase the truth
+of his own words that "inaction was intolerable to him." Such was the
+man as I recall him on the all too few occasions when it was my
+privilege and good fortune to receive him during his brief visits to
+London of late years, and to hear from him his confidential views on
+the questions in which he took so deep an interest. One final remark
+must be hazarded about the most remarkable point after all in General
+Gordon's personality. I refer to his voice. It was singularly sweet,
+and for a man modulated in a very low tone, but there was nothing
+womanish about it, as was the case with his able contemporary Sir
+Bartle Frere, whose voice was distinctly feminine in its timbre. I
+know of no other way to describe it than to say that it seemed to me
+to express the thorough and transparent goodness of the speaker, and
+the exquisite gentleness of his nature. If angels speak with the human
+voice, Gordon's tone must have borne affinity to theirs.
+
+In completing this subject it may be appropriate to quote a few of the
+more important and interesting descriptions of his personal
+appearance, contributed by those who had opportunities of seeing him.
+
+An officer, who served with General Gordon in China, describes his
+first interview with him in the following words:--
+
+     "C---- introduced me to a light-built, active, wiry, middle-sized
+     man of about thirty-two years of age, in the undress uniform of
+     the Royal Engineers. The countenance bore a pleasant frank
+     appearance, eyes light blue, with a fearless look in them, hair
+     crisp and inclined to curl, conversation short and decided. This
+     was Major C. G. Gordon."
+
+General Sir Gerald Graham who, to use his own words, was Gordon's
+"school-fellow at Woolwich, his comrade in the Crimea and China, and
+for many years past a more or less regular correspondent," has put on
+record the following interesting description of the hero, and it
+should not be forgotten that, excepting his companion, Colonel Donald
+Stewart, and Mr Power, General Graham was the last Englishman to see
+General Gordon in this world.
+
+     "Not over 5 feet 9 inches in height, but of compact build, his
+     figure and gait characteristically expressed resolution and
+     strength. His face, although in itself unpretending, was one that
+     in the common phrase 'grew upon you.' Time had not streaked with
+     grey the crisp, curly brown hair of his youth and traced lines of
+     care on his ample forehead and strong clear face, bronzed with
+     exposure to the tropical sun. His usual aspect was serene and
+     quiet, and although at times a ruffling wave of uncontrollable
+     impatience or indignation might pass over him, it did not disturb
+     him long. The depth and largeness of Gordon's nature, which
+     inspired so much confidence in others, seemed to afford him a
+     sense of inner repose, so that outer disturbance was to him like
+     the wind that ruffles the surface of the sea, but does not affect
+     its depths. The force and beauty of Gordon's whole expression
+     came from within, and as it were irradiated the man, the steady,
+     truthful gaze of the blue-grey eyes seeming a direct appeal from
+     the upright spirit within. Gordon's usual manner charmed by its
+     simple, unaffected courtesy, but although utterly devoid of
+     self-importance he had plenty of quiet dignity, or even of
+     imperious authority at command when required. With his friends he
+     had a fund of innocent gaiety that seemed to spring from his
+     impulsiveness, while his strong sense of humour often enabled him
+     to relieve his impatience or indignation by a good-natured
+     sarcasm."
+
+Two further descriptions by men who served under him at Gravesend in
+the interval between the Taeping War and the first mission to the
+Soudan will suffice to complete the personal impressions that may help
+the reader to form some idea of the appearance of General Gordon. The
+first is from the pen of Mr W. E. Lilley, who brought out a special
+volume on Gordon at Gravesend.
+
+     "In Colonel Gordon's appearance there was nothing particularly
+     striking. He was rather under the average height, of slight
+     proportions, and with little of the military bearing in his
+     carriage, so that one would hardly have imagined that this
+     kindly, unassuming gentleman was already one who had attracted
+     the notice of his superiors by his courage and zeal in the
+     Crimean War, and who had won lasting renown by subduing in China
+     one of the greatest revolts the world had ever seen. This last
+     exploit had gained for him the name by which he was from that
+     time best known, viz. "Chinese Gordon." The greatest
+     characteristic of his countenance was the clear blue eye, which
+     seemed to have a magical power over all who came within its
+     influence. It read you through and through; it made it impossible
+     for you to tell him anything but the truth, it inspired your
+     confidence, it kindled with compassion at any story of distress,
+     and it sparkled with good humour at anything really funny or
+     witty. From its glance you knew at once that at any risk he would
+     keep his promise, that you might trust him with anything and
+     everything, and that he would stand by you if all other friends
+     deserted you."
+
+The other impression, formed under precisely the same circumstances,
+is that of Mr Arthur Stannard, recorded in the _Nineteenth Century_ of
+April 1885.
+
+     "The next moment I was looking into Chinese Gordon's eyes. What
+     eyes they were! Keen and clear, filled with the beauty of
+     holiness, bright with an unnatural brightness, their expression
+     one of settled feverishness, the colour blue-grey as is the sky
+     on a bitter March morning. In spite of the beautiful goodness of
+     his heart and the great breadth of his charity, Gordon was far
+     from possessing a placid temperament or from being patient over
+     small things. Indeed his very energy and his single-mindedness
+     tended to make him impatient and irritable whenever any person or
+     thing interfered with his intentions or desires.... For a man of
+     his small stature his activity was marvellous--he seemed able to
+     walk every one else off their legs over rough ground or
+     smooth.... In Gordon strength and weakness were most
+     fantastically mingled. There was no trace of timidity in his
+     composition. He had a most powerful will. When his mind was made
+     up on a matter it never seemed to occur to him that there could
+     be anything more to say about it. Such was his superb confidence
+     in himself!"
+
+When Gordon had been only a few months at Pembroke Dock he received
+orders to proceed to Corfu, and believing it to be due to his father's
+request, he wrote: "I suspect you used your influence to have me sent
+there instead of to the Crimea. It is a great shame of you." But the
+Fates were to be stronger than any private influence, for four days
+after he wrote those lines he received fresh orders directing him to
+leave for the Crimea without delay in charge of huts. It seems that
+the change in his destination was due to Sir John Burgoyne, to whom he
+had expressed the strongest wish to proceed to the scene of war. On
+4th December 1854, he received his orders at Pembroke, on the 6th he
+reported himself at the War Office, and in the evening of the same day
+he was at Portsmouth. It was at first intended that he should go out
+in a collier, but he obtained permission to proceed _viâ_ Marseilles,
+which he pronounced "extremely lucky, as I am such a bad sailor." This
+opinion was somewhat qualified later on when he found that the
+Government did not prepay his passage, and he expressed the opinion
+pretty freely, in which most people would concur, that "it is very
+hard not to give us anything before starting." He left London on the
+14th December, Marseilles in a French hired transport on the 18th, and
+reached Constantinople the day after Christmas Day. He was not much
+struck with anything he saw; pronounced Athens "very ugly and dirty,"
+and the country around uncommonly barren; and was disappointed with
+the far-famed view on approaching Constantinople. The professional
+instinct displayed itself when he declared that the forts of the
+Dardanelles did not appear to be very strong, as, although numerous,
+they were open at the rear and overlooked by the heights behind. On
+28th December Gordon left Constantinople in the _Golden Fleece_
+transport conveying the 39th Regiment to Balaclava. The important huts
+had not yet arrived in the collier from Portsmouth, but they could not
+be far behind, and Gordon went on in advance. The huts, it may be
+added, were built to contain twenty-four men, or two captains and four
+subalterns, or two field-officers or one general, and the number of
+these entrusted to the charge of Gordon was 320. These reinforcements
+were the first sent out to mitigate the hardships the British Army
+underwent during a campaign that the genius of Todleben and the
+fortitude of his courageous garrison rendered far more protracted and
+costly than had been anticipated.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE HOUSE IN WHICH GENERAL GORDON WAS BORN, ON
+WOOLWICH COMMON.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE CRIMEA, DANUBE, AND ARMENIA.
+
+
+Charles Gordon reached Balaclava on New Year's Day, 1855. He found
+everyone engaged in foraging expeditions, that the siege of Sebastopol
+excited no interest, that the road from the bay to the hill was like a
+morass, and that a railway to traverse it was being slowly laid down.
+Gordon remained about three weeks at Balaclava assisting in the
+erection of huts, and in the conveyance of some of them to the front.
+When this task was accomplished he was himself ordered to the
+trenches, where his work could not fail to be more exciting and also
+more dangerous than that upon which up to this he had been engaged.
+
+Before following him it will be useful to summarise the leading events
+that had taken place in the Crimea up to this date. War between
+England and France on the one side, and Russia on the other, was
+finally declared in March 1854, the allied forces landed in the Crimea
+early in September 1854, and the first battle was fought on the Alma
+stream on the 20th of that month. In that battle 60,000 allied
+troops--20,000 English, 40,000 French--attacked 120,000 Russians in a
+strong and well-chosen position. The result was a brilliant victory
+for the allies, and there is no doubt that it was mainly won by the
+dashing attack of the English Infantry. The losses were--French, 60
+killed and 500 wounded; English, 362 killed and 1620 wounded, thus
+furnishing clear evidence as to the force which bore the brunt of the
+engagement. The Russian loss was computed to be not less than 6000, or
+double that of the allies.
+
+As the allied forces advanced towards Sebastopol the Russian Army
+assumed the offensive. The brilliant and never-to-be-forgotten Cavalry
+charges on 25th October, of the Light and Heavy Brigades, under
+Cardigan and Scarlett respectively, at Balaclava in the valley that
+stretched at the foot of the hills overlooking the bay of that name,
+had not merely vindicated the reputation of English horsemen for dash
+and daring, but had done something--at excessive cost, it is true--to
+clear the advance for the whole army. When the Russians, assuming in
+their turn the offensive, attacked our camps on the heights of
+Inkerman, they were repulsed with heavy loss on both sides, and with
+the result that more than six months elapsed before they again
+ventured to show any inclination to attack in the open field, and then
+only to meet with fresh discomfiture on the banks of the Tchernaya.
+
+The battle of Inkerman was fought in the early morning of 5th
+November, and again the brunt of the fighting fell on the English
+army. The Russian General, Todleben, subsequently stated that he
+reluctantly decided to attack the English camp instead of the French,
+because "the English position seemed to be so very weak." Here again
+the losses give no misleading idea of the proportionate share of the
+two allied armies in the struggle. While the Russian loss was put down
+in all at 11,000 men, the French lost 143 killed and 786 wounded; the
+English, 597 killed and 1760 wounded.
+
+The opinion has been confidently expressed that if a rapid advance and
+attack had been made on Sebastopol immediately after Inkerman, the
+fortress would have been easily captured; but both before and during
+the siege the Russians made the best use of every respite the Allies
+gave them, and this lost opportunity, if it was one, never recurred.
+It will thus be seen that some of the most interesting incidents of
+the war had passed before Gordon set foot in the Crimea, but for an
+engineer officer the siege and capture of the fortress created by
+Todleben under the fire of his foes presented the most attractive and
+instructive phase of the campaign.
+
+At this time the French army mustered about 100,000 men, the British
+about 23,000, and the Russian garrison of Sebastopol 25,000. In
+addition, there was a covering army, under the Grand Dukes and General
+Liprandi, which, despite its losses at Inkerman, was probably not less
+than 60,000 but the successive defeats at Alma, Balaclava, and
+Inkerman had broken the confidence of the troops and reduced their
+leaders to inaction. The batteries were nearly completed when Gordon
+reached the front, and a good deal had already been written and said
+about the hardships of the soldiers. Gordon was a man of few wants,
+who could stand any amount of fatigue, and throughout his life he was
+always disposed to think that soldiers should never complain. Writing
+as late as 12th February 1855, when the worst of the winter was over,
+he says: "There are really no hardships for the officers; the men are
+the sufferers, and that is partly their own fault, as they are like
+children, thinking everything is to be done for them. The French
+soldier looks out for himself, and consequently fares much better."
+Something of the same conclusion had been forced on him when on board
+the French transport between Marseilles and Athens when he wrote: "The
+poor French soldiers, of whom there were 320 on board without any
+shelter, must have suffered considerably from cold; they had no
+covering, and in spite of the wet, cold, and bad weather, they kept up
+their health however, and their high spirits also, when our men would
+have mutinied." And again, later on: "We have capital rations, and all
+the men have warm clothing, and more than enough of that. They of
+course grumble and growl a good deal. The contrast with the French in
+this respect is not to our advantage." It must in fairness be
+remembered that the worst of the maladministration was over before he
+reached the scene, and that he came with those reinforcements, not
+merely of men, but still more especially of supplies, which ended "the
+winter troubles," and converted them into the sanguine hopes and views
+of the spring.
+
+Gordon was not long in the trenches before he came under fire, and the
+account of his first experience of real warfare may be given in his
+own words:--
+
+     "The night of February 14th I was on duty in the trenches, and if
+     you look at the plan I sent you and the small sketch enclosed I
+     will explain what I had to do. The French that night determined
+     to join their sentries on their right and our sentries on our
+     left, in advance of their and our trenches, so as to prevent the
+     Russians coming up the ravine, and then turning against our
+     flank. They determined to make a lodgment in the ruined house
+     marked _B_ on the sketch, and to run a trench up the hill to the
+     left of this, while I was told to make a communication by
+     rifle-pits from the caves _C_ to the ruined house _B_. I got,
+     after some trouble, eight men with picks and shovels, and asked
+     the captain of the advance trench to give me five double sentries
+     to throw out in advance. It was the first time he had been on
+     duty here; and as for myself, I never had, although I kept that
+     to myself. I led forward the sentries, going at the head of the
+     party, and found the sentries of the advance had not held the
+     caves, which they ought to have done after dark, so there was
+     just a chance of the Russians being in them. I went on, however,
+     and, though I did not like it, explored the caves almost alone.
+     We then left two sentries on the hill above the caves, and went
+     back, to get round and post two sentries below the caves.
+     However, just as soon as we showed ourselves outside the caves
+     and below them, bang! bang! went two rifles, the bullets hitting
+     the ground close to us. The sentries with me retired in a rare
+     state of mind, and my working party bolted, and were stopped with
+     great difficulty. What had really happened was this: It was not a
+     Russian attack, but the two sentries whom I had placed above the
+     caves _had fired at us_, lost their caps, and bolted to the
+     trench. Nothing after this would induce the sentries to go out,
+     so I got the working party to go forward with me. The Russians
+     had, on the report of our shots, sent us a shower of bullets,
+     their picket not being more than 150 yards away. I set the men to
+     work, and then went down to the bottom of the ravine, and found
+     the French in strength hard at work also. Having told them who we
+     were, I returned to the trench, where I met Colonel ---- of the
+     1st Royals. I warned him if he went out he would be sure to be
+     hit by our own sentries or the Russians. He would go, however,
+     and a moment afterwards was hit in the breast, the ball going
+     through his coats, slightly grazing his ribs, and passing out
+     again without hurting him. I stayed with my working party all
+     night, and got home very tired."
+
+In further illustration of the confusion prevailing in the trenches at
+night, he mentions in the same letter that while trying to find the
+caves he missed his way, and "very nearly walked into the town by
+mistake."
+
+This was the more surprising because Gordon's intimate knowledge of
+the trenches was remarkable and well known. The following testimony
+given by Sir Charles Staveley affords striking proof that this
+reputation was not undeserved:--
+
+     "I happened to mention to Charlie Gordon that I was field officer
+     for the day for command in the trenches next day, and, having
+     only just returned from sick leave, that I was ignorant of the
+     geography of our left attack. He said at once, 'Oh! come down
+     with me to-night after dark, and I will show you over the
+     trenches.' He drew me out a very clear sketch of the lines (which
+     I have now), and down I went accordingly. He 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."
+
+The late Sir George Chesney, a very competent and discriminating
+witness, gives evidence to the same effect:--
+
+     "In his humble position as an Engineer subaltern he attracted the
+     notice of his superiors, not merely by his energy and activity,
+     but by a special aptitude for war, developing itself amid the
+     trench work before Sebastopol in a personal knowledge of the
+     enemy's movements _such as no other officer attained_. We used to
+     send him to find out what new move the Russians were making."
+
+The next incident of the siege described by Gordon occurred about a
+week after his _baptême de feu_ in the caves. While the French were
+somewhat deliberately making at Inkerman a battery for fifteen guns,
+the Russians, partly in a spirit of bravado, threw up in a single
+night a battery for nearly twenty guns immediately opposite, at a
+distance of not more than 600 yards from the French. As this was made
+in the open ground, it was a defiance which could not be tolerated,
+and the French accordingly made their arrangements to assault it.
+Kinglake has graphically described the surprise of the French when
+they discovered this "white circlet or loop on the ground," and the
+attempt made by three battalions, with two other battalions in
+reserve, to capture it. A battalion of Zouaves, under the command of
+Colonel Cere, carried it in fine style, but the Russian reserves came
+up in great force, and their own reserves "declining to come to the
+scratch," as Gordon laconically put it, the Zouaves were in their turn
+compelled to fall back, with a loss of 200 killed. Encouraged by this
+success, the Russians gave the French another surprise a few days
+later, throwing up a second battery 300 yards further in advance of
+the first "white circlet." These two batteries, mounting between them,
+according to Kinglake, twenty-two guns, were finally strengthened and
+equipped by 10th March, and although the French talked much of
+storming them, nothing was done, much to Gordon's disgust. It was
+while these operations were in progress that Charles Gordon had a
+narrow escape of being killed. A shot from one of the Russian
+rifle-pits "as nearly as possible did for me," he wrote; "the bullet
+was fired not 180 yards off, and passed an inch above my nut into a
+bank I was passing." His only comment on this is very characteristic:
+"They are very good marksmen; their bullet is large and pointed."
+
+This was the first but not the last escape he had during the siege.
+One of his brothers, writing home some three months later, a few days
+before the assault on the Redan, wrote as follows: "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 about five yards in front of him and burst, not
+touching him. If it had not burst it would have taken his head off."
+Of this later shave Gordon himself says nothing, but he describes a
+somewhat similar incident, which had, however, a fatal result. "We
+lost one of our captains named Craigie by a splinter of a shell. The
+shell burst above him, and by what is called chance struck him in the
+back, killing him at once."
+
+During the three months March, April, and May, the siege languished,
+and Gordon apologises for the stupidity of his letters with the
+graphic observation: "It is not my fault, as none of the three
+nations--French, English, or Russian--will do anything."
+
+At the end of May, however, there was a renewal of activity. General
+Pelissier succeeded to the French command, and, unlike his
+predecessors, made it his primary object to act in cordial
+co-operation with the English commander. He was also in favour of an
+energetic prosecution of the siege, with the view to an early
+assault. All the batteries were by this time completed, and 588 guns,
+with 700 rounds in readiness for each gun, were opposed to the 1174 in
+the Russian fortress. It only remained to utilise this terrific force,
+and at last orders were given for the commencement of what was known
+as the third bombardment. After nearly two days' incessant firing the
+French stormed the Mamelon and two advance redoubts. These were
+successfully carried and held, at the same time that the English
+stormed a position called the Quarries, close under the formidable
+Redan. Of this bombardment Gordon gives in one of his letters a very
+good description:--
+
+     "On the 6th we opened fire from all our batteries. I was on duty
+     in the trenches. I could distinctly see the Russians in the Redan
+     and elsewhere running about in great haste, and bringing up their
+     gunners to the guns. They must have lost immensely, as our shot
+     and shell continued to pour in upon them for hours without a
+     lull. Never was our fire so successful. Before seven we had
+     silenced a great many of their guns, while our loss was very
+     small--only one man killed and four wounded. I was struck
+     slightly with a stone from a round shot and stunned for a second,
+     which old Jones has persisted in returning as wounded. [It was,
+     notwithstanding, a real wound.] However, I am all right, so do
+     not think otherwise. Our fire was continued all night, and the
+     next day until four o'clock, when we opened with new batteries
+     much nearer, and our fire then became truly terrific. Fancy 1000
+     guns (which is the number of ourselves, the French, and Russians
+     combined) firing at once shells in every direction. On our side
+     alone we have thirty-nine 13" mortars. At half-past five three
+     rockets gave the signal for the French to attack the Mamelon and
+     the redoubts of Selingkinsk and Volhynia. They rushed up the
+     slope in full view of the allied armies. The Russians fired one
+     or two guns when the French were in the embrasures. We then saw
+     the Russians cut out on the other side, and the French after
+     them, towards the Malakoff Tower, which they nearly reached, but
+     were so punished by the guns of this work that they were obliged
+     to retire, the Russians in their turn chasing them through the
+     Mamelon into their own trenches. This was dreadful, as it had to
+     be assaulted again. The French, however, did so immediately, and
+     carried it splendidly. The redoubts of Volhynia and Selingkinsk
+     were taken easily on our side. In front of the right attack a
+     work called the Quarries had to be taken, which was done at the
+     same time as the Mamelon. The Russians cut out and ran, while our
+     men made their lodgment for our fellows. We were attacked four
+     times in the night, but held the work. If we had liked to
+     assault, I am sure we should have taken the place with little
+     loss, some of our men being close to the Redan. The French took
+     twenty guns and 400 prisoners, and found the Mamelon so traversed
+     as to have no difficulty in making their lodgment. We were driven
+     from the Quarries three times in the night, the Russians having
+     directed all their efforts against them. Our loss is supposed to
+     be 1000 killed and wounded. Nearly all our working party had to
+     be taken for fighting purposes. The attacking columns were 200
+     strong; one went to the right, and the other to the left of the
+     Quarries. The reserve consisted of 600 men. The Russians fought
+     desperately."
+
+A further week was occupied with a heavy but desultory bombardment,
+but at last on 17th June what is known as "the fourth bombardment"
+proper began, and after it had continued for about twenty-four hours,
+orders were given for the assault to be made by the French on the
+Malakoff and the English on the Redan on the 18th June, a date ever
+memorable in military annals. The silence of the Russian guns induced
+a belief that the allied fire had overpowered theirs, and in
+consequence orders for the attack were given twenty-four hours sooner
+than had been intended. Kinglake, in his exhaustive History, has shown
+how this acted adversely on the chances of the assault, because the
+Russian gunners had really only reserved their fire, and also
+especially because the Redan, which we had to attack under the
+original arrangement between Lord Raglan and General Pelissier, had
+hardly suffered any damage from the bombardment. General Gordon's long
+account of this memorable assault will long be referred to as a
+striking individual experience:--
+
+     "I must now commence my long story of our attempted assault. To
+     take up my account from 14th June, which was the last letter I
+     wrote to you, Seeley, my fellow-subaltern at Pembroke, arrived on
+     the 15th, and joined the right. On the evening of the 16th it was
+     rumoured we were to commence firing again in the morning. I was
+     on duty on the morning of the 17th, and I went down at half-past
+     two A.M. At 3 A.M. all our batteries opened, and throughout the
+     day kept up a terrific fire. The Russians answered slowly, and
+     after a time their guns almost ceased. I mentioned in my report
+     that I thought they were reserving their fire. [If this view had
+     only been taken by the Generals, especially Pelissier, a dreadful
+     waste of life would have been averted, and the result might have
+     proved a brilliant success.] We did not lose many men. I remained
+     in the trenches until 7 P.M.--rather a long spell--and on coming
+     up dined, and found an order to be at the night attack at twelve
+     midnight on June 17 and 18. I was attached to Bent's column, with
+     Lieutenants Murray and Graham, R.E., and we were to go into the
+     Redan at the Russians' right flank. Another column, under Captain
+     de Moleyns and Lieutenants Donnelly and James, R.E., was to go
+     in at the angle of the salient; and another under Captain Jesse,
+     Lieutenants Fisher and Graves, was to go in at the Russian left
+     flank. We passed along in our relative positions up to the
+     advanced trench, which is 200 yards from the Redan, where we
+     halted until the signal for the attack should be given from the
+     eight-gun battery, where Lord Raglan, Sir G. Brown, and General
+     Jones were.
+
+     "About 3 A.M. the French advanced on the Malakoff Tower in three
+     columns, and ten minutes after this our signal was given. The
+     Russians then opened with a fire of grape, which was terrific.
+     They mowed down our men in dozens, and the trenches, being
+     confined, were crowded with men, who foolishly kept in them
+     instead of rushing over the parapet of our trenches, and by
+     coming forward in a mass, trusting to some of them at least being
+     able to pass through untouched to the Redan, where of course,
+     once they arrived, the artillery could not reach them, and every
+     yard nearer would have diminished the effect of the grape by
+     giving it less space for spreading. We could then have moved up
+     our supports and carried the place.
+
+     "Unfortunately, however, our men dribbled out of the ends of the
+     trenches, ten and twenty at a time, and as soon as they appeared
+     they were cleared away. Some hundred men, under Lieutenant
+     Fisher, got up to the abattis, but were not supported, and
+     consequently had to retire.
+
+     "About this time the French were driven from the Malakoff Tower,
+     which I do not think they actually entered, and Lord Raglan very
+     wisely would not renew the assault, as the Redan could not be
+     held with the Malakoff Tower in the hands of the Russians.
+     Murray, poor fellow, went out with the skirmishers of our
+     column--he in red, and they in green. He was not out a minute
+     when he was carried back with his arm shattered with grape.
+     Colonel Tylden called for me, and asked me to look after him,
+     which I did, and as I had a tourniquet in my pocket I put it on.
+     He bore it bravely, and I got a stretcher and had him taken back.
+     He died three hours afterwards. I am glad to say that Dr Bent
+     reports he did not die from loss of blood, but from the shock,
+     not being very strong.
+
+     "A second after Murray had gone to the rear, poor Tylden, struck
+     by grape in the legs, was carried back, and although very much
+     depressed in spirits he is doing well. Jesse was killed at the
+     abattis--shot through the head--and Graves was killed further in
+     advance than any one. We now sat still waiting for orders, and
+     the Russians amusing themselves by shelling us from mortars. When
+     we appeared, the Russians lined their parapets as thick as
+     possible, and seemed to be expecting us to come on. They flew two
+     flags on the Malakoff Tower the whole time in defiance of us.
+     About ten o'clock some of the regiments got orders to retire.
+     We, the Royal Engineers, however, stayed until twelve o'clock,
+     when we were told that the assault was not to be renewed, and
+     that we could go. Thus ended our assault, of the result of which
+     we felt so sure. The first plan made was that we should fire for
+     three hours and go in at six o'clock, but the French changed it,
+     and would not wait until we had silenced the enemy's artillery
+     fire, and so we attacked at 3 A.M. My father can tell the effect
+     of grape from twelve 68-pounders and 32-pounders at 200 yards
+     upon a column; but whatever may be the effect, I am confident
+     that if we had left the trenches in a mass, some of us would have
+     survived and reached the Redan, which, once reached, the Highland
+     Brigade and Guards would have carried all before them, and the
+     place would have fallen. General Jones was struck by a stone in
+     the forehead, but not much hurt. I believe it is said that the
+     trenches were too high to get over. As the scaling-ladders were
+     carried over them, this can hardly be sustained. So much for
+     _our_ assault.
+
+     "Now for the assault which was made from the left attack. General
+     Eyre had an order given him to make a feint at the head of the
+     creek if we were successful at the Redan; however, at five
+     o'clock, when we had failed at the Redan, we heard a very sharp
+     attack on the head of the creek. The 44th and other regiments
+     advanced, drove the Russians out of a rifle-pit they held near
+     the cemetery, and entered some houses there. The Russians then
+     opened a tremendous fire on the houses, and the men took shelter
+     in line, being under no command, their own officers not knowing
+     where they were to go, or anything about the place, and no
+     Engineer officer being with them. The men sheltered themselves in
+     the houses until they were knocked about their ears. They then
+     remained in different places--in fact, wherever they could get
+     any shelter, until dusk, as, if they had attempted to retire,
+     they would have been all destroyed. The men of General Eyre's
+     column found lots of drink in the houses. Our losses in the four
+     columns are--1400 killed and wounded, 64 officers wounded, and 16
+     killed. The French lost 6000 killed and wounded, they say!
+     Nothing has occurred since the assault, but it is determined to
+     work forward by sap and mine!"
+
+In a subsequent letter he wrote: "Remember, in spite of all the absurd
+reports in the papers, that our troops never once passed the abattis
+in front of the Redan, which is sixty yards from it, and that we have
+never spiked a gun of the Russians," and before closing his narrative
+account of the Redan, the passage in which Mr Kinglake refers to
+Gordon's evidence and action on this eventful day may well be quoted.
+It appears from his statement that Gordon lost his temper through
+excitement at the repulse, and even upbraided and used angry language
+to his old friend and comrade, Lieutenant, now General Sir Gerald,
+Graham, on his coming back to the trenches. Such language, it may be
+pointed out, could not have been used with less justice to any soldier
+taking part in the assault than to the man who had carried a ladder
+farther than anyone else, and twice endeavoured to place it against
+the Redan. It illustrates the perfervid zeal and energy of the young
+officer, who explained in his letters home how he thought the Russian
+fortress might have been carried at a rush, and appropriately
+introduces the passage in which Mr Kinglake records his opinion of
+Gordon:
+
+     "This impassioned lieutenant of sappers was a soldier marked out
+     for strange destinies, no other than Gordon--Charles Gordon--then
+     ripening into a hero, sublimely careless of self, and a warrior
+     saint of the kind that Moslems rather than Christians are fondly
+     expecting from God."
+
+I cannot refrain from quoting here a letter I received from Mr
+Kinglake when I sent him a copy of my edition of "General Gordon's
+Letters from the Crimea," etc., as it records a somewhat more
+deliberate opinion on his character and career:--
+
+
+                                   "28 HYDE PARK PLACE,
+                                   "MARBLE ARCH, W., _27th July 1884_.
+
+     "DEAR SIR,--I indeed feel greatly obliged to you for your
+     kindness in sending me a copy of 'General Gordon's Letters from
+     the Crimea.'
+
+     "Already I have read a great part of the volume, and I need
+     hardly say that, apart from the reasons which link me to the
+     Crimea, I have been greatly interested by seeing what was
+     thought, and felt, and expressed in his early days by this really
+     phenomenal man, whose romantic elevation above all that is base
+     and common has made him, in even these days, a sort of warlike
+     and heroic Redeemer.
+
+     "Your Preface well and ably expresses an opinion that is widely
+     entertained as to the conduct of our Government towards Gordon,
+     and I don't know enough of the question to be able to gainsay
+     your conclusion, but it would seem at first glance that,
+     considering the imperative reasons, the vast distances, the
+     changeful condition of things, and the consequent changes of
+     mind, the task of doing justice between the Government and this
+     heroic envoy would be one of some complexity. With my repeated
+     thanks,--I remain, dear sir, very truly yours,
+
+                                   "A. W. KINGLAKE."
+
+
+
+
+Ten days after the repulse at the Redan, Lord Raglan, the gallant
+soldier over whose bier Pelissier wept like a child, died "of wear and
+tear and general debility," as Gordon put it, and the siege again
+entered upon another dull and uninteresting stage. Nearly three
+months were to elapse before the capture of the fortress that had
+resisted so long, and the only incident of marked importance during
+that period was the battle of the Tchernaya, in which the officers in
+the trenches had no part. In that action the last effort of the
+Russian commanders to relieve the place and extricate Todleben from
+his peril was repulsed by the whole allied forces, for in this
+engagement both the Italians and Turks took part, with a loss of seven
+or eight thousand men. The only comment Gordon makes on the action is
+that "the Sardinians behaved very well." At last, on 8th September, a
+second general assault was delivered, the English again attacking the
+Redan, and, more fortunate in one sense than on the earlier occasion,
+effected a lodgment in the fortress, but were then driven out with
+heavy loss. But the French succeeded in storming and holding the
+Malakoff, which commanded the Redan, and the Russians retired to the
+northern side of the harbour during the night after blowing up their
+ships. The fall of Sebastopol, especially after the doubts held and
+expressed in July and August as to whether the siege would not have to
+be raised, caused the greatest excitement and widespread satisfaction.
+General Gordon sent home the following graphic description of this
+final and at last successful attack:--
+
+     "I must now endeavour to give you my idea of our operations from
+     the eventful 8th of September to the present 16th. We knew on the
+     7th that it was intended that the French should assault the
+     Malakoff Tower at twelve the next day, and that we and another
+     column of the French should attack the Redan and central bastion.
+     The next day proved windy and dusty, and at ten o'clock began one
+     of the most tremendous bombardments ever seen or heard. We had
+     kept up a tolerable fire for the last four days, quite warm
+     enough; but for two hours this tremendous fire extending six
+     miles was maintained. At twelve the French rushed at the
+     Malakoff, took it with ease, having caught the defenders in their
+     bomb-proof houses, where they had gone to escape from the shells,
+     etc. They found it difficult work to get round to the Little
+     Redan, as the Russians had by that time got out of their holes.
+
+     "However, the Malakoff was won, and the tricolour was hoisted as
+     a signal for our attack. Our men went forward well, losing
+     apparently few, put the ladders in the ditch, and mounted on the
+     salient of the Redan, but though they stayed there five minutes
+     or more, they did not advance, and tremendous reserves coming up
+     drove them out. They retired well and without disorder, losing in
+     all 150 officers, 2400 men killed and wounded. We should have
+     carried everything before us if the men had only advanced. The
+     French got driven back with great loss at the central bastion,
+     losing four general officers. They did not enter the work. Thus,
+     after a day of intense excitement, we had only gained the
+     Malakoff. It was determined that night that the Highlanders
+     should storm the Redan the next morning.
+
+     "I was detailed for the trenches, but during the night I heard
+     terrible explosions, and going down to the trenches at 4 A.M. I
+     saw a splendid sight--the whole town in flames, and every now and
+     then a terrific explosion. The rising sun shining on the scene of
+     destruction produced a beautiful effect. The last of the Russians
+     were leaving the town over the bridge. All the three-deckers,
+     etc., 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 reading the Service over
+     them. About ten o'clock Fort Paul was blown up--a beautiful
+     sight. The town was not safe to be entered on account of the fire
+     and the few Russians who still prowled about. The latter cut off
+     the hands and feet of one Frenchman. They also caught and took
+     away a sapper who would go _trying_ to plunder--for as to plunder
+     there was and is literally nothing but rubbish and fleas, the
+     Russians having carried off everything else. I have got the lock
+     and sight off a gun (which used to try and deposit its contents
+     very often in my carcass, in which I am grateful to say it
+     failed) for my father, and some other rubbish (a Russian cup,
+     etc.) for you and my sisters. But you would be surprised at the
+     extraordinary rarity of knick-knacks. They left their pictures in
+     the churches, which form consequently the only spoil, and which I
+     do not care about buying. I will do my best to get some better
+     things if it is possible. On the 10th we got down to the docks,
+     and a flag of truce came over to ask permission to take away
+     their wounded from the hospital, which we had only found out that
+     day contained 3000 wounded men. These unfortunate men had been
+     for a day and a half without attendance. A fourth of them were
+     dead, and the rest were in a bad way. I will not dwell any more
+     on it, but could not imagine a more dreadful sight.
+
+     "We have now got into the town, the conflagration being out, and
+     it seems quite strange to hear no firing. It has been a splendid
+     city, and the harbour is magnificent. We have taken more than
+     4000 guns, destroyed their fleet, immense stores of provisions,
+     ammunition, etc. (for from the explosions they did not appear to
+     be short of it), and shall destroy the dockyard, forts, quays,
+     barracks, storehouses, etc. For guns, Woolwich is a joke to it.
+     The town is strewn with our shell and shot, etc. We have traced
+     voltaic wires to nearly every powder magazine in the place. What
+     plucky troops they were! When you hear the details of the siege
+     you will be astonished. The length of the siege is nothing in
+     comparison with our gain in having destroyed the place.
+
+     "We are not certain what the Russians are doing on the north
+     side, and as yet do not know whether we shall follow them up or
+     not. We ought to, I think. It is glorious going over their horrid
+     batteries which used to bully us so much. Their dodges were
+     infinite. Most of their artillerymen, being sailors, were
+     necessarily handy men, and had devised several ingenious modes of
+     riveting, which they found very necessary. There was a vineyard
+     under our attack, a sort of neutral ground where no one dared to
+     venture, either Russian or English. We found lots of ripe grapes
+     there. The Russians used to fire another description of grape
+     into it. One night I was working with a party at this very spot,
+     and out of 200 men we lost 30 killed and wounded. We are engaged
+     in clearing the roads, burning the rubbish, and deodorizing the
+     town, taking account of the guns, etc. Nothing is stirring; the
+     Russians fire a little into the town. We hear they are
+     retreating, but do not believe it. The French, it seems, took the
+     Malakoff by surprise. They had learnt from a deserter that the
+     Russians used to march one relief of men out of the place before
+     the other came in on account of the heavy fire; whilst this was
+     being done the French rushed in and found the Malakoff empty. The
+     Russians made three attempts to retake it, the last led by a
+     large body of officers alone. Whenever the Russians commenced a
+     battery they laid down first a line of wires to the magazine with
+     which they could blow it up at any time."
+
+With this final tribute to the courage of the Russian garrison,
+Charles Gordon's account of the siege and fall of Sebastopol closes.
+He took part in the expedition to Kimburn, when General Spencer
+commanded a joint force of 9000 men intended to dislodge the Russians
+from a fort they had built at that place, and also to attack a corps
+of 10,000 men supposed to be stationed at the important town of
+Kherson. The fort surrendered after four hours' bombardment by the
+fleet--the garrison not being "the same style of soldiers as the
+Sebastopol men"--but the Kherson force was never encountered, retiring
+as the allies advanced, who in their turn retired for fear of being
+drawn too far into the country. In one of several letters while on
+this expedition Gordon says that the Czar Alexander the Second was
+near Kimburn during the attack, and that he sent the Governor a
+telegram, "Remember Holy Russia," which the Russian General did by
+getting drunk. The expedition was then withdrawn after installing a
+French garrison in the fort, and Charles Gordon returned to his old
+quarters before Sebastopol. A fortnight after his arrival he was
+appointed to take part in the destruction of the docks, which was to
+signalise the downfall of Russia's power in the Black Sea. This
+closing episode is very well described in several of his letters
+written during the month of December 1855:--
+
+     "I am now, as you see, stationed in the dockyard preparing the
+     shafts and galleries for the demolition of the docks. The French
+     will destroy one half and ourselves the other. The quantity of
+     powder we shall use is 45,000 lbs., in charges varying from 80
+     lbs. to 8000 lbs. The French do not sink their shafts so deep as
+     we do, but use heavier charges. The docks are very well made, and
+     the gates alone cost £23,000. We are taking one gate to London,
+     and the French another to Paris. Our shafts are some of them very
+     deep, and in others there are from eight to ten feet of water.
+     There is not much prospect of the Russians leaving the north
+     side. We can see them hutting themselves.... Our works at the
+     docks approach completion, and we hope to blow up some portion of
+     them on Saturday. The French blew up one last Saturday. The
+     explosion presented a splendid appearance and succeeded
+     admirably, not a stone being left standing. The powder for our
+     demolition will be upwards of twenty-two tons. The Russians still
+     (27th December) hold the north forts, and do not appear to be
+     likely to leave this year as their huts are all built. We can see
+     them quite distinctly on the other side.... _January 20,
+     1856._--We have blown up part of our docks, and are very busy
+     with the remainder, which we hope to get over by the end of the
+     month. I do not anticipate any movement of the army until March,
+     when I suppose we shall go to Asia to relieve Kars, and make the
+     Russians retire from the Turkish territory.... _February 3,
+     1856._--We all of us have been extremely busy in loading and
+     firing our mines in the docks, which required all our time, as we
+     were so very short of officers, having only three, while the
+     French had twelve. Our force of sappers was only 150 and the
+     French had 600. We have now finished the demolition, which is
+     satisfactory as far as the effects produced are concerned; but
+     having used the voltaic battery instead of the old-fashioned
+     hose, we have found that electricity will not succeed in large
+     operations like this, and I do not think that anyone will use it
+     if there is a possibility of using hose. I am now engaged in
+     making plans of the docks, and have not much time to myself. The
+     French have done their work very well, using more powder than we,
+     and firing all their mines with hose. I will try and get you a
+     photograph of the docks as they _were_ and as they _are_, which
+     will tell you more than a dozen letters would. We had an alarm
+     down here the other night about twelve o'clock. The Russians on
+     the north side opened a tremendous fire throughout the whole line
+     on us and on the French. We were all out under arms, expecting an
+     attack by boats, but after being well shelled for an hour, the
+     Russians left off, and all was again silent; but for the time it
+     lasted the fire was terrific. I heard afterwards that it was
+     caused by a French navy captain, who pulled over to the other
+     side of the harbour, and tried to burn a steamer which was lying
+     on its side. He and his companions arrived unperceived, found the
+     steamer quite new, and were getting into it, when the Russian
+     sentinel challenged. They answered 'Russe,' but the sentry called
+     'To arms,' and the Russians fired into the boat, and then
+     continued the fire from all their guns, I suppose expecting a
+     grand attack. Only one man, however, was hurt by a splinter on
+     the arm. The French will blow up Fort Nicholas on Monday. They
+     only got their order the night before last, and are obliged to
+     make a hasty demolition of it. They will use 105,000 lbs. of
+     powder in the demolition. The Russians had ruined this fort, but
+     had not had time to put in the powder; the excavations were
+     complete. It certainly is a splendid fort, mounting 128 guns, and
+     capitally finished for barracks. It would hold 6000 men. The
+     Russians evidently intended this to be an exceptionally strong
+     place, and they appear to have been making a quay all the way
+     round the dockyard creek. We have seen a great deal of the French
+     engineers; they are older men than ours, and seem well educated.
+     The non-commissioned officers are much more intelligent than our
+     men. With us, although our men are not stupid, the officers have
+     to do a good deal of work which the French sapper
+     non-commissioned officer does. They all understand line of least
+     resistance, etc., and what they are about. The Russians do not
+     molest us much now. We can hear them call out and sing,
+     especially on Sundays. We can see them drill, which they do every
+     day. They even have the coolness to go out and fish in the
+     harbour. We never fire, neither do the French. I do not think
+     they purpose leaving the north side; in fact, it would not be at
+     all wise of them to do so. We had some French engineers to dine
+     with us the other day; they were very agreeable, and we learnt a
+     great deal from them about their mining. They used to hear the
+     Russians mining within ten feet of them, and when they did this
+     they used to put in their powder as quick as possible and blow in
+     the Russian mines. The Russians had two systems or layers of
+     mines, one about ten feet below the surface of the ground and the
+     other about forty feet. The French only knew of the higher one,
+     and they found out after the place was taken that their advanced
+     trenches were quite mined and loaded in the lower tier. In the
+     Bastion du Mât there were no less than thirty-six mines loaded
+     and tamped. I saw one myself in the upper tier when I was
+     surveying it. They (the Russians) worked out a strata of clay
+     between two layers of rock, so that no wood was required to keep
+     the earth from falling in."
+
+Soon after these letters a truce was concluded with the Russians in
+anticipation of the peace which was ultimately signed at Paris in
+March 1856. The prospects of peace were not altogether agreeable to
+the English army, which had been raised to an effective strength of
+more than 40,000 men, and was never in a better condition for war than
+at the end of the two years since it first landed in the Chersonese.
+Gordon's correspondence contains two or three remarks, giving
+characteristic evidence to the strength and extent of this sentiment.
+
+In one passage he says: "We do not, generally speaking, like the
+thought of peace until after another campaign. I shall not go to
+England, but expect I shall remain abroad for three or four years,
+which _individually_ I would sooner spend in war than peace. There is
+something indescribably exciting in the former."
+
+Another comment to the same effect is the following: "Suders, the
+Russian General, reviewed us and the French army last week. He must
+have thought our making peace odd."
+
+Gordon did not obtain any honour or promotion for his Crimean
+services. He was included in Sir Harry Jones's list of Engineer
+Subalterns who had specially distinguished themselves during the
+siege. The French Government, more discerning than his own, awarded
+him the Legion of Honour.
+
+The letters from the Crimea are specially interesting for the light
+they throw on General Gordon's character. They illustrate better than
+anything else he wrote during his career the soldierly side of his
+character. The true professional spirit of the man of war peers forth
+in every sentence, and his devotion to the details of his work was a
+good preparatory course for that great campaign in China where his
+engineering skill, not less than his military genius, was so
+conspicuously shown. As a subaltern in the Crimea Gordon showed
+himself zealous, daring, vigilant, and with that profound national
+feeling that an army of Englishmen was the finest fighting force in
+the world, combined with an inner conviction that of that army his
+kindred Highlanders were the most intrepid and leading cohort. This
+was a far more attractive and comprehensible personality than the
+other revealed in later days, of the Biblical pedant seeking to
+reconcile passing events with ancient Jewish prophecies, and to see in
+the most ordinary occurrences the workings of a resistless and
+unalterable fate. That was not the true Gordon, but rather the
+grafting of a new character on the original stem of Spartan simplicity
+and heroism. But to the very end of his career, to the last message
+from Khartoum, the old Gordon--the real Gordon, the one who will never
+be forgotten--revealed himself just as he was in the trenches before
+Sebastopol.
+
+Gordon's connection with the Russian War and the Eastern Question did
+not terminate with the Treaty of Paris. On 10th May he received orders
+to join Colonel Stanton, for the purpose of assisting in the
+delimitation of the new frontier in Bessarabia. He imagined that the
+work would take six months; it really took a year. A not unimportant
+principle was involved in this question, and an error in a map was
+nearly securing for the Russians a material advantage. At the Paris
+Congress it was determined to eloin the Russians from the Danube and
+its tributary lakes and streams. The Powers therefore stated that the
+Russian frontier should pass south of Bolgrad, judging from the small
+scale-map supplied by the Russians that Bolgrad was north of Lake
+Yalpukh, which opens into the river Danube. When the Boundary
+Commission came on the ground, they found that Bolgrad was on Lake
+Yalpukh, and that if the frontier passed to the south of it the
+Russians would have access to the Danube; and therefore, knowing the
+spirit of the Treaty, the English Commissioners referred the question
+to the Paris Congress. A sketch was prepared by Gordon and his
+colleagues, to show the diplomatists its exact position, and led to
+the frontier being laid down north of Bolgrad and Lake Yalpukh.
+Austria, as well as France, Turkey, and Russia, was represented on
+this Commission, and Gordon's comrade was Lieutenant, afterward
+General Sir Henry, James, who had served with him in the trenches, and
+who had one day lost his way and walked into the Russian lines, as
+Gordon himself had so nearly done.
+
+Gordon's letters give an interesting account of his work, and bring
+out with his usual clearness all the points at issue; but it is
+unnecessary to follow very closely the events of the year he passed in
+the lower Danube region. How excellent his work must have been can be
+judged from the fact that the Government sent him back some years
+later to act as British Consul at Galatz. The delimitation work
+commenced with a personal inspection of the frontier from Katamori on
+the Pruth to Boma Sola on the Black Sea, a distance of 200 miles. Then
+the frontier was defined on the map, and finally it had to be marked
+on the ground with the usual posts and distinctive marks. Thirty-two
+separate plans had to be prepared before the frontier could be
+adjusted, and the frequent bickerings and quarrels gave rise to many
+surmises that the negotiations might be broken off and hostilities
+ensue. The main point of dispute as to Bolgrad threatened to form a
+_casus belli_ with even a new arrangement of the Powers, as France
+gave up the case, and thus encouraged Russia to prove more obdurate.
+But England and the other Powers stood firm, and Bolgrad was included
+in Moldavia.
+
+The following extracts give a tolerably complete account of what was
+done. Writing from Kichenief on 9th January 1857, Gordon said:
+
+     "We are now settled as to the frontier question. Russia has given
+     up Bolgrad and received a portion of territory in exchange equal
+     to that surrendered, both as to number of inhabitants and also as
+     to extent of land. This mode of compensation will give us more
+     than half our work to do over again. I had almost finished my
+     plans, and one-half of these will have to be redrawn. However, it
+     is a consolation to know that the thing is settled. We heard all
+     this by telegraph from Paris, and by the same message learnt that
+     we are to proceed at once to work on the frontier in order to get
+     it finished by 30th March, and thus allow of the ceded territory
+     being handed over to the Moldavians on that day. You may imagine
+     what a hurry they are in to get this finished. The Russians
+     pretend to believe that they have got the best of the dispute,
+     but it will be difficult to persuade the world to be of the same
+     opinion. Although so cold, there is not much snow, and it is
+     beautifully clear weather, capital for sledging. The new frontier
+     leaves Tobak and Bolgrad in Moldavia, and gives a piece of land
+     near the Pruth in exchange to Russia.... The territory will be
+     given over in two parts. The southern consists of Ismail, Kilia,
+     Reni, and Bolgrad, as well as the delta of the Danube. The
+     northern part consists of the land between the Pruth and
+     Yalpukh.... We have finished our work, everything has been
+     signed, and the total number of the plans we have made is upwards
+     of 100. For my part, I have had enough of them for my whole
+     life."
+
+This wish was not to be gratified, for before Colonel Stanton's
+Commission was dissolved orders came for him to hand over his officers
+and men to Colonel--now Field-Marshal Sir Lintorn--Simmons, for the
+purpose of settling the boundary in Armenia, where a dispute had
+arisen about the course of the river Aras, the ancient Araxes. Gordon,
+who had now had two and a half years of foreign service without a
+break, did not relish this task, and even went to the expense of
+telegraphing for permission to exchange; but this effort was in vain,
+for the laconic reply of the Commander-in-Chief was: "Lieutenant
+Gordon must go." If Gordon had under-estimated the time required for
+the Bessarabian delimitation, he slightly over-estimated that for the
+Armenian, as his anticipated two years was diminished in the result to
+twenty-one months.
+
+He left Constantinople on 1st May 1857 on board a Turkish steamer,
+_Kars_, bound for Trebizonde. The ship was overcrowded with dirty
+passengers, and the voyage was disagreeable, and might have been
+dangerous if the weather had not proved exceptionally favourable. On
+arriving at Trebizonde horses had to be engaged for the ten days'
+journey across the 180 miles of difficult country separating that port
+from Erzeroum, the Armenian capital. The total caravan of the English
+and French Commissioners--the latter being Colonel Pelissier, a
+relative of the Marshal--numbered ninety-nine horses; and the Turkish
+Commissioner, being unable to obtain any money from his Government,
+seized the horses necessary for his journey in a manner that first
+opened Gordon's eyes to the ways of Pashas. He stopped on the road
+every caravan he met, threw off their goods, put on his own, and
+impounded the animals for his journey. After a brief stay at
+Erzeroum--which Gordon describes as a very pretty place at a distance,
+but horribly dirty when entered, and where there are eight or nine
+months of very hard winter--the Commission passed on to Kars, which
+became its headquarters. The heroic defence of that fortress was then
+recent, and it is still of sufficient interest as a military episode
+to justify the quotation of the evidence Gordon, with his
+characteristic desire to be well informed, collected on the spot while
+the events themselves were fresh. For convenience' sake, his remarks
+on Kars and the whole campaign are strung together here, although they
+appeared in several letters:--
+
+     "Kars is, as you can easily imagine, a ruined city, and may
+     perhaps never recover its former strength and importance. As far
+     as the works of defence are concerned, they are excessively badly
+     traced. A little pamphlet published by Kmety, a Hungarian, gives
+     a graphic description of the siege. One thing difficult if not
+     impossible to realise without seeing it, is the large extent of
+     the position. Kars has been twice in the hands of the Russians
+     during the last thirty years, Paskievitch having taken it by
+     assault in 1829. We passed the battlefield at Kuyukdere, where
+     the Russians in very small force under Bebutoff were attacked by
+     a very superior force of Turks, under the direction of General
+     Guyon, the Hungarian. By some mistake the Turkish left lost its
+     way during the night, and was eight miles distant from the field
+     when the right came into action. The battle was very hotly
+     contested, but the Turks had at last to retire with the loss of
+     several guns. Had the affair gone off as Guyon[1] intended, the
+     Russians would have been licked. This battle, I should add, was
+     fought in August 1854, before any English officer had arrived in
+     this country. The Russian loss was very severe: there were 3,200
+     wounded alone brought into Gumri for treatment. The first day
+     from Gumri we passed Baiandoor, where the Turks and Russians had
+     a small battle in 1853, and where the former lost a splendid
+     opportunity of taking Gumri, which was nearly denuded of troops.
+     My Turkish colleague, Osman Bey (I believe this officer to be
+     identical with Ghazi Osman, the defender of Plevna), was present,
+     and got into Gumri as a spy, disguised in the character of a
+     servant. The Russian army avenged the slight check they received
+     from the Turks by taking all their artillery of the right wing."
+
+     [1] Guyon was an Englishman, but one of the National Commanders
+         in the Hungarian Rebellion of 1848. I have given a brief
+         account of his adventurous career at pp. 148-49 of "General
+         Gordon's Letters from the Crimea," etc.
+
+As illustrating his professional zeal and powers of scientific
+examination, the following description of the fortress of Alexandropol
+or Gumri is a striking production from so young an officer:--
+
+     "The fortress of Alexandropol (40° 47' N. lat., 43° long. 45' E.,
+     4500 feet above the sea) is situated on the left bank of the
+     river Arpatchai, which here forms the boundary between Russia and
+     Turkey. It is distant thirty-five miles from Kars and eighty-four
+     miles from Tiflis. The plain on which it is situated is perfectly
+     level and very peculiar. It has a stratum of alluvial soil for
+     the depth of one foot six inches on the surface, and then a
+     substratum of fine uniform lava, ten to fifteen feet thick,
+     supposed to have issued from Mount Alagos (13,450 feet), an
+     extinct volcano thirty miles from Alexandropol. The depth of the
+     earth allows the growth of grain, but entirely prevents that of
+     trees, which with their roots cannot penetrate into the lava. The
+     Russians have taken advantage of this bed of lava in the ditch of
+     the fortress. The fortress is well constructed and in perfect
+     repair. There are upwards of 200 guns (varying from 36-pounders
+     to 12-pounders) mounted on the works, and about 100 in reserve,
+     of which 30 are field-guns with their equipment wagons, etc. The
+     garrison would be 5000 to 6000, including artillery. There are
+     large supplies of ammunition and military stores. The ditch,
+     twelve feet deep, of the two western fronts has not been
+     excavated near the flanks on account of the expense. The Russians
+     have constructed in the centres of the two curtains a
+     _caponnière_ with two guns in each flank to defend the dead
+     angles caused by the non-excavation of the whole of the ditch. In
+     the centre of these two fronts is a large _caponnière_, mounting
+     ten guns in the upper tier and eight in the lower tier. This
+     _caponnière_ is on a lower level than the enceinte of the place.
+     The counterscarp at the north-west and south-west angles of these
+     two fronts is for the distance of twenty yards composed of a
+     crenellated wall four feet six inches thick. This was caused by
+     the irregularity of the ground. The bomb-proof barracks of the
+     northern fronts mount in casemate two tiers of fourteen guns at
+     the curtains. The flanks have five guns in casemates open to the
+     rear, in addition to the guns on the parapet above. The lunette
+     in the ditch is eight feet deep. The eastern front has an escarp
+     fourteen feet high cut in the lava, and well flanked by the
+     _caponnière_ defending the entrances, mounting four guns. The
+     bomb-proof barracks in the northern fronts have one tier of eight
+     guns in casemate at the curtains, and three guns in each flank in
+     casemates open to the rear. The two outworks are closed at the
+     gorge with a loopholed wall, flanked by a small guard-house. They
+     have no ditches, but an escarp of ten feet in the lava. The tower
+     marked _A_ in my plan is sixty yards in diameter, with a well in
+     the centre. It has its gorge closed with a ditch and loopholed
+     wall. It mounts fifteen guns on the top, and fifteen guns in
+     casemate. It is proposed to connect it by a crenellated wall with
+     the main work. The tower marked _B_ has a ditch and small glacis.
+     It mounts eight guns in casemate, and eight on the top. Its
+     object is to flank the long ravine which runs southward from it.
+     All the buildings in the interior of the fortress are bomb-proof.
+     The great fault of the fortress as it is constructed at present
+     is that it does not so much as see the town with its population
+     of 9310. It is now proposed, however, to make a large work on the
+     site marked _K_ with a view of meeting this want. During the war
+     in 1853, when the Turks were 35,000 strong at Baiandoor, six
+     miles from Alexandropol, and the Russians had only two battalions
+     in the fortress, the latter demolished all the houses which were
+     on this ground. I think that should it ever be in our power to
+     besiege this place (which is not likely, from the enormous
+     difficulty of getting a siege train there), that batteries might
+     be established on the hillocks between the fortress and the
+     river, to breach the large _caponnière_ and the tower _A_ which,
+     from the formation of the ground, would not be opposed by more
+     fire than the direct fire of the works they were intended to
+     breach, and which would be limited by their circular form to
+     about seven guns. The soil is not unfavourable on these hills.
+     The hill on which the cemetery of the officers killed at Kars and
+     Kuyukdere is situated is also favourable for batteries. The
+     principal well, which is sunk to a good depth, is in the
+     north-eastern bastion."
+
+General Gordon's letters contain two or three interesting descriptions
+that, in view of more recent events, deserve quotation. Of the Kurds
+he thus speaks, and the description stands good at the present day:--
+
+     "We met on our road a great number of Kurds, who live as their
+     fathers did, by travelling about, robbing, etc., with their
+     flocks. Their children are short of clothing. In spite of the
+     Cossacks, etc., they are as lawless as ever, and go from Turkey
+     to Russia and back again as they like. They are fine-looking
+     people, armed to the teeth, but are decreasing in numbers. They
+     never live in houses, but prefer tents and caves. On the
+     mountains we fell in with the tribes of Kurds, who live at this
+     height during the summer months, quite isolated from the rest of
+     mankind. I paid a visit to the chief of a tribe of 2000, and he
+     passed a great number of compliments on the English. This Bey is
+     all powerful with his tribe; he settles all disputes, divides the
+     pasture land among the families, etc. Although living in such a
+     deserted spot, they read the Turkish papers, and they asked
+     several questions about the English war with Persia. They are
+     very fanatical, and are much encouraged in their religious
+     fervour by the Sultan's agents. Their houses consist of stone
+     walls covered with camel's-hair tents, which are quite
+     waterproof, and lined inside with capital carpets made by
+     themselves. We encamped near them and obtained our milk, etc.,
+     from them; but, in order to let us know their habits, they stole
+     the horse of the Russian officer's interpreter during the night.
+     I should not mind trusting them at all, for the Bey would not
+     allow them to take our horses; perhaps this was only from his
+     hatred to the Russians."
+
+He gives some particulars of the Lazes, to one of whose villages he
+paid a visit, and as he believed that he was the only Englishman who
+had ever done so, his remarks were based on special local knowledge:--
+
+     "On one side of it was Lazistan, and this part of Lazistan is
+     peopled by the fiercest tribe of Lazes, who scarcely acknowledge
+     even the Sultan. We had an escort of forty infantry, and were not
+     molested. This tribe and the Kabouletians supply the
+     Constantinople Turks with slaves, whom they kidnap from the
+     Gourelians, who are on the Russian side. The Adjars (the tribe
+     referred to) are most daring, and even proposed to us to bring
+     any person we might choose out to Batoum for £40 to £120. In
+     consequence of these kidnappings, etc., a deadly enmity exists
+     between the two peoples, and whenever they get a chance they kill
+     one another. During the last eighteen months sixty-two people
+     have been kidnapped, sixteen killed, and twenty or thirty wounded
+     on the part of the Gourelians. The Russian guards of the frontier
+     are helpless against these people, for the latter are armed with
+     a capital rifle and are also splendid shots, while the Cossacks
+     have only a trumpery smooth bore. The country of the Adjars is
+     very mountainous indeed, and quite impracticable except on foot,
+     being covered with dense forests."
+
+Of Ani, the ancient, once famous, and now deserted capital of Armenia,
+he gives the following picture:--
+
+     "We passed through Ani, the ancient capital of Armenia. This city
+     is completely deserted, and has splendid churches still standing
+     in it. These churches are capitally built and preserved. Some
+     coloured drawings on their walls are to be seen even now. The
+     towers and walls are almost intact, but the most extraordinary
+     thing about so large a place is the singular quietness. There are
+     many ruined cities in the neighbourhood, and all dating from
+     about the eleventh century. At that period Ani itself contained
+     100,000 inhabitants and 500 churches, which shows that more
+     people went to church among them than with us. Before the end of
+     that century it passed into the hands of the Greeks and Saracens.
+     Afterwards the Mongols took it, and at last an earthquake drove
+     out the remaining inhabitants in 1339, since which time it has
+     been perfectly deserted. The churches of Ani were built with
+     lava, and crosses of black lava were let in very curiously into
+     the red lava. With the exception of the churches and the king's
+     palace, the city is level with the ground, the foundations of the
+     houses being alone discernible. These churches were covered with
+     Armenian inscriptions cut on the walls."
+
+The delimitation work in itself was uninteresting, being carried on in
+barren and solitary regions where there was nothing but rock, without
+either grass or inhabitants. Gordon said he would not take thirty
+square miles for a gift, and yet the Turks and Russians clung to it,
+bringing witnesses from among the tribes who would swear whatever they
+were paid for. The question at issue was where the old frontier
+between the Persian province of Erivan and the Pashalik of Baizeth was
+fixed. The Persians ceded the province of Erivan to Russia in 1828,
+and both the Turks and Russians had their own, and necessarily
+conflicting, views as to where the frontier was. General Gordon's own
+belief that there had never been any real frontier at all was no doubt
+the right one. The English officers, without any assistance from their
+Turkish colleagues, who merely looked on when they were not keeping up
+the supply of witnesses, had to effect the best arrangement they could
+with the Russians. In the course of his survey of the frontier, which
+he said he examined almost foot by foot, Gordon came to Mount Ararat,
+which he very nearly ascended, as he tells the reader in the following
+graphic narrative:--
+
+     "When we arrived at the foot of Mount Ararat we were unable to
+     proceed along the frontier any further because the ground becomes
+     extremely broken by the innumerable streams of lava which have
+     run down from it. The ground is black with cinders. They look as
+     if quite recently emitted, and no one would imagine from their
+     appearance that Ararat had been extinct so long. Our road went
+     along the northern or Russian slope of Ararat, and passed
+     through a very old city called Kourgai, where there are still the
+     remains of a church and part of an old castle. Even the Armenians
+     do not pretend to know its history, but some of them say that
+     Noah lived there. It is situated half-way up the mountain, and
+     there is no living person within twelve miles of it. There used
+     to be a populous village named Aralik, with 5000 inhabitants, a
+     little above it, but in 1840 an earthquake shook Mount Ararat,
+     and in four minutes an immense avalanche had buried this place so
+     completely as to leave scarcely any vestige of its site. Not a
+     single person escaped, which is not to be wondered at,
+     considering the mass that fell. Stones of twenty or thirty tons
+     were carried as far as fifteen to twenty miles into the plain. It
+     has left a tremendous cleft in Ararat itself. Other villages were
+     destroyed at the same time, but none so completely as this. The
+     village immediately below Aralik was also destroyed, but the
+     graveyard remained untouched, and the tombstones stand up intact
+     in the midst of the ruins. The common people say that it was
+     saved on account of a saint who was buried there. All these
+     places have a very lonely look. Both the Kurds and the Armenians,
+     if they can possibly help it, never pass near Mount Ararat, while
+     they think it a great sin to ascend it.
+
+     "I must now tell you of my ascent, or rather my near ascent, of
+     Great Ararat.
+
+     "I and my interpreter and three sappers went up to a Kurdish
+     encampment where an old Kurd lived who assisted five of our
+     countrymen to ascend about two years ago. The only assistance,
+     however, that he appeared able to give us was to show us where
+     these Englishmen had encamped the night before their ascent. We
+     consequently pitched our tents there, and settled ourselves for
+     the night. The night proved to be very stormy, with thunder and
+     rain, which was a bad lookout for us. However, we started at 4
+     A.M. the next morning, and had some very hard work up to the line
+     of perpetual snow. My interpreter and two of the sappers gave it
+     up before this, but I and the other, Corporal Fisher, held on.
+
+     "The whole of this time there was a thick fog, which now and then
+     cleared away, though only for brief moments, and enabled us to
+     get a splendid view of the country spread out as a map beneath
+     us, with cumuli clouds floating about. The snow which I mounted
+     was at a very steep slope, and quite hard, nearly ice, on the
+     surface. It was so steep that we could not sit down without
+     holding on tightly to our poles. Corporal Fisher was about half a
+     mile to my left, and had a better ascent as it was not quite so
+     steep. About two o'clock I began to get very tired, not able to
+     get up more than two yards without resting. This was caused by
+     the rarefication of the air. The mist cleared just at this time
+     for a minute, and I was enabled to see the summit about 1000 feet
+     above me, but still a further very steep ascent. Little Ararat
+     was also visible 3000 feet below me. It began to snow soon after
+     this, and became intensely cold. The two together settled me, and
+     I turned round, although very reluctantly, and sitting down, slid
+     over in a very few minutes the distance which had taken me so
+     many hours to clamber up. Corporal Fisher managed to get up to
+     the top, and describes the crater to be very shallow, although
+     the top is very large. The Kurd told me afterwards that the road
+     I took was very difficult, and that the other English explorers
+     went up a road which was comparatively easy. I believe, however,
+     that if the weather had been more favourable I should have
+     succeeded."
+
+This was not his only mountaineering experience. Some weeks later he
+ascended Mount Alagos--that is, the Motley Mount, from its various
+colours. It is 13,480 feet above the sea, or about 3000 feet lower
+than Ararat.
+
+     "We started with some Kurdish guides to the mountain, and after a
+     good deal of delay got to the place where the only path to the
+     summit commences. Here we were obliged to dismount and take to
+     our legs. After about two hours and a half we got to the summit,
+     and were extremely glad of it, for although it is not to be
+     compared to Mount Ararat, it is still rather difficult. Trusting
+     to my Ararat experience, I thought of descending in the snow, and
+     started. I was much astonished at finding the slope far steeper
+     than I expected, and consequently went down like a shot, and
+     reached the bottom one hour and a half before the others. A
+     Russian doctor tried it after me, and in trying to change his
+     direction was turned round, and went to the bottom sometimes head
+     foremost. He was not a bit hurt. There was no danger, as we had
+     only to keep ourselves straight. My trousers are the only
+     sufferers! I was the first up. None of the Russians succeeded!"
+
+With one more quotation, Gordon's description of Etchmiazin, the
+celebrated monastery where the Armenian Catholicos resides, the
+extracts from these early letters may be concluded:--
+
+     "We passed through the oldest of the Armenian churches and
+     monasteries, a place called Etchmiazin. It professes to be 1500
+     years old, and certainly has the appearance of great antiquity;
+     it was existing during the time of the ruined city of Ani, and is
+     built in a similar style. The relics there are greatly esteemed.
+     People make pilgrimages to this monastery from all parts. There
+     is, firstly, an arm of St Gregory, which is enclosed in a gold
+     case covered with precious stones; next the piece of the ark,
+     which is necessarily of great antiquity; a piece of the cross and
+     of the spear, and a finger-nail of St Peter complete the relics.
+     All these are enveloped in gold cases, and richly ornamented with
+     every sort of precious stones. The monastery owns ten villages
+     and a great deal of land. The monks gave us a grand dinner, and
+     their feeding certainly was not bad. The monks' council chamber
+     was splendidly got up, all the ceiling being carved and gilded."
+
+The concluding stages of the delimitation work were rapidly concluded,
+and before the end of September 1857 Colonel Simmons and his staff had
+returned to Constantinople. The illness of all the English officers
+except Gordon detained them some weeks in the Turkish capital, and he
+wrote home that his surveying duties had been superseded by those of
+sick nurse. But before the end of October he was back again in
+England, and met his father and the other members of his family after
+a still longer interval. While engaged on the frontier commission, his
+comrade in the trenches, Lieutenant William Christian Anderson, of his
+own Corps, had married one of his sisters, but, after a very short
+period of wedded happiness, he died suddenly. After his death a son
+was born who bore the same name, is now an officer in the Royal
+Artillery, and served on General Graham's staff at Souakim. Charles
+Gordon summed up his comrade's character in these words:--
+
+     "I am extremely distressed to hear of poor Willie Anderson's
+     death, and every one who knew him will be so. He was a sterling
+     good comrade and officer, greatly liked by both officers and men,
+     and our Corps has sustained a great loss in him. I am so very
+     sorry for poor dear ----. It is such a sudden blow to her, and I
+     am sure they must have been so happy together during their short
+     married life."
+
+Gordon, therefore, found a certain amount of gloom in the family
+circle during the Christmas of 1857, and as his desire to join the
+staff of the army was not immediately attainable, the orders he
+suddenly received in April 1858 to again proceed to the Caucasus, in
+consequence of a slight frontier dispute with Russia, were not
+altogether disagreeable to him as a return to that active work which
+he loved. For some reason, which was probably the wish to save a
+little money by economy in travelling, with the view of carrying out
+his generous plans towards others, he took his passage to
+Constantinople in a slow steamer from the Thames, touching at Havre.
+He described his fellow-passengers as not very select, but amusing,
+and the voyage as "a yachting excursion, time being apparently no
+object." He only remained ten days at Constantinople, and reached
+Redout Kaleh in the Caucasus on 3rd June, visiting Sebastopol on the
+way. He described it as still an utter ruin; "the grass had so
+overgrown the place where the camps stood that it was with difficulty
+I found my hut."
+
+On 12th June Gordon joined his Russian colleague, Ogranovitch, at
+Ozurgeth; but the Turkish representative did not arrive for a month
+later, which interval Gordon employed in recording his impressions of
+Russian and Georgian society in the Caucasus:--
+
+     "I dined with the Governor-General, Prince Eristaw, who left the
+     next day for Swaneti to overawe the subjects of the late Prince
+     (he was shot at Kutais for stabbing Prince Gagarin, the
+     predecessor of Prince Eristaw), who do not seem to have realised
+     his death. The Prince takes two battalions of infantry and two
+     guns nominally as an escort. There are some very pretty ladies at
+     Kutais who dance their national dances capitally. They dance
+     alone, and all the gentlemen beat time with their hands. I was
+     surprised at seeing the ladies wear a sort of bracelet of black
+     beads, to which they attached great value. I am sure they are
+     nothing more than bog oak.... I have since discovered they are
+     _cannel coal, not bog oak_. The ladies are very pretty, but have
+     not very cleanly habits in general; they prefer their nails
+     tipped, and do not hesitate at taking a bone and gnawing it. They
+     live in extremely dirty houses, or rather huts. They are
+     generally all princesses, and the men all princes, who, however,
+     do not hesitate to accept small donations. I am always in fear
+     and trembling lest they should give me anything, as it is
+     necessary to give in return. I, unfortunately, happened to notice
+     a certain glass letterweight with the Queen on it, and observed
+     that it was like Her Majesty. I was given it on the spot, and
+     with deep regret had to part with my soda-water machine the next
+     day. I admire nothing now, you may be sure. The servants of
+     Prince Dimitri Gouriel have made a good thing out of my visit,
+     for each time they bring anything--butter, fruit, etc.--orders
+     are given that an equivalent be given them in money. My hands get
+     quite sticky with shaking hands with so many princes, but I have
+     hitherto borne up like a martyr under my trials. On being invited
+     to the house of a prince, you would figure yourself invited to a
+     palace; but it is not the case here, and you would find it out to
+     your cost if you did not take something to eat in your pockets."
+
+The work of this Commission proved exceedingly fatiguing--Gordon
+breaking in characteristically with the statement: "I do not complain
+when there is no occasion"--and consisted chiefly in replacing the
+pyramids carefully removed by the population during the twelve months
+since they were erected. The successful result of this Commission was
+entirely due to Gordon's energy and untiring labour. His Russian and
+Turkish colleagues were always quarrelling, and Gordon had to play the
+part of peacemaker--for which, he said, "I am naturally not well
+adapted"--an admission that may be commended to those who think that
+Gordon was a meek and colourless individual, with more affinity to a
+Methodist parson than the dauntless and resolute soldier he really
+was.
+
+Early in October the whole delimitation was concluded, and without a
+hitch, much to Gordon's satisfaction. By 17th November he had reached
+Constantinople on his way home, but notwithstanding the special
+hardships of his work and his long absence from England, with one
+brief interval, he was still anxious for work and action. In the
+closing letter of his correspondence he said: "I do not feel at all
+inclined to settle in England and be employed in any sedentary way,
+and shall try and get employed here (Constantinople) if it is
+possible."
+
+While these letters contain a very vivid account of the striking and
+remarkable events that occurred during the long military and
+diplomatic struggle with Russia, they are not less interesting or
+important for the many unconscious glimpses Gordon gives into his own
+character. In them may be found references to habits and things which
+show that the young officer was a sportsman, and by no means
+indifferent to creature comforts; and as the most careful search
+through all his later writings of every kind will bring no similar
+discovery, these acquire a special importance as showing that the
+original Gordon only differed from his comrades in being more earnest,
+more active, and more enthusiastic. I take at random such statements
+as "Our feeding is pretty good, but the drinking is not," "The
+Russians gave a spread [vulgar] on Saturday, noisily and badly got up.
+Their wine was simply execrable," and "How I wish I could get some
+partridge shooting! My bag up to the present (on the Danube) is
+200--not bad! eh?" Then again, on a more delicate subject, there are
+numerous references to ladies, and to his appreciation of beauty. In a
+chaffing passage in one of his letters, he wrote that one of his
+sisters "wants me to bring home a Russian wife, I think; but I am sure
+you would not admire the Russian ladies I have seen." Again, the
+ladies of the Caucasus are pronounced "very pretty," and "the
+Gourelians are beautiful--in fact, I never saw so many handsome women
+as the peasants among them." At this time Gordon was certainly not a
+misogynist, but I am assured that the rumours as to his having met
+with an early disappointment in love are quite baseless of truth. From
+a very early period of his life, certainly before the Crimea, Gordon
+had made up his mind not to marry, and was in the habit of going even
+further, and wishing himself dead. This sentiment led him to
+constantly refer to himself as "the dead man"; and some years later he
+wrote, "There is a Miss ---- here, the nicest girl I ever met; but
+don't be afraid, the dead do not marry." His own secret opinion seems
+to have been that marriage spoilt both men and women, and it will be
+at least admitted that if he had married he could never have lived the
+disinterested, heroic life which remains a marvel for the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE CHINA WAR.
+
+
+Gordon was back in England in good time for the Christmas festivities
+of 1858, and a few months later--1st April 1859--he was gazetted to
+the rank of Captain. About the same time he also received the
+appointment of Field-Work Instructor and Adjutant at Chatham, where
+his practical knowledge gained in the Sebastopol trenches was turned
+to good account in the theoretical training of future officers of his
+Corps. He was thus employed when the conflict in China, which had been
+in progress for some years, assumed a graver character in consequence
+of the Chinese refusal to ratify the Treaty of Tientsin and Admiral
+Hope's repulse in front of the Taku forts. Gordon at once volunteered
+for active service, and on 22nd July 1860 he sailed for the Far East.
+He did not reach Tientsin until the following 26th September, being,
+as he said in his first letter home, "rather late for the amusement,
+which won't vex mother." Not only had he missed the capture of the
+Taku forts, but also the one battle of the war, that fought at
+Chan-chia-wan on 9th September. He was, however, in time for the sack
+of the Summer Palace, which he describes in the following letter:--
+
+     "On the 11th October we were sent down in a great hurry to throw
+     up works and batteries against the town, as the Chinese refused
+     to give up the gate we required them to surrender before we would
+     treat with them. They were also required to give up all the
+     prisoners. You will be sorry to hear that the treatment they have
+     suffered is very bad. Poor De Norman, who was with me in Asia, is
+     one of the victims. It appears that they were tied so tight by
+     the wrists that the flesh mortified, and they died in the
+     greatest torture. Up to the time that elapsed before they arrived
+     at the Summer Palace they were well treated, but then the
+     ill-treatment began. The Emperor is supposed to have been there
+     at the time.
+
+     "To go back to the work--the Chinese were given until twelve on
+     the 13th to give up the gate. We made a lot of batteries, and
+     everything was ready for the assault of the wall, which is
+     battlemented and 40 feet high, but of inferior masonry. At 11.30
+     P.M. the gate was opened, and we took possession; so our work
+     was of no avail. The Chinese had then until the 23rd to think
+     over our terms of peace, and to pay up £10,000 for each
+     Englishman and £500 for each native soldier who died during their
+     captivity. This they did, and the money was paid, and the Treaty
+     signed yesterday. I could not witness it, as all officers
+     commanding companies were obliged to remain in camp.
+
+     "Owing to the ill-treatment the prisoners experienced at the
+     Summer Palace, the General ordered it to be destroyed, and stuck
+     up proclamations to say why it was so ordered. We accordingly
+     went out, and, after pillaging it, burned the whole place,
+     destroying in a Vandal-like manner most valuable property which
+     would not be replaced for four millions. We got upwards of £48
+     a-piece prize money before we went out here; and although I have
+     not as much as many, I have done well. Imagine D---- giving
+     sixteen shillings for a string of pearls, which he sold the next
+     day for £500!
+
+     "The people are civil, but I think the grandees hate us, as they
+     must after what we did to the Palace. You can scarcely imagine
+     the beauty and magnificence of the places we burnt. It made one's
+     heart sore to burn them; in fact, these palaces were so large,
+     and we were so pressed for time, that we could not plunder them
+     carefully. Quantities of gold ornaments were burnt, considered as
+     brass. It was wretchedly demoralising work for an army. Everybody
+     was wild for plunder.
+
+     "You would scarcely conceive the magnificence of this residence,
+     or the tremendous devastation the French have committed. The
+     throne-room was lined with ebony, carved in a marvellous way.
+     There were huge mirrors of all shapes and kinds, clocks, watches,
+     musical boxes with puppets on them, magnificent china of every
+     description, heaps and heaps of silks of all colours, embroidery,
+     and as much splendour and civilization as you would see at
+     Windsor; carved ivory screens, coral screens, large amounts of
+     treasure, etc. The French have smashed everything in the most
+     wanton way. It was a scene of utter destruction which passes my
+     description."
+
+It may be of interest to state here that Gordon bought the throne
+referred to. Its supports are the Imperial Dragon's claws, and the
+cushions are of yellow Imperial silk. He presented it long afterwards
+to the headquarters of his Corps at Chatham, where it now stands.
+
+On the exchange of the Treaty ratifications, which took place within
+the walls of the Imperial capital, the force under Sir Hope Grant was
+withdrawn to Tientsin, and after a brief space from China. But pending
+the payment of the instalments of the war indemnity, a garrison of
+3000 men, under General Staveley, was left at Tientsin, and Captain
+Gordon was attached to this force. He had a very busy time of it at
+first, for suitable quarters had to be provided for our troops, and
+Gordon was fully employed in the construction of barracks and stables.
+Among the other tasks that engaged his attention at the time was the
+management of a fund for the benefit of the Chinese poor, and he was
+much distressed by an unfortunate accident that attended its
+distribution.
+
+     "We had collected about nine hundred dollars for the poor, and
+     had asked the mandarins to issue tickets to the most deserving.
+     This they would not do, so a certain day was fixed upon which to
+     distribute the funds. There were about 3000 beggars, and in the
+     crush seven women and one boy were killed. The poor women on
+     their little feet, on which they are never very safe, were thrown
+     down and trampled upon."
+
+During the eighteen months that Gordon resided at Tientsin he took
+every opportunity of seeing the country, and as often as he could he
+rode from that town along the banks of the Peiho river to the Taku
+forts at its mouth. The distance is about forty miles each way, and he
+computed that he accomplished it not fewer than twenty times. He also
+visited Peking in August 1861, and remained several days on a visit to
+Sir Frederick Bruce at the British Legation. At that date rumours were
+already current that the Emperor Hienfung, who never returned to
+Peking after our occupation, but made Yehol his capital and place of
+residence, was dead. These were true, but some time elapsed before it
+was officially announced that the Emperor had died on the 22nd of that
+month, the very day that Gordon reached Peking himself, and wrote the
+following letter:--
+
+     "The Emperor is reported to be dead, and his coffin has been sent
+     for; but this is no proof, since it is the custom to send for a
+     man's coffin when he is seriously ill, and it is kept for him
+     even if he lives fifty years after."
+
+Writing again some time after, he says on the grave event: "A great
+operation relating to the funeral of Hienfung is going on: a marble
+block, weighing sixty tons, is being removed from the quarries to the
+west of Peking to the cemetery in the east. It is drawn along upon a
+huge truck by six hundred ponies, and proceeds at the rate of four
+miles per day. When it arrives it is to be set up and carved into the
+shape of an elephant; several other large stones are also _en route_."
+
+But the most interesting expedition Gordon undertook from Tientsin was
+that to the Great Wall, and here I must borrow Dr Birkbeck Hill's
+graphic description, which is based on a long letter from Gordon
+himself:--
+
+     "In December 1861, accompanied by Lieutenant Cardew of the 67th
+     Regiment, he made a tour on horseback to the outer Wall of China
+     at Kalgan. A Chinese lad of the age of fourteen who knew a little
+     English acted as their servant and interpreter, while their
+     baggage was carried in two carts. In the course of their journey
+     they passed through districts which had never before been visited
+     by Europeans. Against the northern side of the city of Siuen-hoa
+     (_not_ Si_n_en-hoa, as printed in Dr Hill's book) they found that
+     the sand had drifted with the wind till it had formed a sloping
+     bank so high that it reached to the top of the walls, though they
+     were nearly twenty feet high. Nature had followed in the steps of
+     the generals of old, and had cast up a bank against the town. At
+     Kalgan the Great Wall was with its parapet about 22 feet high and
+     16 feet broad. Both of its faces were built of bricks, each of
+     which was three times the size of one of our bricks. The space
+     between was filled in with rubble. 'It is wonderful,' writes
+     Colonel Gordon, 'to see the long line of wall stretching over the
+     hills as far as the eye can reach.' From Kalgan they travelled
+     westwards to Taitong, where the wall was not so high. There they
+     saw huge caravans of camels laden with 'brick tea' going towards
+     Russia. Here they were forced to have the axle-trees of their
+     carts widened, for they had come into a part of the country where
+     the wheels were always set wider apart than in the province
+     whence they came. Their carts therefore no longer filled the deep
+     ruts which had been worn in the roads.
+
+     "The chief object of their journey had been to ascertain whether
+     there was in the inner wall any pass besides the Tchatiaou, which
+     on that side of the country led from the Russian territory to
+     Peking. They pushed along southwards, in vain trying for a long
+     time to find a way eastward over the mountains. It was not till
+     they reached Taiyuen that they struck into the road that led to
+     Peking or Tientsin.
+
+     "In this town, for the first time on their journey, they got into
+     any kind of trouble. When their bill was brought them for their
+     night's lodging they found that the charge was enormous. Seeing
+     that a dispute would arise, they sent on their carts, and waited
+     at the inn till they felt sure that they had got well on their
+     way. They then, like the three Quakers with whom Charles Lamb
+     travelled to Exeter, offered what they thought a reasonable sum.
+     It was refused. They tried to mount their horses, but the people
+     of the inn stopped them. Major Gordon took out his revolver, for
+     show more than for use, for he allowed them to take it from him.
+     He thereupon said, 'Let us go to the Mandarin!'
+
+     "To this they agreed, and at the same time they gave him back his
+     revolver. They all walked towards the Mandarin's house--the two
+     Englishmen alongside their horses. On the way Major Gordon said
+     to his companion, 'Are you ready to mount?' 'Yes,' he answered.
+     So they mounted quietly, and went on with the people. When they
+     reached the Mandarin's they turned horses, and scampered after
+     their carts as fast as they could. The people yelled and rushed
+     after them, but it was too late.
+
+     "Some way beyond Taiyuen they came upon the pass over the
+     mountains which led down into the country drained by the Peiho.
+     The descent was a terrible one. All along the cold had been
+     intense--so much so that raw eggs were frozen hard as if they had
+     been boiled. To add to their troubles, when they were on in front
+     their carts were attacked by robbers; but the Chinese lad--an
+     ugly imp--kept them off with his gun. When they drew near
+     Paoting-fu they sent on with the lad the two carts and their
+     tired horses, which had now carried them for three weeks without
+     the break of a single day, and they hired a fresh cart in which
+     they thought to ride to Tientsin. But with the boy gone they had
+     no interpreter, and in their impatience, 'their new driver'--to
+     quote our traveller's own words--'got rather crossly dealt with.'
+     They stopped near Paoting-fu for the night. Early next morning as
+     they were washing they heard the gates of the inn open and the
+     rumble of cartwheels. They guessed what was happening. 'Half
+     stripped as I was, I rushed out and saw our cart bolting away. I
+     ran for a mile after it, but had to come back and hire another
+     with which we got to Tientsin--more than fourteen days over our
+     leave.'"
+
+From this pleasant but uneventful occupation Gordon was summoned to a
+scene where important events were in progress, and upon which he was
+destined to play what was perhaps, after all, the most brilliant part
+in the long course of his remarkable career. His brother puts the
+change into a single sentence:--
+
+     "On the 28th of April 1862 Captain Gordon left the Peiho and
+     arrived at Shanghai on 3rd of May, and at once dropped into the
+     command of a district with the charge of the engineer part of an
+     expedition about to start, with the intention of driving the
+     rebels out of a circuit of thirty miles from Shanghai."
+
+By the end of March 1862 the Chinese Government had sufficiently
+carried out its obligations to admit of the withdrawal of the force at
+Tientsin, and General Staveley transferred the troops and his quarters
+from that place to Shanghai, where the Taeping rebels were causing the
+European settlement grave anxiety, and what seemed imminent peril. The
+Taepings, of whose rebellion some account will be given in the next
+chapter, were impelled to menace Shanghai by their own necessities.
+They wanted arms, ammunition, and money, and the only means of
+obtaining them was by the capture of the great emporium of foreign
+trade. But such an adventure not merely implied a want of prudence and
+knowledge, it could only be attempted by a breach of their own
+promises. When Admiral Hope had sailed up the Yangtsekiang and visited
+Nanking, he demanded and received from Tien Wang, the Taeping king or
+leader, a promise that the Taeping forces should not advance within a
+radius of thirty miles of Shanghai. That promise in its larger extent
+had soon been broken, and an attack on Shanghai itself, although
+unsuccessful, crowned the offences of the rebels, and entailed the
+chastisement a more prudent course would have averted. Without
+entering into the details here that will be supplied later on, it will
+suffice to say that in January 1862 the Taepings advanced against
+Shanghai, burning all the villages _en route_, and laid irregular
+siege to it during more than six weeks. Although they suffered several
+reverses, the European garrison was not in sufficient strength to
+drive them away, and a general anxiety prevailed among the European
+community when the arrival of General Staveley altered the posture of
+affairs.
+
+Before Gordon arrived two affairs of some importance had taken place.
+At Wongkadza, a village twelve miles west of Shanghai, General
+Staveley obtained a considerable success, which was, however, turned
+into a disaster by the disobedience of his orders. The Taepings had
+retired to some stronger stockades, and General Staveley had ordered
+the postponement of the attack until the next day, when the trained
+Chinese troops, carried away by their leaders' impetuosity, renewed
+the assault. The result was a rude repulse, with the loss of nearly
+100 men killed and wounded. The next day the stockades were evacuated,
+and within another week the fortified villages of Tsipu and Kahding
+were also taken. It was at this point that Gordon arrived from
+Tientsin, and reached the scene of action just as the arrangements for
+attacking the important village of Tsingpu were being completed.
+
+That the Taepings were not contemptible adversaries, at least those
+under their redoubtable leader Chung Wang, was shown by their
+attempting to destroy Shanghai by fire, even while these operations
+were in progress. The plot nearly succeeded, but its promoters were
+severely punished by the summary execution of 200 of their number. The
+force assembled for the attack on Tsingpu assumed almost the
+dimensions of an army. General Staveley commanded 1,429 British troops
+with twenty guns and mortars, in addition to a naval brigade of 380
+men and five guns. There was also a French contingent of 800 men and
+ten guns, under Admiral Protet. At Tsingpu Gordon specially
+distinguished himself by the manner in which he reconnoitred the
+place, and then placed and led the ladder parties after two breaches
+had been pronounced practical. The Taepings fought well, but the place
+was carried, and the Chinese auxiliaries killed every one they found
+with arms in their hands. Commenting on Gordon's part in this affair,
+General Staveley wrote in his official despatch:--
+
+     "Captain Gordon was of the greatest use to me when the task of
+     clearing the rebels from out of the country within a radius of
+     thirty miles from Shanghai had to be undertaken. He reconnoitred
+     the enemy's defences, and arranged for the ladder parties to
+     cross the moats, and for the escalading of the works; for we had
+     to attack and carry by storm several towns fortified with high
+     walls and deep wet ditches. He was, however, at the same time a
+     source of much anxiety to me from the daring manner he approached
+     the enemy's works to acquire information. Previous to our attack
+     upon Tsingpu, and when with me in a boat reconnoitring the place,
+     he begged to be allowed to land in order better to see the nature
+     of the defences; presently, to my dismay, I saw him gradually
+     going nearer and nearer, by rushes from cover to cover, until he
+     got behind a small outlying pagoda within 100 yards of the wall,
+     and here he was quietly making a sketch and taking notes. I, in
+     the meantime, was shouting myself hoarse in trying to get him
+     back, for not only were the rebels firing at him from the walls,
+     but I saw a party stealing round to cut him off."
+
+A letter from Gordon gives an interesting account of the two
+subsequent affairs at Nanjao, where Admiral Protet was killed, and at
+Cholin, where the Taepings suffered a severe but, as it proved, not a
+decisive defeat.
+
+     "On going through the village a Chang-mow (rebel leader) came out
+     of a house rubbing his eyes, evidently having been taking a
+     siesta; he was horrified, and bolted, but was soon caught, and
+     the sailors had much difficulty in saving his life from the
+     villagers, who flew upon and would have killed him. Poor man! he
+     had such a nice costume when taken, but in five minutes
+     afterwards you would scarcely have known him; all his finery, and
+     even more, had been taken from him. The small force encamped and
+     entrenched themselves 900 yards from Cholin, much to the surprise
+     and anger of the garrison. They came down in force on the next
+     morning with no end of banners. Upon the principle that inquiring
+     minds should not be balked, they were allowed to come pretty
+     close, but then the poor things received a check, and the
+     beautiful silk banners were furled up and carried back to the
+     town.
+
+     "The next day General Staveley sent us word to come back, since
+     he would attack Nanjao first, but as there were nearly 1000
+     villagers depending upon our protection and crowding round our
+     camp, I was sent back with an armed party, and Captain Willes
+     remained in front of the town. I went back by a different road
+     and came on the General four miles from Nanjao. We marched on,
+     and halted near the town, which was reconnoitred during the
+     night, and the guns placed in position by 5 P.M. On the 17th we
+     opened fire at seven, and attacked the place. Here Admiral Protet
+     was killed; he was among 500 men, and was the only one struck.
+     The town was a wretched affair, and a good many Chang-mows
+     escaped. These Chang-mows are very funny people; they always run
+     when attacked. They are ruthlessly cruel, and have a system of
+     carrying off small boys under the hope of training them up as
+     rebels. We always found swarms of these boys who had been taken
+     from their parents (whom the rebels had killed) in the provinces.
+
+     "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. I started soon after the
+     attack for Cholin, and got there on the 18th. The rebels had made
+     a _sortie_ since my departure, and had got into a pretty mess.
+     Willes let them come up and then advanced on them; over sixty
+     were killed, and several taken prisoners. The General then came.
+     We got our guns in position during the night, opened fire next
+     morning, and assaulted at seven. The place was miserable and
+     poor. The Armstrong guns, which enfiladed one face, did great
+     execution."
+
+The fruits of these successes were lost by the signal overthrow and
+practical annihilation of a large Chinese army at Taitsan. One of
+General Staveley's detachments was cut off, and with his
+communications threatened he found himself compelled to abandon
+Kahding, and to retire towards Shanghai. Tsingpu had also to be
+abandoned, and the garrison suffered some loss in effecting its
+retreat. Of the first results of General Staveley's campaign there
+thus remained very little, and it was only in the autumn that these
+places were retaken, and the campaign against the Taepings in the
+Shanghai districts continued with varying fortune throughout the
+remainder of the year 1862 and the early months of 1863.
+
+While these military events were in progress Major Gordon, who was
+raised to the rank of Major in the army in December 1862 for his
+services in China, had been trusted with the congenial task, and one
+for which he was pre-eminently well suited, of surveying and mapping
+the whole of the region for thirty miles. This work, necessary in
+itself for many reasons, proved of incalculable value to him in the
+operations which he eventually undertook and carried out to a
+successful issue against the rebels. His own letters show how
+thoroughly he fulfilled his instructions, and how his surveys ended in
+his complete mastery of the topography of the region between the Grand
+Canal, the sea, and the Yangtsekiang:--
+
+     "I have been now in every town and village in the thirty miles'
+     radius. The country is the same everywhere--a dead flat, with
+     innumerable creeks and bad pathways. The people have now settled
+     down quiet again, and I do not anticipate the rebels will ever
+     come back. They are rapidly on the decline, and two years ought
+     to bring about the utter suppression of the revolt. I do not
+     write about what we saw, as it amounts to nothing. There is
+     nothing of any interest in China; if you have seen one village
+     you have seen all the country. I have really an immensity to do.
+     It will be a good thing if the Government support the
+     propositions which are made to the Chinese.
+
+     "The weather here is delightful--a fine cold, clear air which is
+     quite invigorating after the summer heats. There is very good
+     pheasant-shooting in the half-populated districts, and some quail
+     at uncertain times. It is extraordinary to see the quantities of
+     fishing cormorants there are in the creeks. These cormorants are
+     in flocks of forty and fifty, and the owner in a small canoe
+     travels about with them. They fish three or four times a day, and
+     are encouraged by the shouts of their owners to dive. I have
+     scarcely ever seen them come up without a fish in their beaks,
+     which they swallow, but not for any distance, for there is a ring
+     to prevent it going down altogether. They get such dreadful
+     attacks of mumps, their throats being distended by the fish,
+     which are alive, when the birds seem as if they were pouter
+     pigeons. They are hoisted into the boats and then are very
+     sea-sick. Would you consider the fish a dainty?"
+
+And again he writes about the Taepings, who were not in his eyes "a
+people nobly struggling to be free," but a horde of ruthless
+marauders.
+
+     "We had a visit from the marauding Taepings the other day. They
+     came close down in small parties to the settlement and burnt
+     several houses, driving in thousands of inhabitants. We went
+     against them and drove them away, but did not kill many. They
+     beat us into fits in getting over the country, which is
+     intersected in every way with ditches, swamps, etc. You can
+     scarcely conceive the crowds of peasants who come into Shanghai
+     when the rebels are in the neighbourhood--upwards of 15,000, I
+     should think, and of every size and age--many strapping fellows
+     who could easily defend themselves come running in with old women
+     and children.
+
+     "The people on the confines are suffering very greatly, and are
+     in fact dying of starvation. It is most sad this state of
+     affairs, and our Government really ought to put the rebellion
+     down. Words could not depict the horrors these people suffer from
+     the rebels, or describe the utter desert they have made of this
+     rich province. It is all very well to talk of non-intervention,
+     and I am not particularly sensitive, nor are our soldiers
+     generally so, but certainly we are all impressed with the utter
+     misery and wretchedness of these poor people.... In the midst of
+     those terrible times the British and foreign merchants behaved
+     nobly and gave great relief, while the Chinese merchants did not
+     lag behind in acts of charity. The hardest heart would have been
+     touched at the utter misery of these poor harmless people, for
+     whatever may be said of their rulers, no one can deny but that
+     the Chinese peasantry are the most obedient, quiet, and
+     industrious people in the world."
+
+The propositions referred to in the former of these two letters were
+that the services of Major Gordon should be lent to the Chinese
+Government for the suppression of the Taeping rebellion, that he
+should assume the command of an Anglo-Chinese legion of which the
+nucleus already existed, and that he might enlist the services of a
+certain number of our own officers. Considerable delay took place in
+the execution of this project, as it was necessary to send to Europe
+for the necessary authority; and another explanation was given
+subsequently to the effect that Gordon insisted on finishing his
+survey first. But Sir Charles Staveley, who nominated Major Gordon for
+the work, has effectually disposed of this latter statement by
+declaring that the former was the true and only cause. At length these
+propositions were sanctioned, and on 26th March 1863 Major Gordon
+proceeded to Sungkiang, a town west of Shanghai and south of Tsingpu,
+to take over the command of the Chinese force, which had already been
+named the Ever Victorious Army, and which in his hands justified its
+name.
+
+Before closing this chapter it will be well to give some account of
+the origin of this force, and of the more important events that
+preceded Gordon's appointment to the command. As far back as April
+1860 the Viceroy of the Two Kiang provinces had begged the English and
+French representatives to lend him military assistance in dealing with
+the rebels. The request was not complied with, but when some of the
+richest native merchants of Shanghai, with one Takee at their head,
+formed themselves into a patriotic association, and bound themselves
+to provide the funds required to raise a European-led force, no
+impediments were placed in their way. In July 1860 the services of two
+American adventurers who had had some military experience in Central
+America and elsewhere were enlisted and taken into the pay of this
+merchants' guild. Their names were Ward and Burgevine, and they were
+both adventurers of an unscrupulous and unattractive type. In addition
+to excellent pay, they were promised handsome money rewards for the
+capture of specified places, and what spoil there was to take should
+be theirs. Such a prospect was very inviting to the bold spirits of a
+great port like Shanghai, with its trading ships from every quarter
+of the world, and they succeeded in recruiting about 100 Europeans
+and 200 Manilla men or Spanish half-breeds.
+
+In order to test the quality of this force it was decided to attack
+Sungkiang; and in July, only a week or so after it was organised, Ward
+led his somewhat motley band against that place. The result was
+unfavourable, as his attack was repulsed with some loss. Nothing
+daunted, Ward collected some more Manilla men and renewed the attack.
+He succeeded in capturing one of the gates, and in holding it until an
+Imperial army of 10,000 men arrived, when the town was carried by
+storm. Having thus proved its mettle, Ward's force became very
+popular, and it was increased by many fresh recruits, chiefly Greeks
+and Italians. It also was strengthened by the addition of some
+artillery, two six-pounder and later two eighteen-pounder guns.
+
+The Chinese merchants then offered Ward and his quarter-master
+Burgevine a large reward for the capture of Tsingpu; and their legion,
+accompanied by a Chinese force of 10,000 men, who were, however, only
+to look on while it did the fighting, accordingly marched on that
+place. The attack made during the night of 2nd August resulted in a
+most disastrous repulse, most of the Europeans being either killed or
+wounded, Ward himself receiving a severe wound in the jaw. He renewed
+the attack with fresh men and two eighteen-pounders three weeks later;
+but after bombarding the place for seven days, he was attacked by the
+Taeping hero Chung Wang, and routed, with the loss of his guns and
+military stores. It was on this occasion that Chung Wang, following up
+his success, and doubly anxious to capture Shanghai because this new
+and unexpected force was organised there, attacked that town, and was
+only repulsed by the English and French troops who lined its walls.
+
+This reverse at Tsingpu destroyed the reputation of Ward's force, and
+for several months he remained discredited and unemployed. In March
+1861 he reappeared at Sungkiang, at the head of sixty or seventy
+Europeans whom he had recruited for the Imperial cause; but at that
+moment the policy of the foreign Consuls had undergone a change in
+favour of the Taepings, and Ward was arrested as a disturber of the
+peace. Perhaps a more serious offence was that the high pay he offered
+and prospect of loot had induced nearly thirty British sailors to
+desert their ships. He was released on his claiming that he was a
+Chinese subject, and also on his sending orders to his colleague
+Burgevine to return the troops they had enlisted. Burgevine thought he
+saw in this a chance of personal distinction, and before disbanding
+the men he made with them another attack on Tsingpu. This attack, like
+its two predecessors, was repulsed with heavy loss, and the original
+Ward force was thus finally discredited. It should be borne in mind,
+to distinguish it from what followed, that it was a mercenary force of
+European and Spanish half-breeds, without a single Chinese in it.
+
+In September 1861 these two men altered their proceedings, and gave a
+new turn to the whole question. As it was impossible for them to
+recruit foreigners, they induced Takee and his associates to provide
+the funds for a native Chinese force, which they undertook to train
+and organise. In this task they made considerable progress, and with a
+view to making it popular with the Chinese, and also to give the men
+confidence, this new force was named, probably by Takee, the Chun Chen
+Chün or Ever Victorious Army. This proud title was given long before
+the claim to it was justified, but its subsequent appropriateness has
+buried in oblivion the slender claim it possessed to it on its
+inception.
+
+By the end of January 1862 Ward had succeeded in training two
+regiments of 1000 men each, and with these he captured Quanfuling and
+200 boats in the rear of the Taeping force, which attacked Shanghai
+for a third time in that month. When the English and French forces
+assumed the offensive before the arrival of Sir Charles Staveley, part
+of Ward's Corps accompanied them in the attack on Kachiaou. It led the
+attack, and behaved extremely well, thus giving rise to very
+favourable anticipations as to what a properly-trained Chinese army
+might do.
+
+In a second action at Tseedong the force maintained the reputation it
+had gained. The Chinese fought with great bravery, and the difficulty,
+in fact, was in keeping them back. The English general reviewed them
+after this encounter, and declared himself much impressed with their
+appearance. Representations were made at Peking, and on 16th March
+1862 an Imperial decree gave the first public recognition of the Ever
+Victorious Army.
+
+Although reverses followed, the Corps maintained the reputation it had
+gained for steadiness and discipline. Under General Staveley at
+Wongkadza it acted well and lost heavily, and in all the subsequent
+movements of that officer it took a prominent part. When Tsingpu was
+captured, as already described, one of Ward's regiments was left in it
+as a garrison, but on the evacuation of that place in consequence of
+the return of Chung Wang with fresh and more numerous forces, it
+narrowly escaped annihilation. It was then that the Taeping general
+named them in scornful irony, "Cha-Yang-Kweitser," or "Sham Foreign
+Devils," the point of the sarcasm being that these troops wore an
+European costume.
+
+During the summer of 1862, when the heat rendered active operations
+impossible, everything was done to increase both the numbers and the
+efficiency of the Ever Victorious Army. By the month of July its
+strength had been raised to 5000 men, the commissioned officers being
+all Europeans except one Chinese, named Wongepoo, who had been given a
+commission for special gallantry by Admiral Hope. Ward was in chief
+command, and Colonel Forrester and Burgevine were his first and second
+lieutenants. When the weather became a little cooler in August, it was
+determined to utilise this force for the recapture of Tsingpu, which
+was taken at the second assault on the 9th of that month, although not
+without heavy loss in officers and men. Six weeks later the important
+Taeping position at Tseki, across the Hangchow Bay and not far distant
+from Ningpo, was attacked by Ward and a party of English blue-jackets.
+The operation was perfectly successful, but Ward was shot in the
+stomach and died the next day. His loss was a very considerable one,
+for, as Gordon said, "he managed both the force and the mandarins very
+ably." Colonel Forrester should have succeeded to the command, but he
+declined the post, which then devolved upon Burgevine.
+
+After a brief space the services of Captain Holland of the Royal
+Marine Light Infantry were lent to Burgevine in the capacity of Chief
+of the staff, and as this was done at the suggestion of the Futai
+Li--since famous to Europeans as Li Hung Chang--it did not conduce to
+greater harmony between him and Burgevine, for their antagonism had
+already become marked. An occasion soon offered to fan this feeling to
+a flame. A Chinese army under Li and General Ching advanced to attack
+a Taeping position near Tsingpu, at the same time that Burgevine at
+the head of his corps assailed it from the other side. The brunt of
+the fighting fell on the latter, but when Li issued his bulletin he
+claimed all the credit of the victory, and totally ignored Burgevine
+and his men. Burgevine did not accept this rebuff meekly, and his
+peremptory manner offended the Chinese. The breach was widened by the
+distrust many of the Chinese merchants as well as officials felt as to
+his loyalty, and soon it was seen that the funds so freely supplied to
+Ward would not be forthcoming in his case.
+
+Burgevine's character has been described in the following sentence by
+Gordon himself:--
+
+     "He was a man of large promises and few works. His popularity was
+     great among a certain class. He was extravagant in his
+     generosity, and as long as he had anything would divide it with
+     his so-called friends, but never was a man of any administrative
+     or military talent, and latterly, through the irritation caused
+     by his unhealed wound and other causes, he was subject to violent
+     paroxysms of anger, which rendered precarious the safety of any
+     man who tendered to him advice that might be distasteful. He was
+     extremely sensitive of his dignity."
+
+The situation between the Chinese authorities and Burgevine soon
+became so strained that the former presented a formal complaint to
+General Staveley, and begged him to remove Burgevine. This, as the
+English commander pointed out, was for obvious reasons beyond his
+power, but he made representations to his Government, and suggested
+that an English officer should be lent to the Chinese, and he
+nominated Gordon as the best qualified for the work. Pending the
+arrival of the required authority, the Chinese, assisted by
+Burgevine's own impetuosity, brought their relations with him to a
+climax. The merchant Takee withheld the pay of the force; Burgevine
+was first ordered to proceed with his troops to Nanking, and then, on
+consenting, the order was withdrawn; some weeks later a fresh order to
+the same effect was issued, and Burgevine demanded the payment of all
+arrears before he would move, and thus Li's object of exposing
+Burgevine as a disobedient officer to the Government that employed him
+was attained.
+
+The Ever Victorious Army, excited by the absence of its pay, and
+worked upon by the exhortations of its chief, was on the point of
+mutiny, and Burgevine hastened to Shanghai to obtain by force rather
+than persuasion the arrears. On 4th January 1863 he saw Takee, a
+violent scene ensued, and Burgevine used violence. Not only did he
+strike Takee, but he carried off the treasure necessary to pay his
+men. Such conduct could not be upheld or excused. Li Hung Chang made
+the strongest complaint. Burgevine was dismissed the Chinese service,
+and General Staveley forwarded the notice to him with a quiet
+intimation that it would be well to give up his command without making
+a disturbance. Burgevine complied with this advice, handed over the
+command to Captain Holland, and came back to Shanghai on 6th of
+January. He published a defence of his conduct, and expressed his
+regret for having struck Takee.
+
+Captain Holland was thus the third commander of the Ever Victorious
+Army, and a set of regulations was drawn up between Li Hung Chang and
+General Staveley as to the conduct and control of the force. It was
+understood that Captain Holland's appointment was only temporary until
+the decision of the Government as to Gordon's nomination arrived, but
+this arrangement allowed of the corps again taking the field, for
+although it cost the Chinese £30,000 a month, it had done nothing
+during the last three months of the year 1862. Early in February 1863,
+therefore, Captain Holland, at the head of 2,300 men, including a
+strong force of artillery--600 men and twenty-two guns and
+mortars--was directed to attack Taitsan, an important place about
+fifty miles north-east of Shanghai. An Imperialist army of nearly
+10,000 men acted in conjunction with it. The affair was badly managed
+and proved most disastrous.
+
+After a short bombardment a breach was declared to be practicable, and
+the ladder and storming parties were ordered to the assault.
+Unfortunately, the reconnoitring of the Taeping position had been very
+carelessly done, and the attacking parties were checked by a wet
+ditch, twenty feet wide and six feet deep, of which nothing had been
+seen. Situated only forty yards from the wall of the town, and without
+any means of crossing it, although some few did by throwing across a
+ladder, the storming party stood exposed to a terrific fire. Captain
+Holland ordered a retreat, but it was not managed any better than the
+attack. The light guns were removed too quickly, and the heavy ones
+were stuck so fast in the mud that they could not be removed at all.
+The Taepings attacked in their turn, and the greatest confusion
+prevailed, during which the survivors of the larger half of the Ever
+Victorious Army escaped in small detachments back to Sungkiang. Twenty
+European officers were killed or wounded, besides 300 Chinese
+privates. Captain Holland exposed himself freely, but this, his only
+action in independent command, resulted in complete and unqualified
+failure. Gordon himself summed up the causes of this serious and
+discouraging reverse:--
+
+     "The causes of the failure were the too cheap rate at which the
+     rebels were held. The force had hitherto fought with the allies
+     with them (except at Tsingpu). They now had to bear the brunt of
+     the fighting themselves, the mistake of not having provided
+     bridges in spite of the mandarin's information, and the too close
+     proximity of the heavy guns to the walls, and the want of cover
+     they had, and finally the withdrawal of the lighter guns before
+     the heavy guns, whose removal they should have covered. There is
+     little doubt that the rebels had been warned by persons in
+     Shanghai of the intended attack, and that several foreigners, who
+     had been dismissed by Captain Holland, were with the rebels
+     defending the breach. As may be imagined, Burgevine's removal had
+     caused considerable feeling among his acquaintances, who were not
+     sorry to see the first expedition of the force under an English
+     officer fail, being in hopes that the command would again revert
+     to Burgevine."
+
+This reverse occurred on 13th February, and no further steps of any
+consequence were taken until the appointment of Major Gordon, which at
+last was sanctioned in the latter portion of March, about a week
+before ill-health compelled General Staveley to resign his command in
+China. That officer was connected with the Gordon family, his sister,
+a most amiable and sympathetic lady, being Lady Gordon, widow of the
+late Sir Henry Gordon. As far back as May 1861--that is, prior to most
+of the events described in this chapter--Gordon's sensitiveness about
+his family connection with the commanding officer in China had
+impelled him to write this letter:--
+
+     "I was much put out in Henry's writing, and I think hinting he
+     could do something for me, and I went to Staveley and told him
+     so. It is the bother of one's life to be trying after the honours
+     of the profession, and it has grown in late years into a regular
+     trade--everyone uses private interest."
+
+When Gordon gave this early manifestation of his independent spirit he
+was little more than twenty-eight years of age, but it should
+certainly be noted as showing that in one respect he was very little
+changed in his later years from what he was in his youth.
+
+After these reverses in February nothing more was attempted until
+Major Gordon arrived at Sungkiang on 25th March 1863 to take over the
+command of the force. It is to be hoped that the last few pages have
+made clear what that force was like. In the first place, it had been
+one composed entirely of Europeans, a band somewhat resembling those
+that have set up and cast down the mushroom republics that separate
+the conquests of Pizarro from those of Cortes. That force achieved
+nothing and had an ignominious end. It was succeeded by the larger
+force of drilled Chinese, to which was given the name of the Ever
+Victorious Army. Although these Chinese showed far more courage than
+might have been expected of them, none of their leaders--Ward,
+Burgevine, or Holland--seemed able to turn their good qualities to any
+profitable purpose. They were as often defeated as successful, and at
+the very moment of Gordon's assuming the command the defeat of Captain
+Holland at Taitsan, and a subsidiary reverse of Major Tapp at Fushan,
+had reduced their _morale_ to the lowest point, and even justified a
+belief that for military purposes this force was nearly, if not quite,
+worthless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE TAEPING REBELLION.
+
+
+In order to bring before the reader the magnitude of Gordon's
+achievements in China it is necessary to describe briefly the course
+of the Taeping rebellion, and to show the kind of opponents over whom
+he was destined to obtain so glorious and decisive a victory. But as
+this would be to tell a thrice-told tale, I content myself with giving
+in an abridged form the account I prepared from the papers of General
+Gordon and other trustworthy sources, which appears in the last volume
+of my "History of China."
+
+As far back as the year 1830 there had been symptoms of disturbed
+popular feeling in Kwangsi, the most southern province of China
+adjacent to Tonquin. The difficulty of operating in a region which
+possessed few roads, and which was only rendered at all accessible by
+the West River or Sikiang, had led the Chinese authorities, much
+engaged as they were about the foreign question, to postpone those
+vigorous measures, which, if taken at the outset, might have speedily
+restored peace and stamped out the first promptings of revolt. The
+authorities were more concerned at the proceedings of the formidable
+secret Association, known as the "Triads," than at the occurrences in
+Kwangsi, probably because the Triads made no secret that their object
+was the expulsion of the Manchus and the restoration of the old Ming
+dynasty. The true origin of the Triads is not to be assigned, but
+there seems reasonable ground for the suspicion that they were
+connected with the discontented monks of a Buddhist monastery which
+had been suppressed by the Government. Between them they seem to have
+formed the inception of what became the famous Taeping rebellion.
+
+The summer of 1850 witnessed a great accession of energy on the part
+of the rebels in Kwangsi, which may perhaps have been due to the death
+of the Emperor Taoukwang. The important town of Wuchow on the Sikiang,
+close to the western border of Kwantung, was besieged by a force
+reported to number 50,000 men. The governor was afraid to report the
+occurrence, knowing that it would carry his own condemnation and
+probable disgrace; and it was left for a minor official to reveal the
+extent to which the insurgents had carried their depredations. Two
+leaders named Chang assumed the style of royalty; other bands appeared
+in the province of Hoonan as well as in the southern parts of
+Kwantung, but they all collected by degrees on the Sikiang, where they
+placed an embargo on merchandise, and gradually crushed out such trade
+as there had been by that river. Their proceedings were not restricted
+to the fair operations of war. They plundered and massacred wherever
+they went. They claimed to act in the name of the Chinese people; yet
+they slew all they could lay hands upon, without discrimination of age
+or sex.
+
+The confidence of the insurgents was raised by frequent success, and
+by the manifest inability of the Canton Viceroy to take any effectual
+military measures against them. Two hundred imperial troops were
+decoyed into a defile, and slaughtered by an overwhelming force in
+ambush. This reverse naturally caused considerable alarm in Canton
+itself, and defensive measures were taken. Governor Yeh was sent
+against them with 2000 men, and he succeeded in compelling, or as some
+say in inducing, them to retreat. Any satisfaction this success may
+have occasioned was soon dispelled, for at Lienchow, near the small
+port of Pakhoi, the rebels not merely gained a victory, but were
+joined by the troops sent to attack them. But these successes at
+several different points were of far less significance than the
+nomination of a single chief with the royal title of Tien Wang, or the
+Heavenly King.
+
+The man on whom their choice fell was named Hung-tsiuen. He was the
+son of a small farmer, who lived in a village near the North River,
+about thirty miles from Canton. If he was not a Hakka himself, he
+lived in a district which was considered to belong exclusively to that
+strange race, which closely resembles our gipsies. He belonged to a
+degraded race, therefore, and it was held that he was not entitled to
+that free entry into the body of the civil service, which is the
+natural privilege of every true-born Chinese subject. His friends
+declared that he came out high at each of the periodical examinations,
+but their statements may have been false in this as in much else. The
+fact is clear that he failed to obtain his degrees, and that he was
+denied admission into the public service. Hung was therefore a
+disappointed candidate, the more deeply disappointed, perhaps, that
+his sense of injured merit and the ill-judging flattery of his
+admirers made his rejection appear unjust.
+
+Hung was, at all events, a shrewd observer of the weakness of the
+Government, and of the popular discontent. He perceived the
+opportunity of making the Manchu dynasty the scapegoat of national
+weakness and apathy. He could not be the servant of the Government.
+Class contempt, the prejudices of his examiners, or it may even have
+been his own haughty presumption and self-sufficiency, effectually
+debarred him from the enjoyment of the wealth and privileges that fall
+to the lot of those in executive power in all countries, but in
+Asiatic above every other. To his revengeful but astute mind it was
+clear that if he could not be an official he might be the enemy of the
+Government and its possible subverter.
+
+The details of his early career have been mainly recorded by those who
+sympathised with the supposed objects of his operations; and while
+they have been very anxious to discover his virtues, they were always
+blind to his failings. The steps of his imposture have therefore been
+described with an amount of implicit belief which reflected little
+credit on the judgment of those who were anxious to give their
+sanction to the miracles which preceded the appearance of this
+adventurer in the field. Absurd stories as to his dreams, allegorical
+coincidences showing how he was summoned by a just and all-powerful
+God to the supreme seat of power, were repeated with a degree of faith
+so emphatic in its mode of expression as to make the challenge of its
+sincerity appear extremely harsh. Hung, the defeated official
+candidate, the long-deaf listener to the entreaties of Christian
+missionaries, was thus in a brief time metamorphosed into Heaven's
+elect for the Dragon Throne, into the iconoclastic propagator of the
+worship of a single God, and the destroyer of the mass of idolatry
+stored in the hearts and venerated in the temples of the Chinese
+people for countless ages. Whether Hung was merely an intriguer or a
+fanatic, he could not help feeling some gratitude to those who so
+conveniently echoed his pretensions to the Throne at the same time
+that they pleaded extenuating circumstances for acts of cruelty and
+brigandage often unsurpassed in their infamy.
+
+If he found the foreigners thus willing to accept him at his own
+estimate, it would have been very strange if he had not experienced
+still greater success in imposing upon the credulity of his own
+countrymen. To declare that he had dreamt dreams which showed that he
+was selected by a heavenly mandate for Royal honours was sufficient to
+gain a small body of adherents, provided only that he was prepared to
+accept the certain punishment of detection and failure. If Hung's
+audacity was shown by nothing else, it was demonstrated by the lengths
+to which he carried the supernatural agency that urged him to quit the
+ignominious life of a Kwantung peasant for the career of a pretender
+to Imperial honours. The course of training to which he subjected
+himself, the ascetic deprivations, the loud prayers and invocations,
+the supernatural counsels and meetings, was that adopted by every
+other religious devotee or fanatic as the proper novitiate for those
+honours based on the superstitious reverence of mankind, which are
+sometimes no inadequate substitute for temporal power and influence,
+even when they fail to pave the way to their attainment.
+
+Yet when Hung proceeded to Kwangsi there was no room left to hope that
+the seditious movement would dissolve of its own accord, for the
+extent and character of his pretensions at once invested the rising
+with all the importance of open and unveiled rebellion. After the
+proclamation of Hung as Tien Wang, the success of the Kwangsi rebels
+increased. The whole of the country south of the Sikiang, with the
+strong military station of Nanning, fell into their hands, and they
+prepared in the early part of the year 1851 to attack the provincial
+capital Kweiling, which commanded one of the principal high roads into
+the interior of China. So urgent did the peril at this place appear
+that three Imperial Commissioners were sent there direct by land from
+Peking, and the significance of their appointment was increased by the
+fact that they were all Manchus. They were instructed to raise troops
+_en route_, and to reach Kweiling as soon as possible. Their movements
+were so dilatory that that place would have fallen if it had not been
+for the courage and military capacity shown by Wurantai, leader of the
+Canton Bannermen. This soldier fully realised the perils of the
+situation. In a memorial to the Throne he spoke plainly:--
+
+     "The outer barbarians (Europeans) say that of literature China
+     has more than enough, of the art of war not sufficient. The whole
+     country swarms with the rebels. Our funds are nearly at an end,
+     and our troops few; our officers disagree, and the power is not
+     concentrated. The commander of the forces wants to extinguish a
+     burning wagon-load of fagots with a cupful of water. I fear we
+     shall hereafter have some serious affair--that the great body
+     will rise against us, and our own people leave us."
+
+The growth of the rebellion proved steady if slow. Although 30,000
+troops were stated to be concentrated opposite the Taeping positions,
+fear or inexperience prevented action, and the numbers and courage of
+the Imperialists melted away. Had the Chinese authorities only pressed
+on, they must, by sheer weight, have swept the rebels into Tonquin,
+and there would thus have been an end of Tien Wang and his
+aspirations. They lacked the nerve, and their vacillation gave
+confidence and reputation to an enemy that need never have been
+allowed to become formidable.
+
+While the Imperial authorities had been either discouraged or at the
+least lethargic, the pretender Tien Wang had been busily engaged in
+establishing his authority on a sound basis, and in assigning their
+respective ranks to his principal followers who saw in the conferring
+of titles and posts, at the moment of little meaning or value, the
+recognition of their past zeal and the promise of reward for future
+service. The men who rallied round Tien Wang were schoolmasters and
+labourers. To these some brigands of the mountain frontier supplied
+rude military knowledge, while the leaders of the Triads brought as
+their share towards the realisation of what they represented as a
+great cause skill in intrigue, and some knowledge of organisation.
+Neither enthusiasm nor the energy of desperation was wanting; but for
+those qualities which claim respect, if they cannot command success,
+we must look in vain. Yet the peasants of Kwangsi and the artisans of
+Kwantung assumed the title of "Wang" or prince, and divided in
+anticipation the prizes that should follow the establishment of some
+dynasty of their own making.
+
+The war dragged on in the Sikiang valley during two years, but the
+tide of success had certainly set in the main against the
+Imperialists, as was shown by the scene of operations being
+transferred to the northern side of that river. The campaign might
+have continued indefinitely until one side or the other was exhausted
+had not the state of the province warned Tien Wang that he could not
+hope to feed much longer the numerous followers who had attached
+themselves to his cause. He saw that there would very soon remain for
+him no choice except to retire into Tonquin, and to settle down into
+the ignominious life of a border brigand. To Tien Wang the thought was
+intolerable, and in sheer desperation he came to the resolve to march
+northwards into the interior of China. It was not the inspiration of
+genius but the pressure of dire need that urged the Taeping leader to
+issue his orders for the invasion of Hoonan. He issued a proclamation
+on the eve of beginning this march, announcing that he had received
+"the divine commission to exterminate the Manchus and to possess the
+Empire as its true sovereign."
+
+It was at this stage in the rebellion that the name "Taepings" came
+into general use, and various accounts are given as to its origin.
+Some say it was taken from the small town of that name in the
+south-west of Kwangsi, where the insurrection began; others that the
+characters mean "Universal Peace," and that it was the style assumed
+by the new dynasty. In seeming contradiction with this is the fact
+that some of the Taepings themselves declared that they never heard
+the name, and did not know what it meant. At this particular juncture
+the rebels were in the heart of Kwangsi, at the district capital of
+Woosuen. In May 1851 they moved to Siang, a little north of that
+place. They ravaged the country, making no long stay anywhere. In
+August they were at Yungan, where 16,000 men were ranged under the
+banner of the Heavenly King, and for a moment Tien Wang may have
+thought of making a dash on Canton. Respect for Wurantai's military
+capacity induced him to forego the adventure, and at Yungan, where he
+remained until April 1852, the Taeping leader made his final
+arrangements for his march northwards.
+
+At Yungan a circumstance occurred which first promised to strengthen
+the Taepings, and then to lead to their disruption. Tien Wang was
+joined there by five influential chiefs and many members of the Triad
+Society. For a time it seemed as if these allies would necessarily
+bring with them a great accession of popular strength; but whether
+they disapproved of Tien Wang's plans, or were offended by the
+arrogant bearing of the Wangs, who, but the other day little better
+than the dregs of the people, had suddenly assumed the yellow dress
+and insignia of Chinese royalty, the Triad leaders took a secret and
+hurried departure from his camp, and hastened to make their peace with
+the Imperialists. The principal of these members of the most
+formidable secret society in China--Chang Kwoliang by name--was given
+a military command of some importance, and afterwards distinguished
+himself among the Imperial commanders. In April 1852 the Taeping army
+left its quarters at Yungan and marched direct on Kweiling, the
+principal city of the province, where the Imperial commissioners sent
+from Peking had long remained inactive. Tien Wang attacked them at the
+end of April or the beginning of May, but he was repulsed with some
+loss. Afraid of breaking his force against the walls of so strong a
+place, he abandoned the attack and marched into Hoonan. Had the
+Imperial generals only been as energetic in offensive measures as they
+had shown themselves obstinate in defence, they might have harassed
+his rear, delayed his progress, and eventually brought him to a
+decisive engagement under many disadvantages. But the Imperial
+Commissioners at Kweiling did nothing, being apparently well satisfied
+with having rid themselves of the presence of such troublesome
+neighbours.
+
+On 12th of June the Taepings attacked the small town of Taou in Hoonan
+with better success. Some resistance was offered, and one of the
+Taeping Wangs, known as the "Southern King," was killed. This was a
+great loss, because he was a man of some education, and had taken the
+most prominent part in the organisation of the Taeping rebellion.
+General Gordon inclined to the opinion that he was the real originator
+of the whole rising. His loss was a severe blow to the Taepings, whose
+confidence in themselves and their cause was alike rudely shaken. They
+could not however turn back, for fear of the force at Kweiling, and to
+halt for any time was scarcely less dangerous. Necessity compelled
+them therefore to press on, and in August they captured the three
+small towns of Kiaho, Ching, and Kweyang. Their next march was both
+long and forced. Overrunning the whole adjacent country, they appeared
+early in the month of September before the strong and important town
+of Changsha, situated on the river Seang, and only fifty miles south
+of the large lake Tungting.
+
+At this town, the capital of Hoonan, some vigorous preparations had
+been made to withstand them. Not merely was the usual garrison
+stationed there, but it so happened that Tseng Kwofan, a man of great
+ability and some considerable resolution, was residing near the town
+at the time. Tseng Kwofan had held several offices in the service, and
+as a member of the Hanlin enjoyed a high position and reputation; but
+he was absent from the capital on one of those frequent periods of
+retirement to their native province which the officials of China have
+to make on the occasion of any near relative's death.
+
+When tidings of the approach of the Taepings reached him he threw
+himself with all the forces he could collect into Changsha. At the
+same time he ordered the local militia to assemble as rapidly as
+possible in the neighbourhood, in order to harass the movements of the
+enemy. He called upon all those who had the means to show their duty
+to the state and sovereign by raising recruits or by promising rewards
+to those volunteers who would serve in the army against the rebels.
+Had the example of Tseng Kwofan been followed generally, it is not too
+much to say that the Taepings would never have got to Nanking. As it
+was, he set the first example of true patriotism, and he had the
+immediate satisfaction of saving Changsha.
+
+When the Taepings reached Changsha they found the gates closed and the
+walls manned. They proceeded to lay siege to it; they cut off its
+supplies, and they threatened the garrison with extermination. They
+even attempted to carry it by storm on three separate occasions.
+During eighty days the siege went on; but the Taepings were then
+compelled to admit that they were as far from success as ever. They
+had suffered very considerable losses, including another of their
+Wangs, the Western King, and although it was said that the loss of the
+Imperialists was larger, they could better afford it. On the 1st
+December they accordingly abandoned the siege and resumed their march
+northwards. They crossed the Tungting Lake on boats and junks which
+they had seized, and secured the town of Yochow on the Yangtsekiang
+without meeting any resistance. Here they captured much war material,
+including a large supply of gunpowder left by the great Chinese
+Viceroy, Wou Sankwei, of the seventeenth century. From Yochow they
+hastened down the river. The important city of Hankow surrendered
+without a blow. The not less important town of Wouchang, on the
+opposite or southern bank of the river, was then attacked, and after a
+siege of a fortnight carried by storm. The third town of Hanyang,
+which completes the busy human hive where the Han joins the great
+river, did not attempt any resistance.
+
+These successes raised the Taepings from the depths of despair to the
+heights of hope. The capture of such wealthy places dispelled all
+their doubt and discouragement. They were able to repay themselves for
+the losses and hardships they had undergone, and the prize they had
+thus secured furnished ground for hoping for more. But even now it was
+no part of their mission to stand still. They waited at Hankow only
+long enough to attach to their cause the many thousands attracted to
+Tien Wang's flag by these successes. The possibility of pursuit by
+Tseng Kwofan at the head of the warlike levies of Hoonan, where each
+brave is considered equal to two from another province, was still
+present to their minds. But he unfortunately rested content with his
+laurels, while the Taepings swept like an irresistible wave or torrent
+down the valley of the Yangtsekiang.
+
+The capture of Kiukiang, a town situated on the river near the
+northern extremity of the lake Poyang, and of Ganking followed in
+quick succession, and on 8th March the Taepings sat down before
+Nanking, the old capital of the Mings. The siege lasted only sixteen
+days. Notwithstanding that there was a considerable Manchu force in
+the Tartar city, which might easily have been defended apart from the
+Chinese and much larger town, the resistance offered was singularly
+faint-hearted. The Taepings succeeded in blowing in one of the gates.
+The townspeople fraternised with the assailants, and the very Manchus,
+who had looked so valiant in face of Sir Hugh Gough's force ten years
+before, now surrendered their lives and their honour after a mere show
+of resistance to a force which was nothing better than an armed
+rabble. The Manchu colony of Nanking, to the number of some 4000
+families, had evidently fallen off from its high renown. Instead of
+dying at their posts, they threw themselves on the pity of the Taeping
+leader. Their cowardice helped them not; of 20,000 Manchus not 100
+escaped. The tale rests on irrefragable evidence. "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."
+
+The capture of Nanking and this sweeping massacre of the dominant race
+seemed to point the inevitable finger of fate at the Tatsing dynasty.
+It was no longer possible to regard Tien Wang and his miscellaneous
+gathering as an enemy beneath contempt. Without achieving any
+remarkable success, having indeed been defeated whenever they were
+opposed with the least resolution, the Taepings found themselves in
+possession of the second city in the Empire. With that city they
+acquired the control of the navigation of the Great River, and they
+cut off the better part of the communications between the northern and
+southern halves of the Empire. They abandoned Hankow, and confined
+their occupation of the river banks to the part between Kiukiang and
+Nanking; but they determined to secure the Grand Canal, which enters
+the river east of the city. On 1st April 1853 they occupied
+Chinkiangfoo, on the southern side of the river, and they held it, but
+although they also captured Yangchow on the northern bank, they
+evacuated it in a few days. These successes were obtained without any
+loss, as all the garrisons fled at the mere approach of the dreaded
+Taepings.
+
+The Imperialist authorities seemed paralysed by the rapidity and
+success of the rebels, who devoted all their efforts to strengthening
+the defences of Nanking and to provisioning it in view of all
+eventualities. But the thoughts of Tien Wang and his immediate
+advisers were still of offensive and forward measures, and when
+Nanking was equipped for defence a large part of the Taeping army was
+ordered to march against Peking. At this time it was computed that the
+total number of the Taepings did not fall short of 80,000 trustworthy
+fighting men, while there were perhaps more than 100,000 Chinese
+pressed into their service as hewers of wood and drawers of water. The
+lines of Nanking and the batteries along the Yangtsekiang were the
+creation of the forced labour of the population which had not fled
+before the Taepings.
+
+On the 12th of May an army, stated to consist of 200,000 men, but
+probably consisting of less than half that number of combatants,
+crossed the Yangtse and marched northwards. It would be uninteresting
+to name the many small places they captured on their way, but on 19th
+June they reached Kaifong, the capital of Honan, and once of China
+itself. They had thus transferred in a few weeks their advanced posts
+from the Yangtsekiang to the Hwangho, or Yellow River.
+
+The garrison of Kaifong made a resolute defence, and repulsed the
+Taepings, who at once abandoned the siege in accordance with their
+usual custom, and resumed their march. They succeeded in crossing the
+Yellow River under the eyes of the Kaifong garrison, and they then
+attacked Hwaiking, an important prefectural town, where they
+encountered a stout resistance. They besieged it for two months, and
+then had to give up the attempt. Forces were gathering from different
+directions, and it became necessary to baffle their opponents. They
+marched westwards for some distance along the southern bank of the
+Hwangho, turned suddenly north at Yuenking, and on reaching Pingyang
+they again turned in an easterly direction, and secured the Lin
+Limming Pass which leads into the Metropolitan province of Pechihli.
+The whole of the autumn of 1853 was taken up with these manoeuvres,
+and it was on 30th September that the Taepings first appeared in the
+province containing the capital. They met with little or no
+opposition. They had mystified their pursuers, and surprised the
+inhabitants of the districts through which they passed. Having forced
+the Limming Pass, the Taepings found no difficulty in occupying the
+towns on the south-west border of Pechihli. The defeat of the Manchu
+garrison in a pass that was considered almost impregnable gave the
+Taepings the prestige of victory, and the towns opened their gates one
+after another. They crossed the Hootoo River on a bridge of boats
+which they constructed themselves, and then occupied the town of
+Shinchow; on 21st October they reached Tsing, about twenty miles south
+of Tientsin and only one hundred from Peking; but beyond this point
+neither then nor at any other time did the rebels succeed in getting.
+
+The forcing of the Limming Pass produced great confusion at Peking. It
+was no longer a question of suffering subjects and disturbed
+provinces. The capital of the Empire, the very person of the Emperor,
+was in imminent danger of destruction at the hands of a ruthless foe.
+The city was denuded of troops. Levies were hastily summoned from
+Manchuria in order to defend the line of the Peiho and the approaches
+to the capital. Had the Taepings shown better generalship there is no
+saying but that they would have succeeded in capturing it, as the
+Imperialists had left quite unguarded the approach by Chingting and
+Paoting, and the capture of Peking would have sounded the knell of the
+Manchu dynasty. But the Taepings did not seize the chance--if it were
+one--and they were far from being in the best of spirits. They had
+advanced far, but it looked as if it was into the lion's mouth. Their
+march had been a remarkable one, but it had been attended with no
+striking success. In their front was the Tientsin militia,
+strengthened by a large if nondescript force, led by the Mongol chief
+Sankolinsin. In their rear the levies of Hoonan, of the vast district
+that had suffered from their exactions, were closing up, and soon they
+were closely beleaguered in a hastily-fortified camp at Tsinghai. In
+this they were besieged from the end of October to the beginning of
+March 1854. The Imperial generals, afraid to risk an assault, hoped to
+starve them out, and so they might have done had not Tien Wang sent a
+fresh army to extricate this force from its peril. Then the retreat
+began, but, beset by assailants from every side, it was slow and
+disastrous. The struggle went on until March 1855, when Sankolinsin
+was able to declare that not a Taeping remained north of the Yellow
+River. Only a very small portion of the two armies sent to capture
+Peking ever returned to the headquarters of Tien Wang.
+
+While these events, and others that do not call for description as
+being of minor importance, were in progress, symptoms of
+disintegration were already beginning to reveal themselves in the camp
+at Nanking. After its capture Tien Wang himself retired into the
+interior of his palace and never afterwards appeared in public. All
+his time was passed in the harem, and the opportunity was thus given
+his more ambitious lieutenants to assert themselves. Tung Wang, the
+"Eastern King," became principal Minister. He, too, claimed to have
+communion with Heaven, and on celestial advice he began to get rid of
+those of his comrades who opposed his schemes. He even summoned Tien
+Wang to his presence and reproved him for his proceedings. A plot was
+then formed against Tung Wang, and he was slain with three of his
+brothers, in the presence of Tien Wang, by another of the Taeping
+chiefs. Nor did the slaughter stop there, for it is alleged, although
+the numbers must not be accepted literally, that 200,000 of his
+partisans--men, women, and children--were massacred. These internal
+dissensions threatened to break up the Taeping confederacy, and no
+doubt they would have done so but for the appearance of the most
+remarkable man associated with the movement, and one of the most
+heroic figures in China's history.
+
+A young officer, rejoicing in the innumerable Chinese name of Li, had
+attracted Tung Wang's favourable notice, and was by him entrusted with
+a small command. It will be more convenient to speak of him by his
+subsequent title of Chung Wang, or the "Faithful King." He
+distinguished himself in his first enterprise by defeating a large
+Imperial army besieging Chinkiang, and in relieving the garrison when
+on the point of surrender. But while engaged on this task the
+Imperialists closed in on his rear and cut off his retreat back to
+Nanking, whither Tien Wang hastily summoned him to return. He
+endeavoured to make his way along the northern bank, but was checked
+at Loohoo by the ex-Triad Chang Kwoliang, the same who deserted the
+Taepings in Kwangsi. Chang had crossed the river to oppose him, and
+Chung Wang, hastily conveying his army over the river, fell upon and
+destroyed the weakened force that the Imperial general had left there,
+under General Chi, who committed suicide. Chang Kwoliang crossed after
+him, but only to suffer defeat, and Chung Wang made his way into
+Nanking. He then attacked the main Imperial army before its walls,
+under the Emperor's generalissimo Heang Yung, and drove it out of its
+entrenchments. Heang took his defeat so much to heart that he also
+committed suicide, but Chang Kwoliang made a supreme effort to
+retrieve the day, and succeeded in retaking all the lost positions,
+with the exception of the Yashua Gate of Nanking.
+
+While these events were in progress in the Taeping capital, some
+events that must be briefly referred to happened on a different scene.
+The Triads, aided by the mob, rose in Shanghai, overcame the Emperor's
+officers and garrison, and on 7th September 1853 obtained complete
+mastery of the native city. The foreign settlement was placed in a
+state of siege, the men-of-war covered the approaches to the
+factories, and a volunteer corps was carefully organised and
+constantly employed. Then an Imperial army re-appeared on the scene,
+and laid siege to Shanghai, but it was conducted with no skill, and
+the situation remained unchanged. After twelve months' delay the
+French Admiral, Laguerre, decided to help the Imperialists, and he
+began to bombard the walls in December 1854. He combined with them in
+an assault, and 400 French sailors and the Imperialists attacked the
+walls which had been breached. The assault ended disastrously, for the
+rebels defended the houses, and at last drove back the assailants with
+much loss. The pressure of famine compelled the besieged some months
+later to make a _sortie_, when the Imperialists recovered the town. A
+similar rising, with a similar result, occurred at Amoy. The
+insurgents caused a great loss of life and property, but in the end
+the authorities gained the upper hand. These events compelled the
+foreign consuls and their Governments to reconsider their policy,
+which had been one of sympathy towards the Taepings, and gradually the
+conviction became universal that it would be well for civilization and
+trade if a speedy end were put to the Taeping rebellion. But for our
+own quarrel and war with the central Government these views would have
+borne fruit in acts at an earlier date than they did.
+
+During the campaign of 1858 the Taepings more than held their own
+through the courage and activity shown by Chung Wang. He relieved the
+town of Ganking when closely pressed by Tseng Kwofan, and although he
+could not prevent a fresh beleaguerment of Nanking, it caused him no
+apprehension because the Emperor's generals were well known to have no
+intention of attacking. Notwithstanding this, it was clearly foreseen
+that in time Nanking must fall by starvation. In these straits Chung
+Wang proved the saviour of his party. The city was invested on three
+sides; only one remained open for any one to carry out the news of
+Tien Wang's necessities. In this moment of peril there was a general
+reluctance to quit the besieged town, but unless someone did, and that
+quickly, the place was doomed. In this supreme moment Chung Wang
+offered to go himself. At first the proposal was received with a
+chorus of disapproval, but at last, when he went to the door of Tien
+Wang's palace and beat the gong which lay there for those who claimed
+justice, he succeeded in overcoming the opposition to his plan, and in
+impressing upon his audience the real gravity of the situation. His
+request was granted, and having nominated trusty men to the command
+during his absence, he left by the southern gate. A few days later and
+Tseng's last levies constructed their fortified camp in front of it.
+The Emperor's generals unfortunately reverted to their old dilatory
+measures, because they failed to realise the importance with which the
+possession of Nanking still invested the Taepings. Without that city
+they would have been nothing but a band of brigands, who could easily
+have been dispersed. With it they could claim the status of a separate
+dynasty. Yet the capture of Nanking was put off until the last act of
+all. These sapient leaders, whose military knowledge was antiquated,
+acted with an indifference to the most obvious considerations, that
+would have been ludicrous if it had not been a further injury to a
+suffering people. In 1858 their apathy was such that it not merely
+saved Nanking but played the whole game into the hands of Chung Wang.
+
+That chief succeeded in collecting a small force, with which he at
+once began to harass Tseng's army. By transferring his army rapidly
+from one side of the river to the other, he succeeded in supplying his
+deficiency in numbers; but with all his activity he could make no
+impression on the mass of his opponents. He even got the worst of it
+in several skirmishes, but by a supreme effort he succeeded in
+overpowering the Imperial force north of the river at Poukou, and thus
+relieved the pressure on Nanking. But this was only momentary, and
+after a doubtful and wearisome campaign throughout the year 1859, the
+situation again became one of great gravity for the besieged Taepings
+who were now confined to Nanking and a few other towns in the Yangtse
+valley.
+
+In this extremity Chung Wang conceived a fresh plan for extricating
+his cause from the difficulties that beset it. By January 1860 all
+Chung Wang's arrangements were completed. He distributed considerable
+sums of money among his men to put them in good humour, and then set
+forth. His first movements were directed to misleading his enemy as to
+his real object, and having succeeded in this he marched as rapidly as
+possible towards the important harbour of Hangchow, in the bay of the
+same name, south of Shanghai. On 19th March he succeeded in capturing
+the Chinese city, but the Tartar portion held out, and a relieving
+army compelled Chung Wang to retire. What seemed an unredeemed
+calamity proved a stroke of good fortune, for the Imperialists had
+sent their best troops to pursue him, and thus materially weakened the
+force before Nanking. Chung Wang saw his chance, and while the
+Imperialists were rejoicing in Hangchow at its recovery, he hastened
+back by forced marches, and fell upon the besieging army. In the
+desperate engagement that followed 5000 Imperialists were slain, and
+the remainder were driven ignominiously from the field. Thus, at the
+blackest moment of their fortunes, did Chung Wang succeed in
+delivering his kinsmen who had so long been shut up in Nanking. This
+siege had then continued with more or less interruption for seven
+years.
+
+Nor did Chung Wang's success stop here. He fought a battle at Tayan
+with his old adversary Chang Kwoliang, and defeated him with a loss of
+10,000 men. At the height of the engagement Chang Kwoliang was drowned
+while crossing a canal, and this decided the battle. Encouraged by
+these successes, and with increased forces--for most of the prisoners
+he took were incorporated in his army--Chung Wang assumed the
+offensive, and after winning no fewer than three regular engagements,
+he succeeded in capturing the important city of Soochow, on the Grand
+Canal, and this became his chief quarters during the remainder of this
+long struggle. By these successes he obtained fresh supplies, and
+commanded the great and hitherto little touched resources of the
+wealthy province of Kiangsu. It was thus that he was brought into the
+neighbourhood of Shanghai, and made those attempts to acquire
+possession of the Chinese city which were set forth in the last
+chapter, and which were the true cause of the inception of the
+foreign, or foreign-trained force, that began with Ward.
+
+After his repulse at Shanghai, Chung Wang was recalled to Nanking. He
+went reluctantly, leaving Hoo Wang, "the Protecting King," as his
+deputy at Soochow. He found there everything in confusion, and that
+Tien Wang, instead of laying in rice for a fresh siege, was absorbed
+in his devotion and amusements, while the other chiefs were engaged in
+plundering their own subjects. Dissatisfied with what he saw at
+Nanking, Chung Wang again took the field, and transferred the scene of
+hostilities to the province of Kiangsi, but although he showed great
+activity, and marched 800 miles, he gained little, and, indeed, was
+defeated on one or two occasions. Nor could he save Ganking, which,
+after being besieged for three years, surrendered to Tseng Kwotsiuen,
+and thus all hope of succour from the west, or of retreat there, in
+the last resort, was removed from the hard-beset garrison of Nanking.
+As some set-off to this reverse, Chung Wang captured the ports of
+Ningpo and Hangchow, after a gallant defence by a small Manchu
+garrison. The Taepings could scarcely now hope for durable success,
+but their capacity for inflicting an enormous amount of injury was
+evidently not destroyed. Chung Wang's energy and military skill alone
+sustained their cause, but the lovers of rapine and turbulence flocked
+in their thousands to his standard.
+
+In the Yangtse valley--in fact, wherever Chung Wang was not--the
+Taepings met with many reverses that counterbalanced these successes.
+Several Chinese armies approached Nanking from different sides, and
+Tien Wang in a state of panic summoned Chung Wang, his only champion,
+back to his side. That warrior obeyed the summons, leaving Mow Wang in
+charge of Soochow, but he could do no good. He found nothing but
+disorder at the Taeping capital, and no troops with which he could
+venture to assume the offensive against the powerful army, in numbers
+at all events, that the two Tsengs had drawn round Nanking. In this
+position his troubles were increased by the suspicion of Tien Wang,
+who deprived him of all his honours, and banished him to the province
+of Anhui, adjacent to both Kiangsi and Kiangsu, and joined with them
+in the same viceroyalty. This order to depart was a relief to Chung
+Wang, who was thus able to complete his own measures for the defence
+of Soochow and the other places along the Canal that had fallen to his
+arms. He saw clearly that the success of the foreigners in keeping him
+back at a distance of thirty miles from Shanghai, and in expelling him
+from Ningpo, signified his being shut in just as effectively on the
+east, as he already was on the west by the fall of every place except
+Nanking, and by the miserable inefficiency of the garrison in that
+place. He may have really despaired, but this Chinese Frederick was
+resolved, if he could, to break his chains. Unfortunately for him, a
+new and more formidable antagonist than any he had met appeared on the
+scene at this juncture, in the person of Gordon.
+
+This summary of the progress and nature of the Taeping rebellion up to
+the 25th March 1863 when Gordon assumed the command will make clear
+what follows to the general reader. It would be as great a mistake to
+minimise the fighting military strength of the Taepings as it would be
+to exaggerate it. There was a moment, years before Gordon came on the
+scene, when the Imperial commanders by a little energy and promptitude
+might have stamped out the rebellion; but having missed the
+opportunity the military skill and daring of Chung Wang had revived
+the Taeping cause, and made it more formidable than ever from a
+military point of view. The blunders of the Imperial commanders
+precluded any confidence as to their superior numbers and resources
+effecting their natural result, and although Gordon himself declared
+that the Taeping cause was a lost one before he assumed the command,
+no cause could be pronounced irretrievable with a leader so expert and
+resolute as Chung Wang, and opponents so incapable and craven as his
+were. But another thing was certainly incontestable, and that was that
+the Taepings could not in any sense be regarded as patriots. Their
+regular mode of conduct stamped them at once as undiscriminating
+plunderers of all, whether Chinese or Manchu, who had the misfortune
+to fall into their hands, and their acts of cruelty surpassed
+description and even belief. Some instances of the massacres they
+perpetrated have been mentioned, but these were only a few out of the
+many that stained, or rather characterised, their usual proceedings.
+It will suffice to say that their ordinary way of dealing with their
+prisoners was to crucify them, and there will then be no difficulty in
+accepting the conclusion that the Chinese population thoroughly
+detested them, and regarded them as a scourge rather than as
+deliverers.
+
+Nor does a closer examination of the system of administration set up
+at Nanking by the leader Tien Wang raise one's opinion of the cause or
+its promoters. The foreign missionaries long thought that the Taepings
+were the agents of Christianity, and that their success would lead to
+the conversion of China. That faith died hard, but at last in 1860 a
+missionary had to confess that after visiting Nanking "he could find
+nothing of Christianity but its name falsely applied to a system of
+revolting idolatry," and out of that and other irresistible testimony
+resulted the conclusion that the conversion of China by the agency of
+the Taepings was a delusion. The missionaries were not alone in their
+belief among foreigners. The Consuls and their Governments entertained
+a hope that the Taepings might establish an administration which would
+be less difficult to deal with than they had found the existing one at
+Peking. They attempted to, and did in an informal manner, establish
+some relations with Tien Wang. They acquainted him with the articles
+of the Treaty of Tientsin, and they requested him to conform with its
+conditions. On a second occasion Sir George Bonham, our head
+representative in China, even honoured him with a visit; but closer
+acquaintance in the case of our diplomatists, as of the missionaries,
+stripped the Taepings of the character with which interested persons
+would wish they had been invested. From the first feeling of
+friendship and sympathy there consequently ensued a slow but steady
+revulsion, until at last the general feeling was that the Taepings
+were little more than marauders, and as such a scourge to the country
+and a standing injury to the trade and interests of Europeans. Then
+came the desire to see the rising suppressed, and finally the
+disillusionment culminated in active measures being taken to assist
+the Imperial Government in suppressing a rebellion which had defied
+all its efforts for more than ten years. Of these measures the
+appointment of Major Gordon to the command of the Ever Victorious Army
+was both the last and the most effectual in producing the desired
+result.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE EVER VICTORIOUS ARMY.
+
+
+The appointment of any English officer would have led to some
+improvement in the direction of the Chinese Imperial forces assembled
+for the suppression of the Taeping rebellion; but the nature of the
+operations to be carried out, which were exclusively the capture of a
+number of towns strongly stockaded and protected by rivers and canals,
+rendered it specially necessary that that officer should be an
+engineer. In addition to the advantages of his scientific training,
+Major Gordon enjoyed the benefit of the preliminary course he had gone
+through under General Staveley. He had seen the Taepings fight, and
+something also of the defence and capture of their positions. He had
+also thoroughly mastered the topographical features of the region in
+and beyond which he was about to conduct military operations. There is
+little doubt that he assumed the command with a plan of campaign
+already decided upon in his brain. The Taepings with whom he had to
+deal derived their power and importance from the possession of
+Soochow, and from their access to several ports whence they obtained
+arms and ammunition. Therefore the capture of that city and the
+cutting off of their supplies represented his principal objects. Very
+much had to be accomplished before Soochow could be even approached,
+and the main object of Gordon's first campaign was the capture of
+Quinsan, which he saw would be far more suitable as headquarters for
+him and his force than the existing one at Sungkiang. Even before that
+could be attempted many matters had to be arranged. Not only had Major
+Gordon to relieve more than one beleaguered loyal garrison, but he had
+to establish his authority over his own force, which was on the verge
+of mutiny and clamouring for the return of Burgevine. His own opinion
+of that force was given in the following letter to a military
+friend:--
+
+     "I hope you do not think that I have a magnificent army. 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 officers
+     and men, although ragged and perhaps slightly disreputable, are
+     in capital order and well disposed."
+
+Before entering on these matters the following letter to his mother
+will be read with interest, as showing what was in Gordon's mind at
+the time he assumed the command. The letter was written on 24th March
+1863, the day before he rode over to Sungkiang to take up his command.
+
+     "I am afraid you will be much vexed at my having taken the
+     command of the Sungkiang force, and that I am now a mandarin. I
+     have taken the step on consideration. I think that anyone who
+     contributes to putting down this rebellion fulfils a humane task,
+     and I also think tends a great deal to open China to
+     civilization. I will not act rashly, and I trust to be able soon
+     to return to England; at the same time, I will remember your and
+     my father's wishes, and endeavour to remain as short a time as
+     possible. I can say that, if I had not accepted the command, I
+     believe the force would have been broken up and the rebellion
+     gone on in its misery for years. I trust this will not now be the
+     case, and that I may soon be able to comfort you on this subject.
+     You must not fret on this matter. I think I am doing a good
+     service.... I keep your likeness before me, and can assure you
+     and my father that I will not be rash, and that as soon as I can
+     conveniently, and with due regard to the object I have in view, I
+     will return home."
+
+Major Gordon rode over to Sungkiang, situated on the line of the
+thirty-mile radius from Shanghai, on 25th March, and the following
+morning he inspected his force. He delivered a brief address, stating
+that there was no intention to dismiss any of them, and that so long
+as they behaved well he would carefully uphold their rights and
+interests. These words had a tranquillising effect, and Major Gordon's
+assumption of the command might be described as being then ratified by
+the Ever Victorious Army. The good he effected was very nearly undone
+two days later by the civil magistrate hanging some soldiers for
+marauding. After the affair looked like becoming serious, Gordon
+succeeded in pacifying his men and restoring order. In this state of
+affairs it was most desirable that no time should be lost in resuming
+active operations, and the Taeping successes at Taitsan and Fushan
+rendered them doubly necessary.
+
+The first task entrusted to Major Gordon was the relief of Chanzu,
+which was closely assailed by the Taepings and believed to be on the
+point of surrendering. Chanzu lies some distance south of Fushan and
+west of Taitsan, and its garrison at this time was composed of
+Taepings who had deserted their comrades and joined the Imperial
+forces. Several attempts had been made to relieve it, but without
+success, and Gordon was urged by his Chinese colleagues to signalise
+his assumption of the command by carrying out this most desirable and
+necessary task. The best means of approaching it was by the river, and
+on 31st March Gordon accordingly sailed from Shanghai to the mouth of
+the Fushan Creek. His force numbered about 1200 men, and included 200
+artillery with four 12-pounders and one 32-pounder. The enemy had
+constructed some stockades at Fushan, outside the ruined city of that
+name, and Gordon attacked these on the 4th April. He began with a
+heavy bombardment, and when he ordered the advance the Taepings,
+disheartened by his fire, evacuated their positions and retired with
+very little loss to either side. Gordon then marched on Chanzu, ten
+miles south of Fushan, and reached it without further fighting. The
+relief of Chanzu being thus effected, Gordon hastened back to
+Sungkiang, where he arrived little more than a week after he left it.
+The success and swiftness of this movement greatly impressed Li Hung
+Chang, who publicly recorded his great satisfaction at the very
+different manner in which the new commander transacted business from
+Burgevine.
+
+In a letter to the British Consul at Shanghai, Mr Markham, Li wrote:--
+
+     "The officer Gordon having received command of the Ever
+     Victorious Army, having immediately on doing so proceeded to
+     Fushan, working day and night, having worked harmoniously with
+     the other generals there, having exerted himself and attacked
+     with success the walled city of Fushan and relieved Chanzu, and
+     at once returned to Sungkiang and organised his force for further
+     operations to sweep out the rebels, having proved himself
+     valiant, able, and honest, I have congratulated myself and
+     memorialised his Imperial Majesty to confer on him the dignity
+     and office of Tsung-ping (Brigadier-General), to enable me to
+     consider him as part of my command. Again, since Gordon has taken
+     the command, he has exerted himself to organise the force, and
+     though he has had but one month he has got the force into shape.
+     As the people and place are charmed with him, as he has already
+     given me returns of the organisation of the force, the formation
+     of each regiment, and the expenses ordinary and extraordinary in
+     the clearest manner, wishing to drill our troops and save our
+     money, it is evident that he fully comprehends the state of
+     affairs."
+
+On his return to Sungkiang, Major Gordon devoted himself to the
+thorough reorganisation of his force. He began by abolishing the
+system of rewards for the capture of towns, and he forbade plundering
+on pain of death. These were strong steps to take with a force such as
+that he had under him, but he succeeded in making them acceptable by
+increasing the pay of the men, and by substituting on his staff
+English officers--the services of a few being lent him by the
+commanding officer at Shanghai--for the adventurers who had followed
+Ward and Burgevine. The total strength of the force was fixed at 4000
+men, and his artillery consisted of four siege and two field
+batteries. The men were paid regularly by a Chinese official appointed
+by Li Hung Chang, and the cost to the Chinese Government averaged
+£20,000 a month. At the same time, Gordon collected a pontoon train
+and practised his men in all the work of attacking fortified places
+before he ventured to assume the offensive. He also organised a
+flotilla of small steamers and Chinese gunboats capable of navigating
+the canals and creeks which traversed the province of Kiangsu in all
+directions. Of these the principal was the steamer _Hyson_--a
+paddle-wheel vessel drawing 3-1/2 feet of water, armed with a
+32-pounder in her bow, and a 12-pounder at her stern, and possessing
+the faculty of moving over the bed of a creek on her wheels--and it
+took a very active and prominent part in the subsequent operations.
+
+The strategy on which Major Gordon at once decided, and from which he
+never deviated, was to cut off the Taeping communications with the sea
+and the river Yangtsekiang, whence they were able to obtain supplies
+of ammunition and arms from little-scrupulous foreign traders. The
+expulsion of the Taepings from the Shanghai district and from Ningpo
+had done something towards the success of this project, but they still
+held Hangchow and the line of the Yangtsekiang to within ten miles of
+the entrance of the Woosung River on which Shanghai stands. The loss
+of Fushan and Chanzu had made an indent in this territory, and in
+order to complete this breach in the Taeping position, Gordon had
+decided and made all his plans to attack Quinsan, when he was
+compelled to defer it in consequence of the following incident.
+
+The rude repulse at Taitsan had been, it will be recollected, the
+culminating misfortune of the force before Gordon's assumption of the
+command, but a Chinese army under Li Hung Chang's brother, San Tajin,
+continued to remain in the neighbourhood of the place. The Taeping
+commander laid a trap for him, into which he fell in what was, for a
+Chinese officer fully acquainted with the fact that treachery formed
+part of the usages of war in China, a very credulous manner. He
+expressed a desire to come over, presents and vows were exchanged, and
+at a certain hour he was to surrender one of the gates. The Imperial
+troops went to take possession, and were even admitted within the
+walls, when they were suddenly attacked on both flanks by the
+treacherous Taepings. Fifteen hundred of San Tajin's men were killed
+or captured, and he himself was severely wounded. In consequence of
+this reverse, the main Chinese army, under General Ching, a brave but
+inexperienced officer, could not co-operate with Gordon against
+Quinsan, and it was then decided that Gordon himself should proceed
+against Taitsan, and read the triumphant foe at that place a lesson.
+It was computed that its garrison numbered 10,000 men, and that it had
+several European deserters and renegades among its leaders, while the
+total force under Gordon did not exceed 3000 men. Their recent
+successes had also inspired the Taepings with confidence, and, judging
+by the previous encounters, there seemed little reason to anticipate a
+satisfactory, or at least a speedy issue of the affair for the
+Imperialists. That the result was more favourable was entirely due to
+Gordon's military capacity and genius.
+
+Major Gordon acted with remarkable and characteristic promptitude. He
+only heard of the catastrophe to San Tajin on 27th April; on 29th
+April, after two forced marches across country, he appeared before
+Taitsan, and captured a stockade in front of one of its gates. Bad
+weather prevented operations the next day, but on 1st May, Gordon
+having satisfied himself by personal examination that the western gate
+offered the best point of attack, began the bombardment soon after
+daybreak. Two stone stockades in front of the gate had first to be
+carried, and these, after twenty minutes' firing, were evacuated on
+part of Gordon's force threatening the retreat of their garrison back
+to the town. The capture of these stockades began and ended the
+operations on that day. The next morning Gordon stationed one regiment
+in front of the north gate to cut off the retreat of the garrison in
+that direction, and then resumed his main attack on the west gate. By
+this time he had been joined by some of his gunboats, and their fire,
+aided by the artillery he had with him, gradually made a good
+impression on the wall, especially after the guns had been drawn as
+near as 200 yards to it. The breach was then deemed sufficiently
+practicable; the gunboats went up the creek as near the walls as
+possible, and the two regiments advanced to the assault. The Taepings
+fought desperately in the breach itself, and no progress was made. It
+is probable that a reverse would have followed had not the howitzers
+continued to throw shells over the wall, thus inflicting heavy losses
+on the Taepings, who swarmed in their thousands behind. At that
+critical moment Gordon directed another regiment to escalade the wall
+at a point which the Taepings had left unguarded, and the appearance
+of these fresh troops on their flank at once decided the day, and
+induced the Taeping leaders to order a retreat. The Taepings lost
+heavily, but the loss of the Ever Victorious Army was in proportion
+equally great. The latter had twenty men killed and 142 wounded, one
+European officer killed and six wounded. But the capture of Taitsan
+under all the circumstances was an exceptionally brilliant and
+decisive affair. With it may be said to have begun the military
+reputation of the young commander, whose admirable dispositions had
+retrieved a great disaster and inflicted a rude blow on the confidence
+of a daring enemy.
+
+From Taitsan he marched to Quinsan; but his force was not yet
+thoroughly in hand, and wished to return to Sungkiang, in accordance
+with their practice under Ward of spending their pay and prize-money
+after any successful affair before attempting another. Gordon yielded
+on this occasion the more easily because he was impressed by the
+strength of Quinsan, and also because his ammunition had run short.
+But his trouble with his men was not yet over, and he had to face a
+serious mutiny on the part of his officers. For improved economy and
+efficiency Gordon appointed an English commissariat officer, named
+Cookesley, to control all the stores, and he gave him the rank of
+lieutenant-colonel. This gave umbrage to the majors in command of
+regiments, who presented a request that they should be allowed the
+higher rank and pay of lieutenant-colonel; and when this was refused
+they sent in their resignations, which were accepted. The affair was
+nearly taking a serious turn, as the troops refused to march; but
+Gordon's firmness overcame the difficulty. Two of the majors were
+reinstated, and the others dismissed, but this incident finally
+decided Gordon to change his headquarters from Sungkiang to some place
+where the bad traditions of Ward and Burgevine were not in force. The
+active operations now undertaken against Quinsan served to distract
+the attention of the men, and to strengthen their commander's
+influence over them. General Gordon's own description of this affair
+is well worth quoting:--
+
+     "The force arrived at their old camping ground near the east gate
+     of Quinsan on the evening of 27th of May. General Ching had
+     established some five or six very strong stockades at this place,
+     and, thanks to the steamer _Hyson_, had been able to hold them
+     against the repeated attacks of the rebels. The line of rebel
+     stockades was not more than 800 yards from his position. The
+     force encamped near the stockades; and at daybreak of the 28th
+     the 4th and 5th Regiments, with the field artillery, moved to
+     attack them. The right stockade was attacked in front, and its
+     right flank turned, on seeing which the rebels retreated. They
+     were in large force, and had it not been for the numerous bridges
+     they had constructed in their rear, they would have suffered
+     much, as the pursuit was pressed beyond the north gate close up
+     to a stockade they held at the north-east angle of the city.
+     Captain Clayton, 99th Regiment, a very gallant officer who had
+     gained the goodwill and admiration of every one of the force, was
+     unfortunately wounded in the attack, and died some months
+     afterwards of his wounds. Our loss was two killed and sixteen
+     wounded.
+
+     "General Ching was now most anxious to get me to attack the east
+     gate on the following day. His object was that he had written to
+     the Futai Li, who had in turn passed the statement on to Peking,
+     to say that he had his stockades on the edge of the ditch, and
+     merely wanted a boat to get into the city. This he showed by a
+     plan. The east gate looked, if possible, more unpromising than it
+     did before, and I declined to attack it without reconnoitring the
+     other side of the city. Accordingly, the next day, 29th May, I
+     went in the _Hyson_ with General Ching and Li Hung Chang to
+     reconnoitre the west side, and after three hours' steaming came
+     within 1000 yards of the main canal, which runs from the west
+     gate of Quinsan to Soochow. At the junction of the creek we came
+     up with this main canal at the village of Chunye. This place is
+     eight miles from Quinsan, and twelve from Soochow. The only road
+     between these two places runs along the bank of the creek. The
+     rebels had here on its bank two stockades of no great strength,
+     and about 500 yards inland, they had, near the village of Chunye,
+     a very strong stone fort. About 1000 yards from the stockades the
+     creek was staked across. At the time of our arrival large numbers
+     of troops were passing towards and from Soochow with horsemen,
+     etc. We opened fire on them and on their boats. The rebels seemed
+     perfectly amazed at seeing us, and were ready for a run. General
+     Ching was as sulky as a bear when he was informed that I thought
+     it advisable to take these stockades the next day, and to attack
+     on this side of the city.
+
+     "At dawn on 30th May the 4th Regiment, 350 strong, with field
+     artillery, all in boats and _Hyson_, accompanied by some fifty
+     Imperial gunboats, started for Chunye. The Imperial gunboats
+     started some hours previous, but had contented themselves with
+     halting one and a half miles from the stockades. The whole
+     flotilla--some eighty boats, with their large white sails and
+     decorated with the usual amount of various-coloured flags, with
+     the _Hyson_ in the middle--presented a very picturesque sight,
+     and must have made the garrison of Quinsan feel uncomfortable, as
+     they could see the smallest move from the high hill inside the
+     city, and knew, of course, more than we did of the importance of
+     the stockades about to be attacked.
+
+     "At noon we came up to the stakes before alluded to, and landed
+     the infantry. The Imperial gunboats, now very brave, pulled up
+     the stakes, and a general advance with the steamer and troops
+     was made. The rebels stood for a minute, and then vacated the
+     stockades and ran. The reason of the rebels defending these
+     stockades so badly was on account of the ill-feeling between the
+     chiefs in charge of Quinsan and Chunye, and the neglect of the
+     former to furnish rice to the latter.
+
+     "The _Hyson_ [with Gordon on board] now steamed up towards
+     Soochow at a slow pace, owing to the innumerable boats that
+     crowded the creek, which, vacated by their owners, were drifting
+     about with their sails up in every direction. The rebels were in
+     clusters along the bank, marching in an orderly way towards
+     Soochow. The _Hyson_ opened fire on them and hurried their
+     progress, and, hanging on their rear, kept up a steady fire till
+     they reached Ta Edin, where a large arch bridge spanned the
+     creek, and where the rebels had constructed a splendid stone
+     fort. We expected that the rebels would make a stand here, but
+     they merely fired one shot, which was answered by a shell from
+     the _Hyson_, which went into the embrasure, and the rebels
+     continued their flight. It became rather hazardous to pass this
+     fort and leave it unoccupied, with the number of armed rebels who
+     were between Chunye and Ta Edin. The _Hyson_, moreover, had no
+     force on board of any importance. There were with me five or six
+     Europeans and some thirty Chinamen--gunners, etc. However, six of
+     us landed, and held the fort somehow till more Imperialists came
+     up, while the _Hyson_ pushed on towards Soochow.
+
+     "The _Hyson_ continued the pursuit, threading her way through the
+     boats of all descriptions which crowded the creek, and harassing
+     the rear of the rebel columns which extended along the road for
+     over a mile. About two miles from Ta Edin another stone fort was
+     passed without a shot being fired; this was Siaon Edin.
+     Everything was left in the forts by the rebels. Soon after
+     passing this place the steamer headed some 400 rebels, and
+     Captain Davidson ran her into the bank, and took 150 of them
+     prisoners on board the _Hyson_--rather a risk, considering the
+     crew of that vessel and her size. Soon after this four horsemen
+     were descried riding at full speed about a mile in rear of the
+     steamer. They came up, passed the steamer amid a storm of
+     bullets, and joined the rebel column. One of them was struck off
+     his horse, but the others coolly waited for him, and one of them
+     stopped and took him up behind him. They deserved to get off.
+     About three miles further on another stockade of stone was passed
+     at a broken bridge called Waiquaidong, and the pursuit was
+     carried on to about three-quarters of a mile from Soochow. It was
+     now getting late (6 P.M.), and we did not know if the rebels in
+     our rear might not have occupied the stockades, in which case we
+     should have had to find another route back. On our return we met
+     crowds of villagers, who burnt at our suggestion the houses in
+     the forts at Waiquaidong and Siaon Edin, and took the boats that
+     were in the creek.
+
+     "We met many boats that had appeared deserted on our passing up
+     sailing merrily towards Soochow, but which, when they saw the red
+     and green of the steamer and heard her whistle, were immediately
+     run into the bank and were deserted. Just before Siaon Edin was
+     reached we came on a large body of rebels, who opened a sharp
+     fire of rifles on us striking the gun twice. They had got under
+     cover of a bridge, which, however, after a short delay, we
+     managed to enfilade with a charge of grape and thus cleared them
+     out. We then steamed into the bank and took in more prisoners.
+     Four chiefs, one a Wang, galloped past on horseback; and although
+     not two yards from the steamer, they got away. The Wang got
+     shoved into the water and lost his pony. A party of rebels were
+     encamped in Siaon Edin, not dreaming of any further annoyance for
+     that night, and were accordingly astonished to hear the steamer's
+     whistle, and rushed out in amazement, to meet a shell at the
+     entrance, which killed two of them. The steamer now pushed on to
+     Ta Edin, and found it unoccupied; while waiting there to collect
+     some of the prisoners, about 200 rebels came so suddenly on the
+     steamer that we were obliged to whistle to keep them off till the
+     gun could be got ready.
+
+     "It was now 10.30 P.M., and the night was not very clear. At this
+     moment the most tremendous firing and cheering was heard from
+     Chunye, and hurried our progress to that place. Just before we
+     reached it a gunboat disarranged the rudder, and then we were
+     dodging about from side to side for some ten minutes, the firing
+     and cheering going on as before. At last we got up to the
+     junction of the creek, and steaming through the Imperial, and
+     other boats, we came on the scene of action. The gunboats were
+     drawn up in line, and were firing as fast as they could. The
+     stone fort at the village was sparkling with musketry, and at
+     times astounding yells burst forth from it. The _Hyson_ blew her
+     whistle, and was received with deafening cheers from the
+     gunboats, which were on the eve of bolting. She steamed up the
+     creek towards Quinsan, and at the distance of 200 yards we saw a
+     confused mass near a high bridge. It was too dark to distinguish
+     very clearly, but on the steamer blowing the whistle the mass
+     wavered, yelled, and turned back. It was the garrison of Quinsan
+     attempting to escape to Soochow, some seven or eight thousand
+     men.
+
+     "Matters were in too critical a state to hesitate, as the mass of
+     the rebels, goaded into desperation, would have swept our small
+     force away. We were therefore forced to fire into them, and
+     pursue them towards Quinsan, firing, however, very rarely, and
+     only when the rebels looked as if they would make a stand. The
+     steamer went up to about a mile from Quinsan, and then returned.
+     Several officers landed and took charge of the prisoners who were
+     extended along the bank, and at 4 A.M., 31st May, everything was
+     quiet. The _Hyson_ had fired some eighty or ninety rounds during
+     the day and night; and although humanity might have desired a
+     smaller destruction, it was indispensably necessary to inflict
+     such a blow on the garrison of Soochow as would cause them not to
+     risk another such engagement, and thus enable us to live in peace
+     during the summer--which it indeed did, for the rebels never came
+     on this road again. Their loss must have been from three to four
+     thousand killed, drowned, and prisoners. We took 800, most of
+     whom entered our ranks. They lost all their arms and a very large
+     number of boats. At 5 A.M. on 31st May the troops at Chunye and
+     the _Hyson_ moved towards Quinsan, and found the remainder of the
+     force who had been left at the east gate already in the city. The
+     possession of Quinsan was of immense importance in a strategical
+     point of view. The circumference of its walls is some five miles,
+     but they are very inferior. Its ditch is over forty yards wide,
+     and from the nature of the creeks around it would prove very
+     difficult to take. The high hill enclosed within its walls would
+     enable the slightest move to be seen, and if two or three guns
+     were placed on the spurs of this hill it would form a very
+     formidable citadel. The rebels did not know its importance till
+     they lost it."
+
+Such was the capture of Quinsan, told in the simple words of its
+captor. It confirmed the reputation gained by the fall of Taitsan, and
+proved that the new commander was a man of extraordinary military
+intuition as well as energy. There is scarcely room to doubt that if
+Gordon had attacked Quinsan where the Chinese commander wished him to
+do, at its very strongest point, he would have met with a rude
+repulse. By attacking them on the side of Soochow, and by threatening
+their communication with that place, he terrified the large garrison
+so much that in the end they evacuated the place without resistance.
+Gordon himself believed that if the mandarins at the head of the
+Imperial army would have consented to support him in immediate
+measures for an assault on Soochow, that city would have fallen in the
+panic that ensued after the loss of Quinsan. The opportunity being
+lost, it will be seen that many months of arduous fighting followed
+before the same result was achieved.
+
+The reasons which rendered a change in the headquarters of the force
+desirable have already been mentioned, and Major Gordon at once
+decided to remove them to Quinsan, a strong and advantageously-placed
+position embarrassing to the Taepings, and equally encouraging to the
+Imperialists. But if this removal was necessary on grounds of
+discipline and policy, it was very unpopular with the men themselves,
+who were attached to Sungkiang, where they could easily dispose of
+their plunder. They determined to make an effort to get the offensive
+order withdrawn, and a proclamation was drawn up by the most
+disaffected, who were the non-commissioned officers, and sent to Major
+Gordon with an intimation that the artillery would blow all the
+officers to pieces unless their demands were complied with. Major
+Gordon at once sent for all the non-commissioned officers, who paraded
+before him. When he demanded the name of the writer of the
+proclamation they were silent. At this Major Gordon announced that
+unless the name was given up, he would shoot one out of every five of
+them. At this statement the men groaned, when Gordon, noticing the man
+who groaned loudest, and shrewdly conceiving him to be a ringleader,
+seized him with his own hands, dragged him from the ranks, and ordered
+two of his bodyguard to shoot the man on the spot. The order was at
+once carried out, and then Gordon, turning to the rest, gave them one
+hour to reflect whether they would obey orders, or compel him to shoot
+one in every five. Within this time they gave way, and discipline was
+restored. Gordon in his official despatch expressed regret for the
+man's death, but, as he truly said, "it saved many others which must
+have been lost if a stop had not been put to the independent way of
+the men." But the matter did not quite end here, for more than 2000
+men deserted, but Gordon found no difficulty in filling their places
+from his prisoners and the villages round Quinsan. It is worthy of
+note that his own bodyguard was mainly composed of Taeping prisoners,
+and some of the most faithful of them had been the bearers of the
+Snake banners of the rebel Wangs.
+
+Having thus settled the differences within his own force, and having
+fully established his own authority, Major Gordon would have
+prosecuted the attack on Soochow with vigour, if other difficulties
+had not occurred which occupied his time and attention. In the first
+place, there was a serious quarrel with General Ching, who was sore
+because he had not gained the credit for the capture of Quinsan, and
+who did everything he could to hamper and humiliate the force. At last
+he went to the length of firing on a column of Gordon's force, and as
+he refused all satisfaction, that officer was on the point of marching
+to attack him, when Dr--now Sir Halliday--Macartney arrived in his
+camp, being sent in a fully accredited manner, and escorted by the
+Futai's bodyguard, as a peace messenger from Li Hung Chang. On this
+occasion Sir Halliday Macartney first gave evidence of the exceptional
+diplomatic tact which he has since evinced in so many important
+negotiations, when China derived much advantage from his energy,
+ability, and devotion to her cause. The storm then blew over, but the
+second affair was more serious. Li Hung Chang became remiss in his
+payment of the force, and on 25th July Gordon sent in his formal
+resignation. There is every reason to believe that at this moment
+Gordon was thoroughly sick of his command, and would willingly have
+returned to Europe. The difficulties with his own men, the want of
+co-operation, to say nothing of appreciation on the part of the
+Chinese authorities, had damped even his zeal in what he reiterated
+was the good cause of restoring peace and security to a suffering
+people; and in addition to these troubles he had to carry on a
+correspondence with anonymous writers, who made many baseless charges
+in the Shanghai and Hongkong papers of cruelty against the men under
+his command. The English General at Shanghai used all his influence,
+however, with the Chinese Governor to pay up the arrears, and with
+Gordon to retain the command, because, as he said, there was "no other
+officer who combined so many dashing qualities, let alone skill and
+judgment."
+
+But the event that really decided Gordon to withdraw his resignation
+was the unexpected return of Burgevine. That adventurer had proceeded
+to Peking after his dismissal from the command, and obtained some
+support from the American minister in pressing his claims on the
+Chinese. He had been sent back to Shanghai with letters which,
+although they left some loophole of escape, might be interpreted as
+ordering Li Hung Chang to reinstate him in the command. This Li,
+supported by the English commanding officer at Shanghai, had
+resolutely refused to do, and the feud between the men became more
+bitter than ever. Burgevine remained in Shanghai and employed his time
+in selling the Taepings arms and ammunition. In this way he
+established secret relations with their chiefs, and seeing no chance
+of Imperial employment he was not unwilling to join his fortunes to
+theirs. This inclination was increased by the belief that he might be
+able to form a force of his own which would give a decisive turn to
+the struggle, and his vanity led him to think that he might pose on
+the rebel side as no unequal adversary of Gordon, to whom all the time
+he professed the greatest friendship. These feelings arose from or
+were certainly strengthened by the representations made by several of
+the officers and men whom Gordon had dismissed from his army. They
+easily led Burgevine to think that he was not forgotten, and that he
+had only to raise his standard to be joined by many of his old men.
+
+A fortnight before Gordon's resignation Dr Macartney--who had some
+time before begun his remarkable career in the Chinese service, and of
+whom Gordon himself said: "He drilled troops, supervised the
+manufacture of shells, gave advice, brightened the Futai's intellect
+about foreigners, and made peace, in which last accomplishment his
+_forte_ lay"--wrote to him, stating that he had positive information
+that Burgevine was enlisting men for some enterprise, that he had
+already enrolled 300, and that he had even chosen a special flag for
+his force. A few days later Burgevine, probably hearing of this
+communication, wrote to Gordon, begging him not to believe any rumours
+about him, and stating that he was coming up to see him. Gordon
+unfortunately believed in this statement, and as he wished to exhibit
+special lenience towards the man whom he had displaced in the command,
+he went bail for him, so that he retained his personal liberty when
+the Chinese arrested Burgevine's agent Beechy, and wished to arrest
+Burgevine himself. On 2nd August Burgevine threw off the mask. At the
+head of a band of thirty-two rowdies, he seized the new steamer
+_Kajow_ at Sungkiang, and with that vessel hastened to join the
+Taepings. The very day that this happened Gordon reached Shanghai for
+the purpose of resigning his command, but on the receipt of this
+intelligence he at once withdrew his resignation and hastened back to
+Quinsan. Apart from public considerations, he felt doubly bound to do
+this because Burgevine had not been arrested on his pledged word.
+
+The position was undoubtedly critical, for the prospect of plunder
+offered by Burgevine was very attractive to mercenaries like the Ever
+Victorious Army, and there was a very real risk that the force at
+Quinsan, deprived of its commander, might be induced to desert _en
+masse_ under the persuasive promises of Burgevine. When Gordon reached
+Quinsan he was so apprehensive as to what might occur that he removed
+his heavy artillery and most of his munitions of war to Taitsan, where
+General Brown, in command at Shanghai, undertook to see that they were
+protected. The situation at Quinsan was full of peril, for although
+Burgevine had thrown away a chance, by taking a roundabout instead of
+a direct route to Soochow, of striking a decisive blow before Gordon
+could get back, the Taeping leader, Mow Wang, had not been so
+negligent, and his operations for the recovery of several places taken
+by Gordon in the last few days of his command were on the point of
+success, when that officer's return arrested the course of his plans.
+It must be pointed out that after this date the Taepings fought with
+far more skill than before. They had a very considerable European
+contingent, probably nearly 300 men, and these served not only as
+leaders, but as trainers of the rebel Chinese forces. They had also
+obtained some good cannon, and the steamer _Kajow_ proved of material
+value on water. Gordon found on his return, therefore, that the
+difficulties of the campaign were materially increased. His opponents
+were far stronger and more confident, while his own resources remained
+unchanged. Gordon tersely summed up the situation in an official
+despatch: "There is no knowing what an immense amount of damage might
+have been done if the rebels had had a more energetic man than
+Burgevine, and it would be as well not to point out the line which
+might have been taken."
+
+The first engagements of this more difficult and keenly-contested
+phase of the campaign took place at Kahpoo, a place on the canal some
+miles south of Soochow. Gordon had taken it a week before he left for
+Shanghai, as a sort of parting gift to the Chinese, but when he
+arrived there on 9th August he found the garrison hard pressed,
+although the _Hyson_ was stationed there--and indeed nothing but his
+arrival with a third steamer, the _Cricket_, averted its recapture.
+After five days' operations, that do not require description, the
+neighbourhood of Kahpoo was cleared of rebels, and Gordon returned to
+Quinsan, where the most essential task had to be accomplished of
+restoring the discipline of his own force. As some assistance in this
+difficult task General Brown lent him the services of 200 Beluches,
+whose admirable conduct and splendid appearance went far to restore a
+healthy spirit among his own men. At the same time these troops
+ensured the safety of Quinsan and also of Gordon himself, at least
+against the treachery of Burgevine's sympathisers.
+
+The season of the year, the hottest and most trying of the long
+Chinese summer, compelled inaction, and Gordon felt doubly the need of
+caution now that he was brought face to face with the most arduous
+undertaking of the whole war, viz. the siege and capture of Soochow.
+General Ching's headquarters were at Ta Edin, and he had also occupied
+in force Waiquaidong, only two miles from the eastern gate of Soochow.
+Before the end of September he had pushed on still further, and
+erected his stockades within half a mile of that position. At this
+moment Gordon, anxious as to what might happen to his too-adventurous
+colleague, advanced with his force to his aid, and took up the supreme
+direction of the attack on Soochow. As usual, Gordon began by making a
+careful examination of the extensive rebel positions at and round
+Soochow, and the result of it was that he decided to capture the
+stockades and village of Patachiaou, one mile distant from the south
+wall of that city. His plan met with easy success, for the Taepings
+were not expecting an attack in that quarter, and offered little
+resistance.
+
+Easily as they had been driven out of it, the Taepings made a very
+determined effort to retake it a few days later, and it was only by
+desperate exertions that Gordon succeeded in holding what he had won.
+This was the first occasion on which Burgevine and the _Kajow_
+steamer, commanded by Captain Jones, "a daring and capable officer,"
+to use Gordon's words, came into action. The rebels were extremely
+confident for this reason, and also because they had some heavy
+artillery. Gordon had to keep to his stockades, and to send the
+_Hyson_ out of action from fear of its being damaged by the enemy's
+shell, but the Taepings were afraid to come to close quarters, and
+eventually retreated before a well-timed _sortie_. In this engagement
+Gordon had the co-operation of a French-trained Chinese regiment,
+under the command of a gallant officer, Captain Bonnefoy. After this
+there was a lull, but Gordon felt too weak to attempt anything serious
+against Soochow, and he deprecated all operations until he could
+strike an effective blow. In this respect he differed materially from
+his Chinese colleague, General Ching, who was most restless and
+enterprising, but his ill-directed energy produced no result, and even
+assisted the enemy's plans.
+
+At this juncture the Taeping hero Chung Wang arrived from Nanking with
+reinforcements, and imparted a new vigour to the defence. But whether
+on account of jealousy, or of disappointment at the poor services he
+had rendered, it also resulted in the dismissal of Burgevine, an
+incident of which some brief account may be given before following the
+main course of the campaign. More than one ground of dispute led up to
+this conclusion. In the first place, Burgevine was disappointed at
+finding several of the rebel Wangs as clever and ambitious as he was,
+and they were disappointed at the amount of service and help he could
+give them. This feeling culminated in angry scenes, when, on being
+sent into Shanghai in disguise to purchase arms with a large sum of
+money, he returned to Soochow without either money or weapons. He was
+apparently given, as a last chance, the opportunity of regaining his
+reputation by entrapping Gordon into the rebel power, and he
+thoroughly entered into the scheme, although he failed to carry it
+out. On 3rd October--that is to say, two days after the failure to
+retake Patachiaou--Burgevine made the first step in this plot by
+addressing a letter to Gordon, thanking him for the offer of medicines
+he had sent, and offering to meet him whenever he liked to discuss
+matters. On the 6th he met Gordon at the stockades, and declared his
+willingness to abandon the Taepings and come over with all his force,
+including the _Kajow_. He and his companions were guaranteed their
+lives, and the arrangement seemed complete. Two days later he had a
+second interview with the English officer, when he made the
+extraordinary proposition that he and Gordon should join bands,
+attack both Taepings and Imperialists, and fight for their own hand.
+This mad and unprincipled proposal excited Gordon's anger, but it was
+only Burgevine's old filibustering idea revived under unfavourable
+conditions. It was while smarting under this rebuff that Burgevine
+proposed to Captain Jones a fresh plot for entrapping Gordon, while
+he, unsuspecting evil, was engaged in conferences for their surrender;
+but to Jones's credit, let it be stated that he refused to have any
+part in such black treachery. Thereupon Burgevine attempted to take
+Jones's life, either to conceal his own treachery or to enable him to
+carry out his interrupted plans. Much delay occurred in carrying out
+the project of Burgevine's desertion, and Gordon, rendered specially
+anxious to save his and the other foreigners' lives, because one party
+had escaped without Burgevine, wrote a strong letter on the subject to
+Mow Wang, Chung Wang's chief lieutenant. He also sent him a present of
+a pony, at which the rebel chief was so much pleased that he agreed to
+release Burgevine, and on 18th October that person appeared at the
+outworks of Gordon's position. His personal safety was entirely due to
+Gordon's humane efforts, and to the impression that officer had made
+on the Taepings as a chivalrous opponent. The American Consul at
+Shanghai, Mr Seward, officially thanked Major Gordon for his "great
+kindness to misguided General Burgevine and his men." Nearly two years
+later this adventurer met the fate he so narrowly escaped on several
+occasions. He had been forbidden by his own Consul as well as the
+Chinese Government ever to return to China, but in June 1865 he broke
+his parole. Before he could be arrested he met with his death by
+accident, being drowned when crossing a Chinese river, but rumours
+were prevalent that his death was an act of vengeance instigated by
+his old enemy the Futai, Li Hung Chang.
+
+The assumption of the supreme command by Chung Wang was soon followed
+by those offensive operations which had made that dashing leader the
+most famous of all the rebel generals. Gordon and the bulk of his
+corps were at Patachiaou, south of Soochow--only General Ching and the
+Chinese army were north of that place--and he resolved to attack them
+and force his way through to Chanzu, which he wished to recover as
+opening a road to the river and the outer world. Gordon divined his
+intention, and for some time prevented him carrying it out by making
+threatening demonstrations with his gunboats on the western side of
+Soochow; but his own attention was soon diverted to another part of
+the country where a new and unexpected danger threatened his own
+position and communications. A large rebel force, computed to number
+20,000 men, had suddenly appeared behind Major Gordon's position and
+attacked the Imperial garrison stationed at Wokong, a place on the
+canal twelve or thirteen miles south of Soochow. The news that reached
+Gordon on 12th October from this quarter was that the garrison, having
+been repulsed in a _sortie_ with a loss of several hundred men, could
+not hold out many hours. Gordon at once hastened to the rescue at the
+head of one of his regiments, and with the invaluable _Hyson_ steamer.
+He found his allies quite cowed, afraid even to open the gates of
+their stockades to admit him and his men, and the enemy drawn up in
+imposing lines at a distance of about 1500 yards. He at once ordered
+the attack, and during three hours the engagement was contested in the
+most obstinate and spirited manner. The rebels, having their line of
+retreat secure, fought bravely. Gordon had to bring up his heavy guns
+to within forty yards of the wall before they would gave way, and even
+then they stood at the second and third inner stockades. Gordon never
+gave them a chance of recovering, but having got them on the run, kept
+them at it for a distance of ten miles. This was one of Gordon's
+greatest victories in the open field. The Taepings never fought
+better, yet with 1000 good Chinese troops Gordon routed more than
+20,000 of them.
+
+Chung Wang had begun his march towards Chanzu, but after some slight
+successes met with a rude repulse at Monding, where he also lost the
+steamer _Kajow_, which was sunk by an accidental explosion. He then
+established his headquarters at Wusieh, a place on the Grand Canal,
+about twenty-five miles north of Soochow. Here he hoped to effect some
+diversion that might relieve the increasing pressure on Soochow
+itself.
+
+In the meantime that pressure had greatly increased, owing to the
+bolder measures to which Gordon resorted after the European contingent
+abandoned the Taeping side. His first step was to attack and capture
+the stockades at Wuliungchow, a village two miles west of Patachiaou,
+which commanded a passage leading from the Taiho Lake to the south
+gate of Soochow. Gordon managed to conceal the real object of his
+attack from the Taepings, and to capture the stockades with little
+loss. The wet weather and the unexpected nature of the attack
+explained this easy success, for the stockades were strong and well
+placed. Chung Wang returned from Wusieh with the special object of
+retaking them, but he was repulsed with some loss, and then hurried
+back to that place. A few days later part of Gordon's force, under
+Major Kirkham, was sent to Wokong, which was again being threatened by
+the Taepings, and obtained a brilliant success, capturing 1300
+prisoners and not fewer than 1600 boats, including sixteen gunboats.
+
+Having achieved this success on the south, Gordon proceeded with his
+plans to secure an equally advantageous position on the north side. He
+left two regiments at Wuliungchow, which he greatly strengthened, and
+with the remainder he went to Waiquaidong, where he proposed to
+deliver his attack on the Leeku stockades, only a short distance in
+front of the north gate of Soochow. This operation was carried out
+with complete success, and it was promptly followed up by the capture
+of the rebel positions at Wanti, which enabled the forces round
+Soochow to join hands with the other considerable Imperial army that
+had been placed in the field by the energy of Li Hung Chang, and
+entrusted to the command of his brother, San Tajin. This last force
+was opposed to Chung Wang, but although numerically the stronger, the
+want of the most rudimentary military knowledge in its commander
+reduced this army of 20,000 men to inglorious inaction. At this stage
+of the struggle it will be well to sum up in Gordon's own words the
+different positions held by the contending forces:--
+
+     "We held the Taiho Lake with the steamers the _Hyson_, the
+     _Tsatlee_, _Firefly_, and 200 men (Imperialists), which cruised
+     off Moodow, and prevented supplies coming to Soochow up the creek
+     which leads from that village to the small West Gate, or
+     Shih-mün, of Soochow, and where they had many actions with the
+     rebel gunboats. The next great water outlet was closed to the
+     rebels by our possession with 1000 men (Imperialists) of
+     Wuliungchow. Off the Pon-mün, or South Gate, the next main water
+     and road communication to the south was closed to them by our
+     occupation by 1500 men (Imperialists) of the Patachiaou stockades
+     on the Grand Canal, south of the south-east angle of Soochow. The
+     next, which led from the east gate of Soochow to Quinsan, was
+     closed by Ching's force of 3000 or 4000 men, nearly two miles
+     from the gate. These men were well posted in strong and
+     well-constructed stockades. The next position held was Leeku,
+     where I had one regiment, and at Wanti there was another
+     regiment. The total force in the stockades was about 8500 men,
+     leaving for field operation 2500 Imperialists, 2100 of the
+     Quinsan Corps, and 400 Franco-Chinese. San Tajin had 20,000 to
+     30,000, in three separate camps. He was utterly incapable for
+     command of any sort.
+
+     "The rebels held Soochow with some 40,000 men in and around the
+     city. The city of Wusieh held some 20,000 men, and Chung Wang had
+     at Mahtanchow some 18,000 more. Chung Wang's position was central
+     between Wusieh and Soochow, some ten miles in advance of the
+     Grand Canal, so as to be able to give help to either city, and to
+     attack on the flank any advance made by us on their grand line of
+     communications by that canal."
+
+The city of Soochow, now so closely beleaguered, was of imposing
+appearance. An English traveller who saw it at this time thus
+describes it:--
+
+     "Further than the eye could penetrate in the misty morning
+     stretched the grizzled walls of Soochow, a city celebrated for
+     ages in the history of China for its size, population, wealth,
+     and luxury, but now stripped of its magnificence, and held by an
+     army of Taeping banditti against the Imperial forces. To the
+     right and left, mile after mile, rose the line of lofty wall and
+     grey turret, while above all appeared not only the graceful
+     pagodas, which have been for ages the boast of Soochow and the
+     dense foliage of secular trees--the invariable glory of Chinese
+     cities--but also the shimmering roofs of newly decorated palaces
+     confidently occupied by the vainglorious leaders of the
+     rebellion. The proximity of the rebel line became apparent with
+     surprising suddenness, for, following their usual custom, they
+     greeted the rising sun with a simultaneous display of gaudy
+     banners above the line of their entrenchments. The mud walls they
+     had thrown up in advance, scarcely distinguishable before, were
+     now marked out by thousands of flags of every colour from black
+     to crimson, whilst behind them rose the jangling roll of gongs,
+     and the murmurs of an invisible multitude."
+
+Had Gordon been free to act, or even if he had possessed authority
+over the two Chinese commanders, his plan of campaign would have been
+simple and decisive. He would have effected a junction of his forces
+with San Tajin; and having overwhelmed Chung Wang and his 18,000 men
+with his combined army of double that strength, he would have appeared
+at the head of his victorious troops before the bewildered garrison of
+Wusieh. He would probably have thus terminated the campaign at a
+stroke. Even the decisive defeat of Chung Wang alone might have
+entailed the collapse of the cause now tottering to its fall. But
+Major Gordon had to consider not merely the military quality of his
+allies, but also their jealousies and differences. General Ching hated
+San Tajin on private as well as on public grounds. He desired a
+monopoly of the profit and honour of the campaign. His own reputation
+would be made by the capture of Soochow. It would be diminished and
+cast into the shade were another Imperial commander to defeat Chung
+Wang and close the line of the Grand Canal. If Gordon detached himself
+from General Ching, he could not feel sure what folly that jealous and
+impulsive commander might not commit. He would certainly not pursue
+the vigilant defence before Soochow necessary to guard the extensive
+line of stockades, and to prevent its large garrison sallying out and
+assailing his own rear. Gordon had consequently for these
+considerations to abandon the tempting idea of crushing Chung Wang and
+capturing the towns in the rear of Nanking, and to have recourse to
+safer if slower methods.
+
+But if he had to abandon the larger plan, he still stuck tenaciously
+to his main idea that the way to capture Soochow was to isolate it,
+and above all to sever Chung Wang's communication with it. Several
+weeks passed before Gordon could complete the necessary arrangements,
+but at last, on 19th November, he left Leeku at the head of the
+greater part of his own force and a large contingent of Ching's braves
+to attack the stockades at Fusaiquan on the Grand Canal, about four
+miles north of Leeku. The Taeping position was a strong one, including
+eight separate earthworks, a stone fort, and several stockades. Gordon
+said "it was far the best built and strongest position he had yet
+seen," but the rebels evacuated it in the most cowardly manner without
+attempting the least resistance. Gordon goes on to say: "Our loss was
+none killed, and none wounded! We had expected a most desperate
+defence. If ever men deserved beheading, the Taeping leaders did on
+this occasion." The immediate consequence of this success was that
+Chung Wang quitted his camp in face of San Tajin, and, joining the
+Wusieh corps, concentrated his whole force for the defence of the
+Grand Canal.
+
+Having thus strengthened his position towards the north, Gordon, very
+much to Ching's satisfaction, fell in with his views to begin a direct
+attack on Soochow itself. For good reasons it was decided that the
+north-east angle of Soochow was the weakest, but before it could be
+attacked it was necessary to capture the strong stockades which the
+rebels had erected in front of the East and North Gates. The East
+Gate, or Low Mun, stockades were selected for the first attack, and as
+the scene of a reverse to Ching's force on 14th October, the Chinese
+commander was specially anxious to capture them. They were exceedingly
+formidable, consisting of a line of breastwork, defended at intervals
+with circular stockades, and the position was well chosen and strongly
+fortified. After reconnoitring it, and obtaining all the information
+he could from deserters, Gordon determined on a night attack; but
+unfortunately not only were his plans revealed to the Taepings by
+traitors in his own camp, but his arrangements miscarried. As is often
+the case with night attacks, the plan of attack was not adhered to,
+and much confusion followed. The breastwork was carried by a small
+part of his troops, but the stockades in its rear were never reached.
+Encouraged by Gordon's example, who seemed to be at every point at the
+same moment, his men held on to the breastwork, but the supports would
+not move up, and when he hastened to the rear to encourage them, the
+Taepings under Mow Wang attacked in their turn and manned the
+breastwork. There was nothing now to be done but to draw off the
+troops, which was executed with comparatively slight loss; but 165
+officers and men were killed or wounded--the majority being killed or
+missing. This loss would have been much greater if the Taepings had
+only had the courage to leave their position, but fortunately they
+showed themselves unable to follow up their success. This was Gordon's
+first defeat, but it was so obviously due to special causes that it
+did not much dishearten his men, or diminish the high reputation he
+and his force had gained by thirteen previous victories.
+
+But the necessity to retrieve such a reverse was obvious, and Gordon
+collected the whole of his corps for the purpose of capturing the Low
+Mun stockades. He also placed his siege guns in position, and began a
+heavy bombardment in the morning of 29th November as the preliminary
+to attack. On his side, Mow Wang made all his preparations for
+defence, which had been rendered the more necessary because there were
+dissensions among the Taeping leaders themselves, one of whom, named
+Lar Wang, had offered to surrender with his followers to General Ching
+on terms. Partly on this account Chung Wang rode into Soochow with a
+bodyguard of a few hundred men by the only bridle-path available, and
+his presence composed for the moment the quarrels of the Taeping
+leaders. But the result depended on the successful defence of the
+stockades in front of the East Gate, and Gordon was equally intent on
+capturing them. After a short bombardment the breastwork seemed so
+knocked about that Gordon ordered a column to advance to the assault,
+but it was met by a tremendous fire and compelled to turn back. Then
+the bombardment was renewed, and the field-pieces were pushed forward
+as far as possible. A second assault was then delivered, but the
+creek--fourteen yards across--was too wide for the bridge, and things
+again looked black, when the officers boldly jumped into the water,
+and their men following, the whole position was captured at a rush.
+Once this success was gained, the defence of the Taepings, who had
+fought well, collapsed, and stockade after stockade was carried with
+little or no loss. Gordon himself, with a mere handful of men,
+captured three more stockades and a stone fort that he said could have
+held out after all the other positions had fallen. The loss of the
+corps in this severe but decisive engagement was heavy, amounting to 6
+officers killed, and 3 wounded; 50 men killed, and 128 wounded,
+besides 5 Europeans of the Bodyguard. But this assault was decisive,
+inasmuch as it was the last that had to be made on the defences of
+Soochow before the fall of that place.
+
+At this point it will be appropriate to say something about Gordon's
+relations with his own officers, many of whom contemplated, whenever
+dissatisfied with their treatment or at prolonged inaction, selling
+their cause and services to the Taepings. During the siege he
+discovered that Captain Perry had written a letter giving the enemy
+information, but Gordon agreed to look over the offence on the
+condition that Perry led the next forlorn hope, which happened to be
+the affair at the Leeku stockades. Gordon had forgotten the condition,
+but Perry remembered it, and led the assault. He was shot in the
+mouth, and fell into the arms of his commander, ever at the point of
+danger. Perry was the first man killed, and Gordon's epitaph was that
+he was "a very good officer." Although Gordon was a strict and even
+severe disciplinarian, he was always solicitous of the interests of
+the officers who worked under him, and he set apart the greater
+portion of his pay in the Chinese service, which had been fixed at
+£1,200 a year, for their benefit, more especially for the purchase of
+medicine and comforts for the ill or wounded. There was no
+exaggeration at all in the statement that he left China without any
+savings and as poor as when he reached it.
+
+From the gallant deeds of Gordon and his corps the course of the siege
+passes to the intrigues and negotiations between General Ching and Lar
+Wang. These had made so much progress that Lar Wang's troops abandoned
+the formidable stockades in front of the North Gate, which were
+occupied without the least attempt at resistance. Several interviews
+took place with the Taeping leaders, and Gordon was present at some of
+these, but Li Hung Chang asserts that he was not present at the most
+important of them; and that he was not a signatory of the convention
+of surrender. He was strongly in favour of good terms being granted to
+the rebels, and impressed his views on both Li Hung Chang, who had
+come up to the camp to be present at the fall of Soochow, and General
+Ching. From both he received the most positive assurances that the
+lives of all the Wangs would be spared, and such was no doubt their
+intention, but events were too strong for them. The most interesting
+of these leaders, with, of course, the exception of Chung Wang, was
+Mow Wang, who would have nothing to say to a surrender, and wished to
+fight to the death. He was the man who had sent back Burgevine, and
+Gordon admired his courage so much that he resolved to spare no effort
+to save his life. He asked Li to assign Mow Wang to him, and this
+request was granted. Unfortunately all these efforts were thrown away,
+for on the 4th December, during a banquet given at Mow Wang's palace,
+the other Wangs had fallen upon and murdered that chief, who would
+have resisted with all his force their projected surrender of the
+place. The next day Lar Wang, who had taken an oath of brotherhood
+with General Ching, gave up one of the gates, and his numerous
+followers undertook to shave their heads in token of surrender. The
+Imperialist troops occupied the gate, and prepared to take possession
+of the city, but Gordon would not allow any of his men to leave the
+stockades as he foresaw the impossibility of preventing them from
+plundering if they were permitted to advance into the city. But he
+went and represented the case to Li Hung Chang, and demanded two
+months' pay for his men as a reward for their good service, and as
+some compensation for the loss of loot. Li replied that he could not
+grant the request, and Gordon at once resigned for the second time
+during his connection with the Chinese Government. There was serious
+risk of an outbreak on the part of the discontented soldiers of the
+Ever Victorious Army, but on General Ching providing one month's pay
+Gordon used his influence with his men to march quietly back to
+Quinsan. The men at first received this order with shouts of
+dissatisfaction, and even threatened to attack the Futai Li, but
+Gordon succeeded in overcoming their objections, and the worst that
+happened was a noisy demonstration as the troops passed Li Hung
+Chang's tent, where Gordon and another officer stood on guard.
+
+The Chinese officials were delighted to thus get rid of the Ever
+Victorious Army, without which they would never have seen the inside
+of Soochow. Its presence diminished their credit and interfered with
+the execution of the plans which they had no doubt held throughout all
+the negotiations with Lar Wang. Neither Li nor Ching wished Lar Wang
+and his colleagues to be saved, and thus allowed to become rivals to
+themselves in the race of official honour and wealth. There was
+nothing surprising in this, and the only matter for astonishment is
+that Lar Wang, well acquainted with the Punic faith of his countrymen,
+and with such a black record from the Government point of view, should
+have so easily placed faith in the word of his enemies. This was the
+more extraordinary because Gordon himself went into the city and saw
+Lar Wang at his own house before he left for Li Hung Chang's quarters,
+where a banquet had been arranged, and asked him very pressingly
+whether he was quite satisfied. Gordon himself seems to have had
+suspicions or apprehensions, for he even offered to take him on board
+his own steamer with which he was going to cruise in the Taiho Lake.
+Lar Wang, however, was quite confident, and said that all was well.
+This confidence was doubly unfortunate, for Gordon had excused himself
+from the Futai's banquet on the ground that his presence might seem
+humiliating to the Taeping leaders, whereas it was the only thing that
+could have averted their fate. As Gordon was leaving the city the
+Wangs passed him, laughing and talking, and riding apparently unarmed
+to the Futai's quarters. The next time Gordon saw them was when he
+beheld their headless bodies lying on the river bank near their host's
+camp.
+
+Gordon after this walked through the city, as some hours would elapse
+before the steamer could get round to the south-west side, where he
+intended to embark. While on his way he was joined by Dr Macartney.
+They both proceeded to the walls near the Eastern Gate, and on looking
+towards the Futai's quarters Gordon noticed a large crowd, but he did
+not attach any significance to it. About half an hour later a large
+number of Imperial soldiers entered the city, and set up a yell, as
+was their custom, and fired off guns. Gordon represented to their
+officers that this conduct was against the agreement, and might lead
+to disturbance, as the city was still crowded with Taepings. At this
+juncture General Ching appeared. As Gordon was supposed to be on his
+steamer on his way to the lake, he seemed taken aback, and turned
+pale. To Gordon's repeated inquiries as to whether all was well, he
+made a rambling statement that Lar Wang had made unreasonable demands,
+that he had refused to carry out the exact terms of the surrender, and
+finally, that he had run away. Gordon then asked Dr Macartney, as he
+knew Chinese, to go to Lar Wang's house, and reassure him if he found
+him there, but this statement must be taken in conjunction with the
+important narrative I give two pages further on. Gordon went a little
+way with General Ching, and then decided to wait at the North Gate for
+further intelligence, while the Chinese commander continued his round.
+Gordon then began to question his own interpreter as to what he
+thought, and on receiving the reply that "there was something
+improper," he determined to proceed himself with all speed to Lar
+Wang's house. On his way he passed through crowds of excited Taeping
+soldiers, and he also met a band of Imperialists laden with plunder.
+Lar Wang's palace had been pillaged and gutted, but an uncle of his,
+named Wangchi, was there, and he begged Gordon to help him to escort
+the females of Lar Wang's family to his own house. Gordon agreed to do
+this, but when he reached Wangchi's house, he found five or six
+hundred armed men in the courtyard. The doors were closed, and Wangchi
+refused to allow either Gordon or his interpreter to leave. During the
+night large bodies of excited Taepings, who knew that their chiefs had
+been entrapped, although, fortunately, not aware of their murder,
+rallied on this spot, and Gordon was thus placed in a position of the
+greatest personal peril.
+
+At length leave was given him to send his interpreter, escorted by two
+Taepings, to summon his own bodyguard, and to take an order to
+another part of his force to seize the Futai and hold him as a hostage
+for the safety of the Wangs. The interpreter was attacked on the way
+by Imperialists, who wounded him, and tore up Gordon's letters. When
+one of the Taeping guides brought back this news Gordon was allowed to
+leave himself for the same purpose; but he was arrested on the way by
+some Imperialists, detained for several hours, and the morning was far
+advanced before he was able to send back his bodyguard for the
+protection of Wangchi's house and family. He then moved a further
+force into the city, to prevent the massacre that the Imperialists
+seemed to be contemplating, and in this task he was gallantly seconded
+by Captain Bonnefoy and the Franco-Chinese contingent. Having taken
+these steps, Gordon waited near the Eastern Gate for all his steamers,
+with which he intended to seize the Futai, and make him give up the
+Wangs. At this moment General Ching approached him, but before he
+could begin his excuses, "he met with such a storm that he made a
+precipitate retreat into the city." Ching then sent an English
+officer, one of Gordon's own force, to explain matters, but he did not
+know whether the chiefs were alive or dead. He went on to say,
+however, that Lar Wang's son was in his tent, and on the boy being
+sent for, he said that his father had been executed on the opposite
+side of the creek. The steamers had still not arrived, and Gordon
+asked one of his lieutenants, Prince F. von Wittgenstein, to cross the
+creek in his boat and report what he saw. He returned with the
+intelligence that there were nine headless bodies. Gordon then crossed
+himself, and identified Lar Wang and several of his companions. There
+was consequently no further doubt as to what had happened, or anything
+left for Gordon to do than to secure them decent burial. Having done
+this he abandoned his trip to the Taiho Lake, and hastened to Quinsan.
+
+The exact mode of this assassination seems to have been as follows:
+When the Wangs came out of the city they were met by General Ching,
+who did not, however, accompany them to the Futai Li Hung Chang. That
+official received them in a stockade near his boat, some conversation
+ensued, and then Li left the stockade. Here again reference should be
+made to the authoritative narrative that follows. A party of Imperial
+troops closed the gates, seized the Wangs, and at once beheaded them.
+Li Hung Chang very soon afterwards left his quarters for a different
+and remote part of the Imperial camp.
+
+This treacherous act, although quite in accordance with Chinese
+traditions, was generally denounced at the time, and has excited much
+discussion since. Major Gordon certainly felt it very keenly, for he
+considered that his word had been pledged as much as the Chinese
+commander's for the safety of the leaders who surrendered. It has been
+shown how energetically he acted once he suspected that anything was
+wrong, but it seems as if it were going too far to say that he thought
+for a moment of exacting a summary revenge on the person of Li Hung
+Chang. Sir Henry Gordon, writing with at least a sense of
+responsibility, says on this point: "It is not the fact that Major
+Gordon sought the Futai with the intention of shooting him. It is a
+complete misrepresentation to say he did so. It is true he endeavoured
+unsuccessfully to have an explanation with him, but not of the nature
+asserted." But it must also be reaffirmed that as long as Gordon
+thought he could save the Wangs' lives he was prepared to secure the
+person of Li Hung Chang and hold him as a hostage for their safety. Of
+that, at least, there can be no question.
+
+I must now ask the reader to return to the point when Gordon and Dr
+Macartney were standing on the wall near the Low Mun Gate, in order
+that the following important and authoritative narrative may be
+understood. General Ching entered by this gate at the head of a party
+of his troops, and Gordon, somewhat uneasy at the signs of commotion
+he thought he had detected across the creek, at once addressed him,
+asking--"Well, how did it go off? Have the Wangs seen the Futai?"
+
+Taken off his guard, or confused between the sudden question and his
+own knowledge of what had occurred, Ching quickly replied, "They have
+not seen the Futai."
+
+"What!" replied Gordon, equally hastily; "that must be nonsense. I saw
+the Wangs myself ride out of the city to the rendezvous, and spoke to
+them."
+
+Ching then corrected himself by saying, "Oh, yes, that is all right,
+but they have not shaved their heads, and they want to retain half the
+city," the western half, that nearest to the relieving force, still at
+a considerable distance from Soochow, under the heroic Chung Wang.
+
+To which Gordon at once responded, "That won't do. They must conform
+with what has been agreed upon," and turning to Macartney, he said,
+"Will you go to the Lar Wang's palace and tell him that this cannot
+be, and meet me afterwards at Wuliungchow, where I am to join the
+steamer _Hyson_ to go on the Taiho Lake?"
+
+Macartney at once accepted the mission, and proceeded to the Lar
+Wang's palace, but before following him thither it is necessary to
+refer to two earlier passages, one known and the other up to this
+moment unknown, in the relations of General Gordon and Sir Halliday
+Macartney.
+
+The passage which is known is that where Macartney, sent as the
+representative of the Futai Li Hung Chang, and escorted by that
+Governor's own bodyguard, healed the breach caused between Gordon and
+General Ching by the latter firing on some of Gordon's troops and
+treating the matter with marked levity, which so enraged Gordon that
+he was on the point of attacking the Imperialist troops when Sir
+Halliday Macartney arrived as peacemaker, and with equal tact and
+energy averted the catastrophe. This incident has already been
+referred to, and need not further detain us. I come now to the second
+and more interesting matter.
+
+Some weeks before the fall of Soochow, but at a moment when it had
+become clear that the place could not hold out much longer, Gordon
+approached Macartney and said: "I want to speak to you very privately,
+and as I do not wish any one to hear our conversation, will you come
+on board my boat?" When they were both on board, Gordon ordered his
+Chinese sailors to pull out to the centre of the lake before he would
+say a word. Having thus rendered secrecy assured, Gordon spoke as
+follows:--
+
+     "Macartney, I have brought you out here so that nobody should
+     know of our conversation, and that we might speak out as man to
+     man. I must tell you, in the first place, that as soon as Soochow
+     falls I intend to resign the command and return home. With that
+     intention in my mind, I have been anxiously considering who was
+     the best man to name as my successor in the command of the Ever
+     Victorious Army, and, after the most careful consideration, I
+     have come to the conclusion that you are the best man. Will you
+     take the command?"
+
+This unexpected question was the more embarrassing to Macartney,
+because, long before Gordon was appointed, rumour had freely credited
+him with coveting the command of the Ever Victorious Army in
+succession to Burgevine, and, as a matter of fact, the Chinese
+authorities had wished him to have the command. However, nothing had
+come of the project, and Macartney, after his post as Burgevine's
+military secretary had ceased to exist with the dismissal and treason
+of that adventurer, was appointed to a separate command of a portion
+of the Imperialist forces. The course of events had now, in an
+unexpected but highly complimentary manner, brought the realisation of
+any hopes he may have entertained on the subject within his reach. He
+replied to Gordon as follows:--
+
+     "As you speak so frankly to me, I will speak equally frankly to
+     you, and tell you something I have never told a living person.
+     Rumour has credited me with having aspired to the command of this
+     force, but erroneously so. My ambition was to work myself up at
+     Court, and only to take the command if forced on me as a
+     provisional matter, and as a stepping-stone to my real object,
+     which was, when my knowledge of the language was perfected, to
+     acquire at Peking some such influence as that possessed by
+     Verbiest and the other French missionaries in the seventeenth and
+     eighteenth centuries. I should never have mentioned this to you
+     lest you should not have believed it, but now that the command is
+     at my feet I may make this avowal without any hesitation as to
+     your accepting it. As you really think I can best succeed to the
+     command of the force when you resign it, I am perfectly willing
+     to accept the task."
+
+To which Gordon replied: "Very well, then. That is settled." With this
+private understanding, as to which nothing has been published until
+this moment, the conversation closed with a final injunction from
+Gordon of profound secrecy, as, should it become known, he might be
+unable to get certain of his more ambitious officers to take part in
+capturing the city. When Gordon therefore turned to Macartney, and
+asked him to proceed to the Lar Wang's palace and inform him that the
+terms of the convention must be carried out, it is necessary in order
+to throw light on what follows to state what their relations were at
+that moment. Gordon had selected Macartney as his successor in
+preference to all his own officers.
+
+Macartney hastened to the Lar Wang's palace, but as he had lent Gordon
+his horse, his movements were slightly retarded. On reaching the
+building he noticed some signs of confusion, and when he asked one of
+the attendants to take him at once to his master, he received the
+reply that the Lar Wang was out. Sir Halliday Macartney is not a man
+to be lightly turned from his purpose, and to this vague response he
+spoke in peremptory terms:
+
+"The matter is of the first importance. I _must_ see the Lar Wang.
+Take me to him."
+
+Then the servant of the Taeping leader did a strange thing.
+
+"You _cannot_ see my master," he said, and turning his face to the
+wall, so that no one else might see, he drew his open hand in a
+cutting position backwards and forwards. This is the recognised
+Chinese mode of showing that a man's head has been cut off.
+
+Being thus apprised that something tragic had happened, Macartney
+hastened away to Wuliungchow to keep his appointment with Gordon, and
+to acquaint him with what had taken place at the Lar Wang's palace.
+But no Gordon came, and more than a day elapsed before Macartney and
+he met again under dramatic circumstances at Quinsan. After waiting at
+Wuliungchow some hours, Sir Halliday resolved to proceed to the
+Futai's camp, and learn there what had happened. But on arriving he
+was informed that the Futai was not in the camp, that no one knew
+where he was, and that Gordon was in a state of furious wrath at the
+massacre of the Wangs, which was no longer concealed. Macartney then
+endeavoured to find Gordon, but did not succeed, which is explained by
+the fact that Gordon was then hastening to Quinsan to collect his own
+troops. Baffled in these attempts, Macartney returned, after a great
+many hours, to his own camp near the Paotichiaou Bridge, there to
+await events, and on his arrival there he at last found the Futai Li
+who had come to him for security. Li put into his hands a letter,
+saying, "I have received that letter from Gordon. Translate its
+contents."
+
+After perusing it, Macartney said: "This letter is written in a fit of
+indignation. You and Gordon are and have been friends, and I am also
+the friend of you both. The most friendly act I can do both of you is
+to decline to translate it. Let me therefore return you the letter
+unread."
+
+"Very well," replied Li; "do as you think best, but as I am not to
+know the contents, I do not wish to have the letter. Please keep it."
+
+Sir Halliday Macartney kept the letter, which remained in his
+possession for some time, until, in fact, he handed it, with an
+explanatory account of the whole affair, to Sir Harry Parkes, as will
+be explained further on.
+
+After this point had been settled, Li Hung Chang went on to say that
+he wished Macartney to go and see Gordon at Quinsan, and speak to him
+as follows:--
+
+     "Tell Gordon that he is in no way, direct or indirect,
+     responsible in this matter, and that, if he considers his honour
+     involved, I will sign any proclamation he likes to draft, and
+     publish it far and wide that he had no part in or knowledge of
+     it. I accept myself the full and sole responsibility for what has
+     been done. But also tell Gordon that this is China, not Europe. I
+     wished to save the lives of the Wangs, and at first thought that
+     I could do so, but they came with their heads unshaved, they used
+     defiant language, and proposed a deviation from the convention,
+     and I saw that it would not be safe to show mercy to these
+     rebels. Therefore what was done was inevitable. But Gordon had no
+     part in it, and whatever he demands to clear himself shall be
+     done."
+
+I do not gather that Sir Halliday Macartney had any serious misgivings
+about this mission when he undertook it. His relations with Gordon
+were, as has been shown, of a specially cordial and confidential
+character, and even if he failed to induce Gordon to abandon the
+threatening plans he had described in his letter to Li Hung Chang,
+which was in his pocket, there was no reason to apprehend any
+personal unpleasantness with one who had given the clearest proof of
+friendship and esteem. As I cannot give the full text of the original
+letter from General Gordon, I content myself by stating that its two
+principal passages were that Li Hung Chang should at once resign his
+post of Governor of Kiangsu, and give up the seals of office to
+Gordon, so that he might put them in commission until the Emperor's
+pleasure should be ascertained; or that, failing that step, Gordon
+would forthwith proceed to attack the Imperialists, and to retake from
+them all the places captured by the Ever Victorious Army, for the
+purpose of handing them back again to the Taepings. When Gordon went
+so far as to write a letter of that character, which, it must be
+admitted, was far in excess of any authority he possessed, it must be
+clear that the envoy, who came to put forward counsels that were
+intended to restore harmony, but that by so doing might assume the
+aspect of palliating the Futai's conduct, could not count on a very
+cordial reception from a man of Gordon's temperament, whose sense of
+honour and good faith had been deeply injured by the murder of the
+rebel leaders.
+
+Still, Sir Halliday accepted the mission without hesitation, and
+hastened to carry it out without delay. It was late in the day when he
+saw Li Hung Chang, but having procured a native boat with several
+rowers, he set off in the evening, and reached Quinsan in the middle
+of the night. Gordon was then in bed and could not be disturbed, and
+while Macartney waited he drank some coffee Gordon's servant made for
+him, which he much needed, as he had left Soochow without having
+broken his fast during the whole day. After a short time, and before
+day had really broken, Gordon sent down word that he would see him,
+and Macartney went upstairs to an ill-lighted room, where he found
+Gordon sitting on his bedstead. He found Gordon sobbing, and before a
+word was exchanged, Gordon stooped down, and taking something from
+under the bedstead, held it up in the air, exclaiming:
+
+"Do you see that? Do you see that?"
+
+The light through the small Chinese windows was so faint that
+Macartney had at first some difficulty in recognising what it was,
+when Gordon again exclaimed:
+
+"It is the head of the Lar Wang, foully murdered!" and with that burst
+into hysterical tears.
+
+At once perceiving that any conversation under these circumstances
+would do no good, Macartney said he would retire and see Gordon later.
+Some hours afterwards breakfast was served in a large room downstairs,
+where there were present not only many of the officers, but also
+several European merchants and traders of Shanghai, who had been in
+the habit of supplying the force with its commissariat requirements.
+Gordon came in, and Macartney took a seat beside him. After a few
+minutes' silence Gordon turned to Macartney, and said abruptly:
+
+"You have not come for yourself. You have come on a mission from the
+Futai. What is it?"
+
+When Macartney suggested that so public a place might not be the most
+suitable, Gordon said: "There are only friends here. I have no
+secrets. Speak out."
+
+There was no longer any honourable way of avoiding the challenge, and
+Macartney described exactly what has been already recorded as to Li
+Hung Chang having come to him with Gordon's letter, which from
+friendly motives he had declined to translate, and stating that Li
+took the whole responsibility on himself, and would exonerate Gordon
+from the least complicity in the affair, with which the Chinese
+statesman averred Gordon had had nothing to do. He went on to urge
+with regard to the measures threatened by Gordon in expiation of the
+massacre that they were not justifiable, and would not in the end
+redound to Gordon's own credit. In conclusion, he said he felt sure
+that "a little reflection would show Gordon that to carry on a
+personal war with the Futai would be to undo all the good that had
+been done. Moreover, you must recollect that although you, no doubt,
+have at this moment the military force to carry out your threats, it
+will no longer be paid by the Chinese authorities. You will only be
+able to keep your men at your back by allowing them to plunder, and
+how long will that prove successful, and what credit will you get by
+it?"
+
+Gordon here stamped his foot, saying he would have none of Macartney's
+mild counsels. To which Macartney replied, "Mild or not, they are the
+only ones your Minister at Peking and our Queen will approve. Nay,
+what I advise you to do is even that you would yourself do if you
+would but reflect, and not let yourself be influenced by those men
+sitting at your table."
+
+To these undoubtedly prudent representations, supported as they were
+by at least one of those present, Mr Henry Dent, who got up and said
+that, in his opinion, Dr Macartney's advice ought to be followed,
+while the others who wished the war to go on from interested motives
+remained silent, Gordon did and would not listen. The hot fit of rage
+and horror at the treacherous murder of the Wangs, kept at fever-point
+by the terrible memorial in his possession, was still strong upon him,
+and his angry retort was--"I will have none of your tame counsels,"
+and there and then ordered the _Hyson_, with a party of infantry, to
+be got ready to attack the Futai, at the same time offering Macartney
+a passage in the steamer.
+
+On hearing this decisive declaration Macartney left the table, and
+hastening to one of Gordon's officers, who was a personal friend, he
+begged the loan of a horse and a pair of spurs. Having obtained what
+he wanted, he set off riding as hard as he could by the road, which
+was somewhat shorter than the canal, so that he might warn Li Hung
+Chang as to what was going to happen, and also bring up his own troops
+to oppose the advance of Gordon, who actually did move out of Quinsan
+with the intention of carrying out his threats, but returned there
+when his flotilla had proceeded half way.
+
+By that time he had fortunately reflected on the situation, and a
+sanguinary struggle was averted. Gordon came to see that his honour
+was not in the slightest or most remote degree involved, and that
+China was not a country to which the laws of chivalry could be
+applied; but before he had reached this stage of mental equilibrium he
+had penned a most regrettable and cruelly unjust despatch, not about
+Li Hung Chang or any one involved in the massacre, but about Dr, now
+Sir Halliday Macartney, whose sole fault had been that he wished to
+make peace, and to advise Gordon to act in the very sense which he
+afterwards himself adopted.
+
+In a despatch to General Brown, commanding at Shanghai, which appears
+in the Blue Book (China, No. 3, 1864, p. 198), Gordon wrote: "I then
+went to his (Li's) boat and left him a note in English, informing him
+of what my intention had been, and also my opinion of his treachery. I
+regret to say that Mr Macartney did not think fit to have this
+translated to him.... On 8th December the Futai sent Mr Macartney to
+persuade me that he could not have done otherwise, and I blush to
+think that he could have got an Englishman, late an officer in Her
+Majesty's army, to undertake a mission of such a nature." This
+statement, appearing in an official publication, has been largely
+quoted, especially in Mr Egmont Hake's "Story of Chinese Gordon," and
+the original injury done by Gordon, for which at the time he atoned,
+was thus repeated in an offensive and altogether unjustifiable form
+twenty years after Gordon had stated publicly that he was sorry for
+having written this passage, and believed that Sir Halliday Macartney
+was actuated by just as noble sentiments as himself.
+
+It is not an agreeable task for any biographer to record that his hero
+was in the wrong, but as General Gordon frankly and fully admitted
+that in this matter he was altogether to blame, and as Mr Hake's error
+shows that his retractation never obtained that publicity which he
+himself desired, I conceive myself to be carrying out his wishes in
+placing the following facts prominently before the reader.
+
+When the Blue Book was published with the despatch referred to, Dr
+Macartney took no notice of it. Some time afterwards he met the late
+Sir Harry Parkes, then Consul-General at Shanghai, and he described
+what I have set forth in the same language. Sir Harry Parkes, than
+whom England never had a finer representative in the Far East, at once
+said: "This is very interesting. Sir Frederick Bruce is coming down
+shortly. I wish you would write out what you have told me, so that I
+might show it to him." Dr Macartney wrote out his narrative, and with
+it he sent Gordon's original letter to Li Hung Chang. Those documents
+have never been published, but they should still exist in the Shanghai
+Consulate. Sir Frederick Bruce's (brother of the ambassador Lord
+Elgin, and himself the First British Minister at Peking) comment after
+perusing them was: "Dr Macartney showed very great judgment and good
+sense, and no blame attaches to him in this matter."
+
+A considerable period intervened between the breakfast scene at
+Quinsan and Gordon's next meeting with Macartney. In that period much
+had happened. Gordon had forgiven Li Hung Chang, done everything that
+Macartney had recommended as the right course in the memorable scene
+at Quinsan, and by some of the most remarkable of his military
+exploits had crushed the Taeping rebellion, but the two principal
+actors in this affair had not crossed each other's path.
+
+Six weeks after Gordon brought his operations in the field to an end
+at Chanchufu in May he returned to Soochow, and Li Hung Chang, wishing
+to do him honour, asked him to an official breakfast at his yamen. At
+the same time Li Hung Chang said to Macartney: "I have asked Gordon to
+breakfast. I know you and he have had some difference. How would you
+meet him if you came too?"
+
+To this question Macartney replied: "I would meet Gordon exactly as
+Gordon met me. It is true that Gordon did me an injustice, but I am
+quite ready to blot it out from my memory if Gordon will admit it.
+Gordon acted under a strong feeling of excitement when he was not
+master of himself, and I have no more thought of holding him strictly
+responsible for what he wrote at such a moment than I would a madman."
+
+Li Hung Chang said: "Very well, then. I ask you to come to breakfast
+to meet him." On Macartney's return to his house he found a letter
+from Gordon waiting for him. In this letter Gordon admitted that he
+had done him a wrong, and was prepared to sign any paper to that
+effect that Macartney might prepare.
+
+Macartney thereupon replied to Gordon, pointing out that the mere
+publication of a letter of retractation was not an adequate reparation
+for an injurious statement which had been given a wide circulation,
+and to a certain extent placed beyond recall by appearing in an
+official publication, but that if he might publish Gordon's own
+letter offering to do this in the _North China Herald_, he would be
+satisfied, and the matter, as far as he was concerned, might be
+considered at an end. To this course Gordon at once acquiesced,
+subject to the omission of one paragraph affecting a third person, and
+in no respect relating to Sir Halliday or his conduct. This letter,
+which the Editor of that paper stated he "published at Colonel
+Gordon's request," on 23rd July 1864, read as follows:--
+
+
+                                   "SHANGHAI, _July 5, 1864_.
+
+     "MY DEAR MACARTNEY,--It is with much regret that I perceive in
+     the last Blue Book issued on China affairs a Report from me to
+     General Brown on the occurrences at Soochow, which report
+     contains an injurious remark on your conduct.
+
+     "I am extremely sorry that I ever penned that remark, as I
+     believe you went out of your way on this occasion wholly on the
+     same public grounds which led eventually to my taking the field
+     myself, and I can only excuse my having done so by recollecting
+     the angry feelings with which I was actuated at that time.
+
+     "It will be my duty to rectify this error in other quarters, and
+     in the meantime I beg you to make what use you may think fit of
+     this letter.--Yours truly,
+
+                                   "C. G. GORDON."
+
+
+
+On the next day Gordon and Macartney met at breakfast at the yamen of
+the Futai Li Hung Chang, and Gordon at once came up to Macartney and
+said:
+
+     "Do not let us talk of the past, but of the future. I am one of
+     those who hold that when a man has wronged another he should seek
+     opportunities through his life of making him redress. Now you are
+     founding an Arsenal at Soochow, and I am going back to England,
+     where I have a brother in the Arsenal at Woolwich. From him I can
+     get you books, plans, and useful information. I will do so."
+
+Gordon was as good as his word. He sent Macartney expensive plans and
+books, besides most valuable information. He also promised to write to
+the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief, admitting that he was not
+justified in his criticism of Dr Macartney, who had acted in every way
+becoming an English gentleman and officer. Thus ended the
+misunderstanding between the two Englishmen who rendered China the
+best service she has ever obtained from foreigners; and knowing both
+these distinguished men intimately, I have much pleasure in testifying
+from my own knowledge to the accuracy of the following statement of
+Sir Halliday Macartney to myself that "after this, Gordon and I
+remained firm friends evermore."
+
+Gordon's indignation at this outrage did not soon subside, and three
+weeks after it happened an opportunity presented itself for showing
+and perhaps relieving his mind. A high Chinese officer presented
+himself at his quarters at Quinsan to announce the receipt of an
+Imperial decree and presents from Peking as a reward for his share in
+the capture of Soochow. Gordon at once said that he would not accept
+the presents, and that they were not to be brought to him. The Chinese
+officer replied that they should not be brought, but that the emissary
+of the Emperor ought to be received. To this Gordon assented, and on
+1st January 1864 he went down to receive him at the West Gate. On
+arriving there he met a procession carrying a number of open boxes,
+containing 10,000 taels (then about £3000 of our money) in Sycee
+shoes, laid on red cloth, also four Snake flags taken from the
+Taepings--two sent by Li Hung Chang, and two by another mandarin who
+had had no part in the Soochow affair. Gordon made the procession turn
+about and take the whole lot back again. He wrote his reply stating
+his reason on the back of the Imperial rescript itself; he rejected Li
+Hung Chang's flags, but he accepted the other two as being in no sense
+associated with the disgrace of the Taeping massacre. In this manner
+did Gordon show the Chinese what he thought of their conduct. His
+characteristic reply to the Imperial rescript read as follows:--
+
+     "Major Gordon receives the approbation of His Majesty the Emperor
+     with every gratification, but regrets most sincerely that, owing
+     to the circumstance which occurred since the capture of Soochow,
+     he is unable to receive any mark of H.M. the Emperor's
+     recognition, and therefore respectfully begs His Majesty to
+     receive his thanks for his intended kindness, and to allow him to
+     decline the same."
+
+At this moment it will be recollected that Gordon was, strictly
+speaking, no longer in command. He had resigned, because his very
+reasonable demand for a gratuity to his troops had not been complied
+with. But circumstances were too strong for him, and a number of
+considerations, all highly creditable to his judgment and
+single-mindedness, induced him to sink his private grievances, and to
+resume the command on grounds of public policy and safety. The
+internal condition of the Ever Victorious Army itself, which inaction
+had brought to the verge of mutiny, was the determining fact that
+induced Gordon to resume the command, even at the price of meeting Li
+Hung Chang and sinking his differences with him. There had been much
+intrigue among the officers of the force as to who should succeed
+Gordon in the command, if he persisted in his resolve to give it up,
+and before tranquillity was restored sixteen of the agitating officers
+had to be dismissed. The force itself welcomed the formal resumption
+of the command by Gordon, and not the less because it signified a
+return to active operations after more than two months' inaction. The
+murder of the Wangs took place on 7th December 1863; it was on 18th
+February 1864 that Gordon marched out of Quinsan at the head of the
+bulk of his force.
+
+In a letter written at the time, Sir Robert Hart, whose services to
+the Chinese Government, spread over the long period of forty years,
+have been of the highest order and importance, said:--
+
+     "The destiny of China is at the present moment in the hands of
+     Gordon more than of any other man, and if he be encouraged to act
+     vigorously, the knotty question of Taepingdom _versus_ 'union in
+     the cause of law and order' will be solved before the end of May,
+     and quiet will at length be restored to this unfortunate and
+     sorely-tried country. Personally, Gordon's wish is to leave the
+     force as soon as he can. Now that Soochow has fallen, there is
+     nothing more that he can do, whether to add to his own reputation
+     or to retrieve that of British officers generally, tarnished by
+     Holland's defeat at Taitsan. He has little or nothing personally
+     to gain from future successes, and as he has himself to lead in
+     all critical moments, and is constantly exposed to danger, he has
+     before him the not very improbable contingency of being hit
+     sooner or later. But he lays aside his personal feelings, and
+     seeing well that if he were now to leave the force it would in
+     all probability go at once to the rebels or cause some other
+     disaster, he consents to remain with it for a time."
+
+During that interval some minor successes had been obtained by the
+Imperialists. Several towns surrendered to Li Hung Chang, and Chung
+Wang evacuated Wusieh and retired to Chanchufu, also on the Grand
+Canal. At the same time he hastened himself to Nanking, in the vain
+hope of arousing Tien Wang to the gravity of the situation, and
+inducing him to make some special effort to turn the fortune of the
+war. General Ching succeeded in capturing Pingwang, and with it
+another entrance into the Taiho Lake. San Tajin moved his camp close
+up to Changchufu and engaged the Taepings in almost daily encounters,
+during one of which the _Firefly_ steamer was retaken, and its English
+captain killed. In consequence of this all the Europeans left the
+service of the Taepings, and as their fleet had been almost entirely
+destroyed, they were now hemmed in within a small compass, and Gordon
+himself estimated that they ought to be finally overcome within two
+months. In this hope he resumed the command, and his decision was
+officially approved of and confirmed by the British Minister at
+Peking.
+
+The Taepings still retained possession of Hangchow and some other
+towns in the province of Chekiang, but all communication between them
+and Nanking had been severed by the fall of Soochow, so far at least
+as the routes east of the Taiho Lake were concerned. West of that lake
+they still held Yesing and Liyang, which enabled them to maintain
+communication, although by a roundabout route. Gordon determined to
+begin his campaign by attacking these two places, when the severance
+would be complete.
+
+Yesing, on the north-west corner of the lake, was the first object of
+attack. Liyang is about fifty miles further inland than that town. The
+Taepings at Yesing were not dreaming of an attack when Gordon, at the
+head of his force, suddenly appeared before its walls. He found the
+surrounding villages in a most appalling state of distress, the
+inhabitants living on human food. The town was well surrounded by
+ditches and stockades, and Gordon felt compelled to reconnoitre it
+most carefully before deciding on his plan of attack. While engaged in
+this work his ardour carried him away, and he was nearly captured by
+the enemy. It was one of the narrowest of his many escapes during the
+war, and went far to justify the reputation he had gained of having a
+charmed life. A very striking instance of his narrowly escaping a
+premature end had occurred during the siege of Soochow itself, when
+the marvellous fifty-three-arch bridge at Patachiaou was destroyed.
+One evening Gordon was seated smoking a cigar on one of the damaged
+parapets of the bridge, when two shots fired by his own men struck the
+stone-work close by him. He got down at the second shot, and entered
+his boat. Hardly had he done so when the bridge collapsed with a
+tremendous crash, nearly smashing his boat and killing two men. In all
+the engagements, except when confined to his boat, Gordon always led
+the attack, carrying no weapons, except a revolver which he wore
+concealed in his breast, and never used except once, against one of
+his own mutineers, but only a little rattan cane, which his men called
+his magic wand of Victory. A graphic picture was drawn by one of his
+own officers of this unarmed leader in the breach of an assaulted
+position urging on his men by catching them by the sleeve of their
+coats, and by standing indifferent and unresisting in the midst of the
+thickest fire. Gordon long afterwards admitted that during the whole
+of these scenes he was continuously praying to the Almighty that his
+men should not turn tail. In the varied and voluminous annals of war
+there is no more striking figure than this of human heroism combined
+with spiritual fervour.
+
+The attack on Yesing lasted several days, as, owing to the manner in
+which the country was cut up by canals, all the operations had to be
+conducted with great caution. The capture of the southern stockades
+was followed after a day's interval by the evacuation of the latter
+and the flight of the garrison, who however pillaged the town as far
+as they could before leaving. Gordon would not let his men enter the
+town, as he knew they would pillage, and thus get out of hand. They
+were so disappointed that several cases of insubordination occurred,
+and one mutineer had to be shot. The Imperialists were left to
+garrison Yesing, but under strict injunctions that they were on no
+account to take life; and under the threats of Li Hung Chang, who did
+not wish a repetition of the Soochow affair, these were strictly
+obeyed. All these arrangements having been made, Gordon resumed his
+march towards Liyang on 4th March, the infantry proceeding overland,
+and the artillery in the boats and _Hyson_ steamer.
+
+At Liyang the rebels had collected a large force, and made every
+preparation for a vigorous defence. But Gordon was quite confident of
+success, although he was now operating in the heart of a hostile
+country, and at a distance from his base. The sound flotilla which
+mounted formidable artillery, and which co-operated with him on the
+creek that led to the walls of Liyang, gave him sound reasons for
+confidence, and additional ground of security in the event of any
+accident. But his military skill and careful arrangements were not
+subjected to any severe test, as a mutiny broke out among the Taepings
+themselves, and the half in favour of surrender got possession of the
+city, and closed the gates on those of their comrades who wished to
+hold out. Major Gordon promptly accepted their surrender, and
+guaranteed their personal safety to all, thus obtaining a signal
+success without any loss. This was the more satisfactory because
+Liyang was found to be an admirable position for defence, strongly
+fortified with numerous stockades, well supplied with provisions for
+several months' siege, and garrisoned by 15,000 well-armed and
+well-clothed rebels. These men were disarmed, and allowed to go where
+they liked after they had shaved their heads in token of surrender.
+The provisions they had stored up for their own use were distributed
+among the starving peasants of the surrounding country. Gordon himself
+saved the lives of the female relatives of the Taeping Wang, who had
+wished to hold out, not however, it should in fairness be stated, from
+the official Chinese, but from the Taepings who had surrendered. After
+the capitulation was over, Gordon took 1000 of the Taepings into his
+own force, and he also engaged the services of another 1500 as a new
+contingent, to fight under their own officers. In this unusual manner
+he nearly doubled the effective strength of his own corps, and then
+advanced north to attack the town of Kintang, rather more than forty
+miles north of Liyang. At this point Gordon experienced his first
+serious rebuff at the hands of Fortune, for the earlier reverse at the
+Soochow stockades was so clearly due to a miscarriage in the attack,
+and so ephemeral in its issue, that it can scarcely be counted.
+
+Unlike the other Taeping towns, all of which were stockaded
+positions, Kintang had no outer defences. It presented the appearance
+of a small compact city with a stone wall. No flags were shown; the
+place might have been deserted, but the complete silence seemed
+ominous. Gordon selected his point of attack, and began a bombardment,
+which continued during three hours, and then he ordered the assault.
+As the bugles sounded the advance, the Taepings appeared for the first
+time on the walls, and received the assailants with a heavy fire. At
+this critical moment Gordon received a severe wound below the knee,
+and had to be carried to his boat. His place was taken by Major Brown,
+brother of the General commanding at Shanghai, who advanced waving
+Gordon's own flag, but he too received a severe wound, and was carried
+off the field. The rebels fought with great desperation, and Gordon,
+who remained conscious, sent orders from his boat for the
+discontinuance of the attack. The loss was heavy--two officers killed,
+eleven wounded, and 115 rank and file killed and wounded. Gordon,
+notwithstanding his wound, would have renewed the attack, but for the
+receipt of alarming intelligence from his rear. Li Hung Chang wrote
+that the Taepings had turned the flank of his brother's army, and
+captured Fushan. They were at that moment besieging Chanzu, and had
+carried terror into the very heart of the Imperial position. Gordon's
+wound--the only one of any severity he ever received--excited much
+sympathy among the Chinese, and was made the subject of an Imperial
+edict ordering Li Hung Chang to call on him daily, and "requesting
+Gordon to wait until he shall be perfectly restored to health and
+strength."
+
+In the extremity to which he was reduced, the brilliant idea had
+occurred to Chung Wang to assume the offensive at a point most remote
+from the scene where Gordon was acting in person. Hence the sudden and
+successful attack on Fushan, and his strategy was rewarded by the
+paralysis it produced in the Imperial plans. Gordon at once hastened
+back to Liyang, where he left a strong garrison, and taking only 1000
+men, half of whom were the irregular Taeping contingent raised at
+Liyang itself, proceeded by forced marches to Wusieh. As the late Sir
+George Chesney well said, it is impossible to decide whether the
+temerity or the confidence of the young wounded commander was the more
+calculated to excite wonder. On arriving here, he found that nothing
+worse had happened than what had been already reported, while in the
+south, beyond his sphere of operations, the important city of Hangchow
+had been evacuated by the Taepings; and with this loss another avenue
+for obtaining arms and ammunition was closed to them.
+
+The relief of Kongyin, which was hard pressed, was the first task
+Gordon set himself; and as he could not leave his boat on account of
+his wound, the conduct of operations was attended with much
+difficulty. After obtaining several minor successes, and approaching
+to within a few miles of Kongyin, Gordon found it necessary to
+completely alter his plans, and to attack the Taepings in their
+headquarters at Waisso, before relieving the former place. He
+accordingly proceeded to Waisso with his artillery on board the
+flotilla, and his infantry marching by land. The latter, carried away
+by some trifling successes, attacked the Waisso stockades without his
+orders, and even without his knowledge; and having invited a reverse
+by their rashness and disobedience, rendered it complete by an
+inexcusable panic, during which the Taeping cavalry, not more than 100
+strong, rode through the best regiment of the force; the rebels,
+carrying a sword in each hand, cut down the fugitives right and left.
+The pursuit lasted for three miles, and 7 European officers killed, 1
+wounded, 252 men killed, and 62 wounded, represented the heavy loss in
+this disastrous affair. The survivors, many of whom had thrown away
+their arms, were so panic-stricken that Gordon had to retire, and to
+summon up fresh troops.
+
+For this disaster Gordon held the officers, and not the men, to be
+blameworthy. They led the men into a false position, and then did not
+make the proper movements. If the men had only formed square, Gordon
+wrote, it would have been all right with them. After this Gordon
+waited to allow of his wound being thoroughly cured, and on 6th April
+he again appeared before Waisso. A large Imperial force also enveloped
+the place on all sides but one, which had been left apparently open
+and unguarded in the hope that the garrison would use it as a means of
+reaching a place of safety. The Imperialists had, however, broken all
+the bridges along this route, so that the Taepings would soon
+encounter serious difficulties to their progress, and admit of their
+being taken at a great disadvantage. Gordon approached the place with
+much caution, and he found it so strongly fortified on the south side,
+opposite his line of approach, that he moved round to the north in
+search of a more favourable point of attack. This simple manoeuvre so
+disconcerted the Taepings that they abandoned several of their
+stockades, which Gordon promptly seized; and finding that these in
+turn commanded others, he succeeded in carrying the whole of a most
+formidable position with little or no loss. The Taeping garrison fled
+in confusion and suffered heavily at the hands of the Imperial troops.
+It rallied on the camp before Kongyin, and the day after this success
+Gordon marched from Waisso to attack them. The Taepings were
+thoroughly disorganised, and apparently amazed at the number of their
+opponents, for the whole of the population rose against them in
+revenge for the outrages they had perpetrated. There was only one
+action, and that of an insignificant description, when the whole
+Taeping force before Kongyin broke into a rout. The Imperialist plan
+for retarding their retreat succeeded to admiration, and of more than
+10,000 men not a tenth escaped from the sword of their pursuers.
+
+In a letter written at this time to his mother, Gordon, who, at the
+end of February had been raised to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in
+the army for distinguished conduct in the field, gave a graphic
+account of the condition of the region in which he was operating:--
+
+     "The rebels are very much pressed, and three months should finish
+     them. During the pursuit from Kongyin the Imperialists and
+     villagers killed in one village 3000. I will say this much--the
+     Imperialists did not kill the coolies and boys. The villagers
+     followed up and stripped the fugitives stark naked, so that all
+     over the country there were naked men lying down in the grass.
+     The cruelties these rebels had committed during their raid were
+     frightful; in every village there were from ten to sixty dead,
+     either women--frightfully mutilated--old men, or small children.
+     I do not regret the fate of these rebels. I have no talent for
+     description, but the scenes I have witnessed of misery are
+     something dreadful, and I must say that your wish for me to
+     return with the work incomplete would not be expressed if you saw
+     the state of these poor people. The horrible furtive looks of the
+     wretched inhabitants hovering around one's boat haunts me, and
+     the knowledge of their want of nourishment would sicken anyone.
+     They are like wolves. The dead lie where they fall, and are in
+     some cases trodden quite flat by the passers-by. I hope to get
+     the Shanghai people to assist, but they do not _see_ these
+     things, and to _read_ that there are human beings eating human
+     flesh produces less effect than if they saw the corpses from
+     which that flesh is cut. There is one thing I promise you, and
+     that is, that as soon as I can leave this service, I will do so;
+     but I will not be led to do what may cause great disasters for
+     the sake of getting out of the dangers, which, in my opinion, are
+     no greater in action than in barracks. My leg is all right; the
+     eleventh day after I received the wound I was up, and by the
+     fifteenth day I could walk well. The ball went through the thick
+     part of the leg, just below the knee."
+
+Having thus cleared the district due north of Wusieh, Gordon proceeded
+against the main Taeping position at Chanchufu, north-west of that
+place, and on the Grand Canal. Here Chung Wang had fortified thirty
+stockades, and commanded in person. On inspecting it, Gordon found it
+so strong that he summoned up his troops from Liyang, and it was not
+until 22nd April, ten days after Waisso, that he had collected all his
+force of 4000 men for the attack. On the very day he accomplished this
+the Imperialists alone attacked some stockades outside the West Gate,
+and carried them by a heavy and unnecessary loss of life. Their
+defenders, instead of retreating into Chanchufu, fled northwards to
+their next possession, at Tayan. The same night part of the garrison
+left behind made a _sortie_, but Gordon was apprised of it, and it was
+easily repulsed. The next day he captured all the stockades on the
+southern, or, more correctly, the western side of the Canal, but the
+Taepings still held a strong stone fort on the opposite side, which
+defied all the efforts of the Imperialists. Two hundred of the Liyang
+corps gallantly crossed the Canal in boats, forced open the back door
+of the fort, and carried it at a rush. With this success all the
+outworks of Chanchufu were taken, and the town itself closely
+besieged. Gordon then proceeded to plant his batteries opposite the
+point he had selected for attack, but a regrettable affair happened in
+the night, when the picket on guard fired into the party working at
+the battery, and killed Colonel Tapp, an excellent officer who
+commanded the artillery of the force. This mishap was quickly followed
+by others. The Imperialists under their own generals wished to get all
+the credit of the capture, and attacked several times on their own
+side, but always without obtaining any advantage. Nor was Gordon
+himself more fortunate. After a severe bombardment, to which the
+Taepings made no reply, Gordon assaulted on 27th April. His men
+succeeded in throwing two pontoons across the ditch, twenty yards
+wide, and some of his officers reached the wall; but the Taepings met
+them boldly with a terrific storm of fire-balls, bags of powder,
+stinkpots, and even showers of bricks. Twice did Gordon lead his men
+to the assault, but he had to admit his repulse with the loss of his
+pontoons, and a great number of his best officers and men. Ten
+officers killed and 19 wounded, 40 men killed and 260 wounded,
+represented the cost of this disastrous failure.
+
+Undaunted by this defeat, Gordon proceeded to lay siege in regular
+form, and Li Hung Chang lent him the services of his own troops in
+order to dig the necessary trenches. Working only at night, and with
+equal celerity and secrecy, a succession of trenches were made right
+up to the edge of the ditch. At the same time, proclamations in large
+characters were exhibited, offering terms to all who came over, except
+the Wang in command; and many desertions took place. At last, on 11th
+May, the place was again assaulted, this time at mid-day; and owing to
+the short distance from the advance trench to the breach, the Chinese
+troops of all kinds were able to come to close fighting with the
+Taepings without any preliminary loss. The Taepings fought with great
+courage, even although their chief Hoo Wang was taken prisoner early
+in the fight, but at last they were overwhelmed by numbers. Hoo Wang
+and all the Canton and Kwangsi men--that is to say, the original
+Taeping band--were executed, and the completeness of the triumph was
+demonstrated by the surrender, two days later, of Tayan, the last of
+the Taeping possessions on the Grand Canal. On the spur of the moment,
+two hours after the successful assault, Gordon wrote a hurried few
+lines to his mother, stating, to relieve her anxiety, that he would
+"not again take the field," and that he was happy to say he had "got
+off safe."
+
+The capture of Chanchufu was the last achievement of the Ever
+Victorious Army, which marched back to Quinsan, its headquarters, in
+preparation for its disbandment, which had been decided on by the
+joint conclusion of the Chinese and European authorities. It had done
+its work, and the Chinese naturally regarded the presence of this
+formidable and somewhat unruly force with no little apprehension. The
+Taepings were now confined to Nanking, and the Viceroy, Tseng Kwofan,
+felt confident that before long he would be able to capture that city.
+The British Government had decided that the service of Major Gordon
+under the Chinese should terminate on 1st June 1864, and some weeks
+before that order was put in force the army was quietly disbanded,
+without any disturbance or display. The troops themselves would have
+given their commander a demonstration, but he evaded them, and escaped
+quietly into Shanghai, passing without regret from the position of the
+arbiter of an Empire's destiny to the routine of an English officer's
+existence. At the same time a considerable part of his force was taken
+into the service of Li Hung Chang.
+
+Gordon's own opinion of his work was given in the following letter:--
+
+     "I have the satisfaction of knowing that the end of this
+     rebellion is at hand, while, had I continued inactive, it might
+     have lingered on for years. I do not care a jot about my
+     promotion or what people may say. I know 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."
+
+Having retired from the active direction of the campaign, Gordon still
+retained sufficient interest in the work he had had in hand so long to
+incline him to accept an invitation to visit the lines of Tseng Kwofan
+before Nanking. On 26th June he visited that Viceroy's camp, and found
+that his position extended over from twenty-four to thirty miles, and
+that he commanded 80,000 troops, who were, however, badly armed. The
+troops were well fed, but ill paid, and at last confident of success.
+While Gordon was there, or only a few hours after he left, Tien Wang,
+the leader of the moribund Taeping cause, seeing no chance of escape,
+swallowed gold leaf in the approved regal fashion, and died. On the
+19th July the Imperialists succeeded in running a gallery under the
+wall of Nanking, and in charging it with 40,000 lbs. of powder. The
+explosion destroyed fifty yards of the wall, and the Imperialists at
+once stormed the breach. Chung Wang made a valiant defence in his own
+palace, and then cut his way out, at the head of 1000 men. Very few of
+these escaped, but Chung Wang and the young Tien Wang, son of the
+defunct leader, were among the fortunate few. Chung Wang was soon
+captured, and beheaded on 7th August, after being allowed a week's
+respite to write the history of the Taeping rebellion. At least it may
+be claimed for him that he was the only true hero of the rebel
+movement. Gordon's own estimation of this leader is given in these
+words:--
+
+     "He was the bravest, most talented, and enterprising leader the
+     rebels had. He had been in more engagements than any other rebel
+     leader, and could always be distinguished. His presence with the
+     Taepings was equal to a reinforcement of 5000 men, and was always
+     felt by the superior way in which the rebels resisted. He was the
+     only rebel chief whose death was to be regretted; the others, his
+     followers, were a ruthless set of bandit chiefs."
+
+The young Tien Wang was eventually captured and executed. Thus
+terminated, in the blood of its authors and leaders, the great
+rebellion, which had inflicted an incalculable amount of misery and
+loss on the Chinese people in a vain attempt to subvert the existing
+dynasty. Six hundred cities were stated to have been destroyed during
+its course, and sixteen out of the eighteen provinces to have
+witnessed the ravages of civil war.
+
+Having thus concluded his work as commander of the Ever Victorious
+Army, it might have been thought that Gordon would be allowed to carry
+out his own wish of returning home as quickly as possible, but the
+English, as well as the Chinese, authorities were desirous of
+organising a purely Chinese force, with the object of supplying the
+Government with the means of asserting its authority over any internal
+enemies. Sir Frederick Bruce came specially from Pekin to Shanghai on
+the subject, and Gordon undertook to give the necessary organisation
+his personal supervision until it was in fair working order. From the
+end of June until the middle of November Colonel Gordon was engaged in
+the Chinese camp, which was formed at a place near Sungkiang, drilling
+recruits, and endeavouring to inspire the officers with the military
+spirit. He describes his work in the following short note, which is
+also interesting as expressing his impressions about the Chinese
+people:--
+
+     "I have the manual, and platoon, and company drill in full swing,
+     also part of the battalion drill, and one or two men know their
+     gun drill very fairly. This is so far satisfactory, and I think,
+     if the whole country was not corrupt, they might go on well and
+     quickly, but really it is most irritating to see the jealousies
+     of the mandarins of one another. The people are first-rate,
+     hard-working, and fairly honest; but it seems as soon as they
+     rise in office they become corrupt. There is lots of vitality in
+     the country, and there are some good men; but these are kept down
+     by the leaden apathy of their equals, who hate to see reform,
+     knowing their own deficiencies."
+
+By the end of November Gordon was able to think of returning home, as
+he had given a start to military reform in China; but before he sailed
+he had to receive a congratulatory address from the most prominent
+citizens and merchants of Shanghai, expressing their "appreciation and
+admiration of his conduct." They had not always been so
+discriminating, and at the beginning their sympathies had been for the
+Taepings, or at least for strict non-intervention. The Chinese
+Government also gave exceptional signs of its gratitude to the
+noble-minded soldier, who had rendered it such invaluable aid. It
+again offered him a large sum of money, which was declined with as
+much firmness, although less emphasis, as on the earlier occasion. But
+he could not reject the promotion offered him to the high rank of
+Ti-Tu, or Field Marshal in the Chinese army, or churlishly refuse to
+receive the rare and high dignity of the Yellow Jacket. The English
+reader has been inclined on occasion to smile and sneer at that
+honour, but its origin was noble, and the very conditions on which it
+was based ensured that the holders should be very few in number.
+
+The story of its origin will admit of being retold. When the Manchus
+conquered China, in the middle of the seventeenth century, they
+received material aid from a Chinese soldier named Wou Sankwei. He was
+rewarded with the Viceroyalty of the whole of south-western China, in
+which region he became supreme. After many years the Manchus thought
+he posed with too great an air of independence, and he was summoned to
+Peking to give an account of his stewardship. But Wou Sankwei was too
+old to be caught by so simple a ruse. He defied the Manchus, and
+established his authority throughout the larger part of the country
+south of the Great River. The young and afterwards illustrious Emperor
+Kanghi threw himself into the struggle with ardour, and it continued
+for many years, and devastated almost as large an area as did the
+Taeping rebellion. Kanghi did not obtain a decisive triumph until
+after the death of Wou Sankwei, when he bestowed a yellow riding
+jacket and an ornament of peacock's feathers for the cap on his
+principal lieutenants. He also decreed that this decoration should be
+made a regular order, to be conferred only on generals who had led
+victorious armies against rebel forces. Gordon was thus perfectly
+qualified to receive the order founded by the famous Manchu
+contemporary of the Grand Monarque.
+
+The Chinese Government also sent him six mandarin dresses in the
+correct fashion for a commanding officer of the rank of Ti-Tu, and a
+book explaining how they should be worn. Gordon said very little about
+it, his only comment being: "Some of the buttons on the mandarin hats
+are worth thirty or forty pounds. I am sorry for it, as they cannot
+afford it over well; it is, at any rate, very civil of them." The two
+Empress Regents also struck a heavy gold medal in his honour, the
+destination of which will be told hereafter, and Li Hung Chang did
+everything possible to demonstrate the respect and regard he
+entertained for his European colleague. That that was no transitory
+feeling was well shown thirty-two years later, when the famous Chinese
+statesman seized the occasion of his visit to London to place wreaths
+on the statue and cenotaph of his old comrade in arms. General Gordon
+valued the Yellow Jacket and the Gold Medal very highly. When he gave
+up the medal for the cause of charity he felt its loss keenly, and it
+became a phrase with him to signify the height of self-sacrifice to
+say, "You must give up your medal." Prince Kung, in a special and
+remarkable despatch to the British Minister, narrated in detail the
+achievements of Gordon, and declared in graceful language that "not
+only has he shown himself throughout both brave and energetic, but his
+thorough appreciation of that important question, a friendly
+understanding between China and foreign nations, is also deserving of
+the highest praise." The Minister was requested to bring these facts
+to the notice of the British Government, and it was even suggested by
+the Chinese Prince that some reward that Gordon would appreciate at
+the hands of his own Sovereign should be conferred on him, and would
+be hailed with satisfaction in China. If I add to this list the sword
+of Chung Wang, captured from one of his lieutenants, and presented
+afterwards by Gordon to the Duke of Cambridge, the rewards of Gordon
+from the Chinese are fully catalogued. At the hands of his own
+Government he received for his magnificent service a brevet
+lieutenant-colonelcy, and somewhat later the Companionship of the
+Bath.
+
+Gordon had kept a journal, which he sent home; but subsequently, on
+finding that it was being circulated, he destroyed it. Of this fact
+there is no doubt, and it is of course impossible to say whether it
+contained more than the manuscript history of the Taeping war, which
+he lent me in 1881 as "a trustworthy narrative" for the purposes of my
+"History of China," and which was published many years later as a
+separate volume. The authorship of that history is a matter of
+speculation, but there seems little or no doubt that it was at least
+compiled under Gordon's own direction, from the reports of his
+lieutenants in China, and completed during his residence at Gravesend.
+
+Of the true personal journal Gordon wrote in 1864: "I do not want the
+same published, as I think, if my proceedings sink into oblivion, it
+would be better for every one; and my reason for this is that it is a
+very contested point whether we ought to have interfered or not, on
+which point I am perfectly satisfied that it was the proper and humane
+course to pursue, but I still do not expect people who do not know
+much about it to concur in the same.... I never want anything
+published. I am sure it does no good, and makes people chary of
+writing."
+
+The same feeling came out in his last letter to his mother from China,
+17th November 1864: "The individual is coming home, but does not wish
+it known, for it would be a signal for the disbanded to come to
+Southampton, and although the waits at Christmas are bad, these others
+are worse." Such a wish as this was impossible of gratification. The
+public press could not be silenced by the modesty of this retiring
+commander whose deeds had been so heroic and devoid of selfish
+purpose. The papers became so filled with accounts of his achievements
+that he gave up reading them, but _The Times_ had at least
+crystallised the opinion of the day into a single sentence: "Never did
+soldier of fortune deport himself with a nicer sense of military
+honour, with more gallantry against the resisting, and with more mercy
+towards the vanquished, with more disinterested neglect of
+opportunities of personal advantage, or with more entire devotion to
+the objects and desires of his own Government, than this officer who,
+after all his victories, has just laid down his sword."
+
+The more calmly and critically the deeds of the Ever Victorious Army
+and Gordon's conduct during the campaign against the Taepings are
+considered, the greater will be the credit awarded to the high-minded,
+brave, and unselfish man who then gained the sobriquet of "Chinese"
+Gordon. Among all the deeds of his varied and remarkable career he
+never succeeded in quite the same degree in winning fame and in
+commanding success. At Khartoum the eyes of the world were on him, but
+the Mahdi was allowed to remain victorious, and the Soudan still
+awaits fresh conquest. But during the two Taeping campaigns he was
+completely successful, and closed his work with an unqualified
+triumph. It was also the only occasion when he led an army in the
+field, and proved his claims to be considered a great commander. Of
+serious warfare it may be said to have been his last experience, for
+his own Government was very careful to give him no active military
+employment--garrison, and even consular duties being deemed more
+suitable for this victorious leader than the conduct of any of those
+little expeditions commencing with the Red River and Ashanti for which
+he was pre-eminently qualified--and under the Khedive he controlled an
+army without finding a real foe. Gordon's title to rank among skilful
+military commanders rests on his conduct at the head of the Ever
+Victorious Army during the Taeping war. It has earned the praise of
+many competent military authorities as well as the general admiration
+of the public, and Lord Wolseley must have had it in his mind when, in
+vindicating his sanity, he exclaimed that he "wished other English
+generals had been bitten with his madness."
+
+Those who have thought that Gordon won his victories in China by sheer
+personal gallantry, and nothing else, have taken a very shallow view
+of the case, and not condescended to study the details. In his general
+conception of the best way to overcome the Taepings he was necessarily
+hampered by the views, wishes, jealousies, and self-seeking purposes
+of his Chinese colleagues. But for them, his strategy would have been
+of a very different character, as he himself often said. He had to
+adjust his means to the best attainable end, and it must be allowed
+that he did this with remarkable tact and patience--the very qualities
+in which he was naturally most deficient. If we consider his strategy
+as being thus fettered by the Chinese officials Li Hung Chang and
+General Ching, whose first object was not so much the overthrow of the
+Taeping Government as the expulsion of the Taepings from the province
+for which they were responsible, it will be admitted that nothing
+could be better than his conception of what had to be done, and how it
+was to be effected. The campaign resolved itself into the cutting off
+of all their sources of supply from the sea and Treaty ports, and the
+shutting up of their principal force within the walls of Soochow. How
+well and successfully that was accomplished has been narrated, but a
+vainglorious commander could not have been held back after the fall of
+Chanchufu from leading his victorious force to achieve a crowning
+triumph at Nanking, which Gordon could easily have carried by assault
+before the order in council withdrawing his services came into effect.
+
+More frequent opportunity was afforded for Gordon to reveal his
+tactical skill than his strategical insight, and in this respect the
+only trammels he experienced were from the military value and
+efficiency of his force, which had its own limitations. But still it
+would be unjust to form too poor an estimate of the fighting
+efficiency and courage of either Gordon's force or his Taeping
+opponents from the miserable exhibition the Chinese recently made of
+themselves during the war with Japan. The heavy losses incurred, the
+several repulses Gordon himself experienced, would alone tell a
+different tale, if there were not the obstinate resistance offered to
+General Staveley and the French by the Taepings to show that they were
+not altogether contemptible adversaries. Gordon himself thought that
+his force could fight very well, and that his officers, if somewhat
+lacking in polish, were not to be surpassed in dash and devilry. For
+the Taepings, especially behind walls, and when it was impossible to
+out-manoeuvre them, he had also the highest opinion, and his first
+object on every occasion was to discover a weak point in their
+position, and his patience and perspicuity were generally rewarded.
+The very first step he took on approaching any place that he had to
+attack was to reconnoitre it himself, either on foot or in one of his
+steamers, and he wrote a powerful despatch pointing out the general
+neglect of this precaution in the conduct of our Eastern campaigns,
+with its inevitable heavy attendant loss of precious lives. As he
+truly said, a careful reconnaissance generally revealed points of
+weakness in the enemy's position, and the Taepings, like all Asiatics,
+were easily demoralised when their line of retreat was threatened, or
+when attacked at some point where their preparations had not been
+perfected. Among his own personal qualifications, his untiring energy
+and his exceptional promptitude in coming to a decision were the most
+remarkable. No exertion relaxed his effort or diminished his ardour,
+and in face of fresh perils and disappointments he was always ready
+with a new plan, or prepared with some scheme for converting defeat
+into victory. One of his chief characteristics was his quickness in
+seeing an alternative course of action when his original plan had
+either failed or been thwarted by others. Of his personal courage and
+daring sufficient instances have been given to justify the assertion
+that in those qualities he was unsurpassable; and if he had never done
+anything else than lead the Ever Victorious Army, it would be
+sufficient to secure him a place among the most remarkable of English
+soldiers. In China he will be remembered for his rare self-abnegation,
+for his noble disdain of money, and for the spirit of tolerance with
+which he reconciled the incompatible parts of "a British officer and a
+Chinese mandarin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+GRAVESEND AND GALATZ.
+
+
+After the exciting and eventful ten years which began in the Crimea
+and ended in China, the most tranquil period in Gordon's career
+follows, until he was once again launched on the stormy sea of public
+affairs in Africa. He used to speak of the six years following his
+return from the Far East as the happiest of his life, and by a
+fortunate although unusual coincidence the details of his existence
+during the tranquil and uneventful period have been preserved with
+great amplitude and fidelity by several witnesses associated with him
+in his beneficent as well as his official work. It would be easy to
+fill a small volume with these particulars, which have been already
+given to the world, but here it will suffice to furnish a summary
+sufficient to bring out the philanthropic side of his character, and
+to explain how and why it came to be thought that Gordon was the man
+to solve that ever-pressing but ever-put-off problem of diminishing
+the pressure of excessive population and poverty in the eastern
+districts of London.
+
+General Gordon arrived in England early in 1865, and proceeded to join
+his family at Rockstone Place, Southampton, where he was then doubly
+welcomed, as his father was in declining health, and died soon
+afterwards. Here Gordon passed a quiet six months, refusing all
+invitations with extreme modesty, and in every way baffling the
+attempts of relations, friends, and admirers to make a lion of him. He
+would not permit anyone to say that his suppression of the Taeping
+rebellion was a marvellous feat, and he evaded and resented all the
+attempts made by those in power to bring him into prominence as a
+national hero. Modesty is becoming as an abstract principle of human
+conduct, but Gordon carried it to an excess that made it difficult not
+so much for his fellow-men to understand him, as for them to hold
+ordinary workaday relations with him. This was due mainly to two
+causes--a habitual shyness, and his own perception that he could not
+restrain his tongue from uttering unpalatable and unconventional
+truths. He was so unworldly and self-sacrificing in his own actions
+that he could not let himself become even in a passive sense
+subservient to the very worldly means by which all men more or less
+advance in public and private life. The desire of Ministers and War
+Office authorities to bring him forward, to eulogise his Chinese
+exploits, and in the end to give him worthy employment, was regarded
+by him as that secret favouritism that he abhorred. He retired into
+his shell at every effort made to bring him into prominence. He tore
+up his diary sooner than that it should be the means of giving him
+notoriety. He even refused special employment and promotion, because
+it would put him over the heads of his old comrades at the Woolwich
+Academy. The inevitable result followed. Those in power came to regard
+him as eccentric, and when occasions arose that would have provided
+him with congenial and much-desired employment on active service for
+his own country, his name was passed over, and the best soldier in
+England was left in inglorious and uncongenial inactivity. This was
+regrettable, but natural. The most heroic cannot pose as being too
+elevated above their fellows, or they will be left like Achilles
+sulking in his tent.
+
+There were moments, we have been told, when in the bosom of the family
+circle he threw off the reserve in which he habitually wrapped
+himself, and narrated in stirring if simple language the course of his
+campaigns in China. These outbursts were few and far between. They
+became still less frequent when he found that the effect of his
+description was to increase the admiration his relatives never
+concealed from him. His mother, whose feelings towards him were of a
+specially tender nature, and whose solicitude for his personal safety
+had been more than once evinced, took the greatest pride in his
+achievements, and a special pleasure at their recital. But even her
+admiration caused Charles Gordon as much pain as pleasure, and it is
+recorded that while she was exhibiting to a circle of friends a map
+drawn by him during his old term days at the Academy, he came into the
+room, and seeing that it was being made a subject of admiration, took
+it from his mother, tore it in half, and threw it into the fire grate.
+Some little time after he repented of this act of rudeness, collected
+the fragments, pasted them together, and begged his mother's
+forgiveness. This damaged plan or map is still in existence. His
+extraordinary diffidence and shrinking from all forms of praise or
+exaltation was thus revealed at a comparatively early stage of his
+career, and in connection with the first deeds that made him famous.
+The incident just described shows that his way of asserting his
+individuality was not always unattended with unkindness to those who
+were nearest and dearest to him. His distrust of his own temper, and
+of his capacity to speak and act conventionally, urged him towards a
+solitary life; and when his fate took him into places and forms of
+employment where solitude was the essential condition of the service,
+it is not surprising that his natural shyness and humility, as well as
+that habit of speaking his own mind, not only without fear or favour,
+but also, it must be admitted, with considerable disregard for the
+feelings of others, became intensified, and the most noticeable of his
+superficial characteristics.
+
+But although Gordon was averse to praise and any special promotion, he
+was most anxious to resume the work of his profession, in which he
+took a peculiar pride, and for which he felt himself so thoroughly
+well suited. His temperament was naturally energetic and impulsive.
+The independent command he had exercised in China had strengthened
+these tendencies, and made a dull routine doubly irksome to one whose
+eager spirit sought action in any form that offered. The quiet
+domestic life of the family circle at Southampton soon became
+intolerable to his restless spirit, and although he was entitled to
+two years' leave after his long foreign service, he took steps to
+return to active service as an engineer officer within a very few
+months of his return to England.
+
+On 1st September 1865 he was appointed Commanding Royal Engineer
+officer at Gravesend, to superintend the erection of the new forts to
+be constructed in that locality for the defence of the Thames. For
+such a post his active military service, as well as his technical
+training, eminently suited him; and although there was little promise
+of excitement about it, the work was distinctly congenial, and offered
+him a field for showing practical judgment and skill as an engineer.
+He threw himself into his task with his characteristic energy and
+enthusiasm. But how far the latter was damped by his prompt discovery
+that the whole project of the Thames defences was faulty and unsound
+it is impossible to say, but his attention to his work in all its
+details certainly showed no diminution or falling off. There were five
+forts in all to be constructed--three on the south or Kent side of the
+river, viz., New Tavern, Shornmead, and Cliffe; and two, Coalhouse and
+Tilbury, on the north or Essex side. An immense sum had been voted by
+Parliament for their construction, and Gordon was as loud as an
+officer dare be in his denunciation of this extravagant waste of money
+as soon as he discovered by personal examination that the three
+southern forts could be turned into islands, and severed from all
+communication by an enemy cutting the river bank at Cooling; and also
+that the northern forts were not merely unprotected in the rear, like
+those of the Chinese, but completely commanded from the Essex range of
+hills. Notwithstanding this important discovery, made at the very
+beginning, the original scheme was prosecuted to the end, with
+enormous outlay and useless result, for an entirely new system of
+river defences had to be formed and carried out at a later period.
+But for these errors Gordon was in no sense responsible, and they
+would not have been committed if his advice and representations had
+been heeded.
+
+Mr Arthur Stannard, who was assistant to the manager of the firm which
+had been intrusted with the contract for the building of these forts,
+gave in the _Nineteenth Century_ for April 1885 the best account we
+possess of the manner in which Colonel Gordon discharged his official
+duties at Gravesend.
+
+Colonel Gordon's headquarters were at a quaint-looking, old-fashioned
+house with a good-sized garden, close to the site on which the New
+Tavern fort was to be erected. He considered himself to be on official
+duty from eight o'clock in the morning until two o'clock in the
+afternoon; and during these six hours he not only worked himself
+without intermission, but expected all those under him to work in the
+same untiring spirit. He was a severe and unsparing taskmaster, and
+allowed no shirking. No other officer could have got half the work out
+of his 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."
+
+Another instance of his unflagging energy and extreme activity was
+furnished in connection with the boat in which he had to visit the
+different parts of the defences. A two-oared, slow-moving boat was
+provided for the purpose, but Gordon soon grew tired of this slow
+means of locomotion, and he started a four-oared gig. He trained these
+men according to his own ideas, and expected them to row with all
+their might and main, and to lose not a minute in casting off their
+boat on his arrival. So fond was he of rapid motion, or so impressed
+with the value of time, that he would continue to urge them on,
+whenever any signs of slackening appeared, with exclamations: "A
+little faster, boys, a little faster!" and Mr Stannard states that he
+has seen the boatmen land after such a row as this in as limp a
+condition as four strong men could be. All his own movements were
+carried on at the run, and his activity was such that few younger and
+taller men were able to keep up with him. I well recollect myself my
+first interview with General Gordon in 1881, when he roused me up by a
+surprise morning visit at eight o'clock--I had not returned from a
+newspaper office till four o'clock--and carried me off, walking in a
+light, springy way which was half a run up to the top of Campden Hill,
+to interview the late Sir Harry Parkes.
+
+While many incidents and the general tenor of his conduct show the
+natural gentleness of Gordon and his softness of heart, he was a
+strict disciplinarian, and even a martinet in some of his ways. As has
+been said, he came on duty at eight every morning punctually, but he
+would not allow himself to be intruded upon before that hour. Mr
+Stannard tells one story that furnishes striking evidence to this
+effect. Early in the morning the men were brought to a standstill in
+their work until Colonel Gordon arrived to decide some doubtful or
+disputed matter. It was noticed that his bedroom window was wide open,
+and the contractor's manager was induced to go up and knock at his
+door for instructions. Gordon opened his door a little way, and
+exclaimed in a testy and irritable tone, "Presently, presently." He
+made his regular appearance at eight o'clock, and no one ventured to
+again disturb him before the regulation hour.
+
+With regard to his meals he was most abstemious, and at the same time
+irregular. His brother describes an arrangement by which he was able
+to take, at all events, his midday meal, and at the same time to carry
+on his official work, especially in the matter of receiving visitors.
+He had a deep drawer in his table, in which the food was deposited.
+When anyone came to see him, the drawer was closed, and all signs of a
+meal were concealed. At all periods of his career he was a small and
+frugal eater, partly because he deprecated extravagance in living, and
+partly because he considered that the _angina pectoris_ from which he
+thought he suffered could be best coped with by abstention from a
+sumptuous or heavy diet. Some days he would almost starve himself, and
+then in the night Nature would assert herself, and he would have to
+come downstairs and take whatever he found in the larder. It is
+recorded that on one occasion he sucked ten or a dozen raw eggs. But
+if he denied himself the luxuries and even the necessaries of a decent
+table, he possessed the true spirit of hospitality, and never expected
+his guests to follow any different practice than their own. For them
+he was always at pains to provide dainty fare and good wine. Nor must
+undue stress be laid on the isolated cases cited of his indifference
+to his personal comfort. Gordon was always attentive to his dress and
+appearance, never forgetting that he was a gentleman and an English
+officer.
+
+While quartered at Gravesend he received a visit from Sir William
+Gordon, who had just been appointed to the command of the troops in
+Scotland. Sir William was no relation, only a member of the same great
+clan, and he had served with Gordon in the trenches of the Crimea. He
+had a great admiration and affection for the younger officer, and
+begged him to accept the post of his _aide-de-camp_ in the North. The
+idea was not a pleasant one to our Gordon, but his good-nature led him
+to yield to the pressing invitations of his friend; and after he had
+given his assent, he was ill with nervousness and regret at having
+tied himself down to an uncongenial post. In some way or other Sir
+William heard of his distress, and promptly released him from his
+promise, only exacting from him the condition that he should pay him a
+visit at his home in Scotland. Soon afterwards Sir William Gordon
+became seriously ill, and Charles Gordon hastened to the North, where
+he remained some time employed in cheering up his friend, who was
+suffering from hypochondria. Some time afterwards Sir William died
+under sad circumstances. He had wished to benefit General Gordon by
+his will, but the latter absolutely refused to have anything except a
+silver tea service, which he had promised Sir William, while alive, to
+accept, because "it would pay for his funeral," and save any one being
+put to expense over that inevitable ceremony. The fate of this tea
+service, valued at £70, cannot be traced. It had disappeared long
+before Gordon's departure for Khartoum, and was probably sold for some
+beneficent work.
+
+The Sir William Gordon incident was not the only external affair that
+distracted his attention from the monotonous routine work of building
+forts on a set, but faulty and mistaken, plan. Glad as he was of any
+work, in preference to the dull existence of a prolonged holiday in
+the domestic circle, Gravesend was not, after all, the ideal of active
+service to a man who had found the excitement of warfare so very
+congenial to his own temperament. When, in the course of 1867 it
+became evident that an expedition would have to be sent to Abyssinia
+to release the prisoners, and to bring the Negus Theodore to his
+senses, Gordon solicited the Horse Guards to include him in any force
+despatched with this object. There is no reason to think that his wish
+would not have been complied with if the expedition had been fitted
+out from England, but it was very wisely decided that the task should
+be entrusted to the Anglo-Indian Army. The late Lord Napier of
+Magdala, then Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, was appointed to
+the command. The officers of his staff, as well as the troops under
+him, were all drawn from the Bombay Army, and although his connection
+by marriage, Sir Charles Staveley, held a command under Napier, and
+would willingly have assisted towards the gratification of his wish,
+an exception in Gordon's case could not be made without that
+favouritism which he most deprecated. Still, it was a great
+disappointment to him, and he shut himself up for a whole day, and
+would see no one.
+
+If the six years at Gravesend, "the most peaceful and happy of any
+portion of my life," as he truly said, had left no other trace than
+his official work, of which the details must necessarily be meagre,
+there would have been a great blank in his life, and the reader would
+necessarily possess no clue to the marked change between the Gordon
+of China and the Gordon of the Soudan. Not that there was any loss of
+power or activity, but in the transition period philanthropy had come
+to occupy the foremost place in Gordon's brain, where formerly had
+reigned supreme professional zeal and a keen appreciation--I will not
+say love--of warlike glory. His private life and work at Gravesend
+explain and justify what was said of him at that time by one of his
+brother officers: "He is the nearest approach to Jesus Christ of any
+man who ever lived."
+
+It has been written of him that his house at Gravesend bore more
+resemblance to the home of a missionary than the quarters of an
+English officer. His efforts to improve and soften the hard lot of the
+poor in a place like Gravesend began in a small way, and developed
+gradually into an extensive system of beneficence, which was only
+limited by his small resources and the leisure left him by official
+duty. At first he took into his house two or three boys who attracted
+his attention in a more or less accidental manner. He taught them in
+the evening, fed and clothed them, and in due course procured for them
+employment, principally as sailors or in the colonies. For a naturally
+bad sailor, he was very fond of the sea; and perhaps in his heart of
+hearts he cherished the thought that he was performing a national work
+in directing promising recruits to the first line of our defence, and
+the main prop of this Empire. Soon his few special pupils swelled into
+a class, not all boarders, but of outsiders who came in to learn
+geography and hear the Colonel explain the Bible; and not only that,
+but to be told of stirring deeds beyond the sea by one who had himself
+contributed to the making of history. We can well believe that before
+this uncritical but appreciative audience, from whose favour he had
+nothing to hope, or, as he would say, to fear, Gordon threw off the
+restraint and shyness habitual to him. It was very typical of the man
+that, where others thought only of instructing the poor and the
+ignorant, his chief wish was to amuse them and make them laugh.
+
+By this simple means his class increased, and grew too large for his
+room. Sooner than break it up or discourage new-comers, he consented
+to teach in the ragged schools, where he held evening classes almost
+every night. Where he had clothed two or three boys, he now
+distributed several hundred suits in the year; and it is said that his
+pupils became so numerous that he had to buy pairs of boots by the
+gross. All this was done out of his pay. His personal expenses were
+reduced to the lowest point, so that the surplus might suffice to
+carry on the good work. It very often left him nearly penniless until
+his next pay became due--and this was not very surprising, as he could
+never turn a deaf ear to any tale of distress, and often emptied his
+pockets at the recital of any specially touching misfortune. When any
+outside subject of national suffering appealed to his heart or touched
+his fancy, he would consequently have no means available of sending
+any help, and this was specially the case during the suffering of the
+Lancashire operatives after the close of the American Civil War. On
+that occasion he defaced the gold medal given him by the Chinese
+Empresses, and sent it anonymously to the fund, which benefited from
+it to the extent of £10; but, as has been already stated, he made this
+sacrifice with the greatest pain and reluctance.
+
+Gordon's love of children, and especially of boys, was quite
+remarkable. He could enter into their feelings far better than he
+could into those of grown men, and the irritability which he could
+scarcely suppress even among his friends was never displayed towards
+them. He was always at their service, anxious to amuse them, and to
+minister to their rather selfish whims. Some accidental remark led his
+class to express a wish to visit the Zoo. Gordon at once seized the
+idea, and said they should do so. He made all the arrangements as
+carefully as if he were organising a campaign. His duties prevented
+his going himself, but he saw them off at the station, under the
+charge of his assistant, and well provided with baskets of food for
+their dinner and refreshment on their journey. Of course he defrayed
+the whole expense, and on their return he gave them a treat of tea and
+strawberries. He also thought of their future, being most energetic in
+procuring them employment, and anxious in watching their after-career.
+
+For some reason that is not clear he called these boys his "kings." He
+probably used it in the sense that they were his lieutenants, and he
+borrowed his imagery from the "Wangs," or kings of the Taeping ruler.
+I am told, however, that he really used the word in a spiritual sense,
+testifying that these boys were as kings in the sight of God. He
+followed the course of the first voyage of those who went to sea,
+sticking pins in a map to show the whereabouts of their respective
+vessels. It is not astonishing that his pupils should have felt for
+him a special admiration and affection. He not merely supplied all
+their wants, but he endeavoured to make them self-reliant, and to
+raise them above the sordid and narrow conditions of the life to which
+they were either born or reduced by the improvidence or misfortune of
+their parents. Of course Gordon was often deceived, and his confidence
+and charity abused; but these cases were, after all, the smaller
+proportion of the great number that passed through his hands. He
+sometimes met with gross ingratitude, like that of the boy whom he
+found starving, in rags, and ill with disease, and whom he restored to
+health, and perhaps to self-respect, and then sent back to his parents
+in Norfolk. But neither from him nor from them did he ever receive
+the briefest line of acknowledgment. Such experiences would have
+disheartened or deterred other philanthropists, but they failed to
+ruffle Gordon's serenity, or to discourage him in his work.
+
+Perhaps the following incident is as characteristic as anything that
+took place between Gordon and his "kings." A boy whom he had twice
+fitted out for the world, but who always came to grief after a few
+months' trial, returned for a third time in the evening. Gordon met
+him at the gate, a mass of rags, in a deplorable condition, and
+covered with vermin. Gordon could not turn him away, neither could he
+admit him into his house, where there were several boys being brought
+up for a respectable existence. After a moment's hesitation, he led
+him in silence to the stable, where, after giving him some bread and a
+mug of milk, he told him to sleep on a heap of clean straw, and that
+he would come for him at six in the morning. At that hour Gordon
+appeared with a piece of soap, some towels, and a fresh suit of
+clothes, and, ordering the boy to strip, gave him a thorough washing
+with his own hands from head to foot at the horse-trough. It is to be
+regretted that there is no record of the after-fate of this young
+prodigal, although it would be pleasant to think that he was the
+unknown man who called at Sir Henry Gordon's house in 1885, after the
+news of Gordon's death, and wished to contribute £25 towards a
+memorial, because he was one of the youths saved by General Gordon, to
+whom all his success and prosperity in life were due.
+
+But it must not be supposed that Gordon's acts of benevolence were
+restricted to boys. He was not less solicitous of the welfare of the
+sick and the aged. His garden was a rather pretty and shaded one. He
+had a certain number of keys made for the entrance, and distributed
+them among deserving persons, chiefly elderly. They were allowed to
+walk about, in the evening especially, and see the flowers,
+vegetables, and fruit which Gordon's gardener carefully cultivated.
+Gordon himself declared that he derived no special pleasure from the
+sight of flowers, for the simple reason that he preferred to look at
+the human face; and the same reason is the only one I can find he ever
+gave for his somewhat remarkable reticence about dogs and other
+domestic animals. It was said of him that he always had handy "a bit
+o' baccy for the old men, and a screw o' tea for the old women." He
+would hurry off at a moment's notice to attend to a dying person or to
+read the Bible by a sick-bed. In the hospital or the workhouse he was
+as well known as the visiting chaplain, and often he was requested by
+the parish clergyman to take his place in visiting the sick. His
+special invention for the benefit of his large number of clients was
+a system of pensions, which varied from a shilling to as much as a
+pound a week. Many of these payments he continued long after he left
+Gravesend, and a few were even paid until the day of his death. It is
+not surprising, in view of these facts, that Gordon remained a poor
+man, and generally had no money at all. As he wrote very truly of
+himself to his assistant Mr Lilley, "You and I will never learn wisdom
+in money matters."
+
+Many stories have been told of his tenderness of heart, and of his
+reluctance to see punishment inflicted, but perhaps the following is
+the most typical. A woman called on him one day with a piteous tale.
+Gordon went to his bedroom to get half a sovereign for her, and while
+he was away she took a fancy to a brown overcoat, which she hastened
+to conceal under her skirt. Gordon returned, gave her the money, and
+she left with a profusion of thanks. While on her road home the coat
+slipped down, and attracted the notice of a policeman, who demanded an
+explanation. She said, "I took it from the Colonel," and was marched
+back for him to identify his property, and charge her with the theft.
+When Gordon heard the story, he was far more distressed than the
+culprit, and refused to comply with the constable's repeated requests
+to charge her. At last a happy thought came to his relief. Turning to
+the woman, he said, with a twinkle in his eye, "You wanted it, I
+suppose?" "Yes," replied the astonished woman. Then turning to the
+equally astonished policeman he said, "There, there, take her away,
+and send her about her business."
+
+Among the various economies he practised in order to indulge his
+philanthropy was that of not keeping a horse, and he consequently took
+a great deal of walking exercise. During his walks along the Kentish
+lanes and foot-paths he distributed tracts, and at every stile he
+crossed he would leave one having such an exhortation as "Take heed
+that thou stumbleth not." Yet all this was done in an honest, and, as
+I believe, a secretly humorous spirit of a serious nature, for Gordon
+was as opposed to cant and idle protestations as any man. There is a
+strikingly characteristic story preserved somewhere of what he did
+when a hypocritical, canting humbug of a local religious secretary of
+some Society Fund or other paid a visit to a house while he was
+present. Gordon remained silent during the whole of the interview. But
+when he was gone, and Gordon was asked what he thought of him, he
+replied by waving his hand and drawing it across his throat, which he
+explained signified in China that his head ought to be cut off as a
+humbugging impostor.
+
+Although buried, as it were, at Gravesend, Gordon could not be
+altogether forgotten. The authorities at the Horse Guards could not
+comply with his request to be attached to the Abyssinian expedition,
+but they were willing enough to do him what in official circles was
+thought to be a very good turn when they could. The English membership
+of the Danubian Commission became vacant, and it was remembered that
+in his early days Gordon had taken part in the delimitation
+negotiations which had resulted in the formation of that body. The
+post carried with it the good pay of £2000 a year, as some
+compensation for the social and sanitary drawbacks and disadvantages
+of life in that region, and it was offered to Gordon, who accepted it.
+It cut short his philanthropical labours, but it drew him back into
+that current of active work for which he was already pining. He
+therefore accepted it, and having presented some of the Snake flags of
+the old Taeping Wangs to the local school in which he had toiled as a
+simple teacher, he left Gravesend quietly, and without any
+manifestation that it had lost its principal resident. Having
+mentioned the Snake flags, it is proper to add that the principal of
+these, including some of his own which were shot to ribbons, were left
+by General Gordon to his sister, the late Miss Gordon, who in her turn
+presented them, with the Yellow Jacket and its appendages, the chief
+mandarin dress, etc., to the Royal Engineers at Chatham. The Gravesend
+life closed with a notice in the local journal, from which the
+following extract may be made; but once a year the old flags that led
+the advance or retreat of the Chinese rebels are brought out from
+their cases and flaunted before the Gravesend scholars as the memorial
+of a brave and unselfish leader and teacher.
+
+The farewell article in the local paper read as follows:--
+
+     "Our readers, without exception, will learn with regret of the
+     departure of Lieut.-Colonel Gordon, R.E., C.B., from the town in
+     which he has resided for six years, gaining a name by the most
+     exquisite charity that will long be remembered. Nor will he be
+     less missed than remembered in the lowly walks of life, by the
+     bestowal of gifts, by attendance and administration on the sick
+     and dying, by the kindly giving of advice, by attendance at the
+     Ragged School, Workhouse, and Infirmary--in fact, by general and
+     continued beneficence to the poor, he has been so unwearied in
+     well-doing that his departure will be felt by many as a personal
+     calamity. There are those who even now are reaping the rewards of
+     his kindness. His charity was essentially charity, and had its
+     root in deep philanthropic feeling and goodness of heart,
+     shunning the light of publicity, but coming even as the rain in
+     the night-time, that in the morning is noted not, but only the
+     flowers bloom, and give a greater fragrance.... All will wish him
+     well in his new sphere, and we have less hesitation in penning
+     these lines from the fact that laudatory notice will confer but
+     little pleasure upon him who gave with the heart and cared not
+     for commendation."
+
+Gordon left for Galatz on 1st October 1871. He had visited and
+described it fourteen or fifteen years before, and he found little or
+no change there. The special task intrusted to the Commission of which
+he was a member was to keep open by constant and vigilant dredging the
+mouth of the Sulina branch of the Danube. He discovered very soon that
+the duties were light and monotonous, and in the depressing
+atmosphere--social and political as well as climatic--of the Lower
+Danube, he pined more than ever for bracing work, and for some task
+about which he could feel in earnest. The same conclusion seems to
+have forced itself upon his mind at the beginning and at the end of
+his stay at Galatz. In one of his first letters he exclaims: "How I
+like England when I am out of it! There is no place in the world like
+it!" In another letter, written on the very day of his departure home,
+he wrote: "Tell S. to thank God that he was born an Englishman."
+Gordon was always intensely patriotic. His patriotism partook of the
+same deep and fervid character as his religion, and these and many
+other little messages in his private correspondence furnish striking
+evidence to the fact.
+
+The mention of Galatz recalls an incident, showing how long was his
+memory, and how much he clung to old friendships. During the
+Commune--that is to say, when he was still at Gravesend--the papers
+stated that a General Bisson had been killed at the Bridge of Neuilly
+on 9th April 1871. He wrote to Marshal Macmahon to inquire if he was
+the same officer as his old colleague on the Danube, and received, to
+his regret, an affirmative answer. General Bisson and Gordon had kept
+up a correspondence, in which the former always signed himself Bisson,
+C.B., being very proud of that honour, which was conferred on him for
+the Crimea. He was taken prisoner early in the Franco-Prussian war,
+and was shot by the Communists almost immediately on his return from
+the Prussian prison. Gordon's stay at Galatz was varied by an
+agreeable trip in 1872 to the Crimea, where he was sent to inspect the
+cemeteries with Sir John Adye. They travelled in an English gunboat,
+which proved a comfortable sea-boat, and Gordon wrote, "General Adye
+is a very agreeable companion." The cemeteries were found much
+neglected, and in a sad state of disrepair. The Russian officers were
+pronounced civil, but nothing more. But Gordon saw clearly that,
+having torn up the Black Sea Treaty, they were ready to recover
+Bessarabia, and to restore Sebastopol to the rank of a first-class
+naval fortress. After the Crimean tour he came to England on leave.
+His time was short, but he managed to pay a flying visit to
+Gravesend. He also could not resist the temptation of attending the
+funeral of the Emperor Napoleon in January 1873, and he expressed his
+opinion of that ill-starred ruler in his usual terse manner--"a
+kind-hearted, unprincipled man." His youngest brother, to whom he was
+much attached, and who had shared in the Woolwich frolics, died about
+this time, and his mother was seized with paralysis, and no longer
+recognised him. He felt this change most acutely, for between him and
+his mother there had been a peculiar attachment, and when he was at
+home she would hardly ever let him out of her sight. He used to call
+his home visits doing duty as his mother's _aide-de-camp_. When he
+left England for Galatz she was unconscious, and passed away some
+months later while he was abroad.
+
+It was while General Gordon was on the Danube that preparations were
+made for the expedition against the Ashantees, and many persons
+suggested General Gordon for the command. It would have been an
+excellent occasion for intrusting him with an independent command in
+his country's service; but Sir Garnet, now Lord, Wolseley had recently
+gained much credit by his conduct of the Red River Expedition, and was
+appointed to the command of this force. General Gordon was no doubt
+disappointed at the result, but not so much as he had been in the case
+of Abyssinia, and loyalty to an old Crimean colleague tempered his own
+loss with satisfaction at another's success. Still, on public grounds,
+it must be pronounced unfortunate that the last occasion which was
+offered of employing for a national cause the services of a soldier
+who added the fervour and modesty of Wolfe to the genius of Clive
+should have been allowed to pass by unutilised.
+
+A casual meeting with Nubar Pasha at Constantinople, on his way back
+from the Crimea in 1872, was destined to exercise what may be styled a
+determining influence on the rest of Gordon's life. At that meeting
+Nubar Pasha sounded him as to his willingness to take service under
+the Khedive, and Gordon, attracted by the prospect of doing good work
+on a larger sphere, expressed his own readiness to take up the task of
+establishing authority, and suppressing slavery in the Soudan,
+provided that the permission of his own Government were granted. He
+heard nothing more of the matter for twelve months, but at the end of
+September 1873 he received a communication to the effect that the
+Khedive wished to appoint him to succeed Sir Samuel Baker, and that
+the British Government were quite willing to grant him the necessary
+permission. In a letter of 8th November 1873 to the Adjutant-General
+he said:--
+
+     "I have written an account of what I know of the Khedive's having
+     asked me to take Baker's place. It came about from a
+     conversation I had with Nubar Pasha at our Embassy at
+     Constantinople. This was twelve months ago. The next thing was a
+     telegram a month ago. I have not determined what to do, but the
+     Government have no objection."
+
+He was not long, however, in making up his mind, and early in 1874 he
+was _en route_ for Alexandria. One characteristic act in connection
+with his appointment deserves mention. The Khedive fixed his salary at
+£10,000 a year, but Gordon absolutely refused to accept more than
+£2000 a year--the same sum as he received for his post on the Danube.
+Various reasons have been given for this decision, but there is no
+ground for supposing that it was due to such a very narrow-minded
+prejudice as "that he would take nothing from a heathen." If he ever
+used these words, they must have been intended as a joke, and are not
+to be accepted seriously. A sufficient explanation of his decision is,
+that he had a supreme disdain for money, and the sum offered seemed
+far in excess of the post and work he had to perform. To have received
+£10,000 a year would have added immensely to his worries. He would not
+have known what to do with it, and the voluntary cutting of his salary
+relieved him of a weight of responsibility. Perhaps also he was
+far-seeing enough to realise that he would be less the mere creature
+of the Egyptian ruler with the smaller than with the larger salary,
+while he could gratify his own inner pride that no one should say that
+any sordid motive had a part in his working for semi-civilized
+potentates, whether Chinese or Mussulmen.
+
+I am able to describe Gordon's exact feelings on this point in his own
+words. "My object is to show the Khedive and his people that gold and
+silver idols are not worshipped by all the world. They are very
+powerful gods, but not so powerful as _our_ God. From whom does all
+this money come? from poor miserable creatures who are ground down to
+produce it. Of course these ideas are outrageous. Pillage the
+Egyptians is still the cry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE FIRST NILE MISSION.
+
+
+A brief description of the conquest by Mehemet Ali and his successors
+of the Soudan--a name signifying nothing more than "the land of the
+blacks"--and of the events which immediately preceded the appointment
+of Gordon, is necessary to show the extent of the work intrusted to
+him, and the special difficulties with which he had to contend.
+
+It was in 1819 that the great Pasha or Viceroy Mehemet Ali, still in
+name the lieutenant of the Sultan, ordered his sons Ismail and the
+more famous Ibrahim to extend his authority up the Nile, and conquer
+the Soudan. They do not seem to have experienced any difficulty in
+carrying out their instructions. Nobody was interested in defending
+the arid wastes of that region. The Egyptian yoke promised to be as
+light as any other, and a few whiffs of grape-shot dispersed the only
+adversaries who showed themselves. Ibrahim, who soon took the lead,
+selected Khartoum as the capital of the new province, in preference to
+Shendy, which had formerly been regarded as the principal place in the
+country. In this he showed excellent judgment, for Khartoum occupies
+an admirable position in the fork of the two branches of the Nile; and
+whatever fate may yet befall the region in which the Mahdi and his
+successor the Khalifa have set up their ephemeral authority, it is
+destined by Nature to be the central point and capital of the vast
+region between the Delta and the Equatorial Lakes.
+
+Khartoum lies on the left bank of the Blue Nile--Bahr-el-Azrak--rather
+more than three miles south of its confluence with the White
+Nile--Bahr-el-Abiad--at the northern point of the Isle of Tuti. The
+channel south of that island affords a slightly nearer approach to the
+White Nile, coming out immediately opposite the fortified camp of
+Omdurman, which the Mahdi made his headquarters and capital after the
+famous siege of 1884. There was nothing attractive or imposing about
+Khartoum. It contained 3000 mud houses, and one more pretentious
+building in the Governor's official residence or palace, known as the
+Hukumdariaha. It is surrounded by a wall and ditch, except where the
+Blue Nile supplies the need; and its western wall is not more than
+half a mile from the banks of the White Nile, so that with proper
+artillery it commands both rivers. The Nilometer at this place used to
+give the first and early intimation to the cultivators in Lower Egypt
+of the quantity of water being brought down from the rivers of
+Abyssinia. There seems no other conclusion possible than that sooner
+or later this practical service will compel Egypt, whenever she feels
+strong enough, to re-establish her power at Khartoum; already there is
+evidence that the time has arrived.
+
+Having conquered the Soudan easily, the rulers of Egypt experienced no
+difficulty in retaining it for sixty years; and if other forces,
+partly created by the moral pressure of England and civilized opinion
+generally, had not come into action, there is every reason to suppose
+that their authority would never have been assailed. Nor did the
+Egyptians stand still. By the year 1853 they had conquered Darfur on
+the one side, and pushed their outposts on the other 120 miles south
+of Khartoum. In the rear of the Egyptian garrison came the European
+trader, who took into his service bands of Arab mercenaries, so that
+he pushed his way beyond the Egyptian stations into the region of the
+Bahr Gazelle, where the writ of the Cairo ruler did not run. These
+traders came to deal in ivory, but they soon found that, profitable as
+it was, there was a greater profit in, and a far greater supply of,
+"black ivory." Thus an iniquitous trade in human beings sprang up, and
+the real originators of it were not black men and Mahommedans, but
+white men, and in many instances Englishmen. From slave buying they
+took to slave hunting, and in this way there is no exaggeration in
+declaring that villages and districts were depopulated. Such
+scandalous proceedings could not be carried on in the dark, and at
+last the Europeans involved felt compelled, by the weight of adverse
+opinion, or more probably from a sense of their own peril, to withdraw
+from the business. This touch of conscience or alarm did not improve
+the situation. They sold their stations to their Arab agents, who in
+turn purchased immunity from the Egyptian officers. The slave trade,
+by the pursuit and capture of any tribe rash enough to come within the
+spring of the Arab raiders, flourished as much as ever. The only
+change was that after 1860 Europeans were clear of the stigma that
+attached to any direct participation in it.
+
+The condition of the Soudan during this period has been graphically
+described by Captain Speke, Dr Schweinfurth, and Sir Samuel Baker.
+They all agree in their facts and their conclusions. The people were
+miserably unhappy, because the dread and the reality of compulsory
+slavery hung over their daily life. Those who were not already slaves
+realised their impending fate. Villages were abandoned, districts
+passed out of cultivation, and a large part of the population
+literally vanished. Sir Samuel Baker, speaking of the difference
+between a region he knew well in 1864 and in 1872, wrote in the latter
+year: "It is impossible to describe the change that has taken place
+since I last visited this country. It was then a perfect garden,
+thickly populated, and producing all that man could desire. The
+villages were numerous, groves of plantains fringed the steep cliffs
+on the river's bank, and the natives were neatly dressed in the bark
+cloth of the country. The scene has changed! All is wilderness. The
+population has fled! Not a village is to be seen! This is the certain
+result of the settlement of Khartoum traders. They kidnap the women
+and children for slaves, and plunder and destroy wherever they set
+their foot." How true all this was will be seen in the course of
+Gordon's own experiences.
+
+It has been stated that the Arab slave-dealers made terms with the
+Egyptian officials, and they were even not without influence and the
+means of gaining favourable consideration at Cairo itself. But as they
+increased in numbers, wealth, and confidence in themselves and their
+organisation, the Khedive began to see in them a possible danger to
+his own authority. This feeling was strengthened when the slavers,
+under the leadership of the since notorious Zebehr Rahama, the most
+ambitious and capable of them all, refused to pay their usual tribute.
+Dr Schweinfurth has given a vivid picture of this man in the heyday of
+his power. Chained lions formed part of his escort, and it is recorded
+that he had 25,000 dollars' worth of silver cast into bullets in order
+to foil the magic of any enemy who was said to be proof against lead.
+Strong as this truculent leader was in men and money, the Khedive
+Ismail did not believe that he would dare to resist his power. He
+therefore decided to have recourse to force, and in 1869 he sent a
+small military expedition, under the command of Bellal Bey, to bring
+the Bahr Gazelle into submission. Zebehr had made all his arrangements
+for defence, and on the Egyptian army making its appearance he
+promptly attacked and annihilated it. This success fully established
+the power and reputation of Zebehr, who became the real dictator of
+the Soudan south of Khartoum. The Khedive, having no available means
+of bringing his rebellious dependent to reason, had to acquiesce in
+the defeat of his army. Zebehr offered some lame excuse for his
+boldness and success, and Ismail had to accept it, and bide the hour
+of revenge.
+
+Zebehr, encouraged by this military triumph, turned his arms against
+the Sultans of Darfour, who had incurred his resentment by placing an
+embargo on wheat during the course of his brief campaign with Bellal.
+This offensive action still further alarmed the Khedive Ismail, who
+was fully alive to the danger that might arise to his own position if
+a powerful military confederacy, under a capable chief, were ever
+organised in the Soudan. Instead of allying himself with the
+Darfourians, as would probably have been the more politic course,
+Ismail decided to invade their territory simultaneously with Zebehr.
+Several battles were fought, and one after another the Sultans of
+Darfour, whose dynasty had reigned for 400 years, were overthrown and
+slain. Zebehr received in succession the Turkish titles of Bey and
+Pasha, but he was not satisfied, for he said that as he had done all
+the fighting, he ought to receive the Governor-Generalship of Darfour.
+If he failed to win that title from the Khedive, he succeeded in
+gratifying a more profitable desire, by leading off into slavery the
+larger half of the population of Darfour. He was still engaged in this
+pursuit at the time of Gordon's appearance on the scene, and the force
+at his disposal was thus described by that officer: "Smart,
+dapper-looking fellows, like antelopes, fierce, unsparing, the terror
+of Central Africa, having a prestige far beyond that of the
+Government--these are the slave-dealers' tools," and afterwards they
+no doubt became the main phalanx of the Mahdi's military system.
+
+The financial position of the Egyptian Government in the Soudan was as
+bad as the military and political. The Khedive's Governor-General at
+Khartoum, Ismail Yakoob Pasha, was nominally responsible for the
+administration of Darfour, although Zebehr reaped all the gain. This
+arrangement resulted in a drain on the Khedive's exchequer of £50,000
+a year. The revenue failed to meet the expenditure in the other
+departments, and this was mainly due to the fact that the slavers no
+longer paid toll or tithe in the only trade that they had allowed to
+exist in the Soudan. What share of the human traffic they parted with
+was given in the way of bribes, and found no place in the official
+returns. All the time that this drain continued the Khedive was in a
+constant state of apprehension as to the danger which might arise to
+him in the south. He was also in receipt of frequent remonstrances
+from the English and other Governments as to the iniquities of the
+slave-trade, for which he was primarily in no sense to blame. On the
+other hand, he derived no benefit from the Soudan; and if he thought
+he could have obtained a secure frontier at Abou Hamid, or even at
+Wadi Halfa, he would have resigned all the rest without a sigh. But it
+was his strong conviction that no such frontier was attainable, and
+Ismail clung to his nominal and costly authority over the Soudan in
+the hope that some improvement might be effected, or that, in the
+chapter of accidents, the unexpected might come to his aid.
+
+Alarmed as to his own position, in view of the ambition of Zebehr, and
+harassed by the importunities of England, Ismail, acting on the
+advice of his able and dexterous Minister, Nubar Pasha, one of the
+most skilful diplomatists the East has ever produced, came to the
+decision to relieve himself from at least the latter annoyance, by the
+appointment of Gordon. This was the main object the Khedive and his
+advisers had in view when they invited Gordon to accept the post of
+Governor of the Equatorial Provinces in succession to Sir Samuel
+Baker, who resigned what he found after many years' experience was a
+hopeless and thankless task. The post was in one sense peculiar. It
+was quite distinct from that of the Egyptian Governor-General at
+Khartoum, who retained his separate and really superior position in
+the administration of the Upper Nile region. Moreover, the finances of
+the Equatorial districts were included in the general Soudan Budget,
+which always showed an alarming deficit. These arrangements imparted a
+special difficulty into the situation with which Gordon had to deal,
+and his manner of coping with it will reveal how shrewd he was in
+detecting the root-cause of any trouble, and how prompt were his
+measures to eradicate the mischief. From the first he fully realised
+why he was appointed, viz. "to catch the attention of the English
+people"; but he also appreciated the Khedive's "terrible anxiety to
+put down the slave-trade, which threatens his supremacy." With these
+introductory remarks, the main thread of Gordon's career may be
+resumed.
+
+After the brief hesitation referred to in the last chapter, and the
+reduction of his salary to what he deemed reasonable dimensions,
+Gordon proceeded to Cairo, where he arrived early in the year 1874. As
+in everything else he undertook, Gordon was in earnest about the work
+he had to attempt, and no doubt he had already formed in his mind a
+general plan of action, which would enable him to suppress the
+slave-trade. Here it will suffice to say that his project was based on
+the holding of the White Nile by a line of fortified posts, and with
+the river steamers, which would result in cutting off the slave
+hunters from their best source of supply. The expression of his plans
+in his earnest manner showed up by contrast the hollowness of the
+views and policy of those who had obtained his services. In his own
+graphic and emphatic way he wrote: "I thought the thing real and found
+it a sham, and felt like a Gordon who has been humbugged." He found
+Cairo "a regular hot-bed of intrigues," and among not only the
+Egyptian, but also the European officials. With a prophetic grasp of
+the situation he wrote, "Things cannot last long like this." Had
+Gordon been long detained at Cairo, where the etiquette and the advice
+offered him by every one in an official position exasperated him
+beyond endurance, there is no doubt that he would have thrown up his
+task in disgust. He was animated by the desire to make the sham a
+reality, and to convert the project with which he had been intrusted
+into a beneficial scheme for the suffering population of the Soudan.
+There, at least, he would be removed from the intrigues of the
+capital, and at liberty to speak his own thoughts without giving
+umbrage to one person and receiving worldly counsel from another.
+
+One of the chief bones of contention during the few weeks he passed at
+Cairo was the dispute as to how he should travel to the scene of his
+government. He wished to go by ordinary steamer, with one servant. The
+Minister insisted that he should travel by a special steamer, and
+accompanied by a retinue. Gordon's plan would have saved the Khedive's
+Government £400, but he had to give way to the proprieties. The affair
+had an amusing issue. His special train to Suez met with an accident,
+and he and the Egyptian officials sent to see him off were compelled,
+after two hours' delay, to change into another train, and continue
+their journey in an ordinary passenger carriage, much to the amusement
+of Gordon, who wrote: "We began in glory and ended in shame!" On
+arrival at Souakim, Gordon was put into quarantine for a night, in
+order, as he said, that the Governor might have time to put on his
+official clothes.
+
+Soon his attention was drawn from such frivolities as these to more
+serious matters. He left Cairo on 21st February, reached Souakim on
+26th, left Souakim on 1st March, Berber on 9th March, and entered
+Khartoum 13th March. He brought with him 200 fresh troops, and was
+welcomed with considerable display and many hollow protestations of
+friendship by the Governor-General, Ismail Yakoob.
+
+A few weeks before his arrival at Khartoum an important event had
+taken place, which greatly simplified his ulterior operations. The
+"sudd," an accumulation of mould and aquatic plants which had formed
+into a solid mass and obstructed all navigation, had suddenly given
+way, and restored communication with Gondokoro and the lakes. The
+importance of this event may be measured by the fact that whereas the
+journey to Gondokoro, with the "sudd" in existence, took twenty months
+and even two years to perform, it was reduced by its dispersal to
+twenty-one days. General Gordon wrote the following very pretty
+description of this grassy barrier and its origin:
+
+     "A curious little cabbage-like aquatic plant comes floating down,
+     having a little root ready to attach itself to anything; he meets
+     a friend, and they go together, and soon join roots and so on.
+     When they get to a lake, the current is too strong, and so, no
+     longer constrained to move on, they go off to the sides; others
+     do the same--idle and loitering, like everything up here. After a
+     time winds drive a whole fleet of them against the narrow outlet
+     of the lake and stop it up. Then no more passenger plants can
+     pass through the outlet, while plenty come in at the upper end of
+     the lake; these eventually fill up all the passages which may
+     have been made."
+
+Gordon had the control of seven steamers, and in one of these he left
+Khartoum on 22nd March for the Upper Nile. He had already issued his
+first decree as Governor of the Equator, in which he declared the sale
+of ivory to be a Government monopoly, and forbade the importation of
+firearms and ammunition. It was while he was on this journey that he
+heard some birds--a kind of stork--laughing on the banks of the river.
+In his letters to his sister, which were to stand in the place of a
+diary, he facetiously remarks that he supposes they were amused at the
+idea of anyone being so foolish as to go up the Nile in "the hope of
+doing anything." But Gordon was not to be discouraged. Already he
+liked his work, amid the heat and mosquitoes day and night all the
+year round, and already he was convinced that he could do a good deal
+to ameliorate the lot of the unfortunate people. He reached Gondokoro
+on 16th April, where not only was he not expected, but he found them
+ignorant even of his appointment. He remained there only a few days,
+as he perceived he could do nothing without his stores, still _en
+route_ from Cairo, and returned to Khartoum, which he reached in
+eleven days.
+
+This brief trip satisfied him of several simple facts bearing on the
+situation in the Equatorial Province which the Khedive had sent him
+with such a flourish of trumpets to govern. He found very easily that
+the Egyptian Government possessed no practical authority in that
+region. Beyond the two forts at Gondokoro--garrison 300 men--and
+Fatiko--garrison 200 men--the Khedive had no possessions, and there
+was not even safety for his representatives half a mile from
+their guns. As Gordon said: "The Khedive gave me a Firman as
+Governor-General of the Equator, and left me to work out the rest." He
+began the practical part of his task on the occasion of this return to
+Khartoum by insisting that the accounts of the Equatorial Province
+should be kept distinct from those of the Soudan, and also that Ragouf
+Pasha, sent nominally to assist but really to hinder him, should be
+withdrawn.
+
+Having asserted his individuality after several rows with Ismail
+Yakoob, he became impatient at the delayed arrival of his stores and
+staff, and hastened off to Berber to hurry their progress. As he was
+fond of saying, "Self is the best officer," and his visit to Berber
+hastened the arrival of the supplies which were necessary for his
+subsequent operations. His staff consisted of Colonel Long, of the
+United States Army, who had accompanied him to Gondokoro and been left
+there; Major Campbell, Egyptian Staff; Mr Kemp, an engineer; M.
+Linant, a Frenchman; Mr Anson, Mr Russell, and the Italian Romulus
+Gessi. Two Royal Engineer officers, Lieutenants Chippendall and
+Charles Watson, joined him before the end of the year. He worked very
+hard himself, and he expected those under him to do the same. The
+astonished Egyptian officials looked on in amazement at one in high
+rank, who examined into every detail himself, and who took his turn of
+the hard work. One of Gordon's forms of recreation was to get out and
+help to pull his _dahabeah_. Tucking up his trousers, he would wade
+through the river fearlessly, having learnt from the natives that
+crocodiles never attack a person moving.
+
+At first Ismail Yakoob and his colleagues were filled with curiosity
+and amusement at this phenomenal Englishman--so different, not merely
+from themselves, but from other Europeans--then apprehension seized
+them as to what he would do next in the way of exposing their neglect
+of duty, and finally only the capacity for one sentiment was
+left--relief whenever he turned his back on Khartoum.
+
+Having collected his staff and supplies, he started up the Nile once
+more, to begin the establishment of the line of fortified posts, which
+he had resolved on as the best means of maintaining and extending his
+own authority, and at the same time of curtailing the raids of the
+slave-dealers. The first of these forts or stations he established at
+the entrance of the Saubat river, and while there he made a discovery
+which showed how the slave-trade flourished with such impunity. He
+seized some letters from a slave-dealer to the Egyptian commander at
+Fashoda, stating that he was bringing him the slaves he wanted for
+himself and many others, besides 2000 cows. By several skilful
+manoeuvres Gordon succeeded in rescuing all of them, restoring the
+cows to their owners, and compelling the soldiers of the slavehunters
+to return to their homes, generally in or near Khartoum. Nor was this
+his only success during the first two months of his government, for he
+detected one of his lieutenants in the act of letting a slave convoy
+pass in return for a bribe of £70. On this occasion he had the
+satisfaction of delivering 1600 human beings from slavery. This will
+show that one of his principal difficulties was caused by his own
+subordinates, who were hand-in-glove with the leading slavehunters.
+Another of Gordon's troubles arose from the collapse of his staff
+under the terrible heat. Of those enumerated as having gone up with or
+to him in May, all were dead or invalided in September; and the duties
+of sick-nurse at last became so excessive that Gordon had to order, in
+his own quaint manner, that no one who was sick should be allowed to
+come to headquarters. Only in this way was he able to obtain the time
+necessary for the accomplishment, single handed, of his various
+duties. Such was the strain on him that he gave positive injunctions
+that no more Europeans, and especially young English officers, were to
+be sent up to him.
+
+As soon as it was realised that the new Governor was in earnest, that
+he was bent on crushing the slave-trade, and that he would not permit
+corruption or extortion in any form, he became the mark of general
+hostility. The intrigues to mislead and discredit him were incessant.
+Abou Saoud, who had been formerly banished by Sir Samuel Baker from
+the Soudan, and then taken into high favour by Gordon, turned out a
+fraud and a failure, while Raouf Bey, the nominee of the Khartoum
+Governor-General, was sent back in disgrace. With regard to Abou Saoud
+it may be said that Gordon never really trusted him, that is to say he
+was not taken in by him, but believed he would be less able to do
+injury in his service than at a distance. It was precisely the same
+principle as led him to solicit the co-operation of Zebehr in 1884.
+
+Gordon's method of dealing with those who caused him trouble was short
+and simple. It consisted in a brief but unchallengeable order to go
+back to the base. As the officials would have been murdered by the
+people they had so long and so often injured if they attempted to seek
+shelter among them, they had no alternative save to obey; and thus,
+one after another, Gordon brushed the chief obstructionists from his
+path. He served the old troublesome soldiers who would not work or
+change their ways after the same fashion, by sending them to his
+Botany Bay at Khartoum. In the midst of all these troubles he kept
+well, although "a mere shadow," and he still retained the conviction
+that he would be able to do much good work in this unpromising region.
+
+In dealing with the natives, he endeavoured first to induce them to
+cultivate the ground, providing them with seed and dhoora (_sorghum_),
+and then to accustom them to the use of money. He bought their ivory
+and paid for it in coin, so that in a little time he found that the
+inhabitants, who had held aloof from all previous Egyptian officials,
+freely brought him their ivory and produce for sale. At the same time,
+he made it a point to pay scrupulously for any service the natives
+rendered, and he even endeavoured, as far as he could, to put
+employment in their way. The practice of the Egyptian officials had
+been to lay hands on any natives that came across their path, and
+compel them by force to perform any work they might deem necessary,
+and then to dismiss them without reward or thanks. The result was a
+deep-rooted execration of the whole Egyptian system, which found voice
+in the most popular war-cry of the region: "We want no Turks here! Let
+us drive them away!" But Gordon's mode was widely different. It was
+based on justice and reason, and in the long-run constituted sound
+policy. He paid for what he took, and when he used the natives to drag
+his boats, or to clear tracks through the grassy zone fringing the
+Nile, he always carefully handed over to them cows, dhoora, or money,
+as an equivalent for their work. On the other hand, he was not less
+prompt to punish hostile tribes by imposing taxes on them, and, when
+unavoidable, inflicting punishment as well. But the system averted, as
+far as possible, the necessity of extreme measures, and in this the
+first period of his rule in the Soudan he had few hostile collisions
+with the natives of the country. Indeed, with the exception of the
+Bari tribe, who entrapped Linant, Gordon's best lieutenant after
+Gessi, and slew him with a small detachment, Gordon's enemies in the
+field proved few and insignificant. Even the Baris would not have
+ventured to attack him but for the acquaintance with, and contempt of,
+firearms they had obtained during an earlier success over an Egyptian
+corps.
+
+There is no doubt that this absence of any organised opposition was
+fortunate, for the so-called troops at the disposal of the Governor of
+the Equator were as miserably inefficient and contemptible, from a
+fighting point of view, as any General Gordon ever commanded; and at a
+later stage of his career he plaintively remarked that it had fallen
+to his lot to lead a greater number of cowardly and unwarlike races
+than anyone else. But it was not merely that they were such poor
+fighters that Gordon declared that three natives would put a company
+to flight, but they were so disinclined for any work, and so
+encumbered by their women and children, that their ability to make any
+military show might be as safely challenged as their combative spirit.
+Well might Gordon write: "I never had less confidence in any troops in
+my life." But even these shortcomings were not the worst. The Arab
+soldiers provided by the Egyptian Government, and sent up over and
+over again, in spite of Gordon's protests and entreaties, could not
+stand the climate. They died like flies. Of one detachment of 250,
+half were dead in three months, 100 of the others were invalided, and
+only 25 remained fit for duty. From a further body of 150 men sent as
+a reinforcement, half were reported on the sick list the day after
+their arrival. The main buttress of the Khedive's authority in this
+region was therefore hollow and erected on an insecure foundation. The
+Egyptian soldiers possessed firearms, and the natives, in their
+ignorance that they could not shoot straight, were afraid of them; but
+the natural progress of knowledge would inevitably prove fatal to that
+unreal supremacy, and eventually entail the collapse of the Cairo
+administration in the Soudan and the remoter districts on the
+Equator.
+
+Realising the inefficiency of the Egyptian force, General Gordon set
+himself to the task of providing a better; and mindful of the
+contingent danger of creating a corps that might in the end prove a
+peril to the system it was meant to protect, he resolved that, if
+individually brave and efficient, it should be exceedingly limited in
+numbers, and incapable of casting aside its allegiance to the Khedive.
+He began in a small way by engaging the services of any stalwart
+Soudanese native whom chance placed in his path, and thus he organised
+in the first year of his rule a corps of about forty men as a sort of
+bodyguard. An accident brought him into contact with a party of the
+Niam Niam, a tribe of cannibals from the interior of Africa, but
+possessing a martial spirit and athletic frames. Gordon looked at them
+with the eye of a soldier, and on the spot enrolled fifty of them into
+the small force he was organising. He armed them with spears as well
+as guns, and as these spears were cutting ones, with a blade two feet
+long, they were the more formidable weapon of the two. Gordon
+describes the Niam Niam warriors as looking very fierce, and brave,
+and fearless. They were also thick-set and sturdy, and, above all, so
+indifferent to the tropical heat that they might be relied on not to
+break down from the climate like the Egyptian soldiers. Before the end
+of the year 1876 he had increased the numbers of these two contingents
+to 500 men. It was with these black troops that Gordon humbled the
+pride of the Baris, elated by their two successes, and provided for
+the security of the long Nile route to the lakes.
+
+There was another advantage besides the military in this practical
+measure, one of those numerous administrative acts, in every clime and
+under innumerable conditions, that established the fame and the sound
+sense and judgment of General Gordon. It promoted economy, and
+contributed to the sound finance which Gordon always set himself to
+establish wherever he was responsible. One of Gordon's first
+resolutions had been that his part of the Soudan should cease to be a
+drain, like the rest, on the Cairo Exchequer. He determined that he at
+least would pay his way, and on the threshold of his undertaking he
+had insisted, and carried in the teeth of powerful opposition his
+resolution, that the accounts of the Equatorial Province should be
+kept distinct from those of the Soudan. The employment of black
+soldiers was very economical as well as efficient, and contributed to
+the satisfactory result which was shown in the balance-sheet of the
+Equatorial Province as described by General Gordon for the year 1875.
+In that year the Khedive received £48,000 from the Province which
+Gordon ruled at a total cost of only £20,000, while he had also formed
+a surplus or reserve fund of £60,000 more.
+
+Having thus accomplished as much as possible towards the
+strengthening of the administration and tranquillisation of the
+people, some further particulars may be recorded of his measures and
+success in dealing with that slave-trade, the existence of which was
+the primary cause of his own appearance in the Soudan. Allusion has
+already been made to the considerable number of slaves rescued by a
+few grand _coups_ at the expense of his own subordinates, but during
+the whole of these three years Gordon was in close contact with
+slaves, and the rescue of individuals was of frequent occurrence.
+Several touching incidents are recorded in the letters published from
+Central Africa as to his kindness towards women and infants, to some
+of whom he even gave the shelter of his own tent; and nothing could be
+more effective in the way of illustration than his simple description
+of the following passage with the child-wife of one of his own
+soldiers:
+
+     "The night before I left this place a girl of twelve years, in
+     one of those leather strap girdles, came up to the fire where I
+     was sitting, and warmed herself. I sent for the interpreter, and
+     asked what she wanted. She said the soldier who owned her beat
+     her, and she would not stay with him; so I put her on board the
+     steamer. The soldier was very angry, so I said: 'If the girl
+     likes to stay with you, she may; if she does not, she is free.'
+     The girl would not go back, so she stays on the steamer."
+
+Nor was this the only incident of the kind to show not merely the
+tenderness of his heart, but the extraordinary reputation Gordon had
+acquired by his high-minded action among these primitive and
+down-trodden races. Here are some others that have been selected
+almost at random out of his daily acts of gentleness and true
+charity:--
+
+     "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, and died quite quietly.... A wretched _sister_ of yours
+     [addressed to the late Miss Gordon] is struggling up the road,
+     but she is such a wisp of bones that the wind threatens to
+     overthrow her; so she has halted, preferring the rain to being
+     cast down. I have sent her some dhoora, which will produce a
+     spark of joy in her black and withered carcass. I told my man to
+     see her into one of the huts, and thought he had done so. The
+     night was stormy and rainy, and when I awoke I heard often a
+     crying of a child near my hut within the enclosure. When I got up
+     I went out to see what it was, and passing through the gateway, I
+     saw your and my sister lying dead in a pool of mud--her black
+     brothers had been passing and passing, and had taken no notice of
+     her--so I ordered her to be buried, and went on. In the midst of
+     the high grass was a baby, about a year or so old, left by
+     itself. It had been out all night in the rain, and had been left
+     by its mother. I carried it in, and seeing the corpse was not
+     moved, I sent again about it, and went with the men to have it
+     buried. To my surprise and astonishment, she was alive. After
+     considerable trouble I got the black brothers to lift her out of
+     the mud, poured some brandy down her throat, and got her into a
+     hut with a fire, having the mud washed out of her eyes. She was
+     not more than sixteen years of age. There she now lies. I cannot
+     help hoping she is floating down with the tide to the haven of
+     rest. The next day she was still alive, and the babe, not a year
+     old, seized a gourd of milk, and drank it off like a man, and is
+     apparently in for the pilgrimage of life. It does not seem the
+     worse for its night out, depraved little wretch!... The black
+     sister departed this life at 4 P.M., deeply lamented by me, not
+     so by her black brothers, who thought her a nuisance. When I went
+     to see her this morning I heard the 'lamentations' of something
+     on the other side of the hut. I went round, and found another of
+     our species, a visitor of ten or twelve months to this globe,
+     lying in a pool of mud. I said, 'Here is another foundling!' and
+     had it taken up. Its mother came up afterwards, and I mildly
+     expostulated with her, remarking, however good it might be for
+     the spawn of frogs, it was not good for our species. The creature
+     drank milk after this with avidity."
+
+Such incidents explain the hold Gordon obtained over the indigenous
+population of the Upper Nile. He made friends right and left, as he
+said, and the trust of the poor people, who had never received
+kindness, and whose ignorance of the first principles of justice was
+so complete that he said it would take three generations of sound and
+paternal government to accustom them to it, in General Gordon was
+complete and touching. A chapter might be filled with evidence to this
+effect, but it is unnecessary, as the facts are fully set forth in the
+"Letters" from Central Africa. The result alone need be dwelt on here.
+For only too brief a period, and as the outcome of his personal
+effort, these primitive races saw and experienced the beneficial
+results of a sound and well-balanced administration. The light was all
+too quickly withdrawn; but while it lasted, General Gordon stood out
+as a kind of redeemer for the Soudanese. The poor slaves, from whose
+limbs the chains of their oppressors had only just been struck, would
+come round him when anxious about his health, and gently touch him
+with their fingers. The hostile chiefs, hearing, as Bedden did, that
+he restored his cattle to and recompensed in other ways a friendly
+chief who had been attacked in mistake, would lie in wait for him, and
+lay their views and grievances before him. He could walk fearlessly
+and unarmed through their midst, and along the river banks for miles,
+when an Egyptian official would have required a regiment to guard
+him, and detached soldiers would have been enticed into the long grass
+and murdered. Even the hostile tribes like the Bari, who, from a
+mistaken view of their own military power, would not come to terms,
+showed their recognition of his merit by avoiding in their attacks the
+posts in which he happened to be. Thus there grew up round Gordon in
+the Soudan a sublime reputation for nobleness and goodness that will
+linger on as a tradition, and that, when these remote regions along
+the Equator fall under civilized authority, will simplify the task of
+government, provided it be of the same pattern as that dispensed by
+General Gordon.
+
+As the subject has a permanent practical value, the following passage
+embodying General Gordon's views is well worth repetition:--
+
+     "I feel sure that a series of bad governments have ruined the
+     people. Three generations of good government would scarcely
+     regenerate them. Their secretiveness is the result of the fear
+     that if they give, it may chance that they may want. Their
+     indolence is the result of experience that if they do well, or if
+     they do badly, the result will be _nil_ to them, therefore why
+     should they exert themselves? Their cowardice is the result of
+     the fear of responsibility. They are fallen on so heavily if
+     anything goes wrong. Their deceit is the result of fear and want
+     of moral courage, as they have no independence in their
+     characters. For a foreign power to take this country would be
+     most easy. The mass are far from fanatical. They would rejoice in
+     a good government, let its religion be what it might. A just
+     administration of law, and security of person against arbitrary
+     conduct, would do a great deal. It is the Government that needs
+     civilizing far more than the people. Mehemet Ali and his
+     descendants have always gone on the principle of enriching
+     themselves by monopolies of all sorts. None, not even the present
+     Khedive (Ismail), have brought in civilizing habits or customs
+     with any desire to benefit the country, or, at any rate, they
+     have subordinated this desire to that of obtaining an increased
+     revenue."
+
+But while Gordon brought kindness and conciliation into play, the
+settlement of the region entrusted to his care called for sterner
+measures, and he was not the man, with all his nobility of character
+and overflowing supply of the milk of human kindness, to refrain from
+those vigorous and decisive measures that keep turbulent races in
+subjection, and advance the cause of civilization, which in so many
+quarters of the world must be synonymous with British supremacy. The
+student of his voluminous writings will find many passages that
+express philosophical doubts as to our right to coerce black races,
+and to bind peoples who in their rude and primitive fashion are free
+to the car of our wide-world Empire. But I am under no obligation to
+save them the trouble of discovery by citing them, more especially
+because I believe that they give a false impression of the man. I have
+affirmed, and shall adduce copious and, as I think, convincing
+evidence, at every turn of his varied experiences, that the true
+Gordon was not the meek, colourless, milk-and-water, text-expounding,
+theological disputant many would have us accept as a kind of Bunyan's
+hero, but in action an uncompromising and resistless leader, who, when
+he smote, at once struck his hardest. Gordon has supplied the answer
+to his own misgivings as to our moral right to coerce and subject
+tribes who advanced their natural claims to be left undisturbed: "We
+cannot have them on our flank, and it is indispensable that they shall
+be subjected."
+
+Having organised his new forces, equipped all his steamers--one of
+which was fitted out with machinery that had been left in Baker's time
+to rust in the Korosko Desert--General Gordon set himself to the task
+of systematically organising the line of posts which he had conceived
+and begun to construct in the first stages of his administration. The
+object of these posts was twofold. By them he would cut the slave
+routes in two, and also open a road to the great Lakes of the Equator.
+In the first few months of his residence he had transferred the
+principal station from Gondokoro to Lardo, twelve miles lower down the
+stream, and on the left instead of the right bank of the river. These
+places lie a little on each side of the fifth degree of north
+latitude, and Gordon fixed upon Lardo as his capital, because it was
+far the healthier. Above Lardo he established at comparatively short
+stages further posts at, in their order, Rageef, Beddem, Kerri,
+Moogie, and Laboré, immediately beyond the last of which occur the
+Fola Falls, the only obstruction to navigation between Khartoum and
+the Lakes. Above those Falls Gordon established a strong post at
+Duffli, and dragged some of his steamers overland, and floated them on
+the short link of the Nile between that place and Lake Albert,
+establishing a final post north of that lake, at Wadelai. When his
+fleet commanded that lake, he despatched his lieutenant, Gessi, across
+it up the Victoria Nile, connecting the two great lakes, and continued
+his chain of posts along it by Magungo, Anfina, Foweira, and Mrooli,
+to the very borders of Mtesa's dominion in Uganda. By means of these
+twelve posts General Gordon established the security of his
+communications, and he also inspired his men with fresh confidence,
+for, owing to the short distances between them, they always felt sure
+of a near place of refuge in the event of any sudden attack. Thus it
+came to pass that whereas formerly Egyptian troops could only move
+about in bodies of 100 strong, General Gordon was able to send his
+boats and despatches with only two soldiers in charge of them; and
+having entirely suppressed the slave-trade within his own
+jurisdiction, he was left free to accomplish the two ulterior objects
+of his mission, viz. the installation of the Khedive's flag on the
+Lakes, and the establishment of definite relations with Mtesa, whose
+truculent vassal, Kaba Rega, of Unyoro, showed open hostility and
+resentment at the threatened encroachment on his preserves.
+
+It was neither a reprehensible nor an unintelligible vanity for the
+Egyptian ruler to desire the control of the whole of the great river,
+whose source had been traced south of the Equator, and 2000 miles
+beyond the limits of the Pharaohs' dominions. Nor was the desire
+diminished when, without sharing the gratification of the Prince in
+whose name he acted, General Gordon advanced cogent reasons for
+establishing a line of communication from Gondokoro, across the
+territory of Mtesa, with the port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. As
+Gordon pointed out, that place was nearly 1,100 miles from Khartoum,
+and only 900 from Mombasa, while the advance to the Lakes increased
+the distance from the one place by nearly 300 miles, and reduced that
+to the other in the same measure. This short and advantageous line of
+communication with the Equatorial Province and Upper Nile was beyond
+both the power and the sphere of the Khedive; but in the task of
+winning one of the most important of African zones formally recognised
+as lying within the British sphere of influence, the route advocated
+by General Gordon in 1875 has now become of the most undoubted value
+and importance.
+
+The aversion to all forms of notoriety except that which was
+inseparable from his duty led Gordon to shrink from the publicity and
+congratulations sure to follow if he were the first to navigate those
+inland seas on the Equator. Having made all the arrangements, and
+provided for the complete security of the task, he decided to baffle
+the plans in his honour of the Royal Geographical Society, by
+delegating the duty of first unfurling the Khedive's flag on their
+waters to his able and much-trusted lieutenant, Gessi. Although he
+sometimes took hasty resolutions, in flat opposition to his declared
+intentions, he would probably have adhered to this determination but
+for reading in one of Dr Schweinfurth's published lectures that "it
+may be that Lake Albert belongs to the Nile basin, but it is not a
+settled fact, for there are seventy miles between Foweira and Lake
+Albert never explored, and one is not authorised in making the Nile
+leave Lake Albert. The question is very doubtful." The accidental
+perusal of this passage changed General Gordon's views. He felt that
+this task devolved on him as the responsible administrator of the
+whole region, and that his natural shrinking from trumpery and too
+often easily-earned geographical honours, which he has bluntly
+asserted should only be granted by the Sovereign, did not justify his
+evading a piece of work that came within his day's duty. Therefore he
+resolved to ascertain the fact by personal examination, and to set at
+rest the doubts expressed by the German traveller.
+
+Expanding Dr Schweinfurth's remarks, he explained that "it was
+contended that the Nile did not flow out of Lake Victoria, and thence
+through Lake Albert, and so northward, but that one river flowed out
+of Lake Victoria and another out of Lake Albert, and that these two
+rivers united and formed the Nile. This statement could not be
+positively denied, inasmuch as no one had actually gone along the
+river from Foweira to Magungo. So I went along it with much suffering,
+and settled the question. I also found that from Foweira or Karuma
+Falls there was a series of rapids to Murchison Falls, thus _by
+degrees_ getting rid of the 1000-feet difference of level between
+Foweira and Magungo." While mapping this region, Gordon one day
+marched eighteen miles through jungle and in pouring rain, and on each
+of the four following days he also walked fifteen miles--and the month
+was August, only a few miles north of the Equator, or, in other words,
+the very hottest period of the year. Having established the course of
+the Nile and its navigability to the Murchison Falls close to the
+Victoria Nyanza, General Gordon gave what he thought was a finishing
+touch to this exploring expedition by effecting an arrangement with
+King Mtesa.
+
+But in order to explain the exact significance of this step, and the
+consequent disappointment when it was found that the arrangement was
+illusory and destitute of practical value, it is necessary to go back
+a little, and trace the course of events in the Uganda region.
+
+The Egyptian advance towards the south brought in its train two
+questions of external policy. One was with Abyssinia, of which we
+shall hear much in the next chapter; and the other was with the
+kingdom of Uganda and the kinglets who regarded Mtesa as their chief.
+Of these the principal was Kaba Rega, chief of Unyoro, and the
+recognised ruler of the territory lying between the two Lakes. He was
+a man of capacity and spirit, and had raised himself to the position
+he occupied by ousting kinsmen who had superior claims to the
+privileges of supreme authority. In the time of Gordon's predecessor,
+Sir Samuel Baker, Kaba Rega had come to the front as a native
+champion, resolved to defy the Egyptians and their white leaders to do
+their worst. In a spirited attack on Baker's camp at Masindi, he
+endeavoured to settle the pretensions of his invaders at a blow, but
+he found that numbers were no match for the superior arms of his
+opponent. But defeat did not diminish his spirit. Baker decreed his
+deposition as King of Unyoro, proclaiming in his stead a cousin named
+Rionga, but the order had no practical effect. Kaba Rega retired a
+little from the vicinity of the Egyptian forces; he retained "the
+magic stool" of authority over the lands and peoples of Unyoro, and
+his cousin Rionga possessed nothing beyond the empty title contained
+in an Egyptian official decree. This was the position when Gordon
+appeared on the scene, and his first obligation was to give something
+like force and reality to the pretensions of Rionga.
+
+If Kaba Rega had been satisfied to retain the practical marks of
+authority, it is probable that Gordon would have been well content to
+leave him alone, but irritated by the slight placed upon him by Sir
+Samuel Baker, he assumed the offensive on every possible occasion. He
+attacked Colonel Long, one of Gordon's lieutenants, on his way back
+from Mtesa, just as he had Baker; he threatened the Egyptian station
+at Foweira; and above all, he welcomed the thwarted slave-dealers, who
+were not averse to taking their revenge in any form at Gordon's
+expense. In these circumstances an active policy was forced on General
+Gordon, who promptly decided that Kaba Rega was "too treacherous" to
+be allowed to retain his kingdom, and that measures must be taken to
+set up Rionga in his place. It was at this moment, unfortunately, that
+General Gordon discovered the worthlessness of his troops, and when,
+in 1876, he had organised his new force, and was ready to carry out
+the policy he had decided on in 1874, he was thinking mostly of his
+departure from the Soudan, and had no time to proceed to extremities
+against these southern adversaries, for behind Kaba Rega stood Mtesa.
+
+When Gordon, in January 1876, entered the territory of Unyoro,
+belonging to Kaba Rega, he found it desirable to take up the cause of
+Anfina, in preference to that of Rionga, as the more influential
+chief; but neither proved in popularity or expertness a match for Kaba
+Rega. The possession of "the magic stool," the ancestral throne or
+copper seat of the family of Unyoro, believed to be identified with
+the fortunes of the little kingdom, alone compensated for the few
+losses in the open field, as Kaba Rega was always careful to retreat
+on the approach of his most dangerous adversary. Neither of his
+kinsmen was likely to prove a formidable foe. Rionga passed his hours
+in native excesses, in the joy of receiving the titular rank of Vakil
+to the Khedive. Anfina alienated Gordon's friendly feeling by
+suggesting the wholesale assassination of Kaba Rega's officers and
+followers when they came on a mission to his camp. Kaba Rega carried
+off the stool to the south, or rather the west, of Victoria Nyanza,
+and bided his time, while Mtesa wrote a half-defiant and
+half-entreating letter to Gordon, asking him to spare Unyoro. Mtesa
+had his own views of gain, and when Gordon proposed to establish a
+fortified post with a garrison of 160 men at Urundogani, the Uganda
+ruler begged that it might be stationed at his own capital, Dubaga,
+with the view of either winning over the troops to his service or
+employing them against his own enemies. Gordon saw through this
+proposal and withheld his consent, but his lieutenant, Nuehr Agha,
+acted on his own responsibility, and moved with his force to Dubaga.
+In a few weeks Gordon learnt that they were all, practically speaking,
+prisoners, and that his already heavy enough task had been increased
+by the necessity of rescuing them.
+
+Gordon accordingly advanced in person to Mrooli, the nearest point to
+Mtesa's capital without actually crossing his frontier, and as he had
+with him a strong force of his newly-raised black contingent, he felt
+confident of his capacity to punish Mtesa for any act of treachery,
+and to annex, if necessary, his kingdom. But Gordon did not wish to
+force a war on Mtesa, or to increase the burdens of the Nile dominion.
+All he wanted was the restoration of the men detained at Dubaga, and
+he soon received assurances that his presence, and the moral effect of
+the force he had brought with him, would attain this result without
+any necessity for fighting. As Gordon worded his complaint, it was a
+case not of his wishing to annex Mtesa, but of Mtesa annexing his
+soldiers.
+
+Having satisfied himself that Mtesa was not willing to risk a quarrel,
+General Gordon sent Nuehr Agha with ninety men to bring back the 140
+men detained at Dubaga, and the task was accomplished without any
+hitch or delay. This was due partly to the military demonstrations,
+and partly also to a clever diplomatic move by Gordon, who wrote to
+Mtesa expressing his readiness to recognise by treaty the independence
+of Uganda, and to provide a safe-conduct for the King's ambassadors to
+Cairo. At this time the late Dr Emin, who claimed to be an Arab and a
+Mahommedan, was at Dubaga, but his influence on the course of events
+was _nil_, and he and Gordon never met. After the return of the troops
+Gordon commenced his retirement to the Nile, and after an arduous and
+dangerous march of eighty miles through a swampy jungle beset by Kaba
+Rega's tribesmen, who were able to throw their spears with accurate
+aim for fifty yards, he succeeded in reaching Masindi without loss.
+Then Gordon drew up a plan of campaign for the effectual subjugation
+of Kaba Rega, but he did not wait to see it carried out, as the first
+move could not be made until the grass was dry enough to burn. As soon
+as that season arrived three columns were to march against the chief
+of Unyoro in the following order--one consisting of 150 black
+soldiers, and 3000 of the Lango tribe, under Rionga, moving from
+Mrooli to Kisoga; another of about the same strength from Keroto to
+Masindi; and the third operating from the Albert Lake with the
+steamer. The plan was a good one, but Kaba Rega, by having recourse to
+his old Fabian tactics, again baffled it.
+
+Although these events happened when Gordon had reached Cairo, it will
+be appropriate to give here the result of this campaign. The Unyoro
+chieftain retired before the Egyptians, who carried off much cattle,
+and when they in turn retired, he advanced and reoccupied his country.
+After a brief period the Egyptians definitely gave up their stations
+at Mrooli, Foweira, and Masindi, on the left bank of the Victoria
+Nile, and confined themselves to those on its right bank, and thus
+finally were Mtesa and Kaba Rega left to enjoy their own rude ideas of
+independence and regal power.
+
+So far as General Gordon was concerned, the Uganda question was then,
+both for this period and for his subsequent and more important
+command, definitely closed. But one personal incident remains to be
+chronicled. When Gordon received Mtesa's request to garrison Dubaga,
+and had actually planted a station on the Victoria Lake, he
+telegraphed the facts to the Khedive, who promptly replied by
+conferring on him the Medjidieh Order. At the moment that Gordon
+received this intimation he had decided that it would not be politic
+to comply with Mtesa's request to garrison Dubaga, and he had only
+just succeeded in rescuing an Egyptian force from a position of danger
+in the manner described. He felt that he had obtained this decoration
+"under false pretences," but the recollection of the hard and
+honourable work he had performed must have soon salved his conscience.
+
+At an early stage of his work Gordon felt disposed to throw it up, and
+during the whole three years a constant struggle went on within
+himself as to whether he should stay or return to England. Many causes
+produced this feeling. There was, in the first place, disillusionment
+on discovering that the whole thing, from the Egyptian Government
+point of view, was a sham, and that his name was being made use of to
+impose on Europe. But then he thought he saw an opportunity of doing
+some useful and beneficial work, and, stifling his disappointment, he
+went on. Arrived on the scene, he found himself thwarted by his
+Egyptian colleagues, and treated with indifference by the Cairene
+Government. He also discovered that his troops were worthless, and
+that not one of his officers, civil and military, cared a fig for the
+task in hand. Their one thought was how to do nothing at all, and
+Gordon's patience and energy were monopolised, and in the end
+exhausted, by attempts to extract work from his unwilling
+subordinates. Even the effort to educate them up to the simple
+recognition that a certain amount of work had to be done, and that
+unless it were well done, it had to be done over again, resulted in
+failure. To the plain instructions he gave, they would give an
+interpretation of their own; and while fully admitting on explanation
+that this was not the proper way of executing any task, they would
+invariably repeat it after their own fashion, until at length Gordon
+could see no alternative to performing the task himself. Thus were his
+labours indefinitely multiplied, and only his exceptional health and
+energy enabled him to cope with them at all. How much they affected
+him in his own despite may be judged from the exclamation which
+escaped him, after he had obtained a considerable success that would
+have elated any other leader--"But the worry and trouble have taken
+all the syrup out of the affair!"
+
+The personal glimpses obtainable of Gordon during these depressing
+years, while engaged on a task he foresaw would be undone by the
+weakness and indifference of the Egyptian authorities as soon as he
+gave it up, are very illustrative of his energy and inherent capacity
+for command. The world at large was quite indifferent to the heroism
+and the self-denial, amounting to self-sacrifice, which alone enabled
+him to carry on his own shoulders, like a modern Atlas, the whole
+administration of a scarcely conquered region, which covered ten
+degrees of latitude. But we who have to consider his career in all its
+bearings, and to discover, as it were, behind his public and private
+acts, the true man, cannot afford to pass over so lightly passages
+that are in a very special degree indicative of the man's character
+and temperament. In no other period of his career did he devote
+himself more strenuously to the details, in themselves monotonous and
+uninteresting, of a task that brought him neither present nor
+prospective satisfaction. When the tools with which he was supplied
+failed him, as they did at every turn, he threw himself into the
+struggle, and supplied the shortcomings of all the rest. When it was a
+matter of pulling the boats up the river, he was the first at the
+ropes, and the last to leave them, wading through the water with his
+trousers up. If it was his steamer that had run aground, all the
+active labour, as well as the organisation, fell on him. Sooner than
+add to the work of those in attendance on him, he would be seen
+preparing and cooking his own food; and because he could do it better
+than his native servant, he would clean his duck-gun, with the whole
+camp agape, until his ways were realised, at an Excellency doing his
+own work. Nor did he spare himself physically. His average day's walk,
+which satisfied him that he was in good health, was fourteen miles;
+but he often exceeded twenty miles, and on one occasion he even walked
+thirty-five miles under a tropical sun. Of the conduct of his soldiers
+against an enemy, or in coping with the difficulties of river
+navigation, he was always nervous, and whether for work or for
+fighting he used, he said, "to pray them up as he did his men in
+China"; but without his knowledge, one of his own soldiers was
+vigilantly observant of his conduct, and has recorded, through the
+instrumentality of Slatin Pasha, his recollections of Gordon as a
+fighter and leader of soldiers:--
+
+     "Gordon was indeed a brave man. I was one of his chiefs in the
+     fight against the Mima and Khawabir Arabs; it was in the plain of
+     Fafa, and a very hot day. The enemy had charged us, and had
+     forced back the first line, and their spears were falling thick
+     around us; one came within a hair's-breadth of Gordon, but he did
+     not seem to mind it at all, and the victory we won was entirely
+     due to him and his reserve of 100 men. When the fight was at its
+     worst he found time to light a cigarette. Never in my life did I
+     see such a thing; and then the following day, when he divided the
+     spoil, no one was forgotten, and he kept nothing for himself. He
+     was very tender-hearted about women and children, and never
+     allowed them to be distributed, as is our custom in war, but he
+     fed and clothed them at his own expense, and had them sent to
+     their homes as soon as the war was over."
+
+This picture of Gordon lighting a cigarette in the press of a doubtful
+battle may well be coupled with that already given during the Taeping
+rebellion, of his standing unarmed in the breach of an assaulted
+stockade, while around him pressed on or wavered the individuals of a
+forlorn hope. It will be difficult for anyone to find in all the
+annals of war another instance of human courage more nearly
+approaching the sublime.
+
+In November 1875 General Gordon had fully made up his mind to resign
+and return to Cairo, in consequence of the indifference with which he
+was treated by the Khedive's Government, and he had actually written
+the telegrams announcing this intention, and given orders to pack up
+the stores for the passage down the Nile, when the receipt of a long
+letter full of praise and encouragement from the Khedive Ismail
+induced him to alter his plans, to tear up the telegrams, and to
+continue his work. General Gordon gives his reason for changing his
+mind very briefly: "The man had gone to all this expense under the
+belief that I would stick to him; I could not therefore leave him." So
+he stayed on for another year. In July 1876 he formally and more
+deliberately resigned, but the execution of this decision had to be
+postponed by the necessity he felt under, as already explained, of
+solving the geographical questions connected with the Nile and the
+Lakes, and also of securing the southern frontier against Kaba Rega
+and Mtesa.
+
+These tasks accomplished, or placed in the way of accomplishment,
+there remained no let or hindrance to his departure; and by the end of
+October he was in Khartoum. But even then he felt uncertain as to his
+ultimate plans, and merely telegraphed to the Cairo authorities that
+he intended to come down for a time. With his back turned on the scene
+of his labours, the old desire not to leave his work half done came
+over him, and all the personal inconvenience and incessant hardship
+and worry of the task were forgotten in the belief that he was called
+on by God "to open the country thoroughly to both Lakes." He saw very
+clearly that what he had accomplished in the three years of his stay
+did not provide a permanent or complete cure of the evils arising out
+of the slave-trade and the other accompaniments of misgovernment, and
+he did not like to be beaten, which he admitted he was if he retired
+without remedying anything. These reflections explain why, even when
+leaving, his thoughts were still of returning and resuming the work,
+little more than commenced, in those Mussulman countries, where he
+foresaw a crisis that must come about soon.
+
+But these thoughts and considerations did not affect his desire for a
+change to Lower Egypt, or even to visit home; and leaving Khartoum on
+12th November he reached Cairo on 2nd December. He then formally
+placed his resignation in the Khedive's hands, but it was neither
+accepted nor declined; and the Khedive, in some mysterious manner,
+seems to have arrived at the sound conclusion that after a brief rest
+General Gordon would sicken of inaction, and that it would be no
+difficult manner to lure him back to that work in the Soudan which had
+already established its spell over him. Of that work, considerable as
+it was as the feat of a single man, it need only be said that it would
+have remained transitory in its effect and inconclusive in its results
+if General Gordon had finally turned his back on it at the close of
+his tenure of the post of Governor of the Equatorial Province at the
+end of the year 1876. When he left Cairo in the middle of December for
+England there was really very little reason to doubt that at the right
+moment he would be ready to take up the work again.
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+The transcriber made the following changes to the text to
+correct obvious errors:
+
+ 1. p.  34, charactistic --> characteristic
+ 2. p.  84, while sails --> white sails
+ 3. p. 162, lieutenaut --> lieutenant
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GORDON, VOLUME I***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 26419-8.txt or 26419-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/4/1/26419
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/26419-8.zip b/26419-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b4bfda1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-8.zip
diff --git a/26419-h.zip b/26419-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b226db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-h.zip
diff --git a/26419-h/26419-h.htm b/26419-h/26419-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91a1a20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-h/26419-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,8060 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life of Gordon, Volume I, by Demetrius Charles Boulger</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    /*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */
+
+    <!--
+    body                 {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    p                    {margin-top: 1em;
+                          margin-bottom: 0em;
+                          text-align: justify;}
+    /*  Author  ---------------------------------------------- */
+    p.author, p.author-up {text-align: right;
+                           font-variant: small-caps;
+                           margin-right: 10%;}
+    p.author-up           {margin-top: -1.0em;}
+    /* Letter  ----------------------------------------------- */
+    p.ltr-date           {text-align: right;
+                          margin-right: 5%;
+                          margin-bottom: -0.5em;}
+    /* Text Blocks  ------------------------------------------ */
+    blockquote           {text-align: justify; font-size: 0.9em;}
+    .blockquot           {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    pre.note             {font-size: 1.0em;}
+    .note, .noteBox      {margin-left: 10%;
+                          margin-right: 10%;
+                          font-size: 0.9em;}
+    .noteBox             {border-style: dashed;
+                          border-width: thin;
+                          padding-left: 1em;
+                          padding-right: 1em}
+    div.trans-note       {
+      	                  margin: 10%;
+      	                  padding: 0.25em;
+      	                  font-size: 0.9em;
+      	                  background-color: #E6F0F0;
+      	                  color: inherit;
+                          }
+
+    /* Headers  ---------------------------------------------- */
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6    {text-align: center; clear: both;}
+    /* Horizontal Rules  ------------------------------------- */
+    hr                   {width: 65%;
+                          margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;
+                          margin-top: 2.0em; margin-bottom: 2.0em;
+                          clear: both;}
+    hr.full              {width: 100%;}
+    hr.short             {width: 20%;}
+    hr.tiny              {width: 10%;}
+    hr.tight             {margin-top: 1.0em; margin-bottom: 1.0em;}
+    /*  General Formatting  ---------------------------------- */
+    .sc			 {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    .smcap               {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    .allsc               {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;}
+    .lowercase           {text-transform: lowercase;}
+    .spacious            {letter-spacing: 0.15em;}
+    .ws                  {word-spacing: 4em;}
+    .bold                {font-weight: bold;}
+    .title-normal        {font-weight: normal;}
+    span.pagenum         {position: absolute;
+                          right: 1%;
+                          color: gray; background-color: inherit;
+                          letter-spacing:normal;
+                          text-indent: 0em; text-align:right;
+                          font-style: normal;
+                          font-variant:normal;
+                          font-weight: normal;
+                          font-size: 8pt;}
+    p.right              {text-align: right; margin-right: 5%;}
+    p.center             {text-align: center;}
+    p.heading            {text-align: center; font-weight: bold;}
+    .super               {font-size: smaller;
+	                  vertical-align: 2px;}
+    sup                  {vertical-align: 0.25em;}
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    /* Footnotes  -------------------------------------------- */
+    .footnotes           {border: none;}
+    .footnote .label     {float:left; text-align:left; width:2em;}
+    .fnanchor            {font-size: smaller; text-decoration: none;
+                          font-style: normal; font-variant:normal;
+                          font-weight: normal; vertical-align: 0.25em;}
+    .footnote            {font-size: 0.9em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .figcenter           {padding: 1em;
+                          margin: 0;
+                          text-align: center;
+                          font-size: 0.9em;}
+    .figure img         {border: none;}
+    .figure p           {margin: 0; text-indent: 1em;}
+    .figcenter           {margin: auto; clear: both;}
+    /* Tables  ----------------------------------------------- */
+    .center table        {margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: left;}
+    table                {margin-top: 1em;   /* space above the table */
+	                  caption-side: top; /* or bottom! */
+	                  empty-cells: show; /* usual default is hide */
+                          border-spacing: 2.0em 1.0em;
+                          font-size: 0.9em;}
+    td                   {padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;}
+    table.toc            {line-height: 1.1em;
+                          font-size: 90%;
+			  width: 80%;}
+    /* Links  ------------------------------------------------ */
+    a:link               {color: blue; background-color: inherit; text-decoration: none}
+    link                 {color: blue; background-color: inherit; text-decoration: none}
+    a:visited            {color: blue; background-color: inherit; text-decoration: none}
+    a:hover              {color: red; background-color: inherit}
+
+    hr.pg   { width: 100%;
+              margin-top: 0em;
+              margin-bottom: 0em;
+              border: solid black;
+              height: 5px; }
+    pre      {font-size: 85%; }
+    -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Life of Gordon, Volume I, by Demetrius
+Charles Boulger</h1>
+<pre>
+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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Life of Gordon, Volume I</p>
+<p>Author: Demetrius Charles Boulger</p>
+<p>Release Date: August 24, 2008  [eBook #26419]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GORDON, VOLUME I***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs, Richard J. Shiffer,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="trans-note">
+<p class="heading">Transcriber's Note</p>
+<p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text as
+faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other
+inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious error
+is noted at the <a href="#END">end</a> of this e-book.</p>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1 class="spacious"><small>THE</small><br />
+LIFE OF GORDON</h1>
+
+<h3 class="title-normal">MAJOR-GENERAL, R.E., C.B.; TURKISH FIELD-MARSHAL, GRAND<br />
+CORDON MEDJIDIEH, AND PASHA; CHINESE TITU (FIELD-MARSHAL),<br />
+YELLOW JACKET ORDER.</h3>
+
+<br />
+
+<h4>"<i>'Tis a name which ne'er hath been dishonour'd,</i><br />
+<i>And never will, I trust&mdash;most surely never</i><br />
+<i>By such a youth as thou.</i>"</h4>
+<p class="author">&mdash;Swinton on Adam Gordon.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h3>DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER</h3>
+
+<h4 class="title-normal">AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF CHINA;" "ENGLAND AND RUSSIA IN CENTRAL<br />
+ASIA;" "LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK," ETC., ETC.</h4>
+
+<br />
+
+<h3>WITH PORTRAIT</h3>
+
+<br />
+
+<h3>VOLUME I</h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3 class="spacious">LONDON<br />
+T. FISHER UNWIN</h3>
+<h4>PATERNOSTER SQUARE</h4>
+
+<h5>MDCCCXCVI</h5>
+
+<h4>[<i>All rights reserved.</i>]</h4>
+
+
+<a name="frontispiece" id="frontispiece"></a>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 304px;">
+<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="304" height="464" alt="Portrait of General Gordon, taken soon after the
+Crimea." title="" />
+<p class="heading"><span class="sc"><span class="spacious">General Gordon</span><br />
+from a photograph taken shortly after the crimea and lent by his niece, Miss Dunlop.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">As</span> so many books of a more or less biographical nature have been
+written about General Charles Gordon, it is both appropriate and
+natural that I should preface the following pages with a statement of
+a personal character as to how and why I have written another.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1881 I told General Gordon that I contemplated describing
+his career as soon as I had finished writing my "History of China."
+His laughing reply was: "You know I shall never read it, but you can
+have all my papers now in the possession of my brother, Sir Henry
+Gordon." My history took a very long time to write, and the third
+volume was not published until April 1884, when General Gordon was
+hemmed in, to use his own words, at Khartoum.</p>
+
+<p>For over two years General Gordon's papers and letters remained in my
+custody, and they included the Equator and Soudan correspondence,
+which was so admirably edited by Dr Birkbeck Hill in that intensely
+interesting volume, "Colonel Gordon in Central Africa." The papers
+relating to China and the Taeping Rebellion were freely used in my
+history. To them I have the privilege of adding in the present volume
+an authoritative narrative of the events that followed the execution
+of the Taeping Wangs at Soochow, and of thus rendering tardy justice
+to the part taken in them by Sir Halliday Macartney. Among the
+contents of the large portmanteau in which all these documents were
+stored, I noticed a thick bundle of letters, in somewhat faded
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>handwriting, and an examination of their contents showed me that they
+were of the deepest interest as relating to the important events of
+the Crimean War, and to the first seven years of Gordon's service in
+the Army. I at once went to Sir Henry Gordon, who honoured me with his
+friendship and confidence in no less a degree than his distinguished
+and ever-lamented brother, and begged of him permission to publish
+them. He at once gave his consent, which was ratified by the late Miss
+Augusta Gordon, the hero's favourite sister. The letters appeared in
+July 1884, under the title of "General Gordon's Letters from the
+Crimea, the Danube, and Armenia." In the proper place I have told what
+Kinglake, the historian of the war, thought of them and their author.</p>
+
+<p>In the rush of books that followed the fall of Khartoum, no favourable
+opportunity for carrying out my original purpose presented itself;
+and, indeed, I may say that the anonymous biographical work I
+performed during the course of the year 1885 would have filled a
+large-sized volume. Moreover, the terrible events of the fall of
+Khartoum, and the failure of the relieving expedition, were too close
+at hand to allow of a just view being taken of them, and it was
+necessary to defer an intention which I never abandoned. It seemed to
+me that the tenth anniversary of the fall of Khartoum would be an
+appropriate occasion for the appearance of a Life claiming to give a
+complete view and final verdict on the remarkable career and character
+of the man, with whom his own friendly inclination had made me
+exceptionally well acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>In 1893, therefore, I began to take steps to carry out my project, and
+to the notification of my intention and the application for assistance
+in regard to unpublished papers, I received from several of the
+principal representatives of the Gordon family encouraging replies.
+But at this time both Sir Henry Gordon and Miss Gordon were dead, and
+I discovered that the latter had bound her literary executrix, Miss
+Dunlop, a niece of General Gordon's, by a promise not to divulge the
+bulk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> of the unpublished papers during her lifetime. I am happy to
+say, however, that Miss Dunlop, without accepting any responsibility
+for what I have written, has with the greatest possible kindness read
+these pages, and assisted me to attain complete accuracy in the facts,
+so far as they relate to family and personal matters, but excluding
+altogether from her purview all military and political topics. For
+that co-operation, unfortunately restricted by the condition of the
+promise to Miss Gordon, I avail myself of this opportunity to express
+my grateful thanks; and I am also indebted to Miss Dunlop for the
+youthful unpublished portrait of Gordon which forms the frontispiece
+of this volume, and also for that of the house in which he was born.</p>
+
+<p>When I was first confronted with the difficulty that the unpublished
+papers would not be accessible to me, I contemplated the abandonment
+of my task; but a brief consideration made me conclude that, even
+without these documents, I had special knowledge, derived from Sir
+Henry Gordon and many other sources, that would enable me to deal with
+all the more important passages of General Gordon's life. The result
+must be judged from the Life itself; but I have not sought to make any
+partisan attack on anyone, although, when I have felt compelled to
+criticise and censure, I have done so with a full sense of
+responsibility as well as with reluctance. I may be pardoned the
+confidence I express when I say that I am sure nothing in the
+unpublished documents will affect the main conclusions to which I have
+come on the Khartoum mission, its inception and disastrous close.</p>
+
+<p>I am permitted by the courtesy of the proprietors of <i>The Times</i> to
+reproduce in these pages the several articles and letters which
+originally appeared in the columns of that paper.</p>
+
+<p>It is a personal matter, of no interest except to myself, but I should
+like to state that the work would have been out much sooner but for a
+long and serious illness.</p>
+
+<p class="author">DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER</p>
+<p><i>29th August 1896.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="tiny" />
+<p class="heading">VOLUME I.</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table class="toc" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='right'>CHAP.</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE</a></td><td align='right'>1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">THE CRIMEA, DANUBE, AND ARMENIA</a></td><td align='right'>16</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE CHINA WAR</a></td><td align='right'>45</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">THE TAEPING REBELLION</a></td><td align='right'>61</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">THE EVER-VICTORIOUS ARMY</a></td><td align='right'>78</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">GRAVESEND AND GALATZ</a></td><td align='right'>127</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THE FIRST NILE MISSION</a></td><td align='right'>141</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="tiny" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table summary="illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#frontispiece">PORTRAIT OF GENERAL GORDON, TAKEN SOON AFTER THE CRIMEA</a></td><td align='right'><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#fp16">HOUSE IN WHICH GENERAL GORDON WAS BORN</a></td><td align='right'><i>To face page</i> 16</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">Charles George Gordon</span> was born on 28th January 1833, at No. 1 Kemp
+Terrace, Woolwich Common, where his father, an officer in the Royal
+Artillery, was quartered at the time. The picture given elsewhere of
+this house will specially interest the reader as the birthplace of
+Gordon. It still stands, as described by Gordon's father in a private
+memoir, at the corner of Jackson's Lane, on Woolwich Common.</p>
+
+<p>The name "Gordon" has baffled the etymologists, for there is every
+reason to believe that the not inappropriate connection with the
+Danish word for a spear is due to a felicitous fancy rather than to
+any substantial reality. There is far more justification for the
+opinion that the name comes through a French source than from a
+Danish. The Gorduni were a leading clan of C&aelig;sar's most formidable
+opponents, the Nervi; a Duke Gordon charged among the peers of
+Charlemagne; and the name is not unknown at the present day in the
+Tyrol. The "Gordium" of Phrygia and the "Gordonia" of Macedonia are
+also names that suggest an Eastern rather than a Northern origin.
+History strengthens this supposition and entirely disposes of the
+Danish hypothesis. The first bearer of the name Gordon appeared in
+Scotland at far too near a date to the Danish descents upon that
+country to encourage the view that he was a member of that most
+bitterly hated race. Nowhere were the Danes more hated or less
+successful than in Scotland, yet we are asked to believe that the
+founder of one of the most powerful families in that kingdom belonged
+to this alien and detested people. The silence itself of the
+chronicler sufficiently refutes the idea that the first Gordon was a
+renegade or a traitor, as he must have been if he were a Dane.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In all probability the first Gordon, who helped Malcolm Canmore, and
+received in return a large grant of lands in Berwick, which became
+known as the Gordon country, was one of the many Norman knights
+attracted to the Court of Edward the Confessor. Accepting for the
+occasion the popular legendary version of Shakespeare, rather than the
+corrected account of modern historians, he may be supposed to have
+found his way north to the camp of Siward, where the youthful and
+exiled Scotch Prince had sought shelter from Macbeth, and it is no
+undue stretch of fancy to suggest that he took his part in the
+memorable overthrow of that usurper at Dunsinane, and thus obtained
+the favour of his successor. The growth of the Gordon family in place
+and power was rapid. To the lands on the borders was soon added the
+Huntly country on Deeside, where Aboyne Castle now stands, and in a
+very short period the Gordons ranked among the most powerful and
+warlike clans of Scotland. As Sir Walter Scott wrote of Adam Gordon,
+in words which might be appropriately applied to the subject of this
+biography:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+"'Tis a name which ne'er hath been dishonour'd,<br />
+And never will, I trust&mdash;most surely never<br />
+By such a youth as thou!"
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Be its remote origin what it may, no name has appeared more
+prominently or more honourably in the British Army Lists during the
+last century and a half than that of Gordon. One of the most famous of
+our regiments bears and has nobly upheld the name. In honourable and
+friendly rivalry with the equally numerous and equally distinguished
+clans of Grant and Cameron, the Gordons have figured on every
+battlefield from Minden to Candahar, thus establishing at the same
+time the political wisdom of Chatham, who first turned the Highlanders
+from a cause of danger into a source of strength, and the military
+ardour and genius of their own race. Thus it came to pass that the
+spirit of remote warlike ages was perpetuated, and that the profession
+of arms continued to be the most natural one for any bearer of the
+name Gordon. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the
+practice of his nearest relations, as well as the traditions of his
+race, marked out Charles Gordon for a soldier's career.</p>
+
+<p>Passing over an uncertain connection with the General Peter Gordon,
+who rose high in the Russian service under Peter the Great, the
+nearest direct ancestor of whom we can speak with absolute confidence
+was Charles Gordon's great-grandfather David Gordon, who served as a
+lieutenant in Lascelles' regiment of foot&mdash;afterwards the 47th
+Regiment&mdash;at the battle of Prestonpans. Although the majority of the
+clans were still loyal to the Stuarts, it seems from this that some of
+them had entered the Hanoverian service probably in that most
+distinguished regiment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> the First Royal Scots, which a few years
+before Culloden had fought gallantly at Fontenoy. At Prestonpans David
+Gordon had the bad fortune to be made prisoner by the forces of
+Charles Edward, and he found on the victorious side the whole of the
+Gordon clan, under the command of Sir William Gordon of Park, a
+younger son of the Earl of Huntly. As he was able to claim kindred
+with Sir William, David Gordon received better treatment than he might
+have expected, and in a short time was allowed to go free, either on
+an exchange of prisoners or more probably on his parole. This incident
+is specially interesting, because, after making every allowance for
+the remoteness and vagueness of the old Highland custom of cousinship,
+it seems to bring Charles Gordon's ancestry into sufficiently close
+relationship with the main Gordon stem of the Huntlys. After his
+release David Gordon does not appear to have taken any further part in
+the war which terminated at Culloden, and he emigrated shortly
+afterwards to North America, where his death is recorded as having
+taken place at a comparatively early age at Halifax in the year 1752.</p>
+
+<p>That he came of gentle blood is also proved by the fact that the Duke
+of Cumberland stood sponsor to his son, who bore the Duke's names of
+William Augustus. This second Gordon, of the particular branch that
+has interest for us, also entered the army, and held a commission in
+several regiments. The most memorable event in his life was his taking
+part in Wolfe's decisive victory on the heights of Abraham. In 1773 he
+married a lady, Miss Anna Maria Clarke, whose brother was rector of
+Hexham in Northumberland, and by her had a family of four daughters
+and three sons. Of the latter, two died at an early age, and only the
+youngest, William Henry, born in 1786, survived to manhood. He is
+especially interesting to us, because he was the father of General
+Gordon.</p>
+
+<p>Like his father and grandfather, William Henry Gordon chose the
+profession of a soldier, and entered the Royal Artillery. He saw a
+great deal of active service, being with his corps in the Peninsula
+and at Maida, commanding at a later period the Artillery at Corfu and
+Gibraltar, and attaining before his death in 1865 the rank of
+Lieutenant-General. He was also connected with the Woolwich Arsenal as
+Director of the Carriage Department. He has been described as an
+excellent officer if a somewhat strict disciplinarian, and his firm
+character of noble integrity lived again in his sons. He married, in
+1817, Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Enderby, a merchant whaler,
+one of those west country worthies who carried on the traditions of
+Elizabeth to the age of Victoria. It would not be possible to present
+a complete picture of Gordon's mother, and therefore none will be
+attempted here; but all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> available evidence agrees in describing
+her as a paragon of women, and as having exercised an exceptional
+influence over her children. Gordon himself bore the most expressive
+testimony to her virtues and memory when, long years afterwards, he
+closed an exordium on the filial affection due to a mother with the
+outburst&mdash;"Oh! how my mother loved me!"</p>
+
+<p>Such in brief were the forebears of the hero who comes next after
+Nelson in national veneration. To understand him and his career, it
+must be remembered that he came of a gallant race, with a quick sense
+of honour, seeing clearly the obvious course of duty, and never
+hesitating in its fulfilment. These qualities were not peculiar to the
+man, but inherited from his race, and as they had never been
+contaminated by the pursuit of wealth in any form, they retained the
+pristine vigour and fire of a chivalrous and noble age. What was
+personal and peculiar to Charles Gordon had to be evolved by
+circumstance and the important occurrences with which it was his lot
+to be associated throughout his military and public career, but his
+soldierly talent and virtue must be mainly assigned to the traditions
+and practice of his ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>Of the five sons of General William Henry Gordon and Elizabeth
+Enderby, Charles George Gordon was the fourth. His eldest brother,
+Henry William Gordon, born in 1818, had entered the army, first in the
+8th Regiment, and transferred in a short time to the 59th, when, at
+the early age of ten, Charles Gordon was sent off to school at
+Taunton. The selection of this school in the western country was due
+to the head-master, Mr Rogers, being a brother of a governess in the
+Gordon family. Little is known of his early childhood beyond the fact
+that he had lived, before he was ten, at Corfu, where his father held
+a command for some years. The Duke of Cambridge has publicly stated
+that he recollects, when quartered at Corfu at this period, having
+seen a bright and intelligent boy who occupied the room next to his
+own, and who subsequently became General Gordon. At Taunton Gordon
+remained during the greater part of five years, enjoying the
+advantages of one of the most excellent grammar schools in the West of
+England, and although he failed to make any special mark as a scholar,
+I find that, whether on account of his later fame or for some special
+characteristic that marked him out from the general run of boys, his
+name is still remembered there by something more than the initials cut
+upon his desk. If he distinguished himself in anything it was in
+map-making and drawing, and he exhibited the same qualifications to
+the end of his career. How careful and excellent the grounding at
+Taunton school must have been was shown by the fact that, after one
+year's special coaching at Mr Jefferies' school at Shooter's Hill,
+Gordon passed direct into the Royal Military<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> Academy at Woolwich. It
+is noteworthy that during the whole of the period we are now
+approaching, he never showed the least tendency to extravagance, and
+his main anxiety seems to have been to save his parents all possible
+expense, more especially because they had a large family of daughters.
+To the end of his life, and in each successive post, Gordon was the
+slave of duty. At this time, and during the years that follow, down to
+the Chinese campaigns, his guiding thought was how to save his family
+the smallest expense on his account, and yet at the same time to hold
+his head high, and to show himself worthy of his race.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1848, when he
+had not completed his sixteenth year, and during the four years he
+remained there he gave some evidence of the qualities that
+subsequently distinguished him, at the same time that he showed a
+lightness of disposition which many will think at strange variance
+with the gravity and even solemnity of his later years. Among his
+fellow-students he was not distinguished by any special or exclusive
+devotion to study. He was certainly no bookworm, and he was known
+rather for his love of sport and boisterous high spirits than for
+attention to his lessons or for a high place in his class. More than
+once he was involved in affairs that, if excusable and natural on the
+score of youth, trenched beyond the borders of discipline, and the
+stories of life at the Academy that he recited for many years after he
+left were not exactly in harmony with the popular idea of the ascetic
+of Mount Carmel.</p>
+
+<p>As the reader treasures up the boyish escapades of Nelson and Clive,
+so will enduring interest be felt in those outbreaks of the boy
+Gordon, which made him the terror of his superiors. They are recorded
+on the unimpeachable evidence of his elder brother, and some of them
+were even narrated by Gordon himself to his niece nearly thirty years
+after they happened. Sir Henry is the writer.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Charles Gordon with a brother (William Augustus) more unruly
+than himself, finding the time hang heavily upon their hands
+during the vacation, employed themselves in various ways. Their
+father's house (at Woolwich) was opposite to that of the
+Commandant of the Garrison, and was overrun with mice. These were
+caught, the Commandant's door quietly opened, and the mice were
+transferred to new quarters. In after life (that is in 1879, when
+in the Soudan) Charles Gordon wrote to one of his nieces: 'I am
+glad to hear the race of true Gordons is not extinct. Do you not
+regret the Arsenal and its delights? 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> some splendid
+squirts&mdash;articles that would wet you through in a minute. As for
+the crossbows we had made, they were grand with screws. One
+Sunday afternoon twenty-seven panes of glass were broken in the
+large storehouses. They were found to have been perforated with a
+small hole (ventilation), and Captain Soady nearly escaped a
+premature death; a screw passed his head, and was as if it had
+been screwed into the wall which it had entered. Servants were
+kept at the door with continual bell-ringings. Your uncle Freddy
+(a younger brother) was pushed into houses, the bell rung, and
+the door held to prevent escape. Those were the days of the
+Arsenal.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Sir Henry continues:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"But what Charles Gordon considered as his greatest achievement
+was one that he in after years often alluded to. At this time
+(1848) the senior class of Cadets, then called the Practical
+Class, were located in the Royal Arsenal, and in front of their
+halls of study there were earthworks upon which they were
+practised from time to time in profiling and other matters. The
+ins and outs of these works were thoroughly well known to Charles
+Gordon and his brother, who stole out at night&mdash;but we will leave
+him to tell his own story. He says: 'I forgot to tell&mdash;&mdash;of how
+when Colonel John Travers of the Hill Folk (he lived on Shooter's
+Hill) was lecturing to the Arsenal Cadets in the evening, a crash
+was heard, and every one thought every pane of glass was broken;
+small shot had been thrown. However, it was a very serious
+affair, for like the upsetting of a hive, the Cadets came out,
+and only darkness, speed, and knowledge of the fieldworks thrown
+up near the lecture-room enabled us to escape. That was before I
+entered the curriculum. The culprits were known afterwards, and
+for some time avoided the vicinity of the Cadets. I remember it
+with horror to this day, for no mercy would have been shown by
+the Pussies, as the Cadets were called.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>After he entered the Academy the same love of fun and practical joking
+characterised him. Sir Henry writes: "After he had been some time at
+the Academy and earned many good-conduct badges, an occasion arose
+when it became necessary to restrain the Cadets in leaving the
+dining-hall, the approach to which was by a narrow staircase. At the
+top of this staircase stood the senior corporal, with outstretched
+arms, facing the body of Cadets. This was too much for Charlie Gordon,
+who, putting his head down, butted with it, and catching the officer
+in the pit of the stomach not only sent him down the stairs, but
+through the glass door beyond. The officer jumped up unhurt, and
+Gordon was placed in confinement and nearly dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon another occasion, when he was near his commission, a great deal
+of bullying was going on, and in order to repress it a number of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+last comers were questioned, when one of them said that Charlie Gordon
+had on one occasion hit him on the head with a clothesbrush. The lad
+admitted it was not a severe blow; nevertheless Charlie Gordon was for
+this slight offence put back six months for his commission, which
+turned out well in the end, since it secured for him a second
+lieutenancy in the Royal Engineers in place of the Royal Artillery."
+This alteration in the branch of the service to which he was attached
+was due to his own act. He decided that, as his contemporaries would
+be put ahead of him, he would work for the Engineers instead of the
+Artillery.</p>
+
+<p>Even to the end of his life there were two sides to his character.
+Private grief, much disappointment, and a long solitary existence,
+contributed to make him a melancholy philosopher, and a sometimes
+austere critic of a selfish world, but beneath this crust were a
+genial and generous disposition that did not disdain the lighter side
+of human nature, a heart too full of kindness to cherish wrath for
+long, and an almost boyish love of fun that could scarcely be
+repressed. If this was the individual in his quieter and contemplative
+moods, an energy that never tired, and a warlike spirit that only
+needed the occasion to blaze forth, revealed the man of action. It may
+be pronounced a paradox to say so, but to the end of his life the true
+Gordon was more of the soldier than the saint.</p>
+
+<p>Even in the midst of his escapades at the Academy, something of the
+spirit of the future hero revealed itself. However grave the offence
+or heavy the punishment, he was never backward in taking his share&mdash;or
+more than his share&mdash;of the blame for any scrape into which he and his
+friends were brought by their excessive high spirits. On more than one
+occasion his ardour and sense of justice resulted in his being made
+the scapegoat of worse offenders, and it seems probable that he
+generally bore more than his proper share of the blame and punishment
+for acts of insubordination. But there were limits to his capacity of
+suffering and sense of guilt, and when one of his superiors declared
+that he "would never make an officer," he touched a point of honour,
+and Gordon's vigorous and expressive reply was to tear the epaulettes
+from his shoulder and throw them at his superior's feet. In this
+incident the reader will not fail to see a touch and forecast of
+greatness. He was ever willing to pay the penalty of youthful
+indiscretion, but he was sensitive to the reproach of honour, and his
+exuberant spirits detracted in no respect from his sense of the
+nobility of his profession. His earnestness saved him from the
+frivolity into which a light heart and good health might have led him,
+and compensated for his disinclination to devote all his spare time to
+the severer studies of his college.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On June 23rd, 1852, nearly four years after he entered the Royal
+Military Academy, Charles Gordon passed out with the rank of second
+lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. Notwithstanding some remissness in
+his work, he had passed through all his examinations&mdash;"Those terrible
+examinations," as he said long years afterwards&mdash;"how I remember them!
+Sometimes I dream of them,"&mdash;and in accordance with the regulations in
+force he was sent to Chatham for the purpose of completing there his
+technical training as an engineer officer. Chatham, as is well known,
+is the Headquarters of the Royal Engineer Corps, to which it stands in
+the same relation as Woolwich to the Artillery. There Gordon remained
+until February 1854, constantly engaged on field work and in making
+plans and surveys, at which his old skill as a draughtsman soon made
+him exceptionally competent. This kind of work was also far more
+congenial to him than the cramming at the Academy, and he soon gained
+the reputation of being an intelligent and hard-working subaltern. In
+the month named he attained the grade of full lieutenant, and on
+taking his step he was at once ordered to Pembroke Dock, then one of
+the busiest naval d&ecirc;pots and most important military arsenals in the
+country. The war clouds were already lowering over Eastern Europe, and
+although all hope of maintaining peace had not been abandoned,
+arrangements were in progress for the despatch, if necessary, of a
+strong naval and military expedition to the Black Sea.</p>
+
+<p>At Pembroke, Gordon was at once employed on the construction of the
+new fortifications and batteries considered necessary for the defence
+of so important a position, and in one of his letters home he wrote:
+"I have been very busy in doing plans for another fort, to be built at
+the entrance of the haven. I pity the officers and men who will have
+to live in these forts, as they are in the most desolate places, seven
+miles from any town, and fifteen from any conveyance." Seclusion and
+solitude had evidently no charms for him at that period. In another
+letter about this time he wrote expressing his relief at being "free
+from the temptations of a line regiment," and concluded with the
+self-depreciatory remark that he was "such a miserable wretch that he
+was sure to be led away." In yet another letter from Pembroke, written
+not many weeks after his arrival, he reveals something of the deep
+religious feeling which was no doubt greatly strengthened by his
+experiences in the Crimea, and which became stronger and more
+pronounced as years went on. In writing to his favourite sister in the
+summer of 1854, he gives the following interesting bit of biographical
+information: "You know I never was confirmed. When I was a cadet I
+thought it was a useless sin, as I did not intend to alter (not that
+it was in my power to be converted when I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> chose). I, however, took my
+first sacrament on Easter Day (16th April 1854) and have communed ever
+since."</p>
+
+<p>Charles Gordon was still occupied on the Pembroke fortifications when
+war broke out with Russia on the Eastern Question. His father was at
+the time stationed at Gibraltar in command of the Royal Artillery, and
+was never employed nearer the scene of hostilities during the war. But
+his two elder brothers were at the front&mdash;the eldest, the late Sir
+Henry Gordon, at Balaclava, where he served in the Commissariat, and
+the next brother, the late General Enderby Gordon, with his battery
+under Lord Raglan. At the battle of the Alma, fought on 20th September
+1854, Enderby Gordon specially distinguished himself, for he worked
+one of the two guns of Turner's Battery, which exercised such a
+decisive influence on the fortunes of the day. Readers of Kinglake's
+"History" will remember that it was the flank fire of these two guns
+which compelled the Russian battery of sixteen guns on the Causeway to
+retire and thus expose the Russian front to our attack. It is a little
+curious to find that while one brother was thus distinguishing himself
+in the first battle of the war, another was writing from Pembroke Dock
+as follows: "&mdash;&mdash; says there were no artillery engaged in the battle
+of the Alma, so that Enderby was safe out of that." Enderby Gordon
+also distinguished himself at Inkerman, where he acted as aide-de-camp
+to General Strangeways. He subsequently earned the reputation of a
+good officer during the Indian Mutiny, and when he died he had, like
+his father, attained the rank of Lieutenant-General, and received
+besides the Companionship of the Bath. One characteristic incident has
+been recorded of him. As he commanded a column in India, he had only
+to ask for promotion to obtain it; this he declined to do, because he
+would thus have stepped over a friend.</p>
+
+<p>In General Gordon's own letters from the Crimea there are frequent
+references to his eldest brother, Henry Gordon, a man of whom it may
+be said here that the best was never publicly known, for during a long
+and varied career, first in the combative branch of the army as an
+officer of the 59th Regiment, and then as a non-combative officer in
+the Ordnance Department, he showed much ability, but had few
+opportunities of special distinction. In several of General Gordon's
+transactions Sir Henry was closely mixed up, especially with the Congo
+mission; and I should like to say, of my own knowledge, that he was
+thoroughly in sympathy with all his projects for the suppression of
+the slave trade, had mastered the voluminous Blue Books and official
+papers, from the time of Ismail to the dark days of Khartoum, in so
+thorough a manner that the smallest detail was fixed in his brain, and
+had so completely assimilated his brother's views that an hour's
+consultation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> with him was almost as fertile a source of inspiration
+as it would have been with the General himself. I believe that the
+original cause of Sir Henry's influence over his brother was that he
+disclaimed having any, and that he most carefully avoided any attempt
+to force his advice on his younger brother, as so many of our elders
+deem to be their right and prerogative. General Gordon was a bad
+listener to advice at any time or from anyone. He acted almost
+entirely on his own judgment, and still more on his own impulse. His
+first thoughts were his best thoughts, or, perhaps, as Tennyson says,
+"his third thoughts, which are a maturer first." Sir Henry knew the
+ingrained and unalterable character of his brother, and adapted
+himself to it, partly through affection and partly through admiration,
+for in his eyes Charles Gordon was the truest of heroes. No man ever
+possessed a truer or more solicitous friend than General Gordon found
+in him. Sir Henry was thoroughly devoted to him and his interests, and
+carried out all his wishes and instructions to the very letter.</p>
+
+<p>Having said this much about the relations between Gordon and his
+brother, it would be an inexcusable omission to pass over the still
+more striking sympathy and affection that united him with his sisters.
+From his first appointment into the service he corresponded on
+religious and serious subjects with his elder sister, the late Miss
+Gordon, who only survived her brother a few years, with remarkable
+regularity, and as time went on the correspondence became more, rather
+than less constant, and in his letters to her were to be found his
+most secret thoughts and aspirations. Most of the letters from the
+Crimea were addressed to his mother; but, in an interesting volume
+published in 1888, Miss Gordon presented the world with the remainder
+of her brother's letters, spread over thirty active and eventful
+years. One of General Gordon's most cherished objects, resembling in
+that, as in other respects, Lord Lawrence, was to add to the comfort
+of his sisters, and when he left England on his last fatal mission to
+Egypt, his will, made the night before he left for Brussels, provided
+that all he possessed should be held in trust for the benefit of his
+well-beloved sister, Mary Augusta, and that it was to pass only on her
+death to the heirs he therein designated. It is not necessary to enter
+into fuller particulars on this subject, but it may be proper to say
+that his affection for his other sisters was not less warm or less
+reciprocated. Of his six sisters, of whom two alone survive, it is
+only necessary to refer here (in addition to Miss Gordon) to the
+youngest, who married Dr Andrew Moffitt, who was not merely head
+medical officer with the Ever Victorious Army, but Gordon's right-hand
+man in China. Dr Moffitt was a man of high courage; on one occasion he
+saved Gordon's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> life when a Taeping attempted to murder him in his
+tent, and an English officer, who served with the Force, has described
+him in these two lines: "He was imbued with the same spirit as his
+future brother-in-law; he was a clever Chinese scholar and an A1
+surgeon." Dr Moffitt, who received a gold medal and order, besides the
+Red Button of a Mandarin, from the Chinese Government for his
+brilliant services against the Taepings, died prematurely. To say less
+about these family relations would be an omission; to say more would
+be an intrusion, and they may be left with the reflection that as no
+one who knew him will dispute the depth and the strength of General
+Gordon's sentiments as a friend, his feelings towards the members of
+his own family cannot well be impugned.</p>
+
+<p>Some account of the personal appearance of General Gordon will be
+deemed necessary, and may be appropriately given at this stage,
+although the subject is a dangerous one, because so very few people
+form the same impression about any one's appearance. There has been
+much discussion as to General Gordon's exact height, and I have been
+to much pains to obtain some decisive evidence on the subject.
+Unfortunately no such records as to height, etc., are kept about
+officers, and my search proved fruitless, more especially as the
+records at Woolwich for the period required were destroyed by fire
+some years ago. The best evidence I have obtained is that of General
+Gordon's tailors, Messrs Batten &amp; Sons, of Southampton, who write: "We
+consider, by measurements in our books, that General Gordon was 5 ft.
+9 in." As he had contracted a slight stoop, or, more correctly
+speaking, carried his head thrown forward, he looked in later life
+much less than his real height. The quotations at the end of this
+chapter will show some difference of opinion. His figure was very
+slight, but his nervous energy could never be repressed, and he was
+probably stronger than his appearance suggested. The suggestion of
+delicate health in his look and aspect, arising, as he was led to
+believe, but erroneously, from <i>angina pectoris</i>, or some mysterious
+chest pain, may have induced a belief that he was not robust, but this
+seems to have been baseless, because throughout his life, whether in
+the trenches of Sebastopol, the marshes of the Yangtse delta, or the
+arid plains of the Soudan, he appears to have equally enjoyed
+excellent health.</p>
+
+<p>The only specific mention of serious illness was during his stay in
+the Soudan as Governor-General, when the chest pains became acute.
+These were at length traced to an enlarged liver, and perhaps the
+complaint was aggravated by excessive smoking. In the desert, far
+removed from medical aid, he obtained much relief from the use of
+Warburg's Tincture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In his ordinary moods there was nothing striking about the face. The
+colour of the eye was too light&mdash;yet the glance was as keen as a
+rapier, and, as the little Soudan boy Capsune, whom he had educated,
+said, "Gordon's eyes looked you through and through"&mdash;the features
+were not sufficiently marked, the carriage of the man was too
+diffident and modest to arrest or detain attention, and the
+explanation of the universal badness of the numerous photographs taken
+of him at all stages of his career is probably to be found in the
+deficiency of colouring and contrast. Everything in his appearance
+depended on expression, and expression generally baffles the
+photographer. Perhaps the least objectionable of all these
+portraitures is the steel plate in Dr Birkbeck Hill's volume on
+"Gordon in Central Africa," and that not because it is a faithful
+likeness, but because it represents a bust that might well be imagined
+to belong to a hero. It was only when some great idea or some subject
+in which he was interested seized his imagination that one could
+perceive that the square jaw denoted unshakable resolution, and that
+the pale blue eye could flash with the fire of a born leader of men.
+In tranquil moments no one would have been struck by a casual glance
+at his face, but these were rare, for in congenial company, and with
+persons he trusted, Gordon was never tranquil, pacing up and down the
+room, with only brief stops to impress a point on his listener by
+holding his arm for a few seconds, and looking at him intently to see
+if he followed with understanding and interest the drift of his
+remarks, lighting cigarette after cigarette to enable him to curb his
+own impetuosity, and demonstrating in every act and phrase the truth
+of his own words that "inaction was intolerable to him." Such was the
+man as I recall him on the all too few occasions when it was my
+privilege and good fortune to receive him during his brief visits to
+London of late years, and to hear from him his confidential views on
+the questions in which he took so deep an interest. One final remark
+must be hazarded about the most remarkable point after all in General
+Gordon's personality. I refer to his voice. It was singularly sweet,
+and for a man modulated in a very low tone, but there was nothing
+womanish about it, as was the case with his able contemporary Sir
+Bartle Frere, whose voice was distinctly feminine in its timbre. I
+know of no other way to describe it than to say that it seemed to me
+to express the thorough and transparent goodness of the speaker, and
+the exquisite gentleness of his nature. If angels speak with the human
+voice, Gordon's tone must have borne affinity to theirs.</p>
+
+<p>In completing this subject it may be appropriate to quote a few of the
+more important and interesting descriptions of his personal
+appearance, contributed by those who had opportunities of seeing him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>An officer, who served with General Gordon in China, describes his
+first interview with him in the following words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"C&mdash;&mdash; introduced me to a light-built, active, wiry, middle-sized
+man of about thirty-two years of age, in the undress uniform of
+the Royal Engineers. The countenance bore a pleasant frank
+appearance, eyes light blue, with a fearless look in them, hair
+crisp and inclined to curl, conversation short and decided. This
+was Major C. G. Gordon."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>General Sir Gerald Graham who, to use his own words, was Gordon's
+"school-fellow at Woolwich, his comrade in the Crimea and China, and
+for many years past a more or less regular correspondent," has put on
+record the following interesting description of the hero, and it
+should not be forgotten that, excepting his companion, Colonel Donald
+Stewart, and Mr Power, General Graham was the last Englishman to see
+General Gordon in this world.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Not over 5 feet 9 inches in height, but of compact build, his
+figure and gait characteristically expressed resolution and
+strength. His face, although in itself unpretending, was one that
+in the common phrase 'grew upon you.' Time had not streaked with
+grey the crisp, curly brown hair of his youth and traced lines of
+care on his ample forehead and strong clear face, bronzed with
+exposure to the tropical sun. His usual aspect was serene and
+quiet, and although at times a ruffling wave of uncontrollable
+impatience or indignation might pass over him, it did not disturb
+him long. The depth and largeness of Gordon's nature, which
+inspired so much confidence in others, seemed to afford him a
+sense of inner repose, so that outer disturbance was to him like
+the wind that ruffles the surface of the sea, but does not affect
+its depths. The force and beauty of Gordon's whole expression
+came from within, and as it were irradiated the man, the steady,
+truthful gaze of the blue-grey eyes seeming a direct appeal from
+the upright spirit within. Gordon's usual manner charmed by its
+simple, unaffected courtesy, but although utterly devoid of
+self-importance he had plenty of quiet dignity, or even of
+imperious authority at command when required. With his friends he
+had a fund of innocent gaiety that seemed to spring from his
+impulsiveness, while his strong sense of humour often enabled him
+to relieve his impatience or indignation by a good-natured
+sarcasm."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Two further descriptions by men who served under him at Gravesend in
+the interval between the Taeping War and the first mission to the
+Soudan will suffice to complete the personal impressions that may help
+the reader to form some idea of the appearance of General Gordon. The
+first is from the pen of Mr W. E. Lilley, who brought out a special
+volume on Gordon at Gravesend.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"In Colonel Gordon's appearance there was nothing particularly
+striking. He was rather under the average height, of slight
+proportions, and with little of the military bearing in his
+carriage, so that one would hardly have imagined that this
+kindly, unassuming gentleman was already one who had attracted
+the notice of his superiors by his courage and zeal in the
+Crimean War, and who had won lasting renown by subduing in China
+one of the greatest revolts the world had ever seen. This last
+exploit had gained for him the name by which he was from that
+time best known, viz. "Chinese Gordon." The greatest
+characteristic of his countenance was the clear blue eye, which
+seemed to have a magical power over all who came within its
+influence. It read you through and through; it made it impossible
+for you to tell him anything but the truth, it inspired your
+confidence, it kindled with compassion at any story of distress,
+and it sparkled with good humour at anything really funny or
+witty. From its glance you knew at once that at any risk he would
+keep his promise, that you might trust him with anything and
+everything, and that he would stand by you if all other friends
+deserted you."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The other impression, formed under precisely the same circumstances,
+is that of Mr Arthur Stannard, recorded in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i> of
+April 1885.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The next moment I was looking into Chinese Gordon's eyes. What
+eyes they were! Keen and clear, filled with the beauty of
+holiness, bright with an unnatural brightness, their expression
+one of settled feverishness, the colour blue-grey as is the sky
+on a bitter March morning. In spite of the beautiful goodness of
+his heart and the great breadth of his charity, Gordon was far
+from possessing a placid temperament or from being patient over
+small things. Indeed his very energy and his single-mindedness
+tended to make him impatient and irritable whenever any person or
+thing interfered with his intentions or desires.... For a man of
+his small stature his activity was marvellous&mdash;he seemed able to
+walk every one else off their legs over rough ground or
+smooth.... In Gordon strength and weakness were most
+fantastically mingled. There was no trace of timidity in his
+composition. He had a most powerful will. When his mind was made
+up on a matter it never seemed to occur to him that there could
+be anything more to say about it. Such was his superb confidence
+in himself!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>When Gordon had been only a few months at Pembroke Dock he received
+orders to proceed to Corfu, and believing it to be due to his father's
+request, he wrote: "I suspect you used your influence to have me sent
+there instead of to the Crimea. It is a great shame of you." But the
+Fates were to be stronger than any private influence, for four days
+after he wrote those lines he received fresh orders directing him to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+leave for the Crimea without delay in charge of huts. It seems that
+the change in his destination was due to Sir John Burgoyne, to whom he
+had expressed the strongest wish to proceed to the scene of war. On
+4th December 1854, he received his orders at Pembroke, on the 6th he
+reported himself at the War Office, and in the evening of the same day
+he was at Portsmouth. It was at first intended that he should go out
+in a collier, but he obtained permission to proceed <i>vi&acirc;</i> Marseilles,
+which he pronounced "extremely lucky, as I am such a bad sailor." This
+opinion was somewhat qualified later on when he found that the
+Government did not prepay his passage, and he expressed the opinion
+pretty freely, in which most people would concur, that "it is very
+hard not to give us anything before starting." He left London on the
+14th December, Marseilles in a French hired transport on the 18th, and
+reached Constantinople the day after Christmas Day. He was not much
+struck with anything he saw; pronounced Athens "very ugly and dirty,"
+and the country around uncommonly barren; and was disappointed with
+the far-famed view on approaching Constantinople. The professional
+instinct displayed itself when he declared that the forts of the
+Dardanelles did not appear to be very strong, as, although numerous,
+they were open at the rear and overlooked by the heights behind. On
+28th December Gordon left Constantinople in the <i>Golden Fleece</i>
+transport conveying the 39th Regiment to Balaclava. The important huts
+had not yet arrived in the collier from Portsmouth, but they could not
+be far behind, and Gordon went on in advance. The huts, it may be
+added, were built to contain twenty-four men, or two captains and four
+subalterns, or two field-officers or one general, and the number of
+these entrusted to the charge of Gordon was 320. These reinforcements
+were the first sent out to mitigate the hardships the British Army
+underwent during a campaign that the genius of Todleben and the
+fortitude of his courageous garrison rendered far more protracted and
+costly than had been anticipated.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<a name="fp16" id="fp16"></a>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 247px;">
+<img src="images/fp016.jpg" width="247" height="342" alt="House in which General Gordon was born." title="" />
+<p class="heading"><span class="sc">the house in which general gordon was born, on woolwich common.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CRIMEA, DANUBE, AND ARMENIA.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">Charles Gordon</span> reached Balaclava on New Year's Day, 1855. He found
+everyone engaged in foraging expeditions, that the siege of Sebastopol
+excited no interest, that the road from the bay to the hill was like a
+morass, and that a railway to traverse it was being slowly laid down.
+Gordon remained about three weeks at Balaclava assisting in the
+erection of huts, and in the conveyance of some of them to the front.
+When this task was accomplished he was himself ordered to the
+trenches, where his work could not fail to be more exciting and also
+more dangerous than that upon which up to this he had been engaged.</p>
+
+<p>Before following him it will be useful to summarise the leading events
+that had taken place in the Crimea up to this date. War between
+England and France on the one side, and Russia on the other, was
+finally declared in March 1854, the allied forces landed in the Crimea
+early in September 1854, and the first battle was fought on the Alma
+stream on the 20th of that month. In that battle 60,000 allied
+troops&mdash;20,000 English, 40,000 French&mdash;attacked 120,000 Russians in a
+strong and well-chosen position. The result was a brilliant victory
+for the allies, and there is no doubt that it was mainly won by the
+dashing attack of the English Infantry. The losses were&mdash;French, 60
+killed and 500 wounded; English, 362 killed and 1620 wounded, thus
+furnishing clear evidence as to the force which bore the brunt of the
+engagement. The Russian loss was computed to be not less than 6000, or
+double that of the allies.</p>
+
+<p>As the allied forces advanced towards Sebastopol the Russian Army
+assumed the offensive. The brilliant and never-to-be-forgotten Cavalry
+charges on 25th October, of the Light and Heavy Brigades, under
+Cardigan and Scarlett respectively, at Balaclava in the valley that
+stretched at the foot of the hills overlooking the bay of that name,
+had not merely vindicated the reputation of English horsemen for dash
+and daring, but had done something&mdash;at excessive cost, it is true&mdash;to
+clear the advance for the whole army. When the Russians, assuming in
+their turn the offensive, attacked our camps on the heights of
+Inkerman, they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> repulsed with heavy loss on both sides, and with
+the result that more than six months elapsed before they again
+ventured to show any inclination to attack in the open field, and then
+only to meet with fresh discomfiture on the banks of the Tchernaya.</p>
+
+<p>The battle of Inkerman was fought in the early morning of 5th
+November, and again the brunt of the fighting fell on the English
+army. The Russian General, Todleben, subsequently stated that he
+reluctantly decided to attack the English camp instead of the French,
+because "the English position seemed to be so very weak." Here again
+the losses give no misleading idea of the proportionate share of the
+two allied armies in the struggle. While the Russian loss was put down
+in all at 11,000 men, the French lost 143 killed and 786 wounded; the
+English, 597 killed and 1760 wounded.</p>
+
+<p>The opinion has been confidently expressed that if a rapid advance and
+attack had been made on Sebastopol immediately after Inkerman, the
+fortress would have been easily captured; but both before and during
+the siege the Russians made the best use of every respite the Allies
+gave them, and this lost opportunity, if it was one, never recurred.
+It will thus be seen that some of the most interesting incidents of
+the war had passed before Gordon set foot in the Crimea, but for an
+engineer officer the siege and capture of the fortress created by
+Todleben under the fire of his foes presented the most attractive and
+instructive phase of the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>At this time the French army mustered about 100,000 men, the British
+about 23,000, and the Russian garrison of Sebastopol 25,000. In
+addition, there was a covering army, under the Grand Dukes and General
+Liprandi, which, despite its losses at Inkerman, was probably not less
+than 60,000 but the successive defeats at Alma, Balaclava, and
+Inkerman had broken the confidence of the troops and reduced their
+leaders to inaction. The batteries were nearly completed when Gordon
+reached the front, and a good deal had already been written and said
+about the hardships of the soldiers. Gordon was a man of few wants,
+who could stand any amount of fatigue, and throughout his life he was
+always disposed to think that soldiers should never complain. Writing
+as late as 12th February 1855, when the worst of the winter was over,
+he says: "There are really no hardships for the officers; the men are
+the sufferers, and that is partly their own fault, as they are like
+children, thinking everything is to be done for them. The French
+soldier looks out for himself, and consequently fares much better."
+Something of the same conclusion had been forced on him when on board
+the French transport between Marseilles and Athens when he wrote: "The
+poor French soldiers, of whom there were 320 on board<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> without any
+shelter, must have suffered considerably from cold; they had no
+covering, and in spite of the wet, cold, and bad weather, they kept up
+their health however, and their high spirits also, when our men would
+have mutinied." And again, later on: "We have capital rations, and all
+the men have warm clothing, and more than enough of that. They of
+course grumble and growl a good deal. The contrast with the French in
+this respect is not to our advantage." It must in fairness be
+remembered that the worst of the maladministration was over before he
+reached the scene, and that he came with those reinforcements, not
+merely of men, but still more especially of supplies, which ended "the
+winter troubles," and converted them into the sanguine hopes and views
+of the spring.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon was not long in the trenches before he came under fire, and the
+account of his first experience of real warfare may be given in his
+own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The night of February 14th I was on duty in the trenches, and if
+you look at the plan I sent you and the small sketch enclosed I
+will explain what I had to do. The French that night determined
+to join their sentries on their right and our sentries on our
+left, in advance of their and our trenches, so as to prevent the
+Russians coming up the ravine, and then turning against our
+flank. They determined to make a lodgment in the ruined house
+marked <i>B</i> on the sketch, and to run a trench up the hill to the
+left of this, while I was told to make a communication by
+rifle-pits from the caves <i>C</i> to the ruined house <i>B</i>. I got,
+after some trouble, eight men with picks and shovels, and asked
+the captain of the advance trench to give me five double sentries
+to throw out in advance. It was the first time he had been on
+duty here; and as for myself, I never had, although I kept that
+to myself. I led forward the sentries, going at the head of the
+party, and found the sentries of the advance had not held the
+caves, which they ought to have done after dark, so there was
+just a chance of the Russians being in them. I went on, however,
+and, though I did not like it, explored the caves almost alone.
+We then left two sentries on the hill above the caves, and went
+back, to get round and post two sentries below the caves.
+However, just as soon as we showed ourselves outside the caves
+and below them, bang! bang! went two rifles, the bullets hitting
+the ground close to us. The sentries with me retired in a rare
+state of mind, and my working party bolted, and were stopped with
+great difficulty. What had really happened was this: It was not a
+Russian attack, but the two sentries whom I had placed above the
+caves <i>had fired at us</i>, lost their caps, and bolted to the
+trench. Nothing after this would induce the sentries to go out,
+so I got the working party to go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> forward with me. The Russians
+had, on the report of our shots, sent us a shower of bullets,
+their picket not being more than 150 yards away. I set the men to
+work, and then went down to the bottom of the ravine, and found
+the French in strength hard at work also. Having told them who we
+were, I returned to the trench, where I met Colonel &mdash;&mdash; of the
+1st Royals. I warned him if he went out he would be sure to be
+hit by our own sentries or the Russians. He would go, however,
+and a moment afterwards was hit in the breast, the ball going
+through his coats, slightly grazing his ribs, and passing out
+again without hurting him. I stayed with my working party all
+night, and got home very tired."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In further illustration of the confusion prevailing in the trenches at
+night, he mentions in the same letter that while trying to find the
+caves he missed his way, and "very nearly walked into the town by
+mistake."</p>
+
+<p>This was the more surprising because Gordon's intimate knowledge of
+the trenches was remarkable and well known. The following testimony
+given by Sir Charles Staveley affords striking proof that this
+reputation was not undeserved:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I happened to mention to Charlie Gordon that I was field officer
+for the day for command in the trenches next day, and, having
+only just returned from sick leave, that I was ignorant of the
+geography of our left attack. He said at once, 'Oh! come down
+with me to-night after dark, and I will show you over the
+trenches.' He drew me out a very clear sketch of the lines (which
+I have now), and down I went accordingly. He 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."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The late Sir George Chesney, a very competent and discriminating
+witness, gives evidence to the same effect:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"In his humble position as an Engineer subaltern he attracted the
+notice of his superiors, not merely by his energy and activity,
+but by a special aptitude for war, developing itself amid the
+trench work before Sebastopol in a personal knowledge of the
+enemy's movements <i>such as no other officer attained</i>. We used to
+send him to find out what new move the Russians were making."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next incident of the siege described by Gordon occurred about a
+week after his <i>bapt&ecirc;me de feu</i> in the caves. While the French were
+somewhat deliberately making at Inkerman a battery for fifteen guns,
+the Russians, partly in a spirit of bravado, threw up in a single
+night a battery for nearly twenty guns immediately opposite, at a
+distance of not more than 600 yards from the French. As this was made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+in the open ground, it was a defiance which could not be tolerated,
+and the French accordingly made their arrangements to assault it.
+Kinglake has graphically described the surprise of the French when
+they discovered this "white circlet or loop on the ground," and the
+attempt made by three battalions, with two other battalions in
+reserve, to capture it. A battalion of Zouaves, under the command of
+Colonel Cere, carried it in fine style, but the Russian reserves came
+up in great force, and their own reserves "declining to come to the
+scratch," as Gordon laconically put it, the Zouaves were in their turn
+compelled to fall back, with a loss of 200 killed. Encouraged by this
+success, the Russians gave the French another surprise a few days
+later, throwing up a second battery 300 yards further in advance of
+the first "white circlet." These two batteries, mounting between them,
+according to Kinglake, twenty-two guns, were finally strengthened and
+equipped by 10th March, and although the French talked much of
+storming them, nothing was done, much to Gordon's disgust. It was
+while these operations were in progress that Charles Gordon had a
+narrow escape of being killed. A shot from one of the Russian
+rifle-pits "as nearly as possible did for me," he wrote; "the bullet
+was fired not 180 yards off, and passed an inch above my nut into a
+bank I was passing." His only comment on this is very characteristic:
+"They are very good marksmen; their bullet is large and pointed."</p>
+
+<p>This was the first but not the last escape he had during the siege.
+One of his brothers, writing home some three months later, a few days
+before the assault on the Redan, wrote as follows: "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 about five yards in front of him and burst, not
+touching him. If it had not burst it would have taken his head off."
+Of this later shave Gordon himself says nothing, but he describes a
+somewhat similar incident, which had, however, a fatal result. "We
+lost one of our captains named Craigie by a splinter of a shell. The
+shell burst above him, and by what is called chance struck him in the
+back, killing him at once."</p>
+
+<p>During the three months March, April, and May, the siege languished,
+and Gordon apologises for the stupidity of his letters with the
+graphic observation: "It is not my fault, as none of the three
+nations&mdash;French, English, or Russian&mdash;will do anything."</p>
+
+<p>At the end of May, however, there was a renewal of activity. General
+Pelissier succeeded to the French command, and, unlike his
+predecessors, made it his primary object to act in cordial
+co-operation with the English commander. He was also in favour of an
+energetic prosecution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> of the siege, with the view to an early
+assault. All the batteries were by this time completed, and 588 guns,
+with 700 rounds in readiness for each gun, were opposed to the 1174 in
+the Russian fortress. It only remained to utilise this terrific force,
+and at last orders were given for the commencement of what was known
+as the third bombardment. After nearly two days' incessant firing the
+French stormed the Mamelon and two advance redoubts. These were
+successfully carried and held, at the same time that the English
+stormed a position called the Quarries, close under the formidable
+Redan. Of this bombardment Gordon gives in one of his letters a very
+good description:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"On the 6th we opened fire from all our batteries. I was on duty
+in the trenches. I could distinctly see the Russians in the Redan
+and elsewhere running about in great haste, and bringing up their
+gunners to the guns. They must have lost immensely, as our shot
+and shell continued to pour in upon them for hours without a
+lull. Never was our fire so successful. Before seven we had
+silenced a great many of their guns, while our loss was very
+small&mdash;only one man killed and four wounded. I was struck
+slightly with a stone from a round shot and stunned for a second,
+which old Jones has persisted in returning as wounded. [It was,
+notwithstanding, a real wound.] However, I am all right, so do
+not think otherwise. Our fire was continued all night, and the
+next day until four o'clock, when we opened with new batteries
+much nearer, and our fire then became truly terrific. Fancy 1000
+guns (which is the number of ourselves, the French, and Russians
+combined) firing at once shells in every direction. On our side
+alone we have thirty-nine 13" mortars. At half-past five three
+rockets gave the signal for the French to attack the Mamelon and
+the redoubts of Selingkinsk and Volhynia. They rushed up the
+slope in full view of the allied armies. The Russians fired one
+or two guns when the French were in the embrasures. We then saw
+the Russians cut out on the other side, and the French after
+them, towards the Malakoff Tower, which they nearly reached, but
+were so punished by the guns of this work that they were obliged
+to retire, the Russians in their turn chasing them through the
+Mamelon into their own trenches. This was dreadful, as it had to
+be assaulted again. The French, however, did so immediately, and
+carried it splendidly. The redoubts of Volhynia and Selingkinsk
+were taken easily on our side. In front of the right attack a
+work called the Quarries had to be taken, which was done at the
+same time as the Mamelon. The Russians cut out and ran, while our
+men made their lodgment for our fellows. We were attacked four
+times in the night, but held the work. If we had liked to
+assault, I am sure we should have taken the place with little
+loss, some of our men being close to the Redan. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> French took
+twenty guns and 400 prisoners, and found the Mamelon so traversed
+as to have no difficulty in making their lodgment. We were driven
+from the Quarries three times in the night, the Russians having
+directed all their efforts against them. Our loss is supposed to
+be 1000 killed and wounded. Nearly all our working party had to
+be taken for fighting purposes. The attacking columns were 200
+strong; one went to the right, and the other to the left of the
+Quarries. The reserve consisted of 600 men. The Russians fought
+desperately."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A further week was occupied with a heavy but desultory bombardment,
+but at last on 17th June what is known as "the fourth bombardment"
+proper began, and after it had continued for about twenty-four hours,
+orders were given for the assault to be made by the French on the
+Malakoff and the English on the Redan on the 18th June, a date ever
+memorable in military annals. The silence of the Russian guns induced
+a belief that the allied fire had overpowered theirs, and in
+consequence orders for the attack were given twenty-four hours sooner
+than had been intended. Kinglake, in his exhaustive History, has shown
+how this acted adversely on the chances of the assault, because the
+Russian gunners had really only reserved their fire, and also
+especially because the Redan, which we had to attack under the
+original arrangement between Lord Raglan and General Pelissier, had
+hardly suffered any damage from the bombardment. General Gordon's long
+account of this memorable assault will long be referred to as a
+striking individual experience:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I must now commence my long story of our attempted assault. To
+take up my account from 14th June, which was the last letter I
+wrote to you, Seeley, my fellow-subaltern at Pembroke, arrived on
+the 15th, and joined the right. On the evening of the 16th it was
+rumoured we were to commence firing again in the morning. I was
+on duty on the morning of the 17th, and I went down at half-past
+two <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> At 3 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> all our batteries opened, and throughout the
+day kept up a terrific fire. The Russians answered slowly, and
+after a time their guns almost ceased. I mentioned in my report
+that I thought they were reserving their fire. [If this view had
+only been taken by the Generals, especially Pelissier, a dreadful
+waste of life would have been averted, and the result might have
+proved a brilliant success.] We did not lose many men. I remained
+in the trenches until 7 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>&mdash;rather a long spell&mdash;and on coming
+up dined, and found an order to be at the night attack at twelve
+midnight on June 17 and 18. I was attached to Bent's column, with
+Lieutenants Murray and Graham, R.E., and we were to go into the
+Redan at the Russians' right flank. Another column, under Captain
+de Moleyns and Lieutenants Donnelly and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> James, R.E., was to go
+in at the angle of the salient; and another under Captain Jesse,
+Lieutenants Fisher and Graves, was to go in at the Russian left
+flank. We passed along in our relative positions up to the
+advanced trench, which is 200 yards from the Redan, where we
+halted until the signal for the attack should be given from the
+eight-gun battery, where Lord Raglan, Sir G. Brown, and General
+Jones were.</p>
+
+<p>"About 3 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> the French advanced on the Malakoff Tower in three
+columns, and ten minutes after this our signal was given. The
+Russians then opened with a fire of grape, which was terrific.
+They mowed down our men in dozens, and the trenches, being
+confined, were crowded with men, who foolishly kept in them
+instead of rushing over the parapet of our trenches, and by
+coming forward in a mass, trusting to some of them at least being
+able to pass through untouched to the Redan, where of course,
+once they arrived, the artillery could not reach them, and every
+yard nearer would have diminished the effect of the grape by
+giving it less space for spreading. We could then have moved up
+our supports and carried the place.</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately, however, our men dribbled out of the ends of the
+trenches, ten and twenty at a time, and as soon as they appeared
+they were cleared away. Some hundred men, under Lieutenant
+Fisher, got up to the abattis, but were not supported, and
+consequently had to retire.</p>
+
+<p>"About this time the French were driven from the Malakoff Tower,
+which I do not think they actually entered, and Lord Raglan very
+wisely would not renew the assault, as the Redan could not be
+held with the Malakoff Tower in the hands of the Russians.
+Murray, poor fellow, went out with the skirmishers of our
+column&mdash;he in red, and they in green. He was not out a minute
+when he was carried back with his arm shattered with grape.
+Colonel Tylden called for me, and asked me to look after him,
+which I did, and as I had a tourniquet in my pocket I put it on.
+He bore it bravely, and I got a stretcher and had him taken back.
+He died three hours afterwards. I am glad to say that Dr Bent
+reports he did not die from loss of blood, but from the shock,
+not being very strong.</p>
+
+<p>"A second after Murray had gone to the rear, poor Tylden, struck
+by grape in the legs, was carried back, and although very much
+depressed in spirits he is doing well. Jesse was killed at the
+abattis&mdash;shot through the head&mdash;and Graves was killed further in
+advance than any one. We now sat still waiting for orders, and
+the Russians amusing themselves by shelling us from mortars. When
+we appeared, the Russians lined their parapets as thick as
+possible, and seemed to be expecting us to come on. They flew two
+flags on the Malakoff Tower the whole time in defiance of us.
+About ten o'clock some of the regiments got orders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> to retire.
+We, the Royal Engineers, however, stayed until twelve o'clock,
+when we were told that the assault was not to be renewed, and
+that we could go. Thus ended our assault, of the result of which
+we felt so sure. The first plan made was that we should fire for
+three hours and go in at six o'clock, but the French changed it,
+and would not wait until we had silenced the enemy's artillery
+fire, and so we attacked at 3 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> My father can tell the effect
+of grape from twelve 68-pounders and 32-pounders at 200 yards
+upon a column; but whatever may be the effect, I am confident
+that if we had left the trenches in a mass, some of us would have
+survived and reached the Redan, which, once reached, the Highland
+Brigade and Guards would have carried all before them, and the
+place would have fallen. General Jones was struck by a stone in
+the forehead, but not much hurt. I believe it is said that the
+trenches were too high to get over. As the scaling-ladders were
+carried over them, this can hardly be sustained. So much for
+<i>our</i> assault.</p>
+
+<p>"Now for the assault which was made from the left attack. General
+Eyre had an order given him to make a feint at the head of the
+creek if we were successful at the Redan; however, at five
+o'clock, when we had failed at the Redan, we heard a very sharp
+attack on the head of the creek. The 44th and other regiments
+advanced, drove the Russians out of a rifle-pit they held near
+the cemetery, and entered some houses there. The Russians then
+opened a tremendous fire on the houses, and the men took shelter
+in line, being under no command, their own officers not knowing
+where they were to go, or anything about the place, and no
+Engineer officer being with them. The men sheltered themselves in
+the houses until they were knocked about their ears. They then
+remained in different places&mdash;in fact, wherever they could get
+any shelter, until dusk, as, if they had attempted to retire,
+they would have been all destroyed. The men of General Eyre's
+column found lots of drink in the houses. Our losses in the four
+columns are&mdash;1400 killed and wounded, 64 officers wounded, and 16
+killed. The French lost 6000 killed and wounded, they say!
+Nothing has occurred since the assault, but it is determined to
+work forward by sap and mine!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In a subsequent letter he wrote: "Remember, in spite of all the absurd
+reports in the papers, that our troops never once passed the abattis
+in front of the Redan, which is sixty yards from it, and that we have
+never spiked a gun of the Russians," and before closing his narrative
+account of the Redan, the passage in which Mr Kinglake refers to
+Gordon's evidence and action on this eventful day may well be quoted.
+It appears from his statement that Gordon lost his temper through
+excitement at the repulse, and even upbraided and used angry language
+to his old friend and comrade, Lieutenant, now General Sir Gerald,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+Graham, on his coming back to the trenches. Such language, it may be
+pointed out, could not have been used with less justice to any soldier
+taking part in the assault than to the man who had carried a ladder
+farther than anyone else, and twice endeavoured to place it against
+the Redan. It illustrates the perfervid zeal and energy of the young
+officer, who explained in his letters home how he thought the Russian
+fortress might have been carried at a rush, and appropriately
+introduces the passage in which Mr Kinglake records his opinion of
+Gordon:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"This impassioned lieutenant of sappers was a soldier marked out
+for strange destinies, no other than Gordon&mdash;Charles Gordon&mdash;then
+ripening into a hero, sublimely careless of self, and a warrior
+saint of the kind that Moslems rather than Christians are fondly
+expecting from God."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I cannot refrain from quoting here a letter I received from Mr
+Kinglake when I sent him a copy of my edition of "General Gordon's
+Letters from the Crimea," etc., as it records a somewhat more
+deliberate opinion on his character and career:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="ltr-date">"<span class="smcap">28 Hyde Park Place,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">Marble Arch</span>, W., <i>27th July 1884</i>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I indeed feel greatly obliged to you for your
+kindness in sending me a copy of 'General Gordon's Letters from
+the Crimea.'</p>
+
+<p>"Already I have read a great part of the volume, and I need
+hardly say that, apart from the reasons which link me to the
+Crimea, I have been greatly interested by seeing what was
+thought, and felt, and expressed in his early days by this really
+phenomenal man, whose romantic elevation above all that is base
+and common has made him, in even these days, a sort of warlike
+and heroic Redeemer.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Preface well and ably expresses an opinion that is widely
+entertained as to the conduct of our Government towards Gordon,
+and I don't know enough of the question to be able to gainsay
+your conclusion, but it would seem at first glance that,
+considering the imperative reasons, the vast distances, the
+changeful condition of things, and the consequent changes of
+mind, the task of doing justice between the Government and this
+heroic envoy would be one of some complexity. With my repeated
+thanks,&mdash;I remain, dear sir, very truly yours,</p>
+
+<p class="author">"A. W. Kinglake."</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Ten days after the repulse at the Redan, Lord Raglan, the gallant
+soldier over whose bier Pelissier wept like a child, died "of wear and
+tear and general debility," as Gordon put it, and the siege again
+entered upon another dull and uninteresting stage. Nearly three
+months<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> were to elapse before the capture of the fortress that had
+resisted so long, and the only incident of marked importance during
+that period was the battle of the Tchernaya, in which the officers in
+the trenches had no part. In that action the last effort of the
+Russian commanders to relieve the place and extricate Todleben from
+his peril was repulsed by the whole allied forces, for in this
+engagement both the Italians and Turks took part, with a loss of seven
+or eight thousand men. The only comment Gordon makes on the action is
+that "the Sardinians behaved very well." At last, on 8th September, a
+second general assault was delivered, the English again attacking the
+Redan, and, more fortunate in one sense than on the earlier occasion,
+effected a lodgment in the fortress, but were then driven out with
+heavy loss. But the French succeeded in storming and holding the
+Malakoff, which commanded the Redan, and the Russians retired to the
+northern side of the harbour during the night after blowing up their
+ships. The fall of Sebastopol, especially after the doubts held and
+expressed in July and August as to whether the siege would not have to
+be raised, caused the greatest excitement and widespread satisfaction.
+General Gordon sent home the following graphic description of this
+final and at last successful attack:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I must now endeavour to give you my idea of our operations from
+the eventful 8th of September to the present 16th. We knew on the
+7th that it was intended that the French should assault the
+Malakoff Tower at twelve the next day, and that we and another
+column of the French should attack the Redan and central bastion.
+The next day proved windy and dusty, and at ten o'clock began one
+of the most tremendous bombardments ever seen or heard. We had
+kept up a tolerable fire for the last four days, quite warm
+enough; but for two hours this tremendous fire extending six
+miles was maintained. At twelve the French rushed at the
+Malakoff, took it with ease, having caught the defenders in their
+bomb-proof houses, where they had gone to escape from the shells,
+etc. They found it difficult work to get round to the Little
+Redan, as the Russians had by that time got out of their holes.</p>
+
+<p>"However, the Malakoff was won, and the tricolour was hoisted as
+a signal for our attack. Our men went forward well, losing
+apparently few, put the ladders in the ditch, and mounted on the
+salient of the Redan, but though they stayed there five minutes
+or more, they did not advance, and tremendous reserves coming up
+drove them out. They retired well and without disorder, losing in
+all 150 officers, 2400 men killed and wounded. We should have
+carried everything before us if the men had only advanced. The
+French got driven back with great loss at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> central bastion,
+losing four general officers. They did not enter the work. Thus,
+after a day of intense excitement, we had only gained the
+Malakoff. It was determined that night that the Highlanders
+should storm the Redan the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>"I was detailed for the trenches, but during the night I heard
+terrible explosions, and going down to the trenches at 4 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> I
+saw a splendid sight&mdash;the whole town in flames, and every now and
+then a terrific explosion. The rising sun shining on the scene of
+destruction produced a beautiful effect. The last of the Russians
+were leaving the town over the bridge. All the three-deckers,
+etc., were sunk, the steamers alone remaining. Tons and tons of
+powder must have been blown up.</p>
+
+<p>"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&mdash;the
+Russians with the English&mdash;Mr Wright reading the Service over
+them. About ten o'clock Fort Paul was blown up&mdash;a beautiful
+sight. The town was not safe to be entered on account of the fire
+and the few Russians who still prowled about. The latter cut off
+the hands and feet of one Frenchman. They also caught and took
+away a sapper who would go <i>trying</i> to plunder&mdash;for as to plunder
+there was and is literally nothing but rubbish and fleas, the
+Russians having carried off everything else. I have got the lock
+and sight off a gun (which used to try and deposit its contents
+very often in my carcass, in which I am grateful to say it
+failed) for my father, and some other rubbish (a Russian cup,
+etc.) for you and my sisters. But you would be surprised at the
+extraordinary rarity of knick-knacks. They left their pictures in
+the churches, which form consequently the only spoil, and which I
+do not care about buying. I will do my best to get some better
+things if it is possible. On the 10th we got down to the docks,
+and a flag of truce came over to ask permission to take away
+their wounded from the hospital, which we had only found out that
+day contained 3000 wounded men. These unfortunate men had been
+for a day and a half without attendance. A fourth of them were
+dead, and the rest were in a bad way. I will not dwell any more
+on it, but could not imagine a more dreadful sight.</p>
+
+<p>"We have now got into the town, the conflagration being out, and
+it seems quite strange to hear no firing. It has been a splendid
+city, and the harbour is magnificent. We have taken more than
+4000 guns, destroyed their fleet, immense stores of provisions,
+ammunition, etc. (for from the explosions they did not appear to
+be short of it), and shall destroy the dockyard, forts, quays,
+barracks, storehouses, etc. For guns, Woolwich is a joke to it.
+The town is strewn with our shell and shot, etc. We have traced
+voltaic wires to nearly every powder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> magazine in the place. What
+plucky troops they were! When you hear the details of the siege
+you will be astonished. The length of the siege is nothing in
+comparison with our gain in having destroyed the place.</p>
+
+<p>"We are not certain what the Russians are doing on the north
+side, and as yet do not know whether we shall follow them up or
+not. We ought to, I think. It is glorious going over their horrid
+batteries which used to bully us so much. Their dodges were
+infinite. Most of their artillerymen, being sailors, were
+necessarily handy men, and had devised several ingenious modes of
+riveting, which they found very necessary. There was a vineyard
+under our attack, a sort of neutral ground where no one dared to
+venture, either Russian or English. We found lots of ripe grapes
+there. The Russians used to fire another description of grape
+into it. One night I was working with a party at this very spot,
+and out of 200 men we lost 30 killed and wounded. We are engaged
+in clearing the roads, burning the rubbish, and deodorizing the
+town, taking account of the guns, etc. Nothing is stirring; the
+Russians fire a little into the town. We hear they are
+retreating, but do not believe it. The French, it seems, took the
+Malakoff by surprise. They had learnt from a deserter that the
+Russians used to march one relief of men out of the place before
+the other came in on account of the heavy fire; whilst this was
+being done the French rushed in and found the Malakoff empty. The
+Russians made three attempts to retake it, the last led by a
+large body of officers alone. Whenever the Russians commenced a
+battery they laid down first a line of wires to the magazine with
+which they could blow it up at any time."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>With this final tribute to the courage of the Russian garrison,
+Charles Gordon's account of the siege and fall of Sebastopol closes.
+He took part in the expedition to Kimburn, when General Spencer
+commanded a joint force of 9000 men intended to dislodge the Russians
+from a fort they had built at that place, and also to attack a corps
+of 10,000 men supposed to be stationed at the important town of
+Kherson. The fort surrendered after four hours' bombardment by the
+fleet&mdash;the garrison not being "the same style of soldiers as the
+Sebastopol men"&mdash;but the Kherson force was never encountered, retiring
+as the allies advanced, who in their turn retired for fear of being
+drawn too far into the country. In one of several letters while on
+this expedition Gordon says that the Czar Alexander the Second was
+near Kimburn during the attack, and that he sent the Governor a
+telegram, "Remember Holy Russia," which the Russian General did by
+getting drunk. The expedition was then withdrawn after installing a
+French garrison in the fort, and Charles Gordon returned to his old
+quarters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> before Sebastopol. A fortnight after his arrival he was
+appointed to take part in the destruction of the docks, which was to
+signalise the downfall of Russia's power in the Black Sea. This
+closing episode is very well described in several of his letters
+written during the month of December 1855:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I am now, as you see, stationed in the dockyard preparing the
+shafts and galleries for the demolition of the docks. The French
+will destroy one half and ourselves the other. The quantity of
+powder we shall use is 45,000 lbs., in charges varying from 80
+lbs. to 8000 lbs. The French do not sink their shafts so deep as
+we do, but use heavier charges. The docks are very well made, and
+the gates alone cost &pound;23,000. We are taking one gate to London,
+and the French another to Paris. Our shafts are some of them very
+deep, and in others there are from eight to ten feet of water.
+There is not much prospect of the Russians leaving the north
+side. We can see them hutting themselves.... Our works at the
+docks approach completion, and we hope to blow up some portion of
+them on Saturday. The French blew up one last Saturday. The
+explosion presented a splendid appearance and succeeded
+admirably, not a stone being left standing. The powder for our
+demolition will be upwards of twenty-two tons. The Russians still
+(27th December) hold the north forts, and do not appear to be
+likely to leave this year as their huts are all built. We can see
+them quite distinctly on the other side.... <i>January 20,
+1856.</i>&mdash;We have blown up part of our docks, and are very busy
+with the remainder, which we hope to get over by the end of the
+month. I do not anticipate any movement of the army until March,
+when I suppose we shall go to Asia to relieve Kars, and make the
+Russians retire from the Turkish territory.... <i>February 3,
+1856.</i>&mdash;We all of us have been extremely busy in loading and
+firing our mines in the docks, which required all our time, as we
+were so very short of officers, having only three, while the
+French had twelve. Our force of sappers was only 150 and the
+French had 600. We have now finished the demolition, which is
+satisfactory as far as the effects produced are concerned; but
+having used the voltaic battery instead of the old-fashioned
+hose, we have found that electricity will not succeed in large
+operations like this, and I do not think that anyone will use it
+if there is a possibility of using hose. I am now engaged in
+making plans of the docks, and have not much time to myself. The
+French have done their work very well, using more powder than we,
+and firing all their mines with hose. I will try and get you a
+photograph of the docks as they <i>were</i> and as they <i>are</i>, which
+will tell you more than a dozen letters would. We had an alarm
+down here the other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> night about twelve o'clock. The Russians on
+the north side opened a tremendous fire throughout the whole line
+on us and on the French. We were all out under arms, expecting an
+attack by boats, but after being well shelled for an hour, the
+Russians left off, and all was again silent; but for the time it
+lasted the fire was terrific. I heard afterwards that it was
+caused by a French navy captain, who pulled over to the other
+side of the harbour, and tried to burn a steamer which was lying
+on its side. He and his companions arrived unperceived, found the
+steamer quite new, and were getting into it, when the Russian
+sentinel challenged. They answered 'Russe,' but the sentry called
+'To arms,' and the Russians fired into the boat, and then
+continued the fire from all their guns, I suppose expecting a
+grand attack. Only one man, however, was hurt by a splinter on
+the arm. The French will blow up Fort Nicholas on Monday. They
+only got their order the night before last, and are obliged to
+make a hasty demolition of it. They will use 105,000 lbs. of
+powder in the demolition. The Russians had ruined this fort, but
+had not had time to put in the powder; the excavations were
+complete. It certainly is a splendid fort, mounting 128 guns, and
+capitally finished for barracks. It would hold 6000 men. The
+Russians evidently intended this to be an exceptionally strong
+place, and they appear to have been making a quay all the way
+round the dockyard creek. We have seen a great deal of the French
+engineers; they are older men than ours, and seem well educated.
+The non-commissioned officers are much more intelligent than our
+men. With us, although our men are not stupid, the officers have
+to do a good deal of work which the French sapper
+non-commissioned officer does. They all understand line of least
+resistance, etc., and what they are about. The Russians do not
+molest us much now. We can hear them call out and sing,
+especially on Sundays. We can see them drill, which they do every
+day. They even have the coolness to go out and fish in the
+harbour. We never fire, neither do the French. I do not think
+they purpose leaving the north side; in fact, it would not be at
+all wise of them to do so. We had some French engineers to dine
+with us the other day; they were very agreeable, and we learnt a
+great deal from them about their mining. They used to hear the
+Russians mining within ten feet of them, and when they did this
+they used to put in their powder as quick as possible and blow in
+the Russian mines. The Russians had two systems or layers of
+mines, one about ten feet below the surface of the ground and the
+other about forty feet. The French only knew of the higher one,
+and they found out after the place was taken that their advanced
+trenches were quite mined and loaded in the lower tier. In the
+Bastion du M&acirc;t there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> were no less than thirty-six mines loaded
+and tamped. I saw one myself in the upper tier when I was
+surveying it. They (the Russians) worked out a strata of clay
+between two layers of rock, so that no wood was required to keep
+the earth from falling in."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Soon after these letters a truce was concluded with the Russians in
+anticipation of the peace which was ultimately signed at Paris in
+March 1856. The prospects of peace were not altogether agreeable to
+the English army, which had been raised to an effective strength of
+more than 40,000 men, and was never in a better condition for war than
+at the end of the two years since it first landed in the Chersonese.
+Gordon's correspondence contains two or three remarks, giving
+characteristic evidence to the strength and extent of this sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>In one passage he says: "We do not, generally speaking, like the
+thought of peace until after another campaign. I shall not go to
+England, but expect I shall remain abroad for three or four years,
+which <i>individually</i> I would sooner spend in war than peace. There is
+something indescribably exciting in the former."</p>
+
+<p>Another comment to the same effect is the following: "Suders, the
+Russian General, reviewed us and the French army last week. He must
+have thought our making peace odd."</p>
+
+<p>Gordon did not obtain any honour or promotion for his Crimean
+services. He was included in Sir Harry Jones's list of Engineer
+Subalterns who had specially distinguished themselves during the
+siege. The French Government, more discerning than his own, awarded
+him the Legion of Honour.</p>
+
+<p>The letters from the Crimea are specially interesting for the light
+they throw on General Gordon's character. They illustrate better than
+anything else he wrote during his career the soldierly side of his
+character. The true professional spirit of the man of war peers forth
+in every sentence, and his devotion to the details of his work was a
+good preparatory course for that great campaign in China where his
+engineering skill, not less than his military genius, was so
+conspicuously shown. As a subaltern in the Crimea Gordon showed
+himself zealous, daring, vigilant, and with that profound national
+feeling that an army of Englishmen was the finest fighting force in
+the world, combined with an inner conviction that of that army his
+kindred Highlanders were the most intrepid and leading cohort. This
+was a far more attractive and comprehensible personality than the
+other revealed in later days, of the Biblical pedant seeking to
+reconcile passing events with ancient Jewish prophecies, and to see in
+the most ordinary occurrences the workings of a resistless and
+unalterable fate. That was not the true<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Gordon, but rather the
+grafting of a new character on the original stem of Spartan simplicity
+and heroism. But to the very end of his career, to the last message
+from Khartoum, the old Gordon&mdash;the real Gordon, the one who will never
+be forgotten&mdash;revealed himself just as he was in the trenches before
+Sebastopol.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon's connection with the Russian War and the Eastern Question did
+not terminate with the Treaty of Paris. On 10th May he received orders
+to join Colonel Stanton, for the purpose of assisting in the
+delimitation of the new frontier in Bessarabia. He imagined that the
+work would take six months; it really took a year. A not unimportant
+principle was involved in this question, and an error in a map was
+nearly securing for the Russians a material advantage. At the Paris
+Congress it was determined to eloin the Russians from the Danube and
+its tributary lakes and streams. The Powers therefore stated that the
+Russian frontier should pass south of Bolgrad, judging from the small
+scale-map supplied by the Russians that Bolgrad was north of Lake
+Yalpukh, which opens into the river Danube. When the Boundary
+Commission came on the ground, they found that Bolgrad was on Lake
+Yalpukh, and that if the frontier passed to the south of it the
+Russians would have access to the Danube; and therefore, knowing the
+spirit of the Treaty, the English Commissioners referred the question
+to the Paris Congress. A sketch was prepared by Gordon and his
+colleagues, to show the diplomatists its exact position, and led to
+the frontier being laid down north of Bolgrad and Lake Yalpukh.
+Austria, as well as France, Turkey, and Russia, was represented on
+this Commission, and Gordon's comrade was Lieutenant, afterward
+General Sir Henry, James, who had served with him in the trenches, and
+who had one day lost his way and walked into the Russian lines, as
+Gordon himself had so nearly done.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon's letters give an interesting account of his work, and bring
+out with his usual clearness all the points at issue; but it is
+unnecessary to follow very closely the events of the year he passed in
+the lower Danube region. How excellent his work must have been can be
+judged from the fact that the Government sent him back some years
+later to act as British Consul at Galatz. The delimitation work
+commenced with a personal inspection of the frontier from Katamori on
+the Pruth to Boma Sola on the Black Sea, a distance of 200 miles. Then
+the frontier was defined on the map, and finally it had to be marked
+on the ground with the usual posts and distinctive marks. Thirty-two
+separate plans had to be prepared before the frontier could be
+adjusted, and the frequent bickerings and quarrels gave rise to many
+surmises that the negotiations might be broken off and hostilities
+ensue. The main point of dispute as to Bolgrad threatened to form a
+<i>casus belli</i> with even a new arrangement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> of the Powers, as France
+gave up the case, and thus encouraged Russia to prove more obdurate.
+But England and the other Powers stood firm, and Bolgrad was included
+in Moldavia.</p>
+
+<p>The following extracts give a tolerably complete account of what was
+done. Writing from Kichenief on 9th January 1857, Gordon said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We are now settled as to the frontier question. Russia has given up
+Bolgrad and received a portion of territory in exchange equal to that
+surrendered, both as to number of inhabitants and also as to extent of
+land. This mode of compensation will give us more than half our work
+to do over again. I had almost finished my plans, and one-half of
+these will have to be redrawn. However, it is a consolation to know
+that the thing is settled. We heard all this by telegraph from Paris,
+and by the same message learnt that we are to proceed at once to work
+on the frontier in order to get it finished by 30th March, and thus
+allow of the ceded territory being handed over to the Moldavians on
+that day. You may imagine what a hurry they are in to get this
+finished. The Russians pretend to believe that they have got the best
+of the dispute, but it will be difficult to persuade the world to be
+of the same opinion. Although so cold, there is not much snow, and it
+is beautifully clear weather, capital for sledging. The new frontier
+leaves Tobak and Bolgrad in Moldavia, and gives a piece of land near
+the Pruth in exchange to Russia.... The territory will be given over
+in two parts. The southern consists of Ismail, Kilia, Reni, and
+Bolgrad, as well as the delta of the Danube. The northern part
+consists of the land between the Pruth and Yalpukh.... We have
+finished our work, everything has been signed, and the total number of
+the plans we have made is upwards of 100. For my part, I have had
+enough of them for my whole life."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This wish was not to be gratified, for before Colonel Stanton's
+Commission was dissolved orders came for him to hand over his officers
+and men to Colonel&mdash;now Field-Marshal Sir Lintorn&mdash;Simmons, for the
+purpose of settling the boundary in Armenia, where a dispute had
+arisen about the course of the river Aras, the ancient Araxes. Gordon,
+who had now had two and a half years of foreign service without a
+break, did not relish this task, and even went to the expense of
+telegraphing for permission to exchange; but this effort was in vain,
+for the laconic reply of the Commander-in-Chief was: "Lieutenant
+Gordon must go." If Gordon had under-estimated the time required for
+the Bessarabian delimitation, he slightly over-estimated that for the
+Armenian, as his anticipated two years was diminished in the result to
+twenty-one months.</p>
+
+<p>He left Constantinople on 1st May 1857 on board a Turkish steamer,
+<i>Kars</i>, bound for Trebizonde. The ship was overcrowded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> with dirty
+passengers, and the voyage was disagreeable, and might have been
+dangerous if the weather had not proved exceptionally favourable. On
+arriving at Trebizonde horses had to be engaged for the ten days'
+journey across the 180 miles of difficult country separating that port
+from Erzeroum, the Armenian capital. The total caravan of the English
+and French Commissioners&mdash;the latter being Colonel Pelissier, a
+relative of the Marshal&mdash;numbered ninety-nine horses; and the Turkish
+Commissioner, being unable to obtain any money from his Government,
+seized the horses necessary for his journey in a manner that first
+opened Gordon's eyes to the ways of Pashas. He stopped on the road
+every caravan he met, threw off their goods, put on his own, and
+impounded the animals for his journey. After a brief stay at
+Erzeroum&mdash;which Gordon describes as a very pretty place at a distance,
+but horribly dirty when entered, and where there are eight or nine
+months of very hard winter&mdash;the Commission passed on to Kars, which
+became its headquarters. The heroic defence of that fortress was then
+recent, and it is still of sufficient interest as a military episode
+to justify the quotation of the evidence Gordon, with his
+characteristic desire to be well informed, collected on the spot while
+the events themselves were fresh. For convenience' sake, his remarks
+on Kars and the whole campaign are strung together here, although they
+appeared in several letters:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Kars is, as you can easily imagine, a ruined city, and may
+perhaps never recover its former strength and importance. As far
+as the works of defence are concerned, they are excessively badly
+traced. A little pamphlet published by Kmety, a Hungarian, gives
+a graphic description of the siege. One thing difficult if not
+impossible to realise without seeing it, is the large extent of
+the position. Kars has been twice in the hands of the Russians
+during the last thirty years, Paskievitch having taken it by
+assault in 1829. We passed the battlefield at Kuyukdere, where
+the Russians in very small force under Bebutoff were attacked by
+a very superior force of Turks, under the direction of General
+Guyon, the Hungarian. By some mistake the Turkish left lost its
+way during the night, and was eight miles distant from the field
+when the right came into action. The battle was very hotly
+contested, but the Turks had at last to retire with the loss of
+several guns. Had the affair gone off as Guyon<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> intended, the
+Russians would have been licked. This battle, I should add, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+fought in August 1854, before any English officer had arrived in
+this country. The Russian loss was very severe: there were 3,200
+wounded alone brought into Gumri for treatment. The first day
+from Gumri we passed Baiandoor, where the Turks and Russians had
+a small battle in 1853, and where the former lost a splendid
+opportunity of taking Gumri, which was nearly denuded of troops.
+My Turkish colleague, Osman Bey (I believe this officer to be
+identical with Ghazi Osman, the defender of Plevna), was present,
+and got into Gumri as a spy, disguised in the character of a
+servant. The Russian army avenged the slight check they received
+from the Turks by taking all their artillery of the right wing."</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Guyon was an Englishman, but one of the National
+Commanders in the Hungarian Rebellion of 1848. I have given a brief
+account of his adventurous career at pp. 148-49 of "General Gordon's
+Letters from the Crimea," etc.</p></div>
+
+<p>As illustrating his professional zeal and powers of scientific
+examination, the following description of the fortress of Alexandropol
+or Gumri is a striking production from so young an officer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The fortress of Alexandropol (40&deg; 47' N. lat., 43&deg; long. 45' E.,
+4500 feet above the sea) is situated on the left bank of the
+river Arpatchai, which here forms the boundary between Russia and
+Turkey. It is distant thirty-five miles from Kars and eighty-four
+miles from Tiflis. The plain on which it is situated is perfectly
+level and very peculiar. It has a stratum of alluvial soil for
+the depth of one foot six inches on the surface, and then a
+substratum of fine uniform lava, ten to fifteen feet thick,
+supposed to have issued from Mount Alagos (13,450 feet), an
+extinct volcano thirty miles from Alexandropol. The depth of the
+earth allows the growth of grain, but entirely prevents that of
+trees, which with their roots cannot penetrate into the lava. The
+Russians have taken advantage of this bed of lava in the ditch of
+the fortress. The fortress is well constructed and in perfect
+repair. There are upwards of 200 guns (varying from 36-pounders
+to 12-pounders) mounted on the works, and about 100 in reserve,
+of which 30 are field-guns with their equipment wagons, etc. The
+garrison would be 5000 to 6000, including artillery. There are
+large supplies of ammunition and military stores. The ditch,
+twelve feet deep, of the two western fronts has not been
+excavated near the flanks on account of the expense. The Russians
+have constructed in the centres of the two curtains a
+<i>caponni&egrave;re</i> with two guns in each flank to defend the dead
+angles caused by the non-excavation of the whole of the ditch. In
+the centre of these two fronts is a large <i>caponni&egrave;re</i>, mounting
+ten guns in the upper tier and eight in the lower tier. This
+<i>caponni&egrave;re</i> is on a lower level than the enceinte of the place.
+The counterscarp at the north-west and south-west angles of these
+two fronts is for the distance of twenty yards composed of a
+crenellated wall four feet six inches thick. This was caused by
+the irregularity of the ground. The bomb-proof barracks of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> the
+northern fronts mount in casemate two tiers of fourteen guns at
+the curtains. The flanks have five guns in casemates open to the
+rear, in addition to the guns on the parapet above. The lunette
+in the ditch is eight feet deep. The eastern front has an escarp
+fourteen feet high cut in the lava, and well flanked by the
+<i>caponni&egrave;re</i> defending the entrances, mounting four guns. The
+bomb-proof barracks in the northern fronts have one tier of eight
+guns in casemate at the curtains, and three guns in each flank in
+casemates open to the rear. The two outworks are closed at the
+gorge with a loopholed wall, flanked by a small guard-house. They
+have no ditches, but an escarp of ten feet in the lava. The tower
+marked <i>A</i> in my plan is sixty yards in diameter, with a well in
+the centre. It has its gorge closed with a ditch and loopholed
+wall. It mounts fifteen guns on the top, and fifteen guns in
+casemate. It is proposed to connect it by a crenellated wall with
+the main work. The tower marked <i>B</i> has a ditch and small glacis.
+It mounts eight guns in casemate, and eight on the top. Its
+object is to flank the long ravine which runs southward from it.
+All the buildings in the interior of the fortress are bomb-proof.
+The great fault of the fortress as it is constructed at present
+is that it does not so much as see the town with its population
+of 9310. It is now proposed, however, to make a large work on the
+site marked <i>K</i> with a view of meeting this want. During the war
+in 1853, when the Turks were 35,000 strong at Baiandoor, six
+miles from Alexandropol, and the Russians had only two battalions
+in the fortress, the latter demolished all the houses which were
+on this ground. I think that should it ever be in our power to
+besiege this place (which is not likely, from the enormous
+difficulty of getting a siege train there), that batteries might
+be established on the hillocks between the fortress and the
+river, to breach the large <i>caponni&egrave;re</i> and the tower <i>A</i> which,
+from the formation of the ground, would not be opposed by more
+fire than the direct fire of the works they were intended to
+breach, and which would be limited by their circular form to
+about seven guns. The soil is not unfavourable on these hills.
+The hill on which the cemetery of the officers killed at Kars and
+Kuyukdere is situated is also favourable for batteries. The
+principal well, which is sunk to a good depth, is in the
+north-eastern bastion."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>General Gordon's letters contain two or three interesting descriptions
+that, in view of more recent events, deserve quotation. Of the Kurds
+he thus speaks, and the description stands good at the present day:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We met on our road a great number of Kurds, who live as their
+fathers did, by travelling about, robbing, etc., with their
+flocks. Their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> children are short of clothing. In spite of the
+Cossacks, etc., they are as lawless as ever, and go from Turkey
+to Russia and back again as they like. They are fine-looking
+people, armed to the teeth, but are decreasing in numbers. They
+never live in houses, but prefer tents and caves. On the
+mountains we fell in with the tribes of Kurds, who live at this
+height during the summer months, quite isolated from the rest of
+mankind. I paid a visit to the chief of a tribe of 2000, and he
+passed a great number of compliments on the English. This Bey is
+all powerful with his tribe; he settles all disputes, divides the
+pasture land among the families, etc. Although living in such a
+deserted spot, they read the Turkish papers, and they asked
+several questions about the English war with Persia. They are
+very fanatical, and are much encouraged in their religious
+fervour by the Sultan's agents. Their houses consist of stone
+walls covered with camel's-hair tents, which are quite
+waterproof, and lined inside with capital carpets made by
+themselves. We encamped near them and obtained our milk, etc.,
+from them; but, in order to let us know their habits, they stole
+the horse of the Russian officer's interpreter during the night.
+I should not mind trusting them at all, for the Bey would not
+allow them to take our horses; perhaps this was only from his
+hatred to the Russians."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He gives some particulars of the Lazes, to one of whose villages he
+paid a visit, and as he believed that he was the only Englishman who
+had ever done so, his remarks were based on special local knowledge:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"On one side of it was Lazistan, and this part of Lazistan is
+peopled by the fiercest tribe of Lazes, who scarcely acknowledge
+even the Sultan. We had an escort of forty infantry, and were not
+molested. This tribe and the Kabouletians supply the
+Constantinople Turks with slaves, whom they kidnap from the
+Gourelians, who are on the Russian side. The Adjars (the tribe
+referred to) are most daring, and even proposed to us to bring
+any person we might choose out to Batoum for &pound;40 to &pound;120. In
+consequence of these kidnappings, etc., a deadly enmity exists
+between the two peoples, and whenever they get a chance they kill
+one another. During the last eighteen months sixty-two people
+have been kidnapped, sixteen killed, and twenty or thirty wounded
+on the part of the Gourelians. The Russian guards of the frontier
+are helpless against these people, for the latter are armed with
+a capital rifle and are also splendid shots, while the Cossacks
+have only a trumpery smooth bore. The country of the Adjars is
+very mountainous indeed, and quite impracticable except on foot,
+being covered with dense forests."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Of Ani, the ancient, once famous, and now deserted capital of Armenia,
+he gives the following picture:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We passed through Ani, the ancient capital of Armenia. This city
+is completely deserted, and has splendid churches still standing
+in it. These churches are capitally built and preserved. Some
+coloured drawings on their walls are to be seen even now. The
+towers and walls are almost intact, but the most extraordinary
+thing about so large a place is the singular quietness. There are
+many ruined cities in the neighbourhood, and all dating from
+about the eleventh century. At that period Ani itself contained
+100,000 inhabitants and 500 churches, which shows that more
+people went to church among them than with us. Before the end of
+that century it passed into the hands of the Greeks and Saracens.
+Afterwards the Mongols took it, and at last an earthquake drove
+out the remaining inhabitants in 1339, since which time it has
+been perfectly deserted. The churches of Ani were built with
+lava, and crosses of black lava were let in very curiously into
+the red lava. With the exception of the churches and the king's
+palace, the city is level with the ground, the foundations of the
+houses being alone discernible. These churches were covered with
+Armenian inscriptions cut on the walls."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The delimitation work in itself was uninteresting, being carried on in
+barren and solitary regions where there was nothing but rock, without
+either grass or inhabitants. Gordon said he would not take thirty
+square miles for a gift, and yet the Turks and Russians clung to it,
+bringing witnesses from among the tribes who would swear whatever they
+were paid for. The question at issue was where the old frontier
+between the Persian province of Erivan and the Pashalik of Baizeth was
+fixed. The Persians ceded the province of Erivan to Russia in 1828,
+and both the Turks and Russians had their own, and necessarily
+conflicting, views as to where the frontier was. General Gordon's own
+belief that there had never been any real frontier at all was no doubt
+the right one. The English officers, without any assistance from their
+Turkish colleagues, who merely looked on when they were not keeping up
+the supply of witnesses, had to effect the best arrangement they could
+with the Russians. In the course of his survey of the frontier, which
+he said he examined almost foot by foot, Gordon came to Mount Ararat,
+which he very nearly ascended, as he tells the reader in the following
+graphic narrative:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"When we arrived at the foot of Mount Ararat we were unable to
+proceed along the frontier any further because the ground becomes
+extremely broken by the innumerable streams of lava which have
+run down from it. The ground is black with cinders. They look as
+if quite recently emitted, and no one would imagine from their
+appearance that Ararat had been extinct so long. Our road went
+along the northern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> or Russian slope of Ararat, and passed
+through a very old city called Kourgai, where there are still the
+remains of a church and part of an old castle. Even the Armenians
+do not pretend to know its history, but some of them say that
+Noah lived there. It is situated half-way up the mountain, and
+there is no living person within twelve miles of it. There used
+to be a populous village named Aralik, with 5000 inhabitants, a
+little above it, but in 1840 an earthquake shook Mount Ararat,
+and in four minutes an immense avalanche had buried this place so
+completely as to leave scarcely any vestige of its site. Not a
+single person escaped, which is not to be wondered at,
+considering the mass that fell. Stones of twenty or thirty tons
+were carried as far as fifteen to twenty miles into the plain. It
+has left a tremendous cleft in Ararat itself. Other villages were
+destroyed at the same time, but none so completely as this. The
+village immediately below Aralik was also destroyed, but the
+graveyard remained untouched, and the tombstones stand up intact
+in the midst of the ruins. The common people say that it was
+saved on account of a saint who was buried there. All these
+places have a very lonely look. Both the Kurds and the Armenians,
+if they can possibly help it, never pass near Mount Ararat, while
+they think it a great sin to ascend it.</p>
+
+<p>"I must now tell you of my ascent, or rather my near ascent, of
+Great Ararat.</p>
+
+<p>"I and my interpreter and three sappers went up to a Kurdish
+encampment where an old Kurd lived who assisted five of our
+countrymen to ascend about two years ago. The only assistance,
+however, that he appeared able to give us was to show us where
+these Englishmen had encamped the night before their ascent. We
+consequently pitched our tents there, and settled ourselves for
+the night. The night proved to be very stormy, with thunder and
+rain, which was a bad lookout for us. However, we started at 4
+<span class="smcap">a.m.</span> the next morning, and had some very hard work up to the line
+of perpetual snow. My interpreter and two of the sappers gave it
+up before this, but I and the other, Corporal Fisher, held on.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole of this time there was a thick fog, which now and then
+cleared away, though only for brief moments, and enabled us to
+get a splendid view of the country spread out as a map beneath
+us, with cumuli clouds floating about. The snow which I mounted
+was at a very steep slope, and quite hard, nearly ice, on the
+surface. It was so steep that we could not sit down without
+holding on tightly to our poles. Corporal Fisher was about half a
+mile to my left, and had a better ascent as it was not quite so
+steep. About two o'clock I began to get very tired, not able to
+get up more than two yards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> without resting. This was caused by
+the rarefication of the air. The mist cleared just at this time
+for a minute, and I was enabled to see the summit about 1000 feet
+above me, but still a further very steep ascent. Little Ararat
+was also visible 3000 feet below me. It began to snow soon after
+this, and became intensely cold. The two together settled me, and
+I turned round, although very reluctantly, and sitting down, slid
+over in a very few minutes the distance which had taken me so
+many hours to clamber up. Corporal Fisher managed to get up to
+the top, and describes the crater to be very shallow, although
+the top is very large. The Kurd told me afterwards that the road
+I took was very difficult, and that the other English explorers
+went up a road which was comparatively easy. I believe, however,
+that if the weather had been more favourable I should have
+succeeded."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This was not his only mountaineering experience. Some weeks later he
+ascended Mount Alagos&mdash;that is, the Motley Mount, from its various
+colours. It is 13,480 feet above the sea, or about 3000 feet lower
+than Ararat.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We started with some Kurdish guides to the mountain, and after a
+good deal of delay got to the place where the only path to the
+summit commences. Here we were obliged to dismount and take to
+our legs. After about two hours and a half we got to the summit,
+and were extremely glad of it, for although it is not to be
+compared to Mount Ararat, it is still rather difficult. Trusting
+to my Ararat experience, I thought of descending in the snow, and
+started. I was much astonished at finding the slope far steeper
+than I expected, and consequently went down like a shot, and
+reached the bottom one hour and a half before the others. A
+Russian doctor tried it after me, and in trying to change his
+direction was turned round, and went to the bottom sometimes head
+foremost. He was not a bit hurt. There was no danger, as we had
+only to keep ourselves straight. My trousers are the only
+sufferers! I was the first up. None of the Russians succeeded!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>With one more quotation, Gordon's description of Etchmiazin, the
+celebrated monastery where the Armenian Catholicos resides, the
+extracts from these early letters may be concluded:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We passed through the oldest of the Armenian churches and
+monasteries, a place called Etchmiazin. It professes to be 1500
+years old, and certainly has the appearance of great antiquity;
+it was existing during the time of the ruined city of Ani, and is
+built in a similar style. The relics there are greatly esteemed.
+People make pilgrimages to this monastery from all parts. There
+is, firstly, an arm of St Gregory, which is enclosed in a gold
+case covered with precious stones;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> next the piece of the ark,
+which is necessarily of great antiquity; a piece of the cross and
+of the spear, and a finger-nail of St Peter complete the relics.
+All these are enveloped in gold cases, and richly ornamented with
+every sort of precious stones. The monastery owns ten villages
+and a great deal of land. The monks gave us a grand dinner, and
+their feeding certainly was not bad. The monks' council chamber
+was splendidly got up, all the ceiling being carved and gilded."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The concluding stages of the delimitation work were rapidly concluded,
+and before the end of September 1857 Colonel Simmons and his staff had
+returned to Constantinople. The illness of all the English officers
+except Gordon detained them some weeks in the Turkish capital, and he
+wrote home that his surveying duties had been superseded by those of
+sick nurse. But before the end of October he was back again in
+England, and met his father and the other members of his family after
+a still longer interval. While engaged on the frontier commission, his
+comrade in the trenches, Lieutenant William Christian Anderson, of his
+own Corps, had married one of his sisters, but, after a very short
+period of wedded happiness, he died suddenly. After his death a son
+was born who bore the same name, is now an officer in the Royal
+Artillery, and served on General Graham's staff at Souakim. Charles
+Gordon summed up his comrade's character in these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I am extremely distressed to hear of poor Willie Anderson's
+death, and every one who knew him will be so. He was a sterling
+good comrade and officer, greatly liked by both officers and men,
+and our Corps has sustained a great loss in him. I am so very
+sorry for poor dear &mdash;&mdash;. It is such a sudden blow to her, and I
+am sure they must have been so happy together during their short
+married life."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Gordon, therefore, found a certain amount of gloom in the family
+circle during the Christmas of 1857, and as his desire to join the
+staff of the army was not immediately attainable, the orders he
+suddenly received in April 1858 to again proceed to the Caucasus, in
+consequence of a slight frontier dispute with Russia, were not
+altogether disagreeable to him as a return to that active work which
+he loved. For some reason, which was probably the wish to save a
+little money by economy in travelling, with the view of carrying out
+his generous plans towards others, he took his passage to
+Constantinople in a slow steamer from the Thames, touching at Havre.
+He described his fellow-passengers as not very select, but amusing,
+and the voyage as "a yachting excursion, time being apparently no
+object." He only remained ten days at Constantinople, and reached
+Redout Kaleh in the Caucasus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> on 3rd June, visiting Sebastopol on the
+way. He described it as still an utter ruin; "the grass had so
+overgrown the place where the camps stood that it was with difficulty
+I found my hut."</p>
+
+<p>On 12th June Gordon joined his Russian colleague, Ogranovitch, at
+Ozurgeth; but the Turkish representative did not arrive for a month
+later, which interval Gordon employed in recording his impressions of
+Russian and Georgian society in the Caucasus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I dined with the Governor-General, Prince Eristaw, who left the
+next day for Swaneti to overawe the subjects of the late Prince
+(he was shot at Kutais for stabbing Prince Gagarin, the
+predecessor of Prince Eristaw), who do not seem to have realised
+his death. The Prince takes two battalions of infantry and two
+guns nominally as an escort. There are some very pretty ladies at
+Kutais who dance their national dances capitally. They dance
+alone, and all the gentlemen beat time with their hands. I was
+surprised at seeing the ladies wear a sort of bracelet of black
+beads, to which they attached great value. I am sure they are
+nothing more than bog oak.... I have since discovered they are
+<i>cannel coal, not bog oak</i>. The ladies are very pretty, but have
+not very cleanly habits in general; they prefer their nails
+tipped, and do not hesitate at taking a bone and gnawing it. They
+live in extremely dirty houses, or rather huts. They are
+generally all princesses, and the men all princes, who, however,
+do not hesitate to accept small donations. I am always in fear
+and trembling lest they should give me anything, as it is
+necessary to give in return. I, unfortunately, happened to notice
+a certain glass letterweight with the Queen on it, and observed
+that it was like Her Majesty. I was given it on the spot, and
+with deep regret had to part with my soda-water machine the next
+day. I admire nothing now, you may be sure. The servants of
+Prince Dimitri Gouriel have made a good thing out of my visit,
+for each time they bring anything&mdash;butter, fruit, etc.&mdash;orders
+are given that an equivalent be given them in money. My hands get
+quite sticky with shaking hands with so many princes, but I have
+hitherto borne up like a martyr under my trials. On being invited
+to the house of a prince, you would figure yourself invited to a
+palace; but it is not the case here, and you would find it out to
+your cost if you did not take something to eat in your pockets."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The work of this Commission proved exceedingly fatiguing&mdash;Gordon
+breaking in characteristically with the statement: "I do not complain
+when there is no occasion"&mdash;and consisted chiefly in replacing the
+pyramids carefully removed by the population during the twelve months
+since they were erected. The successful result of this Commission was
+entirely due to Gordon's energy and untiring labour. His Russian and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+Turkish colleagues were always quarrelling, and Gordon had to play the
+part of peacemaker&mdash;for which, he said, "I am naturally not well
+adapted"&mdash;an admission that may be commended to those who think that
+Gordon was a meek and colourless individual, with more affinity to a
+Methodist parson than the dauntless and resolute soldier he really
+was.</p>
+
+<p>Early in October the whole delimitation was concluded, and without a
+hitch, much to Gordon's satisfaction. By 17th November he had reached
+Constantinople on his way home, but notwithstanding the special
+hardships of his work and his long absence from England, with one
+brief interval, he was still anxious for work and action. In the
+closing letter of his correspondence he said: "I do not feel at all
+inclined to settle in England and be employed in any sedentary way,
+and shall try and get employed here (Constantinople) if it is
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>While these letters contain a very vivid account of the striking and
+remarkable events that occurred during the long military and
+diplomatic struggle with Russia, they are not less interesting or
+important for the many unconscious glimpses Gordon gives into his own
+character. In them may be found references to habits and things which
+show that the young officer was a sportsman, and by no means
+indifferent to creature comforts; and as the most careful search
+through all his later writings of every kind will bring no similar
+discovery, these acquire a special importance as showing that the
+original Gordon only differed from his comrades in being more earnest,
+more active, and more enthusiastic. I take at random such statements
+as "Our feeding is pretty good, but the drinking is not," "The
+Russians gave a spread [vulgar] on Saturday, noisily and badly got up.
+Their wine was simply execrable," and "How I wish I could get some
+partridge shooting! My bag up to the present (on the Danube) is
+200&mdash;not bad! eh?" Then again, on a more delicate subject, there are
+numerous references to ladies, and to his appreciation of beauty. In a
+chaffing passage in one of his letters, he wrote that one of his
+sisters "wants me to bring home a Russian wife, I think; but I am sure
+you would not admire the Russian ladies I have seen." Again, the
+ladies of the Caucasus are pronounced "very pretty," and "the
+Gourelians are beautiful&mdash;in fact, I never saw so many handsome women
+as the peasants among them." At this time Gordon was certainly not a
+misogynist, but I am assured that the rumours as to his having met
+with an early disappointment in love are quite baseless of truth. From
+a very early period of his life, certainly before the Crimea, Gordon
+had made up his mind not to marry, and was in the habit of going even
+further, and wishing himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> dead. This sentiment led him to
+constantly refer to himself as "the dead man"; and some years later he
+wrote, "There is a Miss &mdash;&mdash; here, the nicest girl I ever met; but
+don't be afraid, the dead do not marry." His own secret opinion seems
+to have been that marriage spoilt both men and women, and it will be
+at least admitted that if he had married he could never have lived the
+disinterested, heroic life which remains a marvel for the world.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CHINA WAR.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">Gordon</span> was back in England in good time for the Christmas festivities
+of 1858, and a few months later&mdash;1st April 1859&mdash;he was gazetted to
+the rank of Captain. About the same time he also received the
+appointment of Field-Work Instructor and Adjutant at Chatham, where
+his practical knowledge gained in the Sebastopol trenches was turned
+to good account in the theoretical training of future officers of his
+Corps. He was thus employed when the conflict in China, which had been
+in progress for some years, assumed a graver character in consequence
+of the Chinese refusal to ratify the Treaty of Tientsin and Admiral
+Hope's repulse in front of the Taku forts. Gordon at once volunteered
+for active service, and on 22nd July 1860 he sailed for the Far East.
+He did not reach Tientsin until the following 26th September, being,
+as he said in his first letter home, "rather late for the amusement,
+which won't vex mother." Not only had he missed the capture of the
+Taku forts, but also the one battle of the war, that fought at
+Chan-chia-wan on 9th September. He was, however, in time for the sack
+of the Summer Palace, which he describes in the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"On the 11th October we were sent down in a great hurry to throw
+up works and batteries against the town, as the Chinese refused
+to give up the gate we required them to surrender before we would
+treat with them. They were also required to give up all the
+prisoners. You will be sorry to hear that the treatment they have
+suffered is very bad. Poor De Norman, who was with me in Asia, is
+one of the victims. It appears that they were tied so tight by
+the wrists that the flesh mortified, and they died in the
+greatest torture. Up to the time that elapsed before they arrived
+at the Summer Palace they were well treated, but then the
+ill-treatment began. The Emperor is supposed to have been there
+at the time.</p>
+
+<p>"To go back to the work&mdash;the Chinese were given until twelve on
+the 13th to give up the gate. We made a lot of batteries, and
+everything was ready for the assault of the wall, which is
+battlemented and 40 feet high, but of inferior masonry. At 11.30
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span> the gate was opened, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> we took possession; so our work
+was of no avail. The Chinese had then until the 23rd to think
+over our terms of peace, and to pay up &pound;10,000 for each
+Englishman and &pound;500 for each native soldier who died during their
+captivity. This they did, and the money was paid, and the Treaty
+signed yesterday. I could not witness it, as all officers
+commanding companies were obliged to remain in camp.</p>
+
+<p>"Owing to the ill-treatment the prisoners experienced at the
+Summer Palace, the General ordered it to be destroyed, and stuck
+up proclamations to say why it was so ordered. We accordingly
+went out, and, after pillaging it, burned the whole place,
+destroying in a Vandal-like manner most valuable property which
+would not be replaced for four millions. We got upwards of &pound;48
+a-piece prize money before we went out here; and although I have
+not as much as many, I have done well. Imagine D&mdash;&mdash; giving
+sixteen shillings for a string of pearls, which he sold the next
+day for &pound;500!</p>
+
+<p>"The people are civil, but I think the grandees hate us, as they
+must after what we did to the Palace. You can scarcely imagine
+the beauty and magnificence of the places we burnt. It made one's
+heart sore to burn them; in fact, these palaces were so large,
+and we were so pressed for time, that we could not plunder them
+carefully. Quantities of gold ornaments were burnt, considered as
+brass. It was wretchedly demoralising work for an army. Everybody
+was wild for plunder.</p>
+
+<p>"You would scarcely conceive the magnificence of this residence,
+or the tremendous devastation the French have committed. The
+throne-room was lined with ebony, carved in a marvellous way.
+There were huge mirrors of all shapes and kinds, clocks, watches,
+musical boxes with puppets on them, magnificent china of every
+description, heaps and heaps of silks of all colours, embroidery,
+and as much splendour and civilization as you would see at
+Windsor; carved ivory screens, coral screens, large amounts of
+treasure, etc. The French have smashed everything in the most
+wanton way. It was a scene of utter destruction which passes my
+description."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It may be of interest to state here that Gordon bought the throne
+referred to. Its supports are the Imperial Dragon's claws, and the
+cushions are of yellow Imperial silk. He presented it long afterwards
+to the headquarters of his Corps at Chatham, where it now stands.</p>
+
+<p>On the exchange of the Treaty ratifications, which took place within
+the walls of the Imperial capital, the force under Sir Hope Grant was
+withdrawn to Tientsin, and after a brief space from China. But pending
+the payment of the instalments of the war indemnity, a garrison of
+3000 men, under General Staveley, was left at Tientsin, and Captain
+Gordon was attached to this force. He had a very busy time of it at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+first, for suitable quarters had to be provided for our troops, and
+Gordon was fully employed in the construction of barracks and stables.
+Among the other tasks that engaged his attention at the time was the
+management of a fund for the benefit of the Chinese poor, and he was
+much distressed by an unfortunate accident that attended its
+distribution.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We had collected about nine hundred dollars for the poor, and
+had asked the mandarins to issue tickets to the most deserving.
+This they would not do, so a certain day was fixed upon which to
+distribute the funds. There were about 3000 beggars, and in the
+crush seven women and one boy were killed. The poor women on
+their little feet, on which they are never very safe, were thrown
+down and trampled upon."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>During the eighteen months that Gordon resided at Tientsin he took
+every opportunity of seeing the country, and as often as he could he
+rode from that town along the banks of the Peiho river to the Taku
+forts at its mouth. The distance is about forty miles each way, and he
+computed that he accomplished it not fewer than twenty times. He also
+visited Peking in August 1861, and remained several days on a visit to
+Sir Frederick Bruce at the British Legation. At that date rumours were
+already current that the Emperor Hienfung, who never returned to
+Peking after our occupation, but made Yehol his capital and place of
+residence, was dead. These were true, but some time elapsed before it
+was officially announced that the Emperor had died on the 22nd of that
+month, the very day that Gordon reached Peking himself, and wrote the
+following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The Emperor is reported to be dead, and his coffin has been sent
+for; but this is no proof, since it is the custom to send for a
+man's coffin when he is seriously ill, and it is kept for him
+even if he lives fifty years after."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Writing again some time after, he says on the grave event: "A great
+operation relating to the funeral of Hienfung is going on: a marble
+block, weighing sixty tons, is being removed from the quarries to the
+west of Peking to the cemetery in the east. It is drawn along upon a
+huge truck by six hundred ponies, and proceeds at the rate of four
+miles per day. When it arrives it is to be set up and carved into the
+shape of an elephant; several other large stones are also <i>en route</i>."</p>
+
+<p>But the most interesting expedition Gordon undertook from Tientsin was
+that to the Great Wall, and here I must borrow Dr Birkbeck Hill's
+graphic description, which is based on a long letter from Gordon
+himself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"In December 1861, accompanied by Lieutenant Cardew of the 67th
+Regiment, he made a tour on horseback to the outer Wall of China
+at Kalgan. A Chinese lad of the age of fourteen who knew a little
+English acted as their servant and interpreter, while their
+baggage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> was carried in two carts. In the course of their journey
+they passed through districts which had never before been visited
+by Europeans. Against the northern side of the city of Siuen-hoa
+(<i>not</i> Si<i>n</i>en-hoa, as printed in Dr Hill's book) they found that
+the sand had drifted with the wind till it had formed a sloping
+bank so high that it reached to the top of the walls, though they
+were nearly twenty feet high. Nature had followed in the steps of
+the generals of old, and had cast up a bank against the town. At
+Kalgan the Great Wall was with its parapet about 22 feet high and
+16 feet broad. Both of its faces were built of bricks, each of
+which was three times the size of one of our bricks. The space
+between was filled in with rubble. 'It is wonderful,' writes
+Colonel Gordon, 'to see the long line of wall stretching over the
+hills as far as the eye can reach.' From Kalgan they travelled
+westwards to Taitong, where the wall was not so high. There they
+saw huge caravans of camels laden with 'brick tea' going towards
+Russia. Here they were forced to have the axle-trees of their
+carts widened, for they had come into a part of the country where
+the wheels were always set wider apart than in the province
+whence they came. Their carts therefore no longer filled the deep
+ruts which had been worn in the roads.</p>
+
+<p>"The chief object of their journey had been to ascertain whether
+there was in the inner wall any pass besides the Tchatiaou, which
+on that side of the country led from the Russian territory to
+Peking. They pushed along southwards, in vain trying for a long
+time to find a way eastward over the mountains. It was not till
+they reached Taiyuen that they struck into the road that led to
+Peking or Tientsin.</p>
+
+<p>"In this town, for the first time on their journey, they got into
+any kind of trouble. When their bill was brought them for their
+night's lodging they found that the charge was enormous. Seeing
+that a dispute would arise, they sent on their carts, and waited
+at the inn till they felt sure that they had got well on their
+way. They then, like the three Quakers with whom Charles Lamb
+travelled to Exeter, offered what they thought a reasonable sum.
+It was refused. They tried to mount their horses, but the people
+of the inn stopped them. Major Gordon took out his revolver, for
+show more than for use, for he allowed them to take it from him.
+He thereupon said, 'Let us go to the Mandarin!'</p>
+
+<p>"To this they agreed, and at the same time they gave him back his
+revolver. They all walked towards the Mandarin's house&mdash;the two
+Englishmen alongside their horses. On the way Major Gordon said
+to his companion, 'Are you ready to mount?' 'Yes,' he answered.
+So they mounted quietly, and went on with the people. When they
+reached the Mandarin's they turned horses, and scampered after
+their carts as fast as they could. The people yelled and rushed
+after them, but it was too late.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Some way beyond Taiyuen they came upon the pass over the
+mountains which led down into the country drained by the Peiho.
+The descent was a terrible one. All along the cold had been
+intense&mdash;so much so that raw eggs were frozen hard as if they had
+been boiled. To add to their troubles, when they were on in front
+their carts were attacked by robbers; but the Chinese lad&mdash;an
+ugly imp&mdash;kept them off with his gun. When they drew near
+Paoting-fu they sent on with the lad the two carts and their
+tired horses, which had now carried them for three weeks without
+the break of a single day, and they hired a fresh cart in which
+they thought to ride to Tientsin. But with the boy gone they had
+no interpreter, and in their impatience, 'their new driver'&mdash;to
+quote our traveller's own words&mdash;'got rather crossly dealt with.'
+They stopped near Paoting-fu for the night. Early next morning as
+they were washing they heard the gates of the inn open and the
+rumble of cartwheels. They guessed what was happening. 'Half
+stripped as I was, I rushed out and saw our cart bolting away. I
+ran for a mile after it, but had to come back and hire another
+with which we got to Tientsin&mdash;more than fourteen days over our
+leave.'"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>From this pleasant but uneventful occupation Gordon was summoned to a
+scene where important events were in progress, and upon which he was
+destined to play what was perhaps, after all, the most brilliant part
+in the long course of his remarkable career. His brother puts the
+change into a single sentence:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"On the 28th of April 1862 Captain Gordon left the Peiho and
+arrived at Shanghai on 3rd of May, and at once dropped into the
+command of a district with the charge of the engineer part of an
+expedition about to start, with the intention of driving the
+rebels out of a circuit of thirty miles from Shanghai."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>By the end of March 1862 the Chinese Government had sufficiently
+carried out its obligations to admit of the withdrawal of the force at
+Tientsin, and General Staveley transferred the troops and his quarters
+from that place to Shanghai, where the Taeping rebels were causing the
+European settlement grave anxiety, and what seemed imminent peril. The
+Taepings, of whose rebellion some account will be given in the next
+chapter, were impelled to menace Shanghai by their own necessities.
+They wanted arms, ammunition, and money, and the only means of
+obtaining them was by the capture of the great emporium of foreign
+trade. But such an adventure not merely implied a want of prudence and
+knowledge, it could only be attempted by a breach of their own
+promises. When Admiral Hope had sailed up the Yangtsekiang and visited
+Nanking, he demanded and received from Tien Wang, the Taeping king or
+leader, a promise that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> Taeping forces should not advance within a
+radius of thirty miles of Shanghai. That promise in its larger extent
+had soon been broken, and an attack on Shanghai itself, although
+unsuccessful, crowned the offences of the rebels, and entailed the
+chastisement a more prudent course would have averted. Without
+entering into the details here that will be supplied later on, it will
+suffice to say that in January 1862 the Taepings advanced against
+Shanghai, burning all the villages <i>en route</i>, and laid irregular
+siege to it during more than six weeks. Although they suffered several
+reverses, the European garrison was not in sufficient strength to
+drive them away, and a general anxiety prevailed among the European
+community when the arrival of General Staveley altered the posture of
+affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Before Gordon arrived two affairs of some importance had taken place.
+At Wongkadza, a village twelve miles west of Shanghai, General
+Staveley obtained a considerable success, which was, however, turned
+into a disaster by the disobedience of his orders. The Taepings had
+retired to some stronger stockades, and General Staveley had ordered
+the postponement of the attack until the next day, when the trained
+Chinese troops, carried away by their leaders' impetuosity, renewed
+the assault. The result was a rude repulse, with the loss of nearly
+100 men killed and wounded. The next day the stockades were evacuated,
+and within another week the fortified villages of Tsipu and Kahding
+were also taken. It was at this point that Gordon arrived from
+Tientsin, and reached the scene of action just as the arrangements for
+attacking the important village of Tsingpu were being completed.</p>
+
+<p>That the Taepings were not contemptible adversaries, at least those
+under their redoubtable leader Chung Wang, was shown by their
+attempting to destroy Shanghai by fire, even while these operations
+were in progress. The plot nearly succeeded, but its promoters were
+severely punished by the summary execution of 200 of their number. The
+force assembled for the attack on Tsingpu assumed almost the
+dimensions of an army. General Staveley commanded 1,429 British troops
+with twenty guns and mortars, in addition to a naval brigade of 380
+men and five guns. There was also a French contingent of 800 men and
+ten guns, under Admiral Protet. At Tsingpu Gordon specially
+distinguished himself by the manner in which he reconnoitred the
+place, and then placed and led the ladder parties after two breaches
+had been pronounced practical. The Taepings fought well, but the place
+was carried, and the Chinese auxiliaries killed every one they found
+with arms in their hands. Commenting on Gordon's part in this affair,
+General Staveley wrote in his official despatch:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Captain Gordon was of the greatest use to me when the task of
+clearing the rebels from out of the country within a radius of
+thirty miles from Shanghai had to be undertaken. He reconnoitred
+the enemy's defences, and arranged for the ladder parties to
+cross the moats, and for the escalading of the works; for we had
+to attack and carry by storm several towns fortified with high
+walls and deep wet ditches. He was, however, at the same time a
+source of much anxiety to me from the daring manner he approached
+the enemy's works to acquire information. Previous to our attack
+upon Tsingpu, and when with me in a boat reconnoitring the place,
+he begged to be allowed to land in order better to see the nature
+of the defences; presently, to my dismay, I saw him gradually
+going nearer and nearer, by rushes from cover to cover, until he
+got behind a small outlying pagoda within 100 yards of the wall,
+and here he was quietly making a sketch and taking notes. I, in
+the meantime, was shouting myself hoarse in trying to get him
+back, for not only were the rebels firing at him from the walls,
+but I saw a party stealing round to cut him off."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A letter from Gordon gives an interesting account of the two
+subsequent affairs at Nanjao, where Admiral Protet was killed, and at
+Cholin, where the Taepings suffered a severe but, as it proved, not a
+decisive defeat.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"On going through the village a Chang-mow (rebel leader) came out
+of a house rubbing his eyes, evidently having been taking a
+siesta; he was horrified, and bolted, but was soon caught, and
+the sailors had much difficulty in saving his life from the
+villagers, who flew upon and would have killed him. Poor man! he
+had such a nice costume when taken, but in five minutes
+afterwards you would scarcely have known him; all his finery, and
+even more, had been taken from him. The small force encamped and
+entrenched themselves 900 yards from Cholin, much to the surprise
+and anger of the garrison. They came down in force on the next
+morning with no end of banners. Upon the principle that inquiring
+minds should not be balked, they were allowed to come pretty
+close, but then the poor things received a check, and the
+beautiful silk banners were furled up and carried back to the
+town.</p>
+
+<p>"The next day General Staveley sent us word to come back, since
+he would attack Nanjao first, but as there were nearly 1000
+villagers depending upon our protection and crowding round our
+camp, I was sent back with an armed party, and Captain Willes
+remained in front of the town. I went back by a different road
+and came on the General four miles from Nanjao. We marched on,
+and halted near the town, which was reconnoitred during the
+night, and the guns placed in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> position by 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> On the 17th we
+opened fire at seven, and attacked the place. Here Admiral Protet
+was killed; he was among 500 men, and was the only one struck.
+The town was a wretched affair, and a good many Chang-mows
+escaped. These Chang-mows are very funny people; they always run
+when attacked. They are ruthlessly cruel, and have a system of
+carrying off small boys under the hope of training them up as
+rebels. We always found swarms of these boys who had been taken
+from their parents (whom the rebels had killed) in the provinces.</p>
+
+<p>"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. I started soon after the
+attack for Cholin, and got there on the 18th. The rebels had made
+a <i>sortie</i> since my departure, and had got into a pretty mess.
+Willes let them come up and then advanced on them; over sixty
+were killed, and several taken prisoners. The General then came.
+We got our guns in position during the night, opened fire next
+morning, and assaulted at seven. The place was miserable and
+poor. The Armstrong guns, which enfiladed one face, did great
+execution."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The fruits of these successes were lost by the signal overthrow and
+practical annihilation of a large Chinese army at Taitsan. One of
+General Staveley's detachments was cut off, and with his
+communications threatened he found himself compelled to abandon
+Kahding, and to retire towards Shanghai. Tsingpu had also to be
+abandoned, and the garrison suffered some loss in effecting its
+retreat. Of the first results of General Staveley's campaign there
+thus remained very little, and it was only in the autumn that these
+places were retaken, and the campaign against the Taepings in the
+Shanghai districts continued with varying fortune throughout the
+remainder of the year 1862 and the early months of 1863.</p>
+
+<p>While these military events were in progress Major Gordon, who was
+raised to the rank of Major in the army in December 1862 for his
+services in China, had been trusted with the congenial task, and one
+for which he was pre-eminently well suited, of surveying and mapping
+the whole of the region for thirty miles. This work, necessary in
+itself for many reasons, proved of incalculable value to him in the
+operations which he eventually undertook and carried out to a
+successful issue against the rebels. His own letters show how
+thoroughly he fulfilled his instructions, and how his surveys ended in
+his complete mastery of the topography of the region between the Grand
+Canal, the sea, and the Yangtsekiang:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"I have been now in every town and village in the thirty miles'
+radius. The country is the same everywhere&mdash;a dead flat, with
+innumerable creeks and bad pathways. The people have now settled
+down quiet again, and I do not anticipate the rebels will ever
+come back. They are rapidly on the decline, and two years ought
+to bring about the utter suppression of the revolt. I do not
+write about what we saw, as it amounts to nothing. There is
+nothing of any interest in China; if you have seen one village
+you have seen all the country. I have really an immensity to do.
+It will be a good thing if the Government support the
+propositions which are made to the Chinese.</p>
+
+<p>"The weather here is delightful&mdash;a fine cold, clear air which is
+quite invigorating after the summer heats. There is very good
+pheasant-shooting in the half-populated districts, and some quail
+at uncertain times. It is extraordinary to see the quantities of
+fishing cormorants there are in the creeks. These cormorants are
+in flocks of forty and fifty, and the owner in a small canoe
+travels about with them. They fish three or four times a day, and
+are encouraged by the shouts of their owners to dive. I have
+scarcely ever seen them come up without a fish in their beaks,
+which they swallow, but not for any distance, for there is a ring
+to prevent it going down altogether. They get such dreadful
+attacks of mumps, their throats being distended by the fish,
+which are alive, when the birds seem as if they were pouter
+pigeons. They are hoisted into the boats and then are very
+sea-sick. Would you consider the fish a dainty?"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>And again he writes about the Taepings, who were not in his eyes "a
+people nobly struggling to be free," but a horde of ruthless
+marauders.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We had a visit from the marauding Taepings the other day. They
+came close down in small parties to the settlement and burnt
+several houses, driving in thousands of inhabitants. We went
+against them and drove them away, but did not kill many. They
+beat us into fits in getting over the country, which is
+intersected in every way with ditches, swamps, etc. You can
+scarcely conceive the crowds of peasants who come into Shanghai
+when the rebels are in the neighbourhood&mdash;upwards of 15,000, I
+should think, and of every size and age&mdash;many strapping fellows
+who could easily defend themselves come running in with old women
+and children.</p>
+
+<p>"The people on the confines are suffering very greatly, and are
+in fact dying of starvation. It is most sad this state of
+affairs, and our Government really ought to put the rebellion
+down. Words could not depict the horrors these people suffer from
+the rebels, or describe the utter desert they have made of this
+rich province. It is all very well to talk of non-intervention,
+and I am not particularly sensitive, nor are our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> soldiers
+generally so, but certainly we are all impressed with the utter
+misery and wretchedness of these poor people.... In the midst of
+those terrible times the British and foreign merchants behaved
+nobly and gave great relief, while the Chinese merchants did not
+lag behind in acts of charity. The hardest heart would have been
+touched at the utter misery of these poor harmless people, for
+whatever may be said of their rulers, no one can deny but that
+the Chinese peasantry are the most obedient, quiet, and
+industrious people in the world."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The propositions referred to in the former of these two letters were
+that the services of Major Gordon should be lent to the Chinese
+Government for the suppression of the Taeping rebellion, that he
+should assume the command of an Anglo-Chinese legion of which the
+nucleus already existed, and that he might enlist the services of a
+certain number of our own officers. Considerable delay took place in
+the execution of this project, as it was necessary to send to Europe
+for the necessary authority; and another explanation was given
+subsequently to the effect that Gordon insisted on finishing his
+survey first. But Sir Charles Staveley, who nominated Major Gordon for
+the work, has effectually disposed of this latter statement by
+declaring that the former was the true and only cause. At length these
+propositions were sanctioned, and on 26th March 1863 Major Gordon
+proceeded to Sungkiang, a town west of Shanghai and south of Tsingpu,
+to take over the command of the Chinese force, which had already been
+named the Ever Victorious Army, and which in his hands justified its
+name.</p>
+
+<p>Before closing this chapter it will be well to give some account of
+the origin of this force, and of the more important events that
+preceded Gordon's appointment to the command. As far back as April
+1860 the Viceroy of the Two Kiang provinces had begged the English and
+French representatives to lend him military assistance in dealing with
+the rebels. The request was not complied with, but when some of the
+richest native merchants of Shanghai, with one Takee at their head,
+formed themselves into a patriotic association, and bound themselves
+to provide the funds required to raise a European-led force, no
+impediments were placed in their way. In July 1860 the services of two
+American adventurers who had had some military experience in Central
+America and elsewhere were enlisted and taken into the pay of this
+merchants' guild. Their names were Ward and Burgevine, and they were
+both adventurers of an unscrupulous and unattractive type. In addition
+to excellent pay, they were promised handsome money rewards for the
+capture of specified places, and what spoil there was to take should
+be theirs. Such a prospect was very inviting to the bold spirits of a
+great port like Shanghai, with its trading ships from every quarter
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> the world, and they succeeded in recruiting about 100 Europeans
+and 200 Manilla men or Spanish half-breeds.</p>
+
+<p>In order to test the quality of this force it was decided to attack
+Sungkiang; and in July, only a week or so after it was organised, Ward
+led his somewhat motley band against that place. The result was
+unfavourable, as his attack was repulsed with some loss. Nothing
+daunted, Ward collected some more Manilla men and renewed the attack.
+He succeeded in capturing one of the gates, and in holding it until an
+Imperial army of 10,000 men arrived, when the town was carried by
+storm. Having thus proved its mettle, Ward's force became very
+popular, and it was increased by many fresh recruits, chiefly Greeks
+and Italians. It also was strengthened by the addition of some
+artillery, two six-pounder and later two eighteen-pounder guns.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese merchants then offered Ward and his quarter-master
+Burgevine a large reward for the capture of Tsingpu; and their legion,
+accompanied by a Chinese force of 10,000 men, who were, however, only
+to look on while it did the fighting, accordingly marched on that
+place. The attack made during the night of 2nd August resulted in a
+most disastrous repulse, most of the Europeans being either killed or
+wounded, Ward himself receiving a severe wound in the jaw. He renewed
+the attack with fresh men and two eighteen-pounders three weeks later;
+but after bombarding the place for seven days, he was attacked by the
+Taeping hero Chung Wang, and routed, with the loss of his guns and
+military stores. It was on this occasion that Chung Wang, following up
+his success, and doubly anxious to capture Shanghai because this new
+and unexpected force was organised there, attacked that town, and was
+only repulsed by the English and French troops who lined its walls.</p>
+
+<p>This reverse at Tsingpu destroyed the reputation of Ward's force, and
+for several months he remained discredited and unemployed. In March
+1861 he reappeared at Sungkiang, at the head of sixty or seventy
+Europeans whom he had recruited for the Imperial cause; but at that
+moment the policy of the foreign Consuls had undergone a change in
+favour of the Taepings, and Ward was arrested as a disturber of the
+peace. Perhaps a more serious offence was that the high pay he offered
+and prospect of loot had induced nearly thirty British sailors to
+desert their ships. He was released on his claiming that he was a
+Chinese subject, and also on his sending orders to his colleague
+Burgevine to return the troops they had enlisted. Burgevine thought he
+saw in this a chance of personal distinction, and before disbanding
+the men he made with them another attack on Tsingpu. This attack, like
+its two predecessors, was repulsed with heavy loss, and the original
+Ward force<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> was thus finally discredited. It should be borne in mind,
+to distinguish it from what followed, that it was a mercenary force of
+European and Spanish half-breeds, without a single Chinese in it.</p>
+
+<p>In September 1861 these two men altered their proceedings, and gave a
+new turn to the whole question. As it was impossible for them to
+recruit foreigners, they induced Takee and his associates to provide
+the funds for a native Chinese force, which they undertook to train
+and organise. In this task they made considerable progress, and with a
+view to making it popular with the Chinese, and also to give the men
+confidence, this new force was named, probably by Takee, the Chun Chen
+Ch&uuml;n or Ever Victorious Army. This proud title was given long before
+the claim to it was justified, but its subsequent appropriateness has
+buried in oblivion the slender claim it possessed to it on its
+inception.</p>
+
+<p>By the end of January 1862 Ward had succeeded in training two
+regiments of 1000 men each, and with these he captured Quanfuling and
+200 boats in the rear of the Taeping force, which attacked Shanghai
+for a third time in that month. When the English and French forces
+assumed the offensive before the arrival of Sir Charles Staveley, part
+of Ward's Corps accompanied them in the attack on Kachiaou. It led the
+attack, and behaved extremely well, thus giving rise to very
+favourable anticipations as to what a properly-trained Chinese army
+might do.</p>
+
+<p>In a second action at Tseedong the force maintained the reputation it
+had gained. The Chinese fought with great bravery, and the difficulty,
+in fact, was in keeping them back. The English general reviewed them
+after this encounter, and declared himself much impressed with their
+appearance. Representations were made at Peking, and on 16th March
+1862 an Imperial decree gave the first public recognition of the Ever
+Victorious Army.</p>
+
+<p>Although reverses followed, the Corps maintained the reputation it had
+gained for steadiness and discipline. Under General Staveley at
+Wongkadza it acted well and lost heavily, and in all the subsequent
+movements of that officer it took a prominent part. When Tsingpu was
+captured, as already described, one of Ward's regiments was left in it
+as a garrison, but on the evacuation of that place in consequence of
+the return of Chung Wang with fresh and more numerous forces, it
+narrowly escaped annihilation. It was then that the Taeping general
+named them in scornful irony, "Cha-Yang-Kweitser," or "Sham Foreign
+Devils," the point of the sarcasm being that these troops wore an
+European costume.</p>
+
+<p>During the summer of 1862, when the heat rendered active operations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+impossible, everything was done to increase both the numbers and the
+efficiency of the Ever Victorious Army. By the month of July its
+strength had been raised to 5000 men, the commissioned officers being
+all Europeans except one Chinese, named Wongepoo, who had been given a
+commission for special gallantry by Admiral Hope. Ward was in chief
+command, and Colonel Forrester and Burgevine were his first and second
+lieutenants. When the weather became a little cooler in August, it was
+determined to utilise this force for the recapture of Tsingpu, which
+was taken at the second assault on the 9th of that month, although not
+without heavy loss in officers and men. Six weeks later the important
+Taeping position at Tseki, across the Hangchow Bay and not far distant
+from Ningpo, was attacked by Ward and a party of English blue-jackets.
+The operation was perfectly successful, but Ward was shot in the
+stomach and died the next day. His loss was a very considerable one,
+for, as Gordon said, "he managed both the force and the mandarins very
+ably." Colonel Forrester should have succeeded to the command, but he
+declined the post, which then devolved upon Burgevine.</p>
+
+<p>After a brief space the services of Captain Holland of the Royal
+Marine Light Infantry were lent to Burgevine in the capacity of Chief
+of the staff, and as this was done at the suggestion of the Futai
+Li&mdash;since famous to Europeans as Li Hung Chang&mdash;it did not conduce to
+greater harmony between him and Burgevine, for their antagonism had
+already become marked. An occasion soon offered to fan this feeling to
+a flame. A Chinese army under Li and General Ching advanced to attack
+a Taeping position near Tsingpu, at the same time that Burgevine at
+the head of his corps assailed it from the other side. The brunt of
+the fighting fell on the latter, but when Li issued his bulletin he
+claimed all the credit of the victory, and totally ignored Burgevine
+and his men. Burgevine did not accept this rebuff meekly, and his
+peremptory manner offended the Chinese. The breach was widened by the
+distrust many of the Chinese merchants as well as officials felt as to
+his loyalty, and soon it was seen that the funds so freely supplied to
+Ward would not be forthcoming in his case.</p>
+
+<p>Burgevine's character has been described in the following sentence by
+Gordon himself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"He was a man of large promises and few works. His popularity was
+great among a certain class. He was extravagant in his
+generosity, and as long as he had anything would divide it with
+his so-called friends, but never was a man of any administrative
+or military talent, and latterly, through the irritation caused
+by his unhealed wound and other causes, he was subject to violent
+paroxysms of anger,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> which rendered precarious the safety of any
+man who tendered to him advice that might be distasteful. He was
+extremely sensitive of his dignity."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The situation between the Chinese authorities and Burgevine soon
+became so strained that the former presented a formal complaint to
+General Staveley, and begged him to remove Burgevine. This, as the
+English commander pointed out, was for obvious reasons beyond his
+power, but he made representations to his Government, and suggested
+that an English officer should be lent to the Chinese, and he
+nominated Gordon as the best qualified for the work. Pending the
+arrival of the required authority, the Chinese, assisted by
+Burgevine's own impetuosity, brought their relations with him to a
+climax. The merchant Takee withheld the pay of the force; Burgevine
+was first ordered to proceed with his troops to Nanking, and then, on
+consenting, the order was withdrawn; some weeks later a fresh order to
+the same effect was issued, and Burgevine demanded the payment of all
+arrears before he would move, and thus Li's object of exposing
+Burgevine as a disobedient officer to the Government that employed him
+was attained.</p>
+
+<p>The Ever Victorious Army, excited by the absence of its pay, and
+worked upon by the exhortations of its chief, was on the point of
+mutiny, and Burgevine hastened to Shanghai to obtain by force rather
+than persuasion the arrears. On 4th January 1863 he saw Takee, a
+violent scene ensued, and Burgevine used violence. Not only did he
+strike Takee, but he carried off the treasure necessary to pay his
+men. Such conduct could not be upheld or excused. Li Hung Chang made
+the strongest complaint. Burgevine was dismissed the Chinese service,
+and General Staveley forwarded the notice to him with a quiet
+intimation that it would be well to give up his command without making
+a disturbance. Burgevine complied with this advice, handed over the
+command to Captain Holland, and came back to Shanghai on 6th of
+January. He published a defence of his conduct, and expressed his
+regret for having struck Takee.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Holland was thus the third commander of the Ever Victorious
+Army, and a set of regulations was drawn up between Li Hung Chang and
+General Staveley as to the conduct and control of the force. It was
+understood that Captain Holland's appointment was only temporary until
+the decision of the Government as to Gordon's nomination arrived, but
+this arrangement allowed of the corps again taking the field, for
+although it cost the Chinese &pound;30,000 a month, it had done nothing
+during the last three months of the year 1862. Early in February 1863,
+therefore, Captain Holland, at the head of 2,300 men, including a
+strong force of artillery&mdash;600 men and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> twenty-two guns and
+mortars&mdash;was directed to attack Taitsan, an important place about
+fifty miles north-east of Shanghai. An Imperialist army of nearly
+10,000 men acted in conjunction with it. The affair was badly managed
+and proved most disastrous.</p>
+
+<p>After a short bombardment a breach was declared to be practicable, and
+the ladder and storming parties were ordered to the assault.
+Unfortunately, the reconnoitring of the Taeping position had been very
+carelessly done, and the attacking parties were checked by a wet
+ditch, twenty feet wide and six feet deep, of which nothing had been
+seen. Situated only forty yards from the wall of the town, and without
+any means of crossing it, although some few did by throwing across a
+ladder, the storming party stood exposed to a terrific fire. Captain
+Holland ordered a retreat, but it was not managed any better than the
+attack. The light guns were removed too quickly, and the heavy ones
+were stuck so fast in the mud that they could not be removed at all.
+The Taepings attacked in their turn, and the greatest confusion
+prevailed, during which the survivors of the larger half of the Ever
+Victorious Army escaped in small detachments back to Sungkiang. Twenty
+European officers were killed or wounded, besides 300 Chinese
+privates. Captain Holland exposed himself freely, but this, his only
+action in independent command, resulted in complete and unqualified
+failure. Gordon himself summed up the causes of this serious and
+discouraging reverse:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The causes of the failure were the too cheap rate at which the
+rebels were held. The force had hitherto fought with the allies
+with them (except at Tsingpu). They now had to bear the brunt of
+the fighting themselves, the mistake of not having provided
+bridges in spite of the mandarin's information, and the too close
+proximity of the heavy guns to the walls, and the want of cover
+they had, and finally the withdrawal of the lighter guns before
+the heavy guns, whose removal they should have covered. There is
+little doubt that the rebels had been warned by persons in
+Shanghai of the intended attack, and that several foreigners, who
+had been dismissed by Captain Holland, were with the rebels
+defending the breach. As may be imagined, Burgevine's removal had
+caused considerable feeling among his acquaintances, who were not
+sorry to see the first expedition of the force under an English
+officer fail, being in hopes that the command would again revert
+to Burgevine."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This reverse occurred on 13th February, and no further steps of any
+consequence were taken until the appointment of Major Gordon, which at
+last was sanctioned in the latter portion of March, about a week
+before ill-health compelled General Staveley to resign his command in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+China. That officer was connected with the Gordon family, his sister,
+a most amiable and sympathetic lady, being Lady Gordon, widow of the
+late Sir Henry Gordon. As far back as May 1861&mdash;that is, prior to most
+of the events described in this chapter&mdash;Gordon's sensitiveness about
+his family connection with the commanding officer in China had
+impelled him to write this letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I was much put out in Henry's writing, and I think hinting he
+could do something for me, and I went to Staveley and told him
+so. It is the bother of one's life to be trying after the honours
+of the profession, and it has grown in late years into a regular
+trade&mdash;everyone uses private interest."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>When Gordon gave this early manifestation of his independent spirit he
+was little more than twenty-eight years of age, but it should
+certainly be noted as showing that in one respect he was very little
+changed in his later years from what he was in his youth.</p>
+
+<p>After these reverses in February nothing more was attempted until
+Major Gordon arrived at Sungkiang on 25th March 1863 to take over the
+command of the force. It is to be hoped that the last few pages have
+made clear what that force was like. In the first place, it had been
+one composed entirely of Europeans, a band somewhat resembling those
+that have set up and cast down the mushroom republics that separate
+the conquests of Pizarro from those of Cortes. That force achieved
+nothing and had an ignominious end. It was succeeded by the larger
+force of drilled Chinese, to which was given the name of the Ever
+Victorious Army. Although these Chinese showed far more courage than
+might have been expected of them, none of their leaders&mdash;Ward,
+Burgevine, or Holland&mdash;seemed able to turn their good qualities to any
+profitable purpose. They were as often defeated as successful, and at
+the very moment of Gordon's assuming the command the defeat of Captain
+Holland at Taitsan, and a subsidiary reverse of Major Tapp at Fushan,
+had reduced their <i>morale</i> to the lowest point, and even justified a
+belief that for military purposes this force was nearly, if not quite,
+worthless.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TAEPING REBELLION.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">In</span> order to bring before the reader the magnitude of Gordon's
+achievements in China it is necessary to describe briefly the course
+of the Taeping rebellion, and to show the kind of opponents over whom
+he was destined to obtain so glorious and decisive a victory. But as
+this would be to tell a thrice-told tale, I content myself with giving
+in an abridged form the account I prepared from the papers of General
+Gordon and other trustworthy sources, which appears in the last volume
+of my "History of China."</p>
+
+<p>As far back as the year 1830 there had been symptoms of disturbed
+popular feeling in Kwangsi, the most southern province of China
+adjacent to Tonquin. The difficulty of operating in a region which
+possessed few roads, and which was only rendered at all accessible by
+the West River or Sikiang, had led the Chinese authorities, much
+engaged as they were about the foreign question, to postpone those
+vigorous measures, which, if taken at the outset, might have speedily
+restored peace and stamped out the first promptings of revolt. The
+authorities were more concerned at the proceedings of the formidable
+secret Association, known as the "Triads," than at the occurrences in
+Kwangsi, probably because the Triads made no secret that their object
+was the expulsion of the Manchus and the restoration of the old Ming
+dynasty. The true origin of the Triads is not to be assigned, but
+there seems reasonable ground for the suspicion that they were
+connected with the discontented monks of a Buddhist monastery which
+had been suppressed by the Government. Between them they seem to have
+formed the inception of what became the famous Taeping rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>The summer of 1850 witnessed a great accession of energy on the part
+of the rebels in Kwangsi, which may perhaps have been due to the death
+of the Emperor Taoukwang. The important town of Wuchow on the Sikiang,
+close to the western border of Kwantung, was besieged by a force
+reported to number 50,000 men. The governor was afraid to report the
+occurrence, knowing that it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> carry his own condemnation and
+probable disgrace; and it was left for a minor official to reveal the
+extent to which the insurgents had carried their depredations. Two
+leaders named Chang assumed the style of royalty; other bands appeared
+in the province of Hoonan as well as in the southern parts of
+Kwantung, but they all collected by degrees on the Sikiang, where they
+placed an embargo on merchandise, and gradually crushed out such trade
+as there had been by that river. Their proceedings were not restricted
+to the fair operations of war. They plundered and massacred wherever
+they went. They claimed to act in the name of the Chinese people; yet
+they slew all they could lay hands upon, without discrimination of age
+or sex.</p>
+
+<p>The confidence of the insurgents was raised by frequent success, and
+by the manifest inability of the Canton Viceroy to take any effectual
+military measures against them. Two hundred imperial troops were
+decoyed into a defile, and slaughtered by an overwhelming force in
+ambush. This reverse naturally caused considerable alarm in Canton
+itself, and defensive measures were taken. Governor Yeh was sent
+against them with 2000 men, and he succeeded in compelling, or as some
+say in inducing, them to retreat. Any satisfaction this success may
+have occasioned was soon dispelled, for at Lienchow, near the small
+port of Pakhoi, the rebels not merely gained a victory, but were
+joined by the troops sent to attack them. But these successes at
+several different points were of far less significance than the
+nomination of a single chief with the royal title of Tien Wang, or the
+Heavenly King.</p>
+
+<p>The man on whom their choice fell was named Hung-tsiuen. He was the
+son of a small farmer, who lived in a village near the North River,
+about thirty miles from Canton. If he was not a Hakka himself, he
+lived in a district which was considered to belong exclusively to that
+strange race, which closely resembles our gipsies. He belonged to a
+degraded race, therefore, and it was held that he was not entitled to
+that free entry into the body of the civil service, which is the
+natural privilege of every true-born Chinese subject. His friends
+declared that he came out high at each of the periodical examinations,
+but their statements may have been false in this as in much else. The
+fact is clear that he failed to obtain his degrees, and that he was
+denied admission into the public service. Hung was therefore a
+disappointed candidate, the more deeply disappointed, perhaps, that
+his sense of injured merit and the ill-judging flattery of his
+admirers made his rejection appear unjust.</p>
+
+<p>Hung was, at all events, a shrewd observer of the weakness of the
+Government, and of the popular discontent. He perceived the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+opportunity of making the Manchu dynasty the scapegoat of national
+weakness and apathy. He could not be the servant of the Government.
+Class contempt, the prejudices of his examiners, or it may even have
+been his own haughty presumption and self-sufficiency, effectually
+debarred him from the enjoyment of the wealth and privileges that fall
+to the lot of those in executive power in all countries, but in
+Asiatic above every other. To his revengeful but astute mind it was
+clear that if he could not be an official he might be the enemy of the
+Government and its possible subverter.</p>
+
+<p>The details of his early career have been mainly recorded by those who
+sympathised with the supposed objects of his operations; and while
+they have been very anxious to discover his virtues, they were always
+blind to his failings. The steps of his imposture have therefore been
+described with an amount of implicit belief which reflected little
+credit on the judgment of those who were anxious to give their
+sanction to the miracles which preceded the appearance of this
+adventurer in the field. Absurd stories as to his dreams, allegorical
+coincidences showing how he was summoned by a just and all-powerful
+God to the supreme seat of power, were repeated with a degree of faith
+so emphatic in its mode of expression as to make the challenge of its
+sincerity appear extremely harsh. Hung, the defeated official
+candidate, the long-deaf listener to the entreaties of Christian
+missionaries, was thus in a brief time metamorphosed into Heaven's
+elect for the Dragon Throne, into the iconoclastic propagator of the
+worship of a single God, and the destroyer of the mass of idolatry
+stored in the hearts and venerated in the temples of the Chinese
+people for countless ages. Whether Hung was merely an intriguer or a
+fanatic, he could not help feeling some gratitude to those who so
+conveniently echoed his pretensions to the Throne at the same time
+that they pleaded extenuating circumstances for acts of cruelty and
+brigandage often unsurpassed in their infamy.</p>
+
+<p>If he found the foreigners thus willing to accept him at his own
+estimate, it would have been very strange if he had not experienced
+still greater success in imposing upon the credulity of his own
+countrymen. To declare that he had dreamt dreams which showed that he
+was selected by a heavenly mandate for Royal honours was sufficient to
+gain a small body of adherents, provided only that he was prepared to
+accept the certain punishment of detection and failure. If Hung's
+audacity was shown by nothing else, it was demonstrated by the lengths
+to which he carried the supernatural agency that urged him to quit the
+ignominious life of a Kwantung peasant for the career of a pretender
+to Imperial honours. The course of training to which he subjected
+himself, the ascetic deprivations, the loud prayers and invocations,
+the supernatural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> counsels and meetings, was that adopted by every
+other religious devotee or fanatic as the proper novitiate for those
+honours based on the superstitious reverence of mankind, which are
+sometimes no inadequate substitute for temporal power and influence,
+even when they fail to pave the way to their attainment.</p>
+
+<p>Yet when Hung proceeded to Kwangsi there was no room left to hope that
+the seditious movement would dissolve of its own accord, for the
+extent and character of his pretensions at once invested the rising
+with all the importance of open and unveiled rebellion. After the
+proclamation of Hung as Tien Wang, the success of the Kwangsi rebels
+increased. The whole of the country south of the Sikiang, with the
+strong military station of Nanning, fell into their hands, and they
+prepared in the early part of the year 1851 to attack the provincial
+capital Kweiling, which commanded one of the principal high roads into
+the interior of China. So urgent did the peril at this place appear
+that three Imperial Commissioners were sent there direct by land from
+Peking, and the significance of their appointment was increased by the
+fact that they were all Manchus. They were instructed to raise troops
+<i>en route</i>, and to reach Kweiling as soon as possible. Their movements
+were so dilatory that that place would have fallen if it had not been
+for the courage and military capacity shown by Wurantai, leader of the
+Canton Bannermen. This soldier fully realised the perils of the
+situation. In a memorial to the Throne he spoke plainly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The outer barbarians (Europeans) say that of literature China
+has more than enough, of the art of war not sufficient. The whole
+country swarms with the rebels. Our funds are nearly at an end,
+and our troops few; our officers disagree, and the power is not
+concentrated. The commander of the forces wants to extinguish a
+burning wagon-load of fagots with a cupful of water. I fear we
+shall hereafter have some serious affair&mdash;that the great body
+will rise against us, and our own people leave us."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The growth of the rebellion proved steady if slow. Although 30,000
+troops were stated to be concentrated opposite the Taeping positions,
+fear or inexperience prevented action, and the numbers and courage of
+the Imperialists melted away. Had the Chinese authorities only pressed
+on, they must, by sheer weight, have swept the rebels into Tonquin,
+and there would thus have been an end of Tien Wang and his
+aspirations. They lacked the nerve, and their vacillation gave
+confidence and reputation to an enemy that need never have been
+allowed to become formidable.</p>
+
+<p>While the Imperial authorities had been either discouraged or at the
+least lethargic, the pretender Tien Wang had been busily engaged in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+establishing his authority on a sound basis, and in assigning their
+respective ranks to his principal followers who saw in the conferring
+of titles and posts, at the moment of little meaning or value, the
+recognition of their past zeal and the promise of reward for future
+service. The men who rallied round Tien Wang were schoolmasters and
+labourers. To these some brigands of the mountain frontier supplied
+rude military knowledge, while the leaders of the Triads brought as
+their share towards the realisation of what they represented as a
+great cause skill in intrigue, and some knowledge of organisation.
+Neither enthusiasm nor the energy of desperation was wanting; but for
+those qualities which claim respect, if they cannot command success,
+we must look in vain. Yet the peasants of Kwangsi and the artisans of
+Kwantung assumed the title of "Wang" or prince, and divided in
+anticipation the prizes that should follow the establishment of some
+dynasty of their own making.</p>
+
+<p>The war dragged on in the Sikiang valley during two years, but the
+tide of success had certainly set in the main against the
+Imperialists, as was shown by the scene of operations being
+transferred to the northern side of that river. The campaign might
+have continued indefinitely until one side or the other was exhausted
+had not the state of the province warned Tien Wang that he could not
+hope to feed much longer the numerous followers who had attached
+themselves to his cause. He saw that there would very soon remain for
+him no choice except to retire into Tonquin, and to settle down into
+the ignominious life of a border brigand. To Tien Wang the thought was
+intolerable, and in sheer desperation he came to the resolve to march
+northwards into the interior of China. It was not the inspiration of
+genius but the pressure of dire need that urged the Taeping leader to
+issue his orders for the invasion of Hoonan. He issued a proclamation
+on the eve of beginning this march, announcing that he had received
+"the divine commission to exterminate the Manchus and to possess the
+Empire as its true sovereign."</p>
+
+<p>It was at this stage in the rebellion that the name "Taepings" came
+into general use, and various accounts are given as to its origin.
+Some say it was taken from the small town of that name in the
+south-west of Kwangsi, where the insurrection began; others that the
+characters mean "Universal Peace," and that it was the style assumed
+by the new dynasty. In seeming contradiction with this is the fact
+that some of the Taepings themselves declared that they never heard
+the name, and did not know what it meant. At this particular juncture
+the rebels were in the heart of Kwangsi, at the district capital of
+Woosuen. In May 1851 they moved to Siang, a little north of that
+place. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> ravaged the country, making no long stay anywhere. In
+August they were at Yungan, where 16,000 men were ranged under the
+banner of the Heavenly King, and for a moment Tien Wang may have
+thought of making a dash on Canton. Respect for Wurantai's military
+capacity induced him to forego the adventure, and at Yungan, where he
+remained until April 1852, the Taeping leader made his final
+arrangements for his march northwards.</p>
+
+<p>At Yungan a circumstance occurred which first promised to strengthen
+the Taepings, and then to lead to their disruption. Tien Wang was
+joined there by five influential chiefs and many members of the Triad
+Society. For a time it seemed as if these allies would necessarily
+bring with them a great accession of popular strength; but whether
+they disapproved of Tien Wang's plans, or were offended by the
+arrogant bearing of the Wangs, who, but the other day little better
+than the dregs of the people, had suddenly assumed the yellow dress
+and insignia of Chinese royalty, the Triad leaders took a secret and
+hurried departure from his camp, and hastened to make their peace with
+the Imperialists. The principal of these members of the most
+formidable secret society in China&mdash;Chang Kwoliang by name&mdash;was given
+a military command of some importance, and afterwards distinguished
+himself among the Imperial commanders. In April 1852 the Taeping army
+left its quarters at Yungan and marched direct on Kweiling, the
+principal city of the province, where the Imperial commissioners sent
+from Peking had long remained inactive. Tien Wang attacked them at the
+end of April or the beginning of May, but he was repulsed with some
+loss. Afraid of breaking his force against the walls of so strong a
+place, he abandoned the attack and marched into Hoonan. Had the
+Imperial generals only been as energetic in offensive measures as they
+had shown themselves obstinate in defence, they might have harassed
+his rear, delayed his progress, and eventually brought him to a
+decisive engagement under many disadvantages. But the Imperial
+Commissioners at Kweiling did nothing, being apparently well satisfied
+with having rid themselves of the presence of such troublesome
+neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>On 12th of June the Taepings attacked the small town of Taou in Hoonan
+with better success. Some resistance was offered, and one of the
+Taeping Wangs, known as the "Southern King," was killed. This was a
+great loss, because he was a man of some education, and had taken the
+most prominent part in the organisation of the Taeping rebellion.
+General Gordon inclined to the opinion that he was the real originator
+of the whole rising. His loss was a severe blow to the Taepings, whose
+confidence in themselves and their cause was alike rudely shaken. They
+could not however turn back, for fear of the force at Kweiling, and to
+halt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> for any time was scarcely less dangerous. Necessity compelled
+them therefore to press on, and in August they captured the three
+small towns of Kiaho, Ching, and Kweyang. Their next march was both
+long and forced. Overrunning the whole adjacent country, they appeared
+early in the month of September before the strong and important town
+of Changsha, situated on the river Seang, and only fifty miles south
+of the large lake Tungting.</p>
+
+<p>At this town, the capital of Hoonan, some vigorous preparations had
+been made to withstand them. Not merely was the usual garrison
+stationed there, but it so happened that Tseng Kwofan, a man of great
+ability and some considerable resolution, was residing near the town
+at the time. Tseng Kwofan had held several offices in the service, and
+as a member of the Hanlin enjoyed a high position and reputation; but
+he was absent from the capital on one of those frequent periods of
+retirement to their native province which the officials of China have
+to make on the occasion of any near relative's death.</p>
+
+<p>When tidings of the approach of the Taepings reached him he threw
+himself with all the forces he could collect into Changsha. At the
+same time he ordered the local militia to assemble as rapidly as
+possible in the neighbourhood, in order to harass the movements of the
+enemy. He called upon all those who had the means to show their duty
+to the state and sovereign by raising recruits or by promising rewards
+to those volunteers who would serve in the army against the rebels.
+Had the example of Tseng Kwofan been followed generally, it is not too
+much to say that the Taepings would never have got to Nanking. As it
+was, he set the first example of true patriotism, and he had the
+immediate satisfaction of saving Changsha.</p>
+
+<p>When the Taepings reached Changsha they found the gates closed and the
+walls manned. They proceeded to lay siege to it; they cut off its
+supplies, and they threatened the garrison with extermination. They
+even attempted to carry it by storm on three separate occasions.
+During eighty days the siege went on; but the Taepings were then
+compelled to admit that they were as far from success as ever. They
+had suffered very considerable losses, including another of their
+Wangs, the Western King, and although it was said that the loss of the
+Imperialists was larger, they could better afford it. On the 1st
+December they accordingly abandoned the siege and resumed their march
+northwards. They crossed the Tungting Lake on boats and junks which
+they had seized, and secured the town of Yochow on the Yangtsekiang
+without meeting any resistance. Here they captured much war material,
+including a large supply of gunpowder left by the great Chinese
+Viceroy, Wou Sankwei, of the seventeenth century. From Yochow they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+hastened down the river. The important city of Hankow surrendered
+without a blow. The not less important town of Wouchang, on the
+opposite or southern bank of the river, was then attacked, and after a
+siege of a fortnight carried by storm. The third town of Hanyang,
+which completes the busy human hive where the Han joins the great
+river, did not attempt any resistance.</p>
+
+<p>These successes raised the Taepings from the depths of despair to the
+heights of hope. The capture of such wealthy places dispelled all
+their doubt and discouragement. They were able to repay themselves for
+the losses and hardships they had undergone, and the prize they had
+thus secured furnished ground for hoping for more. But even now it was
+no part of their mission to stand still. They waited at Hankow only
+long enough to attach to their cause the many thousands attracted to
+Tien Wang's flag by these successes. The possibility of pursuit by
+Tseng Kwofan at the head of the warlike levies of Hoonan, where each
+brave is considered equal to two from another province, was still
+present to their minds. But he unfortunately rested content with his
+laurels, while the Taepings swept like an irresistible wave or torrent
+down the valley of the Yangtsekiang.</p>
+
+<p>The capture of Kiukiang, a town situated on the river near the
+northern extremity of the lake Poyang, and of Ganking followed in
+quick succession, and on 8th March the Taepings sat down before
+Nanking, the old capital of the Mings. The siege lasted only sixteen
+days. Notwithstanding that there was a considerable Manchu force in
+the Tartar city, which might easily have been defended apart from the
+Chinese and much larger town, the resistance offered was singularly
+faint-hearted. The Taepings succeeded in blowing in one of the gates.
+The townspeople fraternised with the assailants, and the very Manchus,
+who had looked so valiant in face of Sir Hugh Gough's force ten years
+before, now surrendered their lives and their honour after a mere show
+of resistance to a force which was nothing better than an armed
+rabble. The Manchu colony of Nanking, to the number of some 4000
+families, had evidently fallen off from its high renown. Instead of
+dying at their posts, they threw themselves on the pity of the Taeping
+leader. Their cowardice helped them not; of 20,000 Manchus not 100
+escaped. The tale rests on irrefragable evidence. "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."</p>
+
+<p>The capture of Nanking and this sweeping massacre of the dominant race
+seemed to point the inevitable finger of fate at the Tatsing dynasty.
+It was no longer possible to regard Tien Wang and his miscellaneous
+gathering as an enemy beneath contempt. Without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> achieving any
+remarkable success, having indeed been defeated whenever they were
+opposed with the least resolution, the Taepings found themselves in
+possession of the second city in the Empire. With that city they
+acquired the control of the navigation of the Great River, and they
+cut off the better part of the communications between the northern and
+southern halves of the Empire. They abandoned Hankow, and confined
+their occupation of the river banks to the part between Kiukiang and
+Nanking; but they determined to secure the Grand Canal, which enters
+the river east of the city. On 1st April 1853 they occupied
+Chinkiangfoo, on the southern side of the river, and they held it, but
+although they also captured Yangchow on the northern bank, they
+evacuated it in a few days. These successes were obtained without any
+loss, as all the garrisons fled at the mere approach of the dreaded
+Taepings.</p>
+
+<p>The Imperialist authorities seemed paralysed by the rapidity and
+success of the rebels, who devoted all their efforts to strengthening
+the defences of Nanking and to provisioning it in view of all
+eventualities. But the thoughts of Tien Wang and his immediate
+advisers were still of offensive and forward measures, and when
+Nanking was equipped for defence a large part of the Taeping army was
+ordered to march against Peking. At this time it was computed that the
+total number of the Taepings did not fall short of 80,000 trustworthy
+fighting men, while there were perhaps more than 100,000 Chinese
+pressed into their service as hewers of wood and drawers of water. The
+lines of Nanking and the batteries along the Yangtsekiang were the
+creation of the forced labour of the population which had not fled
+before the Taepings.</p>
+
+<p>On the 12th of May an army, stated to consist of 200,000 men, but
+probably consisting of less than half that number of combatants,
+crossed the Yangtse and marched northwards. It would be uninteresting
+to name the many small places they captured on their way, but on 19th
+June they reached Kaifong, the capital of Honan, and once of China
+itself. They had thus transferred in a few weeks their advanced posts
+from the Yangtsekiang to the Hwangho, or Yellow River.</p>
+
+<p>The garrison of Kaifong made a resolute defence, and repulsed the
+Taepings, who at once abandoned the siege in accordance with their
+usual custom, and resumed their march. They succeeded in crossing the
+Yellow River under the eyes of the Kaifong garrison, and they then
+attacked Hwaiking, an important prefectural town, where they
+encountered a stout resistance. They besieged it for two months, and
+then had to give up the attempt. Forces were gathering from different
+directions, and it became necessary to baffle their opponents. They
+marched westwards for some distance along the southern bank of the
+Hwangho,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> turned suddenly north at Yuenking, and on reaching Pingyang
+they again turned in an easterly direction, and secured the Lin
+Limming Pass which leads into the Metropolitan province of Pechihli.
+The whole of the autumn of 1853 was taken up with these man&oelig;uvres,
+and it was on 30th September that the Taepings first appeared in the
+province containing the capital. They met with little or no
+opposition. They had mystified their pursuers, and surprised the
+inhabitants of the districts through which they passed. Having forced
+the Limming Pass, the Taepings found no difficulty in occupying the
+towns on the south-west border of Pechihli. The defeat of the Manchu
+garrison in a pass that was considered almost impregnable gave the
+Taepings the prestige of victory, and the towns opened their gates one
+after another. They crossed the Hootoo River on a bridge of boats
+which they constructed themselves, and then occupied the town of
+Shinchow; on 21st October they reached Tsing, about twenty miles south
+of Tientsin and only one hundred from Peking; but beyond this point
+neither then nor at any other time did the rebels succeed in getting.</p>
+
+<p>The forcing of the Limming Pass produced great confusion at Peking. It
+was no longer a question of suffering subjects and disturbed
+provinces. The capital of the Empire, the very person of the Emperor,
+was in imminent danger of destruction at the hands of a ruthless foe.
+The city was denuded of troops. Levies were hastily summoned from
+Manchuria in order to defend the line of the Peiho and the approaches
+to the capital. Had the Taepings shown better generalship there is no
+saying but that they would have succeeded in capturing it, as the
+Imperialists had left quite unguarded the approach by Chingting and
+Paoting, and the capture of Peking would have sounded the knell of the
+Manchu dynasty. But the Taepings did not seize the chance&mdash;if it were
+one&mdash;and they were far from being in the best of spirits. They had
+advanced far, but it looked as if it was into the lion's mouth. Their
+march had been a remarkable one, but it had been attended with no
+striking success. In their front was the Tientsin militia,
+strengthened by a large if nondescript force, led by the Mongol chief
+Sankolinsin. In their rear the levies of Hoonan, of the vast district
+that had suffered from their exactions, were closing up, and soon they
+were closely beleaguered in a hastily-fortified camp at Tsinghai. In
+this they were besieged from the end of October to the beginning of
+March 1854. The Imperial generals, afraid to risk an assault, hoped to
+starve them out, and so they might have done had not Tien Wang sent a
+fresh army to extricate this force from its peril. Then the retreat
+began, but, beset by assailants from every side, it was slow and
+disastrous. The struggle went on until March 1855, when Sankolinsin
+was able to declare that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> not a Taeping remained north of the Yellow
+River. Only a very small portion of the two armies sent to capture
+Peking ever returned to the headquarters of Tien Wang.</p>
+
+<p>While these events, and others that do not call for description as
+being of minor importance, were in progress, symptoms of
+disintegration were already beginning to reveal themselves in the camp
+at Nanking. After its capture Tien Wang himself retired into the
+interior of his palace and never afterwards appeared in public. All
+his time was passed in the harem, and the opportunity was thus given
+his more ambitious lieutenants to assert themselves. Tung Wang, the
+"Eastern King," became principal Minister. He, too, claimed to have
+communion with Heaven, and on celestial advice he began to get rid of
+those of his comrades who opposed his schemes. He even summoned Tien
+Wang to his presence and reproved him for his proceedings. A plot was
+then formed against Tung Wang, and he was slain with three of his
+brothers, in the presence of Tien Wang, by another of the Taeping
+chiefs. Nor did the slaughter stop there, for it is alleged, although
+the numbers must not be accepted literally, that 200,000 of his
+partisans&mdash;men, women, and children&mdash;were massacred. These internal
+dissensions threatened to break up the Taeping confederacy, and no
+doubt they would have done so but for the appearance of the most
+remarkable man associated with the movement, and one of the most
+heroic figures in China's history.</p>
+
+<p>A young officer, rejoicing in the innumerable Chinese name of Li, had
+attracted Tung Wang's favourable notice, and was by him entrusted with
+a small command. It will be more convenient to speak of him by his
+subsequent title of Chung Wang, or the "Faithful King." He
+distinguished himself in his first enterprise by defeating a large
+Imperial army besieging Chinkiang, and in relieving the garrison when
+on the point of surrender. But while engaged on this task the
+Imperialists closed in on his rear and cut off his retreat back to
+Nanking, whither Tien Wang hastily summoned him to return. He
+endeavoured to make his way along the northern bank, but was checked
+at Loohoo by the ex-Triad Chang Kwoliang, the same who deserted the
+Taepings in Kwangsi. Chang had crossed the river to oppose him, and
+Chung Wang, hastily conveying his army over the river, fell upon and
+destroyed the weakened force that the Imperial general had left there,
+under General Chi, who committed suicide. Chang Kwoliang crossed after
+him, but only to suffer defeat, and Chung Wang made his way into
+Nanking. He then attacked the main Imperial army before its walls,
+under the Emperor's generalissimo Heang Yung, and drove it out of its
+entrenchments. Heang took his defeat so much to heart that he also
+committed suicide,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> but Chang Kwoliang made a supreme effort to
+retrieve the day, and succeeded in retaking all the lost positions,
+with the exception of the Yashua Gate of Nanking.</p>
+
+<p>While these events were in progress in the Taeping capital, some
+events that must be briefly referred to happened on a different scene.
+The Triads, aided by the mob, rose in Shanghai, overcame the Emperor's
+officers and garrison, and on 7th September 1853 obtained complete
+mastery of the native city. The foreign settlement was placed in a
+state of siege, the men-of-war covered the approaches to the
+factories, and a volunteer corps was carefully organised and
+constantly employed. Then an Imperial army re-appeared on the scene,
+and laid siege to Shanghai, but it was conducted with no skill, and
+the situation remained unchanged. After twelve months' delay the
+French Admiral, Laguerre, decided to help the Imperialists, and he
+began to bombard the walls in December 1854. He combined with them in
+an assault, and 400 French sailors and the Imperialists attacked the
+walls which had been breached. The assault ended disastrously, for the
+rebels defended the houses, and at last drove back the assailants with
+much loss. The pressure of famine compelled the besieged some months
+later to make a <i>sortie</i>, when the Imperialists recovered the town. A
+similar rising, with a similar result, occurred at Amoy. The
+insurgents caused a great loss of life and property, but in the end
+the authorities gained the upper hand. These events compelled the
+foreign consuls and their Governments to reconsider their policy,
+which had been one of sympathy towards the Taepings, and gradually the
+conviction became universal that it would be well for civilization and
+trade if a speedy end were put to the Taeping rebellion. But for our
+own quarrel and war with the central Government these views would have
+borne fruit in acts at an earlier date than they did.</p>
+
+<p>During the campaign of 1858 the Taepings more than held their own
+through the courage and activity shown by Chung Wang. He relieved the
+town of Ganking when closely pressed by Tseng Kwofan, and although he
+could not prevent a fresh beleaguerment of Nanking, it caused him no
+apprehension because the Emperor's generals were well known to have no
+intention of attacking. Notwithstanding this, it was clearly foreseen
+that in time Nanking must fall by starvation. In these straits Chung
+Wang proved the saviour of his party. The city was invested on three
+sides; only one remained open for any one to carry out the news of
+Tien Wang's necessities. In this moment of peril there was a general
+reluctance to quit the besieged town, but unless someone did, and that
+quickly, the place was doomed. In this supreme moment Chung Wang
+offered to go himself. At first the proposal was received<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> with a
+chorus of disapproval, but at last, when he went to the door of Tien
+Wang's palace and beat the gong which lay there for those who claimed
+justice, he succeeded in overcoming the opposition to his plan, and in
+impressing upon his audience the real gravity of the situation. His
+request was granted, and having nominated trusty men to the command
+during his absence, he left by the southern gate. A few days later and
+Tseng's last levies constructed their fortified camp in front of it.
+The Emperor's generals unfortunately reverted to their old dilatory
+measures, because they failed to realise the importance with which the
+possession of Nanking still invested the Taepings. Without that city
+they would have been nothing but a band of brigands, who could easily
+have been dispersed. With it they could claim the status of a separate
+dynasty. Yet the capture of Nanking was put off until the last act of
+all. These sapient leaders, whose military knowledge was antiquated,
+acted with an indifference to the most obvious considerations, that
+would have been ludicrous if it had not been a further injury to a
+suffering people. In 1858 their apathy was such that it not merely
+saved Nanking but played the whole game into the hands of Chung Wang.</p>
+
+<p>That chief succeeded in collecting a small force, with which he at
+once began to harass Tseng's army. By transferring his army rapidly
+from one side of the river to the other, he succeeded in supplying his
+deficiency in numbers; but with all his activity he could make no
+impression on the mass of his opponents. He even got the worst of it
+in several skirmishes, but by a supreme effort he succeeded in
+overpowering the Imperial force north of the river at Poukou, and thus
+relieved the pressure on Nanking. But this was only momentary, and
+after a doubtful and wearisome campaign throughout the year 1859, the
+situation again became one of great gravity for the besieged Taepings
+who were now confined to Nanking and a few other towns in the Yangtse
+valley.</p>
+
+<p>In this extremity Chung Wang conceived a fresh plan for extricating
+his cause from the difficulties that beset it. By January 1860 all
+Chung Wang's arrangements were completed. He distributed considerable
+sums of money among his men to put them in good humour, and then set
+forth. His first movements were directed to misleading his enemy as to
+his real object, and having succeeded in this he marched as rapidly as
+possible towards the important harbour of Hangchow, in the bay of the
+same name, south of Shanghai. On 19th March he succeeded in capturing
+the Chinese city, but the Tartar portion held out, and a relieving
+army compelled Chung Wang to retire. What seemed an unredeemed
+calamity proved a stroke of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> good fortune, for the Imperialists had
+sent their best troops to pursue him, and thus materially weakened the
+force before Nanking. Chung Wang saw his chance, and while the
+Imperialists were rejoicing in Hangchow at its recovery, he hastened
+back by forced marches, and fell upon the besieging army. In the
+desperate engagement that followed 5000 Imperialists were slain, and
+the remainder were driven ignominiously from the field. Thus, at the
+blackest moment of their fortunes, did Chung Wang succeed in
+delivering his kinsmen who had so long been shut up in Nanking. This
+siege had then continued with more or less interruption for seven
+years.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did Chung Wang's success stop here. He fought a battle at Tayan
+with his old adversary Chang Kwoliang, and defeated him with a loss of
+10,000 men. At the height of the engagement Chang Kwoliang was drowned
+while crossing a canal, and this decided the battle. Encouraged by
+these successes, and with increased forces&mdash;for most of the prisoners
+he took were incorporated in his army&mdash;Chung Wang assumed the
+offensive, and after winning no fewer than three regular engagements,
+he succeeded in capturing the important city of Soochow, on the Grand
+Canal, and this became his chief quarters during the remainder of this
+long struggle. By these successes he obtained fresh supplies, and
+commanded the great and hitherto little touched resources of the
+wealthy province of Kiangsu. It was thus that he was brought into the
+neighbourhood of Shanghai, and made those attempts to acquire
+possession of the Chinese city which were set forth in the last
+chapter, and which were the true cause of the inception of the
+foreign, or foreign-trained force, that began with Ward.</p>
+
+<p>After his repulse at Shanghai, Chung Wang was recalled to Nanking. He
+went reluctantly, leaving Hoo Wang, "the Protecting King," as his
+deputy at Soochow. He found there everything in confusion, and that
+Tien Wang, instead of laying in rice for a fresh siege, was absorbed
+in his devotion and amusements, while the other chiefs were engaged in
+plundering their own subjects. Dissatisfied with what he saw at
+Nanking, Chung Wang again took the field, and transferred the scene of
+hostilities to the province of Kiangsi, but although he showed great
+activity, and marched 800 miles, he gained little, and, indeed, was
+defeated on one or two occasions. Nor could he save Ganking, which,
+after being besieged for three years, surrendered to Tseng Kwotsiuen,
+and thus all hope of succour from the west, or of retreat there, in
+the last resort, was removed from the hard-beset garrison of Nanking.
+As some set-off to this reverse, Chung Wang captured the ports of
+Ningpo and Hangchow, after a gallant defence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> by a small Manchu
+garrison. The Taepings could scarcely now hope for durable success,
+but their capacity for inflicting an enormous amount of injury was
+evidently not destroyed. Chung Wang's energy and military skill alone
+sustained their cause, but the lovers of rapine and turbulence flocked
+in their thousands to his standard.</p>
+
+<p>In the Yangtse valley&mdash;in fact, wherever Chung Wang was not&mdash;the
+Taepings met with many reverses that counterbalanced these successes.
+Several Chinese armies approached Nanking from different sides, and
+Tien Wang in a state of panic summoned Chung Wang, his only champion,
+back to his side. That warrior obeyed the summons, leaving Mow Wang in
+charge of Soochow, but he could do no good. He found nothing but
+disorder at the Taeping capital, and no troops with which he could
+venture to assume the offensive against the powerful army, in numbers
+at all events, that the two Tsengs had drawn round Nanking. In this
+position his troubles were increased by the suspicion of Tien Wang,
+who deprived him of all his honours, and banished him to the province
+of Anhui, adjacent to both Kiangsi and Kiangsu, and joined with them
+in the same viceroyalty. This order to depart was a relief to Chung
+Wang, who was thus able to complete his own measures for the defence
+of Soochow and the other places along the Canal that had fallen to his
+arms. He saw clearly that the success of the foreigners in keeping him
+back at a distance of thirty miles from Shanghai, and in expelling him
+from Ningpo, signified his being shut in just as effectively on the
+east, as he already was on the west by the fall of every place except
+Nanking, and by the miserable inefficiency of the garrison in that
+place. He may have really despaired, but this Chinese Frederick was
+resolved, if he could, to break his chains. Unfortunately for him, a
+new and more formidable antagonist than any he had met appeared on the
+scene at this juncture, in the person of Gordon.</p>
+
+<p>This summary of the progress and nature of the Taeping rebellion up to
+the 25th March 1863 when Gordon assumed the command will make clear
+what follows to the general reader. It would be as great a mistake to
+minimise the fighting military strength of the Taepings as it would be
+to exaggerate it. There was a moment, years before Gordon came on the
+scene, when the Imperial commanders by a little energy and promptitude
+might have stamped out the rebellion; but having missed the
+opportunity the military skill and daring of Chung Wang had revived
+the Taeping cause, and made it more formidable than ever from a
+military point of view. The blunders of the Imperial commanders
+precluded any confidence as to their superior numbers and resources
+effecting their natural result, and although Gordon himself declared
+that the Taeping cause was a lost one before he assumed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> command,
+no cause could be pronounced irretrievable with a leader so expert and
+resolute as Chung Wang, and opponents so incapable and craven as his
+were. But another thing was certainly incontestable, and that was that
+the Taepings could not in any sense be regarded as patriots. Their
+regular mode of conduct stamped them at once as undiscriminating
+plunderers of all, whether Chinese or Manchu, who had the misfortune
+to fall into their hands, and their acts of cruelty surpassed
+description and even belief. Some instances of the massacres they
+perpetrated have been mentioned, but these were only a few out of the
+many that stained, or rather characterised, their usual proceedings.
+It will suffice to say that their ordinary way of dealing with their
+prisoners was to crucify them, and there will then be no difficulty in
+accepting the conclusion that the Chinese population thoroughly
+detested them, and regarded them as a scourge rather than as
+deliverers.</p>
+
+<p>Nor does a closer examination of the system of administration set up
+at Nanking by the leader Tien Wang raise one's opinion of the cause or
+its promoters. The foreign missionaries long thought that the Taepings
+were the agents of Christianity, and that their success would lead to
+the conversion of China. That faith died hard, but at last in 1860 a
+missionary had to confess that after visiting Nanking "he could find
+nothing of Christianity but its name falsely applied to a system of
+revolting idolatry," and out of that and other irresistible testimony
+resulted the conclusion that the conversion of China by the agency of
+the Taepings was a delusion. The missionaries were not alone in their
+belief among foreigners. The Consuls and their Governments entertained
+a hope that the Taepings might establish an administration which would
+be less difficult to deal with than they had found the existing one at
+Peking. They attempted to, and did in an informal manner, establish
+some relations with Tien Wang. They acquainted him with the articles
+of the Treaty of Tientsin, and they requested him to conform with its
+conditions. On a second occasion Sir George Bonham, our head
+representative in China, even honoured him with a visit; but closer
+acquaintance in the case of our diplomatists, as of the missionaries,
+stripped the Taepings of the character with which interested persons
+would wish they had been invested. From the first feeling of
+friendship and sympathy there consequently ensued a slow but steady
+revulsion, until at last the general feeling was that the Taepings
+were little more than marauders, and as such a scourge to the country
+and a standing injury to the trade and interests of Europeans. Then
+came the desire to see the rising suppressed, and finally the
+disillusionment culminated in active measures being taken to assist
+the Imperial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> Government in suppressing a rebellion which had defied
+all its efforts for more than ten years. Of these measures the
+appointment of Major Gordon to the command of the Ever Victorious Army
+was both the last and the most effectual in producing the desired
+result.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EVER VICTORIOUS ARMY.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">The</span> appointment of any English officer would have led to some
+improvement in the direction of the Chinese Imperial forces assembled
+for the suppression of the Taeping rebellion; but the nature of the
+operations to be carried out, which were exclusively the capture of a
+number of towns strongly stockaded and protected by rivers and canals,
+rendered it specially necessary that that officer should be an
+engineer. In addition to the advantages of his scientific training,
+Major Gordon enjoyed the benefit of the preliminary course he had gone
+through under General Staveley. He had seen the Taepings fight, and
+something also of the defence and capture of their positions. He had
+also thoroughly mastered the topographical features of the region in
+and beyond which he was about to conduct military operations. There is
+little doubt that he assumed the command with a plan of campaign
+already decided upon in his brain. The Taepings with whom he had to
+deal derived their power and importance from the possession of
+Soochow, and from their access to several ports whence they obtained
+arms and ammunition. Therefore the capture of that city and the
+cutting off of their supplies represented his principal objects. Very
+much had to be accomplished before Soochow could be even approached,
+and the main object of Gordon's first campaign was the capture of
+Quinsan, which he saw would be far more suitable as headquarters for
+him and his force than the existing one at Sungkiang. Even before that
+could be attempted many matters had to be arranged. Not only had Major
+Gordon to relieve more than one beleaguered loyal garrison, but he had
+to establish his authority over his own force, which was on the verge
+of mutiny and clamouring for the return of Burgevine. His own opinion
+of that force was given in the following letter to a military
+friend:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I hope you do not think that I have a magnificent army. 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 officers
+and men, although<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> ragged and perhaps slightly disreputable, are
+in capital order and well disposed."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Before entering on these matters the following letter to his mother
+will be read with interest, as showing what was in Gordon's mind at
+the time he assumed the command. The letter was written on 24th March
+1863, the day before he rode over to Sungkiang to take up his command.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I am afraid you will be much vexed at my having taken the
+command of the Sungkiang force, and that I am now a mandarin. I
+have taken the step on consideration. I think that anyone who
+contributes to putting down this rebellion fulfils a humane task,
+and I also think tends a great deal to open China to
+civilization. I will not act rashly, and I trust to be able soon
+to return to England; at the same time, I will remember your and
+my father's wishes, and endeavour to remain as short a time as
+possible. I can say that, if I had not accepted the command, I
+believe the force would have been broken up and the rebellion
+gone on in its misery for years. I trust this will not now be the
+case, and that I may soon be able to comfort you on this subject.
+You must not fret on this matter. I think I am doing a good
+service.... I keep your likeness before me, and can assure you
+and my father that I will not be rash, and that as soon as I can
+conveniently, and with due regard to the object I have in view, I
+will return home."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Major Gordon rode over to Sungkiang, situated on the line of the
+thirty-mile radius from Shanghai, on 25th March, and the following
+morning he inspected his force. He delivered a brief address, stating
+that there was no intention to dismiss any of them, and that so long
+as they behaved well he would carefully uphold their rights and
+interests. These words had a tranquillising effect, and Major Gordon's
+assumption of the command might be described as being then ratified by
+the Ever Victorious Army. The good he effected was very nearly undone
+two days later by the civil magistrate hanging some soldiers for
+marauding. After the affair looked like becoming serious, Gordon
+succeeded in pacifying his men and restoring order. In this state of
+affairs it was most desirable that no time should be lost in resuming
+active operations, and the Taeping successes at Taitsan and Fushan
+rendered them doubly necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The first task entrusted to Major Gordon was the relief of Chanzu,
+which was closely assailed by the Taepings and believed to be on the
+point of surrendering. Chanzu lies some distance south of Fushan and
+west of Taitsan, and its garrison at this time was composed of
+Taepings who had deserted their comrades and joined the Imperial
+forces. Several attempts had been made to relieve it, but without
+success, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> Gordon was urged by his Chinese colleagues to signalise
+his assumption of the command by carrying out this most desirable and
+necessary task. The best means of approaching it was by the river, and
+on 31st March Gordon accordingly sailed from Shanghai to the mouth of
+the Fushan Creek. His force numbered about 1200 men, and included 200
+artillery with four 12-pounders and one 32-pounder. The enemy had
+constructed some stockades at Fushan, outside the ruined city of that
+name, and Gordon attacked these on the 4th April. He began with a
+heavy bombardment, and when he ordered the advance the Taepings,
+disheartened by his fire, evacuated their positions and retired with
+very little loss to either side. Gordon then marched on Chanzu, ten
+miles south of Fushan, and reached it without further fighting. The
+relief of Chanzu being thus effected, Gordon hastened back to
+Sungkiang, where he arrived little more than a week after he left it.
+The success and swiftness of this movement greatly impressed Li Hung
+Chang, who publicly recorded his great satisfaction at the very
+different manner in which the new commander transacted business from
+Burgevine.</p>
+
+<p>In a letter to the British Consul at Shanghai, Mr Markham, Li wrote:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The officer Gordon having received command of the Ever
+Victorious Army, having immediately on doing so proceeded to
+Fushan, working day and night, having worked harmoniously with
+the other generals there, having exerted himself and attacked
+with success the walled city of Fushan and relieved Chanzu, and
+at once returned to Sungkiang and organised his force for further
+operations to sweep out the rebels, having proved himself
+valiant, able, and honest, I have congratulated myself and
+memorialised his Imperial Majesty to confer on him the dignity
+and office of Tsung-ping (Brigadier-General), to enable me to
+consider him as part of my command. Again, since Gordon has taken
+the command, he has exerted himself to organise the force, and
+though he has had but one month he has got the force into shape.
+As the people and place are charmed with him, as he has already
+given me returns of the organisation of the force, the formation
+of each regiment, and the expenses ordinary and extraordinary in
+the clearest manner, wishing to drill our troops and save our
+money, it is evident that he fully comprehends the state of
+affairs."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On his return to Sungkiang, Major Gordon devoted himself to the
+thorough reorganisation of his force. He began by abolishing the
+system of rewards for the capture of towns, and he forbade plundering
+on pain of death. These were strong steps to take with a force such as
+that he had under him, but he succeeded in making them acceptable by
+increasing the pay of the men, and by substituting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> on his staff
+English officers&mdash;the services of a few being lent him by the
+commanding officer at Shanghai&mdash;for the adventurers who had followed
+Ward and Burgevine. The total strength of the force was fixed at 4000
+men, and his artillery consisted of four siege and two field
+batteries. The men were paid regularly by a Chinese official appointed
+by Li Hung Chang, and the cost to the Chinese Government averaged
+&pound;20,000 a month. At the same time, Gordon collected a pontoon train
+and practised his men in all the work of attacking fortified places
+before he ventured to assume the offensive. He also organised a
+flotilla of small steamers and Chinese gunboats capable of navigating
+the canals and creeks which traversed the province of Kiangsu in all
+directions. Of these the principal was the steamer <i>Hyson</i>&mdash;a
+paddle-wheel vessel drawing 3&frac12; feet of water, armed with a
+32-pounder in her bow, and a 12-pounder at her stern, and possessing
+the faculty of moving over the bed of a creek on her wheels&mdash;and it
+took a very active and prominent part in the subsequent operations.</p>
+
+<p>The strategy on which Major Gordon at once decided, and from which he
+never deviated, was to cut off the Taeping communications with the sea
+and the river Yangtsekiang, whence they were able to obtain supplies
+of ammunition and arms from little-scrupulous foreign traders. The
+expulsion of the Taepings from the Shanghai district and from Ningpo
+had done something towards the success of this project, but they still
+held Hangchow and the line of the Yangtsekiang to within ten miles of
+the entrance of the Woosung River on which Shanghai stands. The loss
+of Fushan and Chanzu had made an indent in this territory, and in
+order to complete this breach in the Taeping position, Gordon had
+decided and made all his plans to attack Quinsan, when he was
+compelled to defer it in consequence of the following incident.</p>
+
+<p>The rude repulse at Taitsan had been, it will be recollected, the
+culminating misfortune of the force before Gordon's assumption of the
+command, but a Chinese army under Li Hung Chang's brother, San Tajin,
+continued to remain in the neighbourhood of the place. The Taeping
+commander laid a trap for him, into which he fell in what was, for a
+Chinese officer fully acquainted with the fact that treachery formed
+part of the usages of war in China, a very credulous manner. He
+expressed a desire to come over, presents and vows were exchanged, and
+at a certain hour he was to surrender one of the gates. The Imperial
+troops went to take possession, and were even admitted within the
+walls, when they were suddenly attacked on both flanks by the
+treacherous Taepings. Fifteen hundred of San Tajin's men were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> killed
+or captured, and he himself was severely wounded. In consequence of
+this reverse, the main Chinese army, under General Ching, a brave but
+inexperienced officer, could not co-operate with Gordon against
+Quinsan, and it was then decided that Gordon himself should proceed
+against Taitsan, and read the triumphant foe at that place a lesson.
+It was computed that its garrison numbered 10,000 men, and that it had
+several European deserters and renegades among its leaders, while the
+total force under Gordon did not exceed 3000 men. Their recent
+successes had also inspired the Taepings with confidence, and, judging
+by the previous encounters, there seemed little reason to anticipate a
+satisfactory, or at least a speedy issue of the affair for the
+Imperialists. That the result was more favourable was entirely due to
+Gordon's military capacity and genius.</p>
+
+<p>Major Gordon acted with remarkable and characteristic promptitude. He
+only heard of the catastrophe to San Tajin on 27th April; on 29th
+April, after two forced marches across country, he appeared before
+Taitsan, and captured a stockade in front of one of its gates. Bad
+weather prevented operations the next day, but on 1st May, Gordon
+having satisfied himself by personal examination that the western gate
+offered the best point of attack, began the bombardment soon after
+daybreak. Two stone stockades in front of the gate had first to be
+carried, and these, after twenty minutes' firing, were evacuated on
+part of Gordon's force threatening the retreat of their garrison back
+to the town. The capture of these stockades began and ended the
+operations on that day. The next morning Gordon stationed one regiment
+in front of the north gate to cut off the retreat of the garrison in
+that direction, and then resumed his main attack on the west gate. By
+this time he had been joined by some of his gunboats, and their fire,
+aided by the artillery he had with him, gradually made a good
+impression on the wall, especially after the guns had been drawn as
+near as 200 yards to it. The breach was then deemed sufficiently
+practicable; the gunboats went up the creek as near the walls as
+possible, and the two regiments advanced to the assault. The Taepings
+fought desperately in the breach itself, and no progress was made. It
+is probable that a reverse would have followed had not the howitzers
+continued to throw shells over the wall, thus inflicting heavy losses
+on the Taepings, who swarmed in their thousands behind. At that
+critical moment Gordon directed another regiment to escalade the wall
+at a point which the Taepings had left unguarded, and the appearance
+of these fresh troops on their flank at once decided the day, and
+induced the Taeping leaders to order a retreat. The Taepings lost
+heavily, but the loss of the Ever Victorious Army was in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> proportion
+equally great. The latter had twenty men killed and 142 wounded, one
+European officer killed and six wounded. But the capture of Taitsan
+under all the circumstances was an exceptionally brilliant and
+decisive affair. With it may be said to have begun the military
+reputation of the young commander, whose admirable dispositions had
+retrieved a great disaster and inflicted a rude blow on the confidence
+of a daring enemy.</p>
+
+<p>From Taitsan he marched to Quinsan; but his force was not yet
+thoroughly in hand, and wished to return to Sungkiang, in accordance
+with their practice under Ward of spending their pay and prize-money
+after any successful affair before attempting another. Gordon yielded
+on this occasion the more easily because he was impressed by the
+strength of Quinsan, and also because his ammunition had run short.
+But his trouble with his men was not yet over, and he had to face a
+serious mutiny on the part of his officers. For improved economy and
+efficiency Gordon appointed an English commissariat officer, named
+Cookesley, to control all the stores, and he gave him the rank of
+lieutenant-colonel. This gave umbrage to the majors in command of
+regiments, who presented a request that they should be allowed the
+higher rank and pay of lieutenant-colonel; and when this was refused
+they sent in their resignations, which were accepted. The affair was
+nearly taking a serious turn, as the troops refused to march; but
+Gordon's firmness overcame the difficulty. Two of the majors were
+reinstated, and the others dismissed, but this incident finally
+decided Gordon to change his headquarters from Sungkiang to some place
+where the bad traditions of Ward and Burgevine were not in force. The
+active operations now undertaken against Quinsan served to distract
+the attention of the men, and to strengthen their commander's
+influence over them. General Gordon's own description of this affair
+is well worth quoting:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The force arrived at their old camping ground near the east gate
+of Quinsan on the evening of 27th of May. General Ching had
+established some five or six very strong stockades at this place,
+and, thanks to the steamer <i>Hyson</i>, had been able to hold them
+against the repeated attacks of the rebels. The line of rebel
+stockades was not more than 800 yards from his position. The
+force encamped near the stockades; and at daybreak of the 28th
+the 4th and 5th Regiments, with the field artillery, moved to
+attack them. The right stockade was attacked in front, and its
+right flank turned, on seeing which the rebels retreated. They
+were in large force, and had it not been for the numerous bridges
+they had constructed in their rear, they would have suffered
+much, as the pursuit was pressed beyond the north gate close<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> up
+to a stockade they held at the north-east angle of the city.
+Captain Clayton, 99th Regiment, a very gallant officer who had
+gained the goodwill and admiration of every one of the force, was
+unfortunately wounded in the attack, and died some months
+afterwards of his wounds. Our loss was two killed and sixteen
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>"General Ching was now most anxious to get me to attack the east
+gate on the following day. His object was that he had written to
+the Futai Li, who had in turn passed the statement on to Peking,
+to say that he had his stockades on the edge of the ditch, and
+merely wanted a boat to get into the city. This he showed by a
+plan. The east gate looked, if possible, more unpromising than it
+did before, and I declined to attack it without reconnoitring the
+other side of the city. Accordingly, the next day, 29th May, I
+went in the <i>Hyson</i> with General Ching and Li Hung Chang to
+reconnoitre the west side, and after three hours' steaming came
+within 1000 yards of the main canal, which runs from the west
+gate of Quinsan to Soochow. At the junction of the creek we came
+up with this main canal at the village of Chunye. This place is
+eight miles from Quinsan, and twelve from Soochow. The only road
+between these two places runs along the bank of the creek. The
+rebels had here on its bank two stockades of no great strength,
+and about 500 yards inland, they had, near the village of Chunye,
+a very strong stone fort. About 1000 yards from the stockades the
+creek was staked across. At the time of our arrival large numbers
+of troops were passing towards and from Soochow with horsemen,
+etc. We opened fire on them and on their boats. The rebels seemed
+perfectly amazed at seeing us, and were ready for a run. General
+Ching was as sulky as a bear when he was informed that I thought
+it advisable to take these stockades the next day, and to attack
+on this side of the city.</p>
+
+<p>"At dawn on 30th May the 4th Regiment, 350 strong, with field
+artillery, all in boats and <i>Hyson</i>, accompanied by some fifty
+Imperial gunboats, started for Chunye. The Imperial gunboats
+started some hours previous, but had contented themselves with
+halting one and a half miles from the stockades. The whole
+flotilla&mdash;some eighty boats, with their large white sails and
+decorated with the usual amount of various-coloured flags, with
+the <i>Hyson</i> in the middle&mdash;presented a very picturesque sight,
+and must have made the garrison of Quinsan feel uncomfortable, as
+they could see the smallest move from the high hill inside the
+city, and knew, of course, more than we did of the importance of
+the stockades about to be attacked.</p>
+
+<p>"At noon we came up to the stakes before alluded to, and landed
+the infantry. The Imperial gunboats, now very brave, pulled up
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> stakes, and a general advance with the steamer and troops
+was made. The rebels stood for a minute, and then vacated the
+stockades and ran. The reason of the rebels defending these
+stockades so badly was on account of the ill-feeling between the
+chiefs in charge of Quinsan and Chunye, and the neglect of the
+former to furnish rice to the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Hyson</i> [with Gordon on board] now steamed up towards
+Soochow at a slow pace, owing to the innumerable boats that
+crowded the creek, which, vacated by their owners, were drifting
+about with their sails up in every direction. The rebels were in
+clusters along the bank, marching in an orderly way towards
+Soochow. The <i>Hyson</i> opened fire on them and hurried their
+progress, and, hanging on their rear, kept up a steady fire till
+they reached Ta Edin, where a large arch bridge spanned the
+creek, and where the rebels had constructed a splendid stone
+fort. We expected that the rebels would make a stand here, but
+they merely fired one shot, which was answered by a shell from
+the <i>Hyson</i>, which went into the embrasure, and the rebels
+continued their flight. It became rather hazardous to pass this
+fort and leave it unoccupied, with the number of armed rebels who
+were between Chunye and Ta Edin. The <i>Hyson</i>, moreover, had no
+force on board of any importance. There were with me five or six
+Europeans and some thirty Chinamen&mdash;gunners, etc. However, six of
+us landed, and held the fort somehow till more Imperialists came
+up, while the <i>Hyson</i> pushed on towards Soochow.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Hyson</i> continued the pursuit, threading her way through the
+boats of all descriptions which crowded the creek, and harassing
+the rear of the rebel columns which extended along the road for
+over a mile. About two miles from Ta Edin another stone fort was
+passed without a shot being fired; this was Siaon Edin.
+Everything was left in the forts by the rebels. Soon after
+passing this place the steamer headed some 400 rebels, and
+Captain Davidson ran her into the bank, and took 150 of them
+prisoners on board the <i>Hyson</i>&mdash;rather a risk, considering the
+crew of that vessel and her size. Soon after this four horsemen
+were descried riding at full speed about a mile in rear of the
+steamer. They came up, passed the steamer amid a storm of
+bullets, and joined the rebel column. One of them was struck off
+his horse, but the others coolly waited for him, and one of them
+stopped and took him up behind him. They deserved to get off.
+About three miles further on another stockade of stone was passed
+at a broken bridge called Waiquaidong, and the pursuit was
+carried on to about three-quarters of a mile from Soochow. It was
+now getting late (6 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>), and we did not know if the rebels in
+our rear might not have occupied the stockades, in which case we
+should have had to find another route back. On our return we met<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+crowds of villagers, who burnt at our suggestion the houses in
+the forts at Waiquaidong and Siaon Edin, and took the boats that
+were in the creek.</p>
+
+<p>"We met many boats that had appeared deserted on our passing up
+sailing merrily towards Soochow, but which, when they saw the red
+and green of the steamer and heard her whistle, were immediately
+run into the bank and were deserted. Just before Siaon Edin was
+reached we came on a large body of rebels, who opened a sharp
+fire of rifles on us striking the gun twice. They had got under
+cover of a bridge, which, however, after a short delay, we
+managed to enfilade with a charge of grape and thus cleared them
+out. We then steamed into the bank and took in more prisoners.
+Four chiefs, one a Wang, galloped past on horseback; and although
+not two yards from the steamer, they got away. The Wang got
+shoved into the water and lost his pony. A party of rebels were
+encamped in Siaon Edin, not dreaming of any further annoyance for
+that night, and were accordingly astonished to hear the steamer's
+whistle, and rushed out in amazement, to meet a shell at the
+entrance, which killed two of them. The steamer now pushed on to
+Ta Edin, and found it unoccupied; while waiting there to collect
+some of the prisoners, about 200 rebels came so suddenly on the
+steamer that we were obliged to whistle to keep them off till the
+gun could be got ready.</p>
+
+<p>"It was now 10.30 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and the night was not very clear. At this
+moment the most tremendous firing and cheering was heard from
+Chunye, and hurried our progress to that place. Just before we
+reached it a gunboat disarranged the rudder, and then we were
+dodging about from side to side for some ten minutes, the firing
+and cheering going on as before. At last we got up to the
+junction of the creek, and steaming through the Imperial, and
+other boats, we came on the scene of action. The gunboats were
+drawn up in line, and were firing as fast as they could. The
+stone fort at the village was sparkling with musketry, and at
+times astounding yells burst forth from it. The <i>Hyson</i> blew her
+whistle, and was received with deafening cheers from the
+gunboats, which were on the eve of bolting. She steamed up the
+creek towards Quinsan, and at the distance of 200 yards we saw a
+confused mass near a high bridge. It was too dark to distinguish
+very clearly, but on the steamer blowing the whistle the mass
+wavered, yelled, and turned back. It was the garrison of Quinsan
+attempting to escape to Soochow, some seven or eight thousand
+men.</p>
+
+<p>"Matters were in too critical a state to hesitate, as the mass of
+the rebels, goaded into desperation, would have swept our small
+force away. We were therefore forced to fire into them, and
+pursue them towards Quinsan, firing, however, very rarely, and
+only when the rebels looked as if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> they would make a stand. The
+steamer went up to about a mile from Quinsan, and then returned.
+Several officers landed and took charge of the prisoners who were
+extended along the bank, and at 4 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, 31st May, everything was
+quiet. The <i>Hyson</i> had fired some eighty or ninety rounds during
+the day and night; and although humanity might have desired a
+smaller destruction, it was indispensably necessary to inflict
+such a blow on the garrison of Soochow as would cause them not to
+risk another such engagement, and thus enable us to live in peace
+during the summer&mdash;which it indeed did, for the rebels never came
+on this road again. Their loss must have been from three to four
+thousand killed, drowned, and prisoners. We took 800, most of
+whom entered our ranks. They lost all their arms and a very large
+number of boats. At 5 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> on 31st May the troops at Chunye and
+the <i>Hyson</i> moved towards Quinsan, and found the remainder of the
+force who had been left at the east gate already in the city. The
+possession of Quinsan was of immense importance in a strategical
+point of view. The circumference of its walls is some five miles,
+but they are very inferior. Its ditch is over forty yards wide,
+and from the nature of the creeks around it would prove very
+difficult to take. The high hill enclosed within its walls would
+enable the slightest move to be seen, and if two or three guns
+were placed on the spurs of this hill it would form a very
+formidable citadel. The rebels did not know its importance till
+they lost it."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Such was the capture of Quinsan, told in the simple words of its
+captor. It confirmed the reputation gained by the fall of Taitsan, and
+proved that the new commander was a man of extraordinary military
+intuition as well as energy. There is scarcely room to doubt that if
+Gordon had attacked Quinsan where the Chinese commander wished him to
+do, at its very strongest point, he would have met with a rude
+repulse. By attacking them on the side of Soochow, and by threatening
+their communication with that place, he terrified the large garrison
+so much that in the end they evacuated the place without resistance.
+Gordon himself believed that if the mandarins at the head of the
+Imperial army would have consented to support him in immediate
+measures for an assault on Soochow, that city would have fallen in the
+panic that ensued after the loss of Quinsan. The opportunity being
+lost, it will be seen that many months of arduous fighting followed
+before the same result was achieved.</p>
+
+<p>The reasons which rendered a change in the headquarters of the force
+desirable have already been mentioned, and Major Gordon at once
+decided to remove them to Quinsan, a strong and advantageously-placed
+position embarrassing to the Taepings, and equally encouraging to the
+Imperialists. But if this removal was necessary on grounds of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+discipline and policy, it was very unpopular with the men themselves,
+who were attached to Sungkiang, where they could easily dispose of
+their plunder. They determined to make an effort to get the offensive
+order withdrawn, and a proclamation was drawn up by the most
+disaffected, who were the non-commissioned officers, and sent to Major
+Gordon with an intimation that the artillery would blow all the
+officers to pieces unless their demands were complied with. Major
+Gordon at once sent for all the non-commissioned officers, who paraded
+before him. When he demanded the name of the writer of the
+proclamation they were silent. At this Major Gordon announced that
+unless the name was given up, he would shoot one out of every five of
+them. At this statement the men groaned, when Gordon, noticing the man
+who groaned loudest, and shrewdly conceiving him to be a ringleader,
+seized him with his own hands, dragged him from the ranks, and ordered
+two of his bodyguard to shoot the man on the spot. The order was at
+once carried out, and then Gordon, turning to the rest, gave them one
+hour to reflect whether they would obey orders, or compel him to shoot
+one in every five. Within this time they gave way, and discipline was
+restored. Gordon in his official despatch expressed regret for the
+man's death, but, as he truly said, "it saved many others which must
+have been lost if a stop had not been put to the independent way of
+the men." But the matter did not quite end here, for more than 2000
+men deserted, but Gordon found no difficulty in filling their places
+from his prisoners and the villages round Quinsan. It is worthy of
+note that his own bodyguard was mainly composed of Taeping prisoners,
+and some of the most faithful of them had been the bearers of the
+Snake banners of the rebel Wangs.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus settled the differences within his own force, and having
+fully established his own authority, Major Gordon would have
+prosecuted the attack on Soochow with vigour, if other difficulties
+had not occurred which occupied his time and attention. In the first
+place, there was a serious quarrel with General Ching, who was sore
+because he had not gained the credit for the capture of Quinsan, and
+who did everything he could to hamper and humiliate the force. At last
+he went to the length of firing on a column of Gordon's force, and as
+he refused all satisfaction, that officer was on the point of marching
+to attack him, when Dr&mdash;now Sir Halliday&mdash;Macartney arrived in his
+camp, being sent in a fully accredited manner, and escorted by the
+Futai's bodyguard, as a peace messenger from Li Hung Chang. On this
+occasion Sir Halliday Macartney first gave evidence of the exceptional
+diplomatic tact which he has since evinced in so many important<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+negotiations, when China derived much advantage from his energy,
+ability, and devotion to her cause. The storm then blew over, but the
+second affair was more serious. Li Hung Chang became remiss in his
+payment of the force, and on 25th July Gordon sent in his formal
+resignation. There is every reason to believe that at this moment
+Gordon was thoroughly sick of his command, and would willingly have
+returned to Europe. The difficulties with his own men, the want of
+co-operation, to say nothing of appreciation on the part of the
+Chinese authorities, had damped even his zeal in what he reiterated
+was the good cause of restoring peace and security to a suffering
+people; and in addition to these troubles he had to carry on a
+correspondence with anonymous writers, who made many baseless charges
+in the Shanghai and Hongkong papers of cruelty against the men under
+his command. The English General at Shanghai used all his influence,
+however, with the Chinese Governor to pay up the arrears, and with
+Gordon to retain the command, because, as he said, there was "no other
+officer who combined so many dashing qualities, let alone skill and
+judgment."</p>
+
+<p>But the event that really decided Gordon to withdraw his resignation
+was the unexpected return of Burgevine. That adventurer had proceeded
+to Peking after his dismissal from the command, and obtained some
+support from the American minister in pressing his claims on the
+Chinese. He had been sent back to Shanghai with letters which,
+although they left some loophole of escape, might be interpreted as
+ordering Li Hung Chang to reinstate him in the command. This Li,
+supported by the English commanding officer at Shanghai, had
+resolutely refused to do, and the feud between the men became more
+bitter than ever. Burgevine remained in Shanghai and employed his time
+in selling the Taepings arms and ammunition. In this way he
+established secret relations with their chiefs, and seeing no chance
+of Imperial employment he was not unwilling to join his fortunes to
+theirs. This inclination was increased by the belief that he might be
+able to form a force of his own which would give a decisive turn to
+the struggle, and his vanity led him to think that he might pose on
+the rebel side as no unequal adversary of Gordon, to whom all the time
+he professed the greatest friendship. These feelings arose from or
+were certainly strengthened by the representations made by several of
+the officers and men whom Gordon had dismissed from his army. They
+easily led Burgevine to think that he was not forgotten, and that he
+had only to raise his standard to be joined by many of his old men.</p>
+
+<p>A fortnight before Gordon's resignation Dr Macartney&mdash;who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> some
+time before begun his remarkable career in the Chinese service, and of
+whom Gordon himself said: "He drilled troops, supervised the
+manufacture of shells, gave advice, brightened the Futai's intellect
+about foreigners, and made peace, in which last accomplishment his
+<i>forte</i> lay"&mdash;wrote to him, stating that he had positive information
+that Burgevine was enlisting men for some enterprise, that he had
+already enrolled 300, and that he had even chosen a special flag for
+his force. A few days later Burgevine, probably hearing of this
+communication, wrote to Gordon, begging him not to believe any rumours
+about him, and stating that he was coming up to see him. Gordon
+unfortunately believed in this statement, and as he wished to exhibit
+special lenience towards the man whom he had displaced in the command,
+he went bail for him, so that he retained his personal liberty when
+the Chinese arrested Burgevine's agent Beechy, and wished to arrest
+Burgevine himself. On 2nd August Burgevine threw off the mask. At the
+head of a band of thirty-two rowdies, he seized the new steamer
+<i>Kajow</i> at Sungkiang, and with that vessel hastened to join the
+Taepings. The very day that this happened Gordon reached Shanghai for
+the purpose of resigning his command, but on the receipt of this
+intelligence he at once withdrew his resignation and hastened back to
+Quinsan. Apart from public considerations, he felt doubly bound to do
+this because Burgevine had not been arrested on his pledged word.</p>
+
+<p>The position was undoubtedly critical, for the prospect of plunder
+offered by Burgevine was very attractive to mercenaries like the Ever
+Victorious Army, and there was a very real risk that the force at
+Quinsan, deprived of its commander, might be induced to desert <i>en
+masse</i> under the persuasive promises of Burgevine. When Gordon reached
+Quinsan he was so apprehensive as to what might occur that he removed
+his heavy artillery and most of his munitions of war to Taitsan, where
+General Brown, in command at Shanghai, undertook to see that they were
+protected. The situation at Quinsan was full of peril, for although
+Burgevine had thrown away a chance, by taking a roundabout instead of
+a direct route to Soochow, of striking a decisive blow before Gordon
+could get back, the Taeping leader, Mow Wang, had not been so
+negligent, and his operations for the recovery of several places taken
+by Gordon in the last few days of his command were on the point of
+success, when that officer's return arrested the course of his plans.
+It must be pointed out that after this date the Taepings fought with
+far more skill than before. They had a very considerable European
+contingent, probably nearly 300 men, and these served not only as
+leaders, but as trainers of the rebel Chinese forces. They had also
+obtained some good cannon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> and the steamer <i>Kajow</i> proved of material
+value on water. Gordon found on his return, therefore, that the
+difficulties of the campaign were materially increased. His opponents
+were far stronger and more confident, while his own resources remained
+unchanged. Gordon tersely summed up the situation in an official
+despatch: "There is no knowing what an immense amount of damage might
+have been done if the rebels had had a more energetic man than
+Burgevine, and it would be as well not to point out the line which
+might have been taken."</p>
+
+<p>The first engagements of this more difficult and keenly-contested
+phase of the campaign took place at Kahpoo, a place on the canal some
+miles south of Soochow. Gordon had taken it a week before he left for
+Shanghai, as a sort of parting gift to the Chinese, but when he
+arrived there on 9th August he found the garrison hard pressed,
+although the <i>Hyson</i> was stationed there&mdash;and indeed nothing but his
+arrival with a third steamer, the <i>Cricket</i>, averted its recapture.
+After five days' operations, that do not require description, the
+neighbourhood of Kahpoo was cleared of rebels, and Gordon returned to
+Quinsan, where the most essential task had to be accomplished of
+restoring the discipline of his own force. As some assistance in this
+difficult task General Brown lent him the services of 200 Beluches,
+whose admirable conduct and splendid appearance went far to restore a
+healthy spirit among his own men. At the same time these troops
+ensured the safety of Quinsan and also of Gordon himself, at least
+against the treachery of Burgevine's sympathisers.</p>
+
+<p>The season of the year, the hottest and most trying of the long
+Chinese summer, compelled inaction, and Gordon felt doubly the need of
+caution now that he was brought face to face with the most arduous
+undertaking of the whole war, viz. the siege and capture of Soochow.
+General Ching's headquarters were at Ta Edin, and he had also occupied
+in force Waiquaidong, only two miles from the eastern gate of Soochow.
+Before the end of September he had pushed on still further, and
+erected his stockades within half a mile of that position. At this
+moment Gordon, anxious as to what might happen to his too-adventurous
+colleague, advanced with his force to his aid, and took up the supreme
+direction of the attack on Soochow. As usual, Gordon began by making a
+careful examination of the extensive rebel positions at and round
+Soochow, and the result of it was that he decided to capture the
+stockades and village of Patachiaou, one mile distant from the south
+wall of that city. His plan met with easy success, for the Taepings
+were not expecting an attack in that quarter, and offered little
+resistance.</p>
+
+<p>Easily as they had been driven out of it, the Taepings made a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+determined effort to retake it a few days later, and it was only by
+desperate exertions that Gordon succeeded in holding what he had won.
+This was the first occasion on which Burgevine and the <i>Kajow</i>
+steamer, commanded by Captain Jones, "a daring and capable officer,"
+to use Gordon's words, came into action. The rebels were extremely
+confident for this reason, and also because they had some heavy
+artillery. Gordon had to keep to his stockades, and to send the
+<i>Hyson</i> out of action from fear of its being damaged by the enemy's
+shell, but the Taepings were afraid to come to close quarters, and
+eventually retreated before a well-timed <i>sortie</i>. In this engagement
+Gordon had the co-operation of a French-trained Chinese regiment,
+under the command of a gallant officer, Captain Bonnefoy. After this
+there was a lull, but Gordon felt too weak to attempt anything serious
+against Soochow, and he deprecated all operations until he could
+strike an effective blow. In this respect he differed materially from
+his Chinese colleague, General Ching, who was most restless and
+enterprising, but his ill-directed energy produced no result, and even
+assisted the enemy's plans.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture the Taeping hero Chung Wang arrived from Nanking with
+reinforcements, and imparted a new vigour to the defence. But whether
+on account of jealousy, or of disappointment at the poor services he
+had rendered, it also resulted in the dismissal of Burgevine, an
+incident of which some brief account may be given before following the
+main course of the campaign. More than one ground of dispute led up to
+this conclusion. In the first place, Burgevine was disappointed at
+finding several of the rebel Wangs as clever and ambitious as he was,
+and they were disappointed at the amount of service and help he could
+give them. This feeling culminated in angry scenes, when, on being
+sent into Shanghai in disguise to purchase arms with a large sum of
+money, he returned to Soochow without either money or weapons. He was
+apparently given, as a last chance, the opportunity of regaining his
+reputation by entrapping Gordon into the rebel power, and he
+thoroughly entered into the scheme, although he failed to carry it
+out. On 3rd October&mdash;that is to say, two days after the failure to
+retake Patachiaou&mdash;Burgevine made the first step in this plot by
+addressing a letter to Gordon, thanking him for the offer of medicines
+he had sent, and offering to meet him whenever he liked to discuss
+matters. On the 6th he met Gordon at the stockades, and declared his
+willingness to abandon the Taepings and come over with all his force,
+including the <i>Kajow</i>. He and his companions were guaranteed their
+lives, and the arrangement seemed complete. Two days later he had a
+second interview with the English officer, when he made the
+extraordinary proposition that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> he and Gordon should join bands,
+attack both Taepings and Imperialists, and fight for their own hand.
+This mad and unprincipled proposal excited Gordon's anger, but it was
+only Burgevine's old filibustering idea revived under unfavourable
+conditions. It was while smarting under this rebuff that Burgevine
+proposed to Captain Jones a fresh plot for entrapping Gordon, while
+he, unsuspecting evil, was engaged in conferences for their surrender;
+but to Jones's credit, let it be stated that he refused to have any
+part in such black treachery. Thereupon Burgevine attempted to take
+Jones's life, either to conceal his own treachery or to enable him to
+carry out his interrupted plans. Much delay occurred in carrying out
+the project of Burgevine's desertion, and Gordon, rendered specially
+anxious to save his and the other foreigners' lives, because one party
+had escaped without Burgevine, wrote a strong letter on the subject to
+Mow Wang, Chung Wang's chief lieutenant. He also sent him a present of
+a pony, at which the rebel chief was so much pleased that he agreed to
+release Burgevine, and on 18th October that person appeared at the
+outworks of Gordon's position. His personal safety was entirely due to
+Gordon's humane efforts, and to the impression that officer had made
+on the Taepings as a chivalrous opponent. The American Consul at
+Shanghai, Mr Seward, officially thanked Major Gordon for his "great
+kindness to misguided General Burgevine and his men." Nearly two years
+later this adventurer met the fate he so narrowly escaped on several
+occasions. He had been forbidden by his own Consul as well as the
+Chinese Government ever to return to China, but in June 1865 he broke
+his parole. Before he could be arrested he met with his death by
+accident, being drowned when crossing a Chinese river, but rumours
+were prevalent that his death was an act of vengeance instigated by
+his old enemy the Futai, Li Hung Chang.</p>
+
+<p>The assumption of the supreme command by Chung Wang was soon followed
+by those offensive operations which had made that dashing leader the
+most famous of all the rebel generals. Gordon and the bulk of his
+corps were at Patachiaou, south of Soochow&mdash;only General Ching and the
+Chinese army were north of that place&mdash;and he resolved to attack them
+and force his way through to Chanzu, which he wished to recover as
+opening a road to the river and the outer world. Gordon divined his
+intention, and for some time prevented him carrying it out by making
+threatening demonstrations with his gunboats on the western side of
+Soochow; but his own attention was soon diverted to another part of
+the country where a new and unexpected danger threatened his own
+position and communications. A large rebel force, computed to number
+20,000 men, had suddenly appeared behind Major Gordon's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> position and
+attacked the Imperial garrison stationed at Wokong, a place on the
+canal twelve or thirteen miles south of Soochow. The news that reached
+Gordon on 12th October from this quarter was that the garrison, having
+been repulsed in a <i>sortie</i> with a loss of several hundred men, could
+not hold out many hours. Gordon at once hastened to the rescue at the
+head of one of his regiments, and with the invaluable <i>Hyson</i> steamer.
+He found his allies quite cowed, afraid even to open the gates of
+their stockades to admit him and his men, and the enemy drawn up in
+imposing lines at a distance of about 1500 yards. He at once ordered
+the attack, and during three hours the engagement was contested in the
+most obstinate and spirited manner. The rebels, having their line of
+retreat secure, fought bravely. Gordon had to bring up his heavy guns
+to within forty yards of the wall before they would gave way, and even
+then they stood at the second and third inner stockades. Gordon never
+gave them a chance of recovering, but having got them on the run, kept
+them at it for a distance of ten miles. This was one of Gordon's
+greatest victories in the open field. The Taepings never fought
+better, yet with 1000 good Chinese troops Gordon routed more than
+20,000 of them.</p>
+
+<p>Chung Wang had begun his march towards Chanzu, but after some slight
+successes met with a rude repulse at Monding, where he also lost the
+steamer <i>Kajow</i>, which was sunk by an accidental explosion. He then
+established his headquarters at Wusieh, a place on the Grand Canal,
+about twenty-five miles north of Soochow. Here he hoped to effect some
+diversion that might relieve the increasing pressure on Soochow
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime that pressure had greatly increased, owing to the
+bolder measures to which Gordon resorted after the European contingent
+abandoned the Taeping side. His first step was to attack and capture
+the stockades at Wuliungchow, a village two miles west of Patachiaou,
+which commanded a passage leading from the Taiho Lake to the south
+gate of Soochow. Gordon managed to conceal the real object of his
+attack from the Taepings, and to capture the stockades with little
+loss. The wet weather and the unexpected nature of the attack
+explained this easy success, for the stockades were strong and well
+placed. Chung Wang returned from Wusieh with the special object of
+retaking them, but he was repulsed with some loss, and then hurried
+back to that place. A few days later part of Gordon's force, under
+Major Kirkham, was sent to Wokong, which was again being threatened by
+the Taepings, and obtained a brilliant success, capturing 1300
+prisoners and not fewer than 1600 boats, including sixteen gunboats.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Having achieved this success on the south, Gordon proceeded with his
+plans to secure an equally advantageous position on the north side. He
+left two regiments at Wuliungchow, which he greatly strengthened, and
+with the remainder he went to Waiquaidong, where he proposed to
+deliver his attack on the Leeku stockades, only a short distance in
+front of the north gate of Soochow. This operation was carried out
+with complete success, and it was promptly followed up by the capture
+of the rebel positions at Wanti, which enabled the forces round
+Soochow to join hands with the other considerable Imperial army that
+had been placed in the field by the energy of Li Hung Chang, and
+entrusted to the command of his brother, San Tajin. This last force
+was opposed to Chung Wang, but although numerically the stronger, the
+want of the most rudimentary military knowledge in its commander
+reduced this army of 20,000 men to inglorious inaction. At this stage
+of the struggle it will be well to sum up in Gordon's own words the
+different positions held by the contending forces:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We held the Taiho Lake with the steamers the <i>Hyson</i>, the
+<i>Tsatlee</i>, <i>Firefly</i>, and 200 men (Imperialists), which cruised
+off Moodow, and prevented supplies coming to Soochow up the creek
+which leads from that village to the small West Gate, or
+Shih-m&uuml;n, of Soochow, and where they had many actions with the
+rebel gunboats. The next great water outlet was closed to the
+rebels by our possession with 1000 men (Imperialists) of
+Wuliungchow. Off the Pon-m&uuml;n, or South Gate, the next main water
+and road communication to the south was closed to them by our
+occupation by 1500 men (Imperialists) of the Patachiaou stockades
+on the Grand Canal, south of the south-east angle of Soochow. The
+next, which led from the east gate of Soochow to Quinsan, was
+closed by Ching's force of 3000 or 4000 men, nearly two miles
+from the gate. These men were well posted in strong and
+well-constructed stockades. The next position held was Leeku,
+where I had one regiment, and at Wanti there was another
+regiment. The total force in the stockades was about 8500 men,
+leaving for field operation 2500 Imperialists, 2100 of the
+Quinsan Corps, and 400 Franco-Chinese. San Tajin had 20,000 to
+30,000, in three separate camps. He was utterly incapable for
+command of any sort.</p>
+
+<p>"The rebels held Soochow with some 40,000 men in and around the
+city. The city of Wusieh held some 20,000 men, and Chung Wang had
+at Mahtanchow some 18,000 more. Chung Wang's position was central
+between Wusieh and Soochow, some ten miles in advance of the
+Grand Canal, so as to be able to give help to either city, and to
+attack on the flank any advance made by us on their grand line of
+communications by that canal."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The city of Soochow, now so closely beleaguered, was of imposing
+appearance. An English traveller who saw it at this time thus
+describes it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Further than the eye could penetrate in the misty morning
+stretched the grizzled walls of Soochow, a city celebrated for
+ages in the history of China for its size, population, wealth,
+and luxury, but now stripped of its magnificence, and held by an
+army of Taeping banditti against the Imperial forces. To the
+right and left, mile after mile, rose the line of lofty wall and
+grey turret, while above all appeared not only the graceful
+pagodas, which have been for ages the boast of Soochow and the
+dense foliage of secular trees&mdash;the invariable glory of Chinese
+cities&mdash;but also the shimmering roofs of newly decorated palaces
+confidently occupied by the vainglorious leaders of the
+rebellion. The proximity of the rebel line became apparent with
+surprising suddenness, for, following their usual custom, they
+greeted the rising sun with a simultaneous display of gaudy
+banners above the line of their entrenchments. The mud walls they
+had thrown up in advance, scarcely distinguishable before, were
+now marked out by thousands of flags of every colour from black
+to crimson, whilst behind them rose the jangling roll of gongs,
+and the murmurs of an invisible multitude."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Had Gordon been free to act, or even if he had possessed authority
+over the two Chinese commanders, his plan of campaign would have been
+simple and decisive. He would have effected a junction of his forces
+with San Tajin; and having overwhelmed Chung Wang and his 18,000 men
+with his combined army of double that strength, he would have appeared
+at the head of his victorious troops before the bewildered garrison of
+Wusieh. He would probably have thus terminated the campaign at a
+stroke. Even the decisive defeat of Chung Wang alone might have
+entailed the collapse of the cause now tottering to its fall. But
+Major Gordon had to consider not merely the military quality of his
+allies, but also their jealousies and differences. General Ching hated
+San Tajin on private as well as on public grounds. He desired a
+monopoly of the profit and honour of the campaign. His own reputation
+would be made by the capture of Soochow. It would be diminished and
+cast into the shade were another Imperial commander to defeat Chung
+Wang and close the line of the Grand Canal. If Gordon detached himself
+from General Ching, he could not feel sure what folly that jealous and
+impulsive commander might not commit. He would certainly not pursue
+the vigilant defence before Soochow necessary to guard the extensive
+line of stockades, and to prevent its large garrison sallying out and
+assailing his own rear. Gordon had consequently for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> these
+considerations to abandon the tempting idea of crushing Chung Wang and
+capturing the towns in the rear of Nanking, and to have recourse to
+safer if slower methods.</p>
+
+<p>But if he had to abandon the larger plan, he still stuck tenaciously
+to his main idea that the way to capture Soochow was to isolate it,
+and above all to sever Chung Wang's communication with it. Several
+weeks passed before Gordon could complete the necessary arrangements,
+but at last, on 19th November, he left Leeku at the head of the
+greater part of his own force and a large contingent of Ching's braves
+to attack the stockades at Fusaiquan on the Grand Canal, about four
+miles north of Leeku. The Taeping position was a strong one, including
+eight separate earthworks, a stone fort, and several stockades. Gordon
+said "it was far the best built and strongest position he had yet
+seen," but the rebels evacuated it in the most cowardly manner without
+attempting the least resistance. Gordon goes on to say: "Our loss was
+none killed, and none wounded! We had expected a most desperate
+defence. If ever men deserved beheading, the Taeping leaders did on
+this occasion." The immediate consequence of this success was that
+Chung Wang quitted his camp in face of San Tajin, and, joining the
+Wusieh corps, concentrated his whole force for the defence of the
+Grand Canal.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus strengthened his position towards the north, Gordon, very
+much to Ching's satisfaction, fell in with his views to begin a direct
+attack on Soochow itself. For good reasons it was decided that the
+north-east angle of Soochow was the weakest, but before it could be
+attacked it was necessary to capture the strong stockades which the
+rebels had erected in front of the East and North Gates. The East
+Gate, or Low Mun, stockades were selected for the first attack, and as
+the scene of a reverse to Ching's force on 14th October, the Chinese
+commander was specially anxious to capture them. They were exceedingly
+formidable, consisting of a line of breastwork, defended at intervals
+with circular stockades, and the position was well chosen and strongly
+fortified. After reconnoitring it, and obtaining all the information
+he could from deserters, Gordon determined on a night attack; but
+unfortunately not only were his plans revealed to the Taepings by
+traitors in his own camp, but his arrangements miscarried. As is often
+the case with night attacks, the plan of attack was not adhered to,
+and much confusion followed. The breastwork was carried by a small
+part of his troops, but the stockades in its rear were never reached.
+Encouraged by Gordon's example, who seemed to be at every point at the
+same moment, his men held on to the breastwork, but the supports would
+not move up, and when he hastened to the rear to encourage them, the
+Taepings under Mow Wang attacked in their turn and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> manned the
+breastwork. There was nothing now to be done but to draw off the
+troops, which was executed with comparatively slight loss; but 165
+officers and men were killed or wounded&mdash;the majority being killed or
+missing. This loss would have been much greater if the Taepings had
+only had the courage to leave their position, but fortunately they
+showed themselves unable to follow up their success. This was Gordon's
+first defeat, but it was so obviously due to special causes that it
+did not much dishearten his men, or diminish the high reputation he
+and his force had gained by thirteen previous victories.</p>
+
+<p>But the necessity to retrieve such a reverse was obvious, and Gordon
+collected the whole of his corps for the purpose of capturing the Low
+Mun stockades. He also placed his siege guns in position, and began a
+heavy bombardment in the morning of 29th November as the preliminary
+to attack. On his side, Mow Wang made all his preparations for
+defence, which had been rendered the more necessary because there were
+dissensions among the Taeping leaders themselves, one of whom, named
+Lar Wang, had offered to surrender with his followers to General Ching
+on terms. Partly on this account Chung Wang rode into Soochow with a
+bodyguard of a few hundred men by the only bridle-path available, and
+his presence composed for the moment the quarrels of the Taeping
+leaders. But the result depended on the successful defence of the
+stockades in front of the East Gate, and Gordon was equally intent on
+capturing them. After a short bombardment the breastwork seemed so
+knocked about that Gordon ordered a column to advance to the assault,
+but it was met by a tremendous fire and compelled to turn back. Then
+the bombardment was renewed, and the field-pieces were pushed forward
+as far as possible. A second assault was then delivered, but the
+creek&mdash;fourteen yards across&mdash;was too wide for the bridge, and things
+again looked black, when the officers boldly jumped into the water,
+and their men following, the whole position was captured at a rush.
+Once this success was gained, the defence of the Taepings, who had
+fought well, collapsed, and stockade after stockade was carried with
+little or no loss. Gordon himself, with a mere handful of men,
+captured three more stockades and a stone fort that he said could have
+held out after all the other positions had fallen. The loss of the
+corps in this severe but decisive engagement was heavy, amounting to 6
+officers killed, and 3 wounded; 50 men killed, and 128 wounded,
+besides 5 Europeans of the Bodyguard. But this assault was decisive,
+inasmuch as it was the last that had to be made on the defences of
+Soochow before the fall of that place.</p>
+
+<p>At this point it will be appropriate to say something about Gordon's
+relations with his own officers, many of whom contemplated, whenever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+dissatisfied with their treatment or at prolonged inaction, selling
+their cause and services to the Taepings. During the siege he
+discovered that Captain Perry had written a letter giving the enemy
+information, but Gordon agreed to look over the offence on the
+condition that Perry led the next forlorn hope, which happened to be
+the affair at the Leeku stockades. Gordon had forgotten the condition,
+but Perry remembered it, and led the assault. He was shot in the
+mouth, and fell into the arms of his commander, ever at the point of
+danger. Perry was the first man killed, and Gordon's epitaph was that
+he was "a very good officer." Although Gordon was a strict and even
+severe disciplinarian, he was always solicitous of the interests of
+the officers who worked under him, and he set apart the greater
+portion of his pay in the Chinese service, which had been fixed at
+&pound;1,200 a year, for their benefit, more especially for the purchase of
+medicine and comforts for the ill or wounded. There was no
+exaggeration at all in the statement that he left China without any
+savings and as poor as when he reached it.</p>
+
+<p>From the gallant deeds of Gordon and his corps the course of the siege
+passes to the intrigues and negotiations between General Ching and Lar
+Wang. These had made so much progress that Lar Wang's troops abandoned
+the formidable stockades in front of the North Gate, which were
+occupied without the least attempt at resistance. Several interviews
+took place with the Taeping leaders, and Gordon was present at some of
+these, but Li Hung Chang asserts that he was not present at the most
+important of them; and that he was not a signatory of the convention
+of surrender. He was strongly in favour of good terms being granted to
+the rebels, and impressed his views on both Li Hung Chang, who had
+come up to the camp to be present at the fall of Soochow, and General
+Ching. From both he received the most positive assurances that the
+lives of all the Wangs would be spared, and such was no doubt their
+intention, but events were too strong for them. The most interesting
+of these leaders, with, of course, the exception of Chung Wang, was
+Mow Wang, who would have nothing to say to a surrender, and wished to
+fight to the death. He was the man who had sent back Burgevine, and
+Gordon admired his courage so much that he resolved to spare no effort
+to save his life. He asked Li to assign Mow Wang to him, and this
+request was granted. Unfortunately all these efforts were thrown away,
+for on the 4th December, during a banquet given at Mow Wang's palace,
+the other Wangs had fallen upon and murdered that chief, who would
+have resisted with all his force their projected surrender of the
+place. The next day Lar Wang, who had taken an oath of brotherhood
+with General<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Ching, gave up one of the gates, and his numerous
+followers undertook to shave their heads in token of surrender. The
+Imperialist troops occupied the gate, and prepared to take possession
+of the city, but Gordon would not allow any of his men to leave the
+stockades as he foresaw the impossibility of preventing them from
+plundering if they were permitted to advance into the city. But he
+went and represented the case to Li Hung Chang, and demanded two
+months' pay for his men as a reward for their good service, and as
+some compensation for the loss of loot. Li replied that he could not
+grant the request, and Gordon at once resigned for the second time
+during his connection with the Chinese Government. There was serious
+risk of an outbreak on the part of the discontented soldiers of the
+Ever Victorious Army, but on General Ching providing one month's pay
+Gordon used his influence with his men to march quietly back to
+Quinsan. The men at first received this order with shouts of
+dissatisfaction, and even threatened to attack the Futai Li, but
+Gordon succeeded in overcoming their objections, and the worst that
+happened was a noisy demonstration as the troops passed Li Hung
+Chang's tent, where Gordon and another officer stood on guard.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese officials were delighted to thus get rid of the Ever
+Victorious Army, without which they would never have seen the inside
+of Soochow. Its presence diminished their credit and interfered with
+the execution of the plans which they had no doubt held throughout all
+the negotiations with Lar Wang. Neither Li nor Ching wished Lar Wang
+and his colleagues to be saved, and thus allowed to become rivals to
+themselves in the race of official honour and wealth. There was
+nothing surprising in this, and the only matter for astonishment is
+that Lar Wang, well acquainted with the Punic faith of his countrymen,
+and with such a black record from the Government point of view, should
+have so easily placed faith in the word of his enemies. This was the
+more extraordinary because Gordon himself went into the city and saw
+Lar Wang at his own house before he left for Li Hung Chang's quarters,
+where a banquet had been arranged, and asked him very pressingly
+whether he was quite satisfied. Gordon himself seems to have had
+suspicions or apprehensions, for he even offered to take him on board
+his own steamer with which he was going to cruise in the Taiho Lake.
+Lar Wang, however, was quite confident, and said that all was well.
+This confidence was doubly unfortunate, for Gordon had excused himself
+from the Futai's banquet on the ground that his presence might seem
+humiliating to the Taeping leaders, whereas it was the only thing that
+could have averted their fate. As Gordon was leaving the city the
+Wangs passed him, laughing and talking, and riding apparently unarmed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+to the Futai's quarters. The next time Gordon saw them was when he
+beheld their headless bodies lying on the river bank near their host's
+camp.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon after this walked through the city, as some hours would elapse
+before the steamer could get round to the south-west side, where he
+intended to embark. While on his way he was joined by Dr Macartney.
+They both proceeded to the walls near the Eastern Gate, and on looking
+towards the Futai's quarters Gordon noticed a large crowd, but he did
+not attach any significance to it. About half an hour later a large
+number of Imperial soldiers entered the city, and set up a yell, as
+was their custom, and fired off guns. Gordon represented to their
+officers that this conduct was against the agreement, and might lead
+to disturbance, as the city was still crowded with Taepings. At this
+juncture General Ching appeared. As Gordon was supposed to be on his
+steamer on his way to the lake, he seemed taken aback, and turned
+pale. To Gordon's repeated inquiries as to whether all was well, he
+made a rambling statement that Lar Wang had made unreasonable demands,
+that he had refused to carry out the exact terms of the surrender, and
+finally, that he had run away. Gordon then asked Dr Macartney, as he
+knew Chinese, to go to Lar Wang's house, and reassure him if he found
+him there, but this statement must be taken in conjunction with the
+important narrative I give two pages further on. Gordon went a little
+way with General Ching, and then decided to wait at the North Gate for
+further intelligence, while the Chinese commander continued his round.
+Gordon then began to question his own interpreter as to what he
+thought, and on receiving the reply that "there was something
+improper," he determined to proceed himself with all speed to Lar
+Wang's house. On his way he passed through crowds of excited Taeping
+soldiers, and he also met a band of Imperialists laden with plunder.
+Lar Wang's palace had been pillaged and gutted, but an uncle of his,
+named Wangchi, was there, and he begged Gordon to help him to escort
+the females of Lar Wang's family to his own house. Gordon agreed to do
+this, but when he reached Wangchi's house, he found five or six
+hundred armed men in the courtyard. The doors were closed, and Wangchi
+refused to allow either Gordon or his interpreter to leave. During the
+night large bodies of excited Taepings, who knew that their chiefs had
+been entrapped, although, fortunately, not aware of their murder,
+rallied on this spot, and Gordon was thus placed in a position of the
+greatest personal peril.</p>
+
+<p>At length leave was given him to send his interpreter, escorted by two
+Taepings, to summon his own bodyguard, and to take an order<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> to
+another part of his force to seize the Futai and hold him as a hostage
+for the safety of the Wangs. The interpreter was attacked on the way
+by Imperialists, who wounded him, and tore up Gordon's letters. When
+one of the Taeping guides brought back this news Gordon was allowed to
+leave himself for the same purpose; but he was arrested on the way by
+some Imperialists, detained for several hours, and the morning was far
+advanced before he was able to send back his bodyguard for the
+protection of Wangchi's house and family. He then moved a further
+force into the city, to prevent the massacre that the Imperialists
+seemed to be contemplating, and in this task he was gallantly seconded
+by Captain Bonnefoy and the Franco-Chinese contingent. Having taken
+these steps, Gordon waited near the Eastern Gate for all his steamers,
+with which he intended to seize the Futai, and make him give up the
+Wangs. At this moment General Ching approached him, but before he
+could begin his excuses, "he met with such a storm that he made a
+precipitate retreat into the city." Ching then sent an English
+officer, one of Gordon's own force, to explain matters, but he did not
+know whether the chiefs were alive or dead. He went on to say,
+however, that Lar Wang's son was in his tent, and on the boy being
+sent for, he said that his father had been executed on the opposite
+side of the creek. The steamers had still not arrived, and Gordon
+asked one of his lieutenants, Prince F. von Wittgenstein, to cross the
+creek in his boat and report what he saw. He returned with the
+intelligence that there were nine headless bodies. Gordon then crossed
+himself, and identified Lar Wang and several of his companions. There
+was consequently no further doubt as to what had happened, or anything
+left for Gordon to do than to secure them decent burial. Having done
+this he abandoned his trip to the Taiho Lake, and hastened to Quinsan.</p>
+
+<p>The exact mode of this assassination seems to have been as follows:
+When the Wangs came out of the city they were met by General Ching,
+who did not, however, accompany them to the Futai Li Hung Chang. That
+official received them in a stockade near his boat, some conversation
+ensued, and then Li left the stockade. Here again reference should be
+made to the authoritative narrative that follows. A party of Imperial
+troops closed the gates, seized the Wangs, and at once beheaded them.
+Li Hung Chang very soon afterwards left his quarters for a different
+and remote part of the Imperial camp.</p>
+
+<p>This treacherous act, although quite in accordance with Chinese
+traditions, was generally denounced at the time, and has excited much
+discussion since. Major Gordon certainly felt it very keenly, for he
+considered that his word had been pledged as much as the Chinese<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+commander's for the safety of the leaders who surrendered. It has been
+shown how energetically he acted once he suspected that anything was
+wrong, but it seems as if it were going too far to say that he thought
+for a moment of exacting a summary revenge on the person of Li Hung
+Chang. Sir Henry Gordon, writing with at least a sense of
+responsibility, says on this point: "It is not the fact that Major
+Gordon sought the Futai with the intention of shooting him. It is a
+complete misrepresentation to say he did so. It is true he endeavoured
+unsuccessfully to have an explanation with him, but not of the nature
+asserted." But it must also be reaffirmed that as long as Gordon
+thought he could save the Wangs' lives he was prepared to secure the
+person of Li Hung Chang and hold him as a hostage for their safety. Of
+that, at least, there can be no question.</p>
+
+<p>I must now ask the reader to return to the point when Gordon and Dr
+Macartney were standing on the wall near the Low Mun Gate, in order
+that the following important and authoritative narrative may be
+understood. General Ching entered by this gate at the head of a party
+of his troops, and Gordon, somewhat uneasy at the signs of commotion
+he thought he had detected across the creek, at once addressed him,
+asking&mdash;"Well, how did it go off? Have the Wangs seen the Futai?"</p>
+
+<p>Taken off his guard, or confused between the sudden question and his
+own knowledge of what had occurred, Ching quickly replied, "They have
+not seen the Futai."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" replied Gordon, equally hastily; "that must be nonsense. I saw
+the Wangs myself ride out of the city to the rendezvous, and spoke to
+them."</p>
+
+<p>Ching then corrected himself by saying, "Oh, yes, that is all right,
+but they have not shaved their heads, and they want to retain half the
+city," the western half, that nearest to the relieving force, still at
+a considerable distance from Soochow, under the heroic Chung Wang.</p>
+
+<p>To which Gordon at once responded, "That won't do. They must conform
+with what has been agreed upon," and turning to Macartney, he said,
+"Will you go to the Lar Wang's palace and tell him that this cannot
+be, and meet me afterwards at Wuliungchow, where I am to join the
+steamer <i>Hyson</i> to go on the Taiho Lake?"</p>
+
+<p>Macartney at once accepted the mission, and proceeded to the Lar
+Wang's palace, but before following him thither it is necessary to
+refer to two earlier passages, one known and the other up to this
+moment unknown, in the relations of General Gordon and Sir Halliday
+Macartney.</p>
+
+<p>The passage which is known is that where Macartney, sent as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+representative of the Futai Li Hung Chang, and escorted by that
+Governor's own bodyguard, healed the breach caused between Gordon and
+General Ching by the latter firing on some of Gordon's troops and
+treating the matter with marked levity, which so enraged Gordon that
+he was on the point of attacking the Imperialist troops when Sir
+Halliday Macartney arrived as peacemaker, and with equal tact and
+energy averted the catastrophe. This incident has already been
+referred to, and need not further detain us. I come now to the second
+and more interesting matter.</p>
+
+<p>Some weeks before the fall of Soochow, but at a moment when it had
+become clear that the place could not hold out much longer, Gordon
+approached Macartney and said: "I want to speak to you very privately,
+and as I do not wish any one to hear our conversation, will you come
+on board my boat?" When they were both on board, Gordon ordered his
+Chinese sailors to pull out to the centre of the lake before he would
+say a word. Having thus rendered secrecy assured, Gordon spoke as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Macartney, I have brought you out here so that nobody should
+know of our conversation, and that we might speak out as man to
+man. I must tell you, in the first place, that as soon as Soochow
+falls I intend to resign the command and return home. With that
+intention in my mind, I have been anxiously considering who was
+the best man to name as my successor in the command of the Ever
+Victorious Army, and, after the most careful consideration, I
+have come to the conclusion that you are the best man. Will you
+take the command?"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This unexpected question was the more embarrassing to Macartney,
+because, long before Gordon was appointed, rumour had freely credited
+him with coveting the command of the Ever Victorious Army in
+succession to Burgevine, and, as a matter of fact, the Chinese
+authorities had wished him to have the command. However, nothing had
+come of the project, and Macartney, after his post as Burgevine's
+military secretary had ceased to exist with the dismissal and treason
+of that adventurer, was appointed to a separate command of a portion
+of the Imperialist forces. The course of events had now, in an
+unexpected but highly complimentary manner, brought the realisation of
+any hopes he may have entertained on the subject within his reach. He
+replied to Gordon as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"As you speak so frankly to me, I will speak equally frankly to
+you, and tell you something I have never told a living person.
+Rumour has credited me with having aspired to the command of this
+force, but erroneously so. My ambition was to work myself up at
+Court, and only to take the command if forced on me as a
+provisional matter, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> as a stepping-stone to my real object,
+which was, when my knowledge of the language was perfected, to
+acquire at Peking some such influence as that possessed by
+Verbiest and the other French missionaries in the seventeenth and
+eighteenth centuries. I should never have mentioned this to you
+lest you should not have believed it, but now that the command is
+at my feet I may make this avowal without any hesitation as to
+your accepting it. As you really think I can best succeed to the
+command of the force when you resign it, I am perfectly willing
+to accept the task."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>To which Gordon replied: "Very well, then. That is settled." With this
+private understanding, as to which nothing has been published until
+this moment, the conversation closed with a final injunction from
+Gordon of profound secrecy, as, should it become known, he might be
+unable to get certain of his more ambitious officers to take part in
+capturing the city. When Gordon therefore turned to Macartney, and
+asked him to proceed to the Lar Wang's palace and inform him that the
+terms of the convention must be carried out, it is necessary in order
+to throw light on what follows to state what their relations were at
+that moment. Gordon had selected Macartney as his successor in
+preference to all his own officers.</p>
+
+<p>Macartney hastened to the Lar Wang's palace, but as he had lent Gordon
+his horse, his movements were slightly retarded. On reaching the
+building he noticed some signs of confusion, and when he asked one of
+the attendants to take him at once to his master, he received the
+reply that the Lar Wang was out. Sir Halliday Macartney is not a man
+to be lightly turned from his purpose, and to this vague response he
+spoke in peremptory terms:</p>
+
+<p>"The matter is of the first importance. I <i>must</i> see the Lar Wang.
+Take me to him."</p>
+
+<p>Then the servant of the Taeping leader did a strange thing.</p>
+
+<p>"You <i>cannot</i> see my master," he said, and turning his face to the
+wall, so that no one else might see, he drew his open hand in a
+cutting position backwards and forwards. This is the recognised
+Chinese mode of showing that a man's head has been cut off.</p>
+
+<p>Being thus apprised that something tragic had happened, Macartney
+hastened away to Wuliungchow to keep his appointment with Gordon, and
+to acquaint him with what had taken place at the Lar Wang's palace.
+But no Gordon came, and more than a day elapsed before Macartney and
+he met again under dramatic circumstances at Quinsan. After waiting at
+Wuliungchow some hours, Sir Halliday resolved to proceed to the
+Futai's camp, and learn there what had happened. But on arriving he
+was informed that the Futai was not in the camp, that no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> one knew
+where he was, and that Gordon was in a state of furious wrath at the
+massacre of the Wangs, which was no longer concealed. Macartney then
+endeavoured to find Gordon, but did not succeed, which is explained by
+the fact that Gordon was then hastening to Quinsan to collect his own
+troops. Baffled in these attempts, Macartney returned, after a great
+many hours, to his own camp near the Paotichiaou Bridge, there to
+await events, and on his arrival there he at last found the Futai Li
+who had come to him for security. Li put into his hands a letter,
+saying, "I have received that letter from Gordon. Translate its
+contents."</p>
+
+<p>After perusing it, Macartney said: "This letter is written in a fit of
+indignation. You and Gordon are and have been friends, and I am also
+the friend of you both. The most friendly act I can do both of you is
+to decline to translate it. Let me therefore return you the letter
+unread."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," replied Li; "do as you think best, but as I am not to
+know the contents, I do not wish to have the letter. Please keep it."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Halliday Macartney kept the letter, which remained in his
+possession for some time, until, in fact, he handed it, with an
+explanatory account of the whole affair, to Sir Harry Parkes, as will
+be explained further on.</p>
+
+<p>After this point had been settled, Li Hung Chang went on to say that
+he wished Macartney to go and see Gordon at Quinsan, and speak to him
+as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Tell Gordon that he is in no way, direct or indirect,
+responsible in this matter, and that, if he considers his honour
+involved, I will sign any proclamation he likes to draft, and
+publish it far and wide that he had no part in or knowledge of
+it. I accept myself the full and sole responsibility for what has
+been done. But also tell Gordon that this is China, not Europe. I
+wished to save the lives of the Wangs, and at first thought that
+I could do so, but they came with their heads unshaved, they used
+defiant language, and proposed a deviation from the convention,
+and I saw that it would not be safe to show mercy to these
+rebels. Therefore what was done was inevitable. But Gordon had no
+part in it, and whatever he demands to clear himself shall be
+done."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I do not gather that Sir Halliday Macartney had any serious misgivings
+about this mission when he undertook it. His relations with Gordon
+were, as has been shown, of a specially cordial and confidential
+character, and even if he failed to induce Gordon to abandon the
+threatening plans he had described in his letter to Li Hung Chang,
+which was in his pocket, there was no reason to apprehend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> any
+personal unpleasantness with one who had given the clearest proof of
+friendship and esteem. As I cannot give the full text of the original
+letter from General Gordon, I content myself by stating that its two
+principal passages were that Li Hung Chang should at once resign his
+post of Governor of Kiangsu, and give up the seals of office to
+Gordon, so that he might put them in commission until the Emperor's
+pleasure should be ascertained; or that, failing that step, Gordon
+would forthwith proceed to attack the Imperialists, and to retake from
+them all the places captured by the Ever Victorious Army, for the
+purpose of handing them back again to the Taepings. When Gordon went
+so far as to write a letter of that character, which, it must be
+admitted, was far in excess of any authority he possessed, it must be
+clear that the envoy, who came to put forward counsels that were
+intended to restore harmony, but that by so doing might assume the
+aspect of palliating the Futai's conduct, could not count on a very
+cordial reception from a man of Gordon's temperament, whose sense of
+honour and good faith had been deeply injured by the murder of the
+rebel leaders.</p>
+
+<p>Still, Sir Halliday accepted the mission without hesitation, and
+hastened to carry it out without delay. It was late in the day when he
+saw Li Hung Chang, but having procured a native boat with several
+rowers, he set off in the evening, and reached Quinsan in the middle
+of the night. Gordon was then in bed and could not be disturbed, and
+while Macartney waited he drank some coffee Gordon's servant made for
+him, which he much needed, as he had left Soochow without having
+broken his fast during the whole day. After a short time, and before
+day had really broken, Gordon sent down word that he would see him,
+and Macartney went upstairs to an ill-lighted room, where he found
+Gordon sitting on his bedstead. He found Gordon sobbing, and before a
+word was exchanged, Gordon stooped down, and taking something from
+under the bedstead, held it up in the air, exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see that? Do you see that?"</p>
+
+<p>The light through the small Chinese windows was so faint that
+Macartney had at first some difficulty in recognising what it was,
+when Gordon again exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"It is the head of the Lar Wang, foully murdered!" and with that burst
+into hysterical tears.</p>
+
+<p>At once perceiving that any conversation under these circumstances
+would do no good, Macartney said he would retire and see Gordon later.
+Some hours afterwards breakfast was served in a large room downstairs,
+where there were present not only many of the officers, but also
+several European merchants and traders of Shanghai, who had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> in
+the habit of supplying the force with its commissariat requirements.
+Gordon came in, and Macartney took a seat beside him. After a few
+minutes' silence Gordon turned to Macartney, and said abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"You have not come for yourself. You have come on a mission from the
+Futai. What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>When Macartney suggested that so public a place might not be the most
+suitable, Gordon said: "There are only friends here. I have no
+secrets. Speak out."</p>
+
+<p>There was no longer any honourable way of avoiding the challenge, and
+Macartney described exactly what has been already recorded as to Li
+Hung Chang having come to him with Gordon's letter, which from
+friendly motives he had declined to translate, and stating that Li
+took the whole responsibility on himself, and would exonerate Gordon
+from the least complicity in the affair, with which the Chinese
+statesman averred Gordon had had nothing to do. He went on to urge
+with regard to the measures threatened by Gordon in expiation of the
+massacre that they were not justifiable, and would not in the end
+redound to Gordon's own credit. In conclusion, he said he felt sure
+that "a little reflection would show Gordon that to carry on a
+personal war with the Futai would be to undo all the good that had
+been done. Moreover, you must recollect that although you, no doubt,
+have at this moment the military force to carry out your threats, it
+will no longer be paid by the Chinese authorities. You will only be
+able to keep your men at your back by allowing them to plunder, and
+how long will that prove successful, and what credit will you get by
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>Gordon here stamped his foot, saying he would have none of Macartney's
+mild counsels. To which Macartney replied, "Mild or not, they are the
+only ones your Minister at Peking and our Queen will approve. Nay,
+what I advise you to do is even that you would yourself do if you
+would but reflect, and not let yourself be influenced by those men
+sitting at your table."</p>
+
+<p>To these undoubtedly prudent representations, supported as they were
+by at least one of those present, Mr Henry Dent, who got up and said
+that, in his opinion, Dr Macartney's advice ought to be followed,
+while the others who wished the war to go on from interested motives
+remained silent, Gordon did and would not listen. The hot fit of rage
+and horror at the treacherous murder of the Wangs, kept at fever-point
+by the terrible memorial in his possession, was still strong upon him,
+and his angry retort was&mdash;"I will have none of your tame counsels,"
+and there and then ordered the <i>Hyson</i>, with a party of infantry, to
+be got ready to attack the Futai, at the same time offering Macartney
+a passage in the steamer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On hearing this decisive declaration Macartney left the table, and
+hastening to one of Gordon's officers, who was a personal friend, he
+begged the loan of a horse and a pair of spurs. Having obtained what
+he wanted, he set off riding as hard as he could by the road, which
+was somewhat shorter than the canal, so that he might warn Li Hung
+Chang as to what was going to happen, and also bring up his own troops
+to oppose the advance of Gordon, who actually did move out of Quinsan
+with the intention of carrying out his threats, but returned there
+when his flotilla had proceeded half way.</p>
+
+<p>By that time he had fortunately reflected on the situation, and a
+sanguinary struggle was averted. Gordon came to see that his honour
+was not in the slightest or most remote degree involved, and that
+China was not a country to which the laws of chivalry could be
+applied; but before he had reached this stage of mental equilibrium he
+had penned a most regrettable and cruelly unjust despatch, not about
+Li Hung Chang or any one involved in the massacre, but about Dr, now
+Sir Halliday Macartney, whose sole fault had been that he wished to
+make peace, and to advise Gordon to act in the very sense which he
+afterwards himself adopted.</p>
+
+<p>In a despatch to General Brown, commanding at Shanghai, which appears
+in the Blue Book (China, No. 3, 1864, p. 198), Gordon wrote: "I then
+went to his (Li's) boat and left him a note in English, informing him
+of what my intention had been, and also my opinion of his treachery. I
+regret to say that Mr Macartney did not think fit to have this
+translated to him.... On 8th December the Futai sent Mr Macartney to
+persuade me that he could not have done otherwise, and I blush to
+think that he could have got an Englishman, late an officer in Her
+Majesty's army, to undertake a mission of such a nature." This
+statement, appearing in an official publication, has been largely
+quoted, especially in Mr Egmont Hake's "Story of Chinese Gordon," and
+the original injury done by Gordon, for which at the time he atoned,
+was thus repeated in an offensive and altogether unjustifiable form
+twenty years after Gordon had stated publicly that he was sorry for
+having written this passage, and believed that Sir Halliday Macartney
+was actuated by just as noble sentiments as himself.</p>
+
+<p>It is not an agreeable task for any biographer to record that his hero
+was in the wrong, but as General Gordon frankly and fully admitted
+that in this matter he was altogether to blame, and as Mr Hake's error
+shows that his retractation never obtained that publicity which he
+himself desired, I conceive myself to be carrying out his wishes in
+placing the following facts prominently before the reader.</p>
+
+<p>When the Blue Book was published with the despatch referred to,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> Dr
+Macartney took no notice of it. Some time afterwards he met the late
+Sir Harry Parkes, then Consul-General at Shanghai, and he described
+what I have set forth in the same language. Sir Harry Parkes, than
+whom England never had a finer representative in the Far East, at once
+said: "This is very interesting. Sir Frederick Bruce is coming down
+shortly. I wish you would write out what you have told me, so that I
+might show it to him." Dr Macartney wrote out his narrative, and with
+it he sent Gordon's original letter to Li Hung Chang. Those documents
+have never been published, but they should still exist in the Shanghai
+Consulate. Sir Frederick Bruce's (brother of the ambassador Lord
+Elgin, and himself the First British Minister at Peking) comment after
+perusing them was: "Dr Macartney showed very great judgment and good
+sense, and no blame attaches to him in this matter."</p>
+
+<p>A considerable period intervened between the breakfast scene at
+Quinsan and Gordon's next meeting with Macartney. In that period much
+had happened. Gordon had forgiven Li Hung Chang, done everything that
+Macartney had recommended as the right course in the memorable scene
+at Quinsan, and by some of the most remarkable of his military
+exploits had crushed the Taeping rebellion, but the two principal
+actors in this affair had not crossed each other's path.</p>
+
+<p>Six weeks after Gordon brought his operations in the field to an end
+at Chanchufu in May he returned to Soochow, and Li Hung Chang, wishing
+to do him honour, asked him to an official breakfast at his yamen. At
+the same time Li Hung Chang said to Macartney: "I have asked Gordon to
+breakfast. I know you and he have had some difference. How would you
+meet him if you came too?"</p>
+
+<p>To this question Macartney replied: "I would meet Gordon exactly as
+Gordon met me. It is true that Gordon did me an injustice, but I am
+quite ready to blot it out from my memory if Gordon will admit it.
+Gordon acted under a strong feeling of excitement when he was not
+master of himself, and I have no more thought of holding him strictly
+responsible for what he wrote at such a moment than I would a madman."</p>
+
+<p>Li Hung Chang said: "Very well, then. I ask you to come to breakfast
+to meet him." On Macartney's return to his house he found a letter
+from Gordon waiting for him. In this letter Gordon admitted that he
+had done him a wrong, and was prepared to sign any paper to that
+effect that Macartney might prepare.</p>
+
+<p>Macartney thereupon replied to Gordon, pointing out that the mere
+publication of a letter of retractation was not an adequate reparation
+for an injurious statement which had been given a wide circulation,
+and to a certain extent placed beyond recall by appearing in an
+official publication,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> but that if he might publish Gordon's own
+letter offering to do this in the <i>North China Herald</i>, he would be
+satisfied, and the matter, as far as he was concerned, might be
+considered at an end. To this course Gordon at once acquiesced,
+subject to the omission of one paragraph affecting a third person, and
+in no respect relating to Sir Halliday or his conduct. This letter,
+which the Editor of that paper stated he "published at Colonel
+Gordon's request," on 23rd July 1864, read as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="ltr-date">"<span class="smcap">Shanghai</span>, <i>July 5, 1864</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Macartney</span>,&mdash;It is with much regret that I perceive in
+the last Blue Book issued on China affairs a Report from me to
+General Brown on the occurrences at Soochow, which report
+contains an injurious remark on your conduct.</p>
+
+<p>"I am extremely sorry that I ever penned that remark, as I
+believe you went out of your way on this occasion wholly on the
+same public grounds which led eventually to my taking the field
+myself, and I can only excuse my having done so by recollecting
+the angry feelings with which I was actuated at that time.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be my duty to rectify this error in other quarters, and
+in the meantime I beg you to make what use you may think fit of
+this letter.&mdash;Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="author-up">"C. G. Gordon."</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>On the next day Gordon and Macartney met at breakfast at the yamen of
+the Futai Li Hung Chang, and Gordon at once came up to Macartney and
+said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Do not let us talk of the past, but of the future. I am one of
+those who hold that when a man has wronged another he should seek
+opportunities through his life of making him redress. Now you are
+founding an Arsenal at Soochow, and I am going back to England,
+where I have a brother in the Arsenal at Woolwich. From him I can
+get you books, plans, and useful information. I will do so."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Gordon was as good as his word. He sent Macartney expensive plans and
+books, besides most valuable information. He also promised to write to
+the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief, admitting that he was not
+justified in his criticism of Dr Macartney, who had acted in every way
+becoming an English gentleman and officer. Thus ended the
+misunderstanding between the two Englishmen who rendered China the
+best service she has ever obtained from foreigners; and knowing both
+these distinguished men intimately, I have much pleasure in testifying
+from my own knowledge to the accuracy of the following statement of
+Sir Halliday Macartney to myself that "after this, Gordon and I
+remained firm friends evermore."</p>
+
+<p>Gordon's indignation at this outrage did not soon subside, and three
+weeks after it happened an opportunity presented itself for showing
+and perhaps relieving his mind. A high Chinese officer presented
+himself at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> his quarters at Quinsan to announce the receipt of an
+Imperial decree and presents from Peking as a reward for his share in
+the capture of Soochow. Gordon at once said that he would not accept
+the presents, and that they were not to be brought to him. The Chinese
+officer replied that they should not be brought, but that the emissary
+of the Emperor ought to be received. To this Gordon assented, and on
+1st January 1864 he went down to receive him at the West Gate. On
+arriving there he met a procession carrying a number of open boxes,
+containing 10,000 taels (then about &pound;3000 of our money) in Sycee
+shoes, laid on red cloth, also four Snake flags taken from the
+Taepings&mdash;two sent by Li Hung Chang, and two by another mandarin who
+had had no part in the Soochow affair. Gordon made the procession turn
+about and take the whole lot back again. He wrote his reply stating
+his reason on the back of the Imperial rescript itself; he rejected Li
+Hung Chang's flags, but he accepted the other two as being in no sense
+associated with the disgrace of the Taeping massacre. In this manner
+did Gordon show the Chinese what he thought of their conduct. His
+characteristic reply to the Imperial rescript read as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Major Gordon receives the approbation of His Majesty the Emperor
+with every gratification, but regrets most sincerely that, owing
+to the circumstance which occurred since the capture of Soochow,
+he is unable to receive any mark of H.M. the Emperor's
+recognition, and therefore respectfully begs His Majesty to
+receive his thanks for his intended kindness, and to allow him to
+decline the same."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>At this moment it will be recollected that Gordon was, strictly
+speaking, no longer in command. He had resigned, because his very
+reasonable demand for a gratuity to his troops had not been complied
+with. But circumstances were too strong for him, and a number of
+considerations, all highly creditable to his judgment and
+single-mindedness, induced him to sink his private grievances, and to
+resume the command on grounds of public policy and safety. The
+internal condition of the Ever Victorious Army itself, which inaction
+had brought to the verge of mutiny, was the determining fact that
+induced Gordon to resume the command, even at the price of meeting Li
+Hung Chang and sinking his differences with him. There had been much
+intrigue among the officers of the force as to who should succeed
+Gordon in the command, if he persisted in his resolve to give it up,
+and before tranquillity was restored sixteen of the agitating officers
+had to be dismissed. The force itself welcomed the formal resumption
+of the command by Gordon, and not the less because it signified a
+return to active operations after more than two months' inaction. The
+murder of the Wangs took place on 7th December 1863; it was on 18th
+February<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> 1864 that Gordon marched out of Quinsan at the head of the
+bulk of his force.</p>
+
+<p>In a letter written at the time, Sir Robert Hart, whose services to
+the Chinese Government, spread over the long period of forty years,
+have been of the highest order and importance, said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The destiny of China is at the present moment in the hands of
+Gordon more than of any other man, and if he be encouraged to act
+vigorously, the knotty question of Taepingdom <i>versus</i> 'union in
+the cause of law and order' will be solved before the end of May,
+and quiet will at length be restored to this unfortunate and
+sorely-tried country. Personally, Gordon's wish is to leave the
+force as soon as he can. Now that Soochow has fallen, there is
+nothing more that he can do, whether to add to his own reputation
+or to retrieve that of British officers generally, tarnished by
+Holland's defeat at Taitsan. He has little or nothing personally
+to gain from future successes, and as he has himself to lead in
+all critical moments, and is constantly exposed to danger, he has
+before him the not very improbable contingency of being hit
+sooner or later. But he lays aside his personal feelings, and
+seeing well that if he were now to leave the force it would in
+all probability go at once to the rebels or cause some other
+disaster, he consents to remain with it for a time."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>During that interval some minor successes had been obtained by the
+Imperialists. Several towns surrendered to Li Hung Chang, and Chung
+Wang evacuated Wusieh and retired to Chanchufu, also on the Grand
+Canal. At the same time he hastened himself to Nanking, in the vain
+hope of arousing Tien Wang to the gravity of the situation, and
+inducing him to make some special effort to turn the fortune of the
+war. General Ching succeeded in capturing Pingwang, and with it
+another entrance into the Taiho Lake. San Tajin moved his camp close
+up to Changchufu and engaged the Taepings in almost daily encounters,
+during one of which the <i>Firefly</i> steamer was retaken, and its English
+captain killed. In consequence of this all the Europeans left the
+service of the Taepings, and as their fleet had been almost entirely
+destroyed, they were now hemmed in within a small compass, and Gordon
+himself estimated that they ought to be finally overcome within two
+months. In this hope he resumed the command, and his decision was
+officially approved of and confirmed by the British Minister at
+Peking.</p>
+
+<p>The Taepings still retained possession of Hangchow and some other
+towns in the province of Chekiang, but all communication between them
+and Nanking had been severed by the fall of Soochow, so far at least
+as the routes east of the Taiho Lake were concerned. West of that lake
+they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> still held Yesing and Liyang, which enabled them to maintain
+communication, although by a roundabout route. Gordon determined to
+begin his campaign by attacking these two places, when the severance
+would be complete.</p>
+
+<p>Yesing, on the north-west corner of the lake, was the first object of
+attack. Liyang is about fifty miles further inland than that town. The
+Taepings at Yesing were not dreaming of an attack when Gordon, at the
+head of his force, suddenly appeared before its walls. He found the
+surrounding villages in a most appalling state of distress, the
+inhabitants living on human food. The town was well surrounded by
+ditches and stockades, and Gordon felt compelled to reconnoitre it
+most carefully before deciding on his plan of attack. While engaged in
+this work his ardour carried him away, and he was nearly captured by
+the enemy. It was one of the narrowest of his many escapes during the
+war, and went far to justify the reputation he had gained of having a
+charmed life. A very striking instance of his narrowly escaping a
+premature end had occurred during the siege of Soochow itself, when
+the marvellous fifty-three-arch bridge at Patachiaou was destroyed.
+One evening Gordon was seated smoking a cigar on one of the damaged
+parapets of the bridge, when two shots fired by his own men struck the
+stone-work close by him. He got down at the second shot, and entered
+his boat. Hardly had he done so when the bridge collapsed with a
+tremendous crash, nearly smashing his boat and killing two men. In all
+the engagements, except when confined to his boat, Gordon always led
+the attack, carrying no weapons, except a revolver which he wore
+concealed in his breast, and never used except once, against one of
+his own mutineers, but only a little rattan cane, which his men called
+his magic wand of Victory. A graphic picture was drawn by one of his
+own officers of this unarmed leader in the breach of an assaulted
+position urging on his men by catching them by the sleeve of their
+coats, and by standing indifferent and unresisting in the midst of the
+thickest fire. Gordon long afterwards admitted that during the whole
+of these scenes he was continuously praying to the Almighty that his
+men should not turn tail. In the varied and voluminous annals of war
+there is no more striking figure than this of human heroism combined
+with spiritual fervour.</p>
+
+<p>The attack on Yesing lasted several days, as, owing to the manner in
+which the country was cut up by canals, all the operations had to be
+conducted with great caution. The capture of the southern stockades
+was followed after a day's interval by the evacuation of the latter
+and the flight of the garrison, who however pillaged the town as far
+as they could before leaving. Gordon would not let his men enter the
+town, as he knew they would pillage, and thus get out of hand. They
+were so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> disappointed that several cases of insubordination occurred,
+and one mutineer had to be shot. The Imperialists were left to
+garrison Yesing, but under strict injunctions that they were on no
+account to take life; and under the threats of Li Hung Chang, who did
+not wish a repetition of the Soochow affair, these were strictly
+obeyed. All these arrangements having been made, Gordon resumed his
+march towards Liyang on 4th March, the infantry proceeding overland,
+and the artillery in the boats and <i>Hyson</i> steamer.</p>
+
+<p>At Liyang the rebels had collected a large force, and made every
+preparation for a vigorous defence. But Gordon was quite confident of
+success, although he was now operating in the heart of a hostile
+country, and at a distance from his base. The sound flotilla which
+mounted formidable artillery, and which co-operated with him on the
+creek that led to the walls of Liyang, gave him sound reasons for
+confidence, and additional ground of security in the event of any
+accident. But his military skill and careful arrangements were not
+subjected to any severe test, as a mutiny broke out among the Taepings
+themselves, and the half in favour of surrender got possession of the
+city, and closed the gates on those of their comrades who wished to
+hold out. Major Gordon promptly accepted their surrender, and
+guaranteed their personal safety to all, thus obtaining a signal
+success without any loss. This was the more satisfactory because
+Liyang was found to be an admirable position for defence, strongly
+fortified with numerous stockades, well supplied with provisions for
+several months' siege, and garrisoned by 15,000 well-armed and
+well-clothed rebels. These men were disarmed, and allowed to go where
+they liked after they had shaved their heads in token of surrender.
+The provisions they had stored up for their own use were distributed
+among the starving peasants of the surrounding country. Gordon himself
+saved the lives of the female relatives of the Taeping Wang, who had
+wished to hold out, not however, it should in fairness be stated, from
+the official Chinese, but from the Taepings who had surrendered. After
+the capitulation was over, Gordon took 1000 of the Taepings into his
+own force, and he also engaged the services of another 1500 as a new
+contingent, to fight under their own officers. In this unusual manner
+he nearly doubled the effective strength of his own corps, and then
+advanced north to attack the town of Kintang, rather more than forty
+miles north of Liyang. At this point Gordon experienced his first
+serious rebuff at the hands of Fortune, for the earlier reverse at the
+Soochow stockades was so clearly due to a miscarriage in the attack,
+and so ephemeral in its issue, that it can scarcely be counted.</p>
+
+<p>Unlike the other Taeping towns, all of which were stockaded
+positions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> Kintang had no outer defences. It presented the appearance
+of a small compact city with a stone wall. No flags were shown; the
+place might have been deserted, but the complete silence seemed
+ominous. Gordon selected his point of attack, and began a bombardment,
+which continued during three hours, and then he ordered the assault.
+As the bugles sounded the advance, the Taepings appeared for the first
+time on the walls, and received the assailants with a heavy fire. At
+this critical moment Gordon received a severe wound below the knee,
+and had to be carried to his boat. His place was taken by Major Brown,
+brother of the General commanding at Shanghai, who advanced waving
+Gordon's own flag, but he too received a severe wound, and was carried
+off the field. The rebels fought with great desperation, and Gordon,
+who remained conscious, sent orders from his boat for the
+discontinuance of the attack. The loss was heavy&mdash;two officers killed,
+eleven wounded, and 115 rank and file killed and wounded. Gordon,
+notwithstanding his wound, would have renewed the attack, but for the
+receipt of alarming intelligence from his rear. Li Hung Chang wrote
+that the Taepings had turned the flank of his brother's army, and
+captured Fushan. They were at that moment besieging Chanzu, and had
+carried terror into the very heart of the Imperial position. Gordon's
+wound&mdash;the only one of any severity he ever received&mdash;excited much
+sympathy among the Chinese, and was made the subject of an Imperial
+edict ordering Li Hung Chang to call on him daily, and "requesting
+Gordon to wait until he shall be perfectly restored to health and
+strength."</p>
+
+<p>In the extremity to which he was reduced, the brilliant idea had
+occurred to Chung Wang to assume the offensive at a point most remote
+from the scene where Gordon was acting in person. Hence the sudden and
+successful attack on Fushan, and his strategy was rewarded by the
+paralysis it produced in the Imperial plans. Gordon at once hastened
+back to Liyang, where he left a strong garrison, and taking only 1000
+men, half of whom were the irregular Taeping contingent raised at
+Liyang itself, proceeded by forced marches to Wusieh. As the late Sir
+George Chesney well said, it is impossible to decide whether the
+temerity or the confidence of the young wounded commander was the more
+calculated to excite wonder. On arriving here, he found that nothing
+worse had happened than what had been already reported, while in the
+south, beyond his sphere of operations, the important city of Hangchow
+had been evacuated by the Taepings; and with this loss another avenue
+for obtaining arms and ammunition was closed to them.</p>
+
+<p>The relief of Kongyin, which was hard pressed, was the first task
+Gordon set himself; and as he could not leave his boat on account<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> of
+his wound, the conduct of operations was attended with much
+difficulty. After obtaining several minor successes, and approaching
+to within a few miles of Kongyin, Gordon found it necessary to
+completely alter his plans, and to attack the Taepings in their
+headquarters at Waisso, before relieving the former place. He
+accordingly proceeded to Waisso with his artillery on board the
+flotilla, and his infantry marching by land. The latter, carried away
+by some trifling successes, attacked the Waisso stockades without his
+orders, and even without his knowledge; and having invited a reverse
+by their rashness and disobedience, rendered it complete by an
+inexcusable panic, during which the Taeping cavalry, not more than 100
+strong, rode through the best regiment of the force; the rebels,
+carrying a sword in each hand, cut down the fugitives right and left.
+The pursuit lasted for three miles, and 7 European officers killed, 1
+wounded, 252 men killed, and 62 wounded, represented the heavy loss in
+this disastrous affair. The survivors, many of whom had thrown away
+their arms, were so panic-stricken that Gordon had to retire, and to
+summon up fresh troops.</p>
+
+<p>For this disaster Gordon held the officers, and not the men, to be
+blameworthy. They led the men into a false position, and then did not
+make the proper movements. If the men had only formed square, Gordon
+wrote, it would have been all right with them. After this Gordon
+waited to allow of his wound being thoroughly cured, and on 6th April
+he again appeared before Waisso. A large Imperial force also enveloped
+the place on all sides but one, which had been left apparently open
+and unguarded in the hope that the garrison would use it as a means of
+reaching a place of safety. The Imperialists had, however, broken all
+the bridges along this route, so that the Taepings would soon
+encounter serious difficulties to their progress, and admit of their
+being taken at a great disadvantage. Gordon approached the place with
+much caution, and he found it so strongly fortified on the south side,
+opposite his line of approach, that he moved round to the north in
+search of a more favourable point of attack. This simple man&oelig;uvre
+so disconcerted the Taepings that they abandoned several of their
+stockades, which Gordon promptly seized; and finding that these in
+turn commanded others, he succeeded in carrying the whole of a most
+formidable position with little or no loss. The Taeping garrison fled
+in confusion and suffered heavily at the hands of the Imperial troops.
+It rallied on the camp before Kongyin, and the day after this success
+Gordon marched from Waisso to attack them. The Taepings were
+thoroughly disorganised, and apparently amazed at the number of their
+opponents, for the whole of the population rose against them in
+revenge for the outrages they had perpetrated. There was only one
+action, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> that of an insignificant description, when the whole
+Taeping force before Kongyin broke into a rout. The Imperialist plan
+for retarding their retreat succeeded to admiration, and of more than
+10,000 men not a tenth escaped from the sword of their pursuers.</p>
+
+<p>In a letter written at this time to his mother, Gordon, who, at the
+end of February had been raised to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in
+the army for distinguished conduct in the field, gave a graphic
+account of the condition of the region in which he was operating:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The rebels are very much pressed, and three months should finish
+them. During the pursuit from Kongyin the Imperialists and
+villagers killed in one village 3000. I will say this much&mdash;the
+Imperialists did not kill the coolies and boys. The villagers
+followed up and stripped the fugitives stark naked, so that all
+over the country there were naked men lying down in the grass.
+The cruelties these rebels had committed during their raid were
+frightful; in every village there were from ten to sixty dead,
+either women&mdash;frightfully mutilated&mdash;old men, or small children.
+I do not regret the fate of these rebels. I have no talent for
+description, but the scenes I have witnessed of misery are
+something dreadful, and I must say that your wish for me to
+return with the work incomplete would not be expressed if you saw
+the state of these poor people. The horrible furtive looks of the
+wretched inhabitants hovering around one's boat haunts me, and
+the knowledge of their want of nourishment would sicken anyone.
+They are like wolves. The dead lie where they fall, and are in
+some cases trodden quite flat by the passers-by. I hope to get
+the Shanghai people to assist, but they do not <i>see</i> these
+things, and to <i>read</i> that there are human beings eating human
+flesh produces less effect than if they saw the corpses from
+which that flesh is cut. There is one thing I promise you, and
+that is, that as soon as I can leave this service, I will do so;
+but I will not be led to do what may cause great disasters for
+the sake of getting out of the dangers, which, in my opinion, are
+no greater in action than in barracks. My leg is all right; the
+eleventh day after I received the wound I was up, and by the
+fifteenth day I could walk well. The ball went through the thick
+part of the leg, just below the knee."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Having thus cleared the district due north of Wusieh, Gordon proceeded
+against the main Taeping position at Chanchufu, north-west of that
+place, and on the Grand Canal. Here Chung Wang had fortified thirty
+stockades, and commanded in person. On inspecting it, Gordon found it
+so strong that he summoned up his troops from Liyang, and it was not
+until 22nd April, ten days after Waisso, that he had collected all his
+force of 4000 men for the attack. On the very day he accomplished this
+the Imperialists alone attacked some stockades outside the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> West Gate,
+and carried them by a heavy and unnecessary loss of life. Their
+defenders, instead of retreating into Chanchufu, fled northwards to
+their next possession, at Tayan. The same night part of the garrison
+left behind made a <i>sortie</i>, but Gordon was apprised of it, and it was
+easily repulsed. The next day he captured all the stockades on the
+southern, or, more correctly, the western side of the Canal, but the
+Taepings still held a strong stone fort on the opposite side, which
+defied all the efforts of the Imperialists. Two hundred of the Liyang
+corps gallantly crossed the Canal in boats, forced open the back door
+of the fort, and carried it at a rush. With this success all the
+outworks of Chanchufu were taken, and the town itself closely
+besieged. Gordon then proceeded to plant his batteries opposite the
+point he had selected for attack, but a regrettable affair happened in
+the night, when the picket on guard fired into the party working at
+the battery, and killed Colonel Tapp, an excellent officer who
+commanded the artillery of the force. This mishap was quickly followed
+by others. The Imperialists under their own generals wished to get all
+the credit of the capture, and attacked several times on their own
+side, but always without obtaining any advantage. Nor was Gordon
+himself more fortunate. After a severe bombardment, to which the
+Taepings made no reply, Gordon assaulted on 27th April. His men
+succeeded in throwing two pontoons across the ditch, twenty yards
+wide, and some of his officers reached the wall; but the Taepings met
+them boldly with a terrific storm of fire-balls, bags of powder,
+stinkpots, and even showers of bricks. Twice did Gordon lead his men
+to the assault, but he had to admit his repulse with the loss of his
+pontoons, and a great number of his best officers and men. Ten
+officers killed and 19 wounded, 40 men killed and 260 wounded,
+represented the cost of this disastrous failure.</p>
+
+<p>Undaunted by this defeat, Gordon proceeded to lay siege in regular
+form, and Li Hung Chang lent him the services of his own troops in
+order to dig the necessary trenches. Working only at night, and with
+equal celerity and secrecy, a succession of trenches were made right
+up to the edge of the ditch. At the same time, proclamations in large
+characters were exhibited, offering terms to all who came over, except
+the Wang in command; and many desertions took place. At last, on 11th
+May, the place was again assaulted, this time at mid-day; and owing to
+the short distance from the advance trench to the breach, the Chinese
+troops of all kinds were able to come to close fighting with the
+Taepings without any preliminary loss. The Taepings fought with great
+courage, even although their chief Hoo Wang was taken prisoner early
+in the fight, but at last they were overwhelmed by numbers. Hoo Wang
+and all the Canton and Kwangsi men&mdash;that is to say, the original
+Taeping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> band&mdash;were executed, and the completeness of the triumph was
+demonstrated by the surrender, two days later, of Tayan, the last of
+the Taeping possessions on the Grand Canal. On the spur of the moment,
+two hours after the successful assault, Gordon wrote a hurried few
+lines to his mother, stating, to relieve her anxiety, that he would
+"not again take the field," and that he was happy to say he had "got
+off safe."</p>
+
+<p>The capture of Chanchufu was the last achievement of the Ever
+Victorious Army, which marched back to Quinsan, its headquarters, in
+preparation for its disbandment, which had been decided on by the
+joint conclusion of the Chinese and European authorities. It had done
+its work, and the Chinese naturally regarded the presence of this
+formidable and somewhat unruly force with no little apprehension. The
+Taepings were now confined to Nanking, and the Viceroy, Tseng Kwofan,
+felt confident that before long he would be able to capture that city.
+The British Government had decided that the service of Major Gordon
+under the Chinese should terminate on 1st June 1864, and some weeks
+before that order was put in force the army was quietly disbanded,
+without any disturbance or display. The troops themselves would have
+given their commander a demonstration, but he evaded them, and escaped
+quietly into Shanghai, passing without regret from the position of the
+arbiter of an Empire's destiny to the routine of an English officer's
+existence. At the same time a considerable part of his force was taken
+into the service of Li Hung Chang.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon's own opinion of his work was given in the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I have the satisfaction of knowing that the end of this
+rebellion is at hand, while, had I continued inactive, it might
+have lingered on for years. I do not care a jot about my
+promotion or what people may say. I know 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."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Having retired from the active direction of the campaign, Gordon still
+retained sufficient interest in the work he had had in hand so long to
+incline him to accept an invitation to visit the lines of Tseng Kwofan
+before Nanking. On 26th June he visited that Viceroy's camp, and found
+that his position extended over from twenty-four to thirty miles, and
+that he commanded 80,000 troops, who were, however, badly armed. The
+troops were well fed, but ill paid, and at last confident of success.
+While Gordon was there, or only a few hours after he left, Tien Wang,
+the leader of the moribund Taeping cause, seeing no chance of escape,
+swallowed gold leaf in the approved regal fashion, and died. On the
+19th July the Imperialists succeeded in running a gallery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> under the
+wall of Nanking, and in charging it with 40,000 lbs. of powder. The
+explosion destroyed fifty yards of the wall, and the Imperialists at
+once stormed the breach. Chung Wang made a valiant defence in his own
+palace, and then cut his way out, at the head of 1000 men. Very few of
+these escaped, but Chung Wang and the young Tien Wang, son of the
+defunct leader, were among the fortunate few. Chung Wang was soon
+captured, and beheaded on 7th August, after being allowed a week's
+respite to write the history of the Taeping rebellion. At least it may
+be claimed for him that he was the only true hero of the rebel
+movement. Gordon's own estimation of this leader is given in these
+words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"He was the bravest, most talented, and enterprising leader the
+rebels had. He had been in more engagements than any other rebel
+leader, and could always be distinguished. His presence with the
+Taepings was equal to a reinforcement of 5000 men, and was always
+felt by the superior way in which the rebels resisted. He was the
+only rebel chief whose death was to be regretted; the others, his
+followers, were a ruthless set of bandit chiefs."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The young Tien Wang was eventually captured and executed. Thus
+terminated, in the blood of its authors and leaders, the great
+rebellion, which had inflicted an incalculable amount of misery and
+loss on the Chinese people in a vain attempt to subvert the existing
+dynasty. Six hundred cities were stated to have been destroyed during
+its course, and sixteen out of the eighteen provinces to have
+witnessed the ravages of civil war.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus concluded his work as commander of the Ever Victorious
+Army, it might have been thought that Gordon would be allowed to carry
+out his own wish of returning home as quickly as possible, but the
+English, as well as the Chinese, authorities were desirous of
+organising a purely Chinese force, with the object of supplying the
+Government with the means of asserting its authority over any internal
+enemies. Sir Frederick Bruce came specially from Pekin to Shanghai on
+the subject, and Gordon undertook to give the necessary organisation
+his personal supervision until it was in fair working order. From the
+end of June until the middle of November Colonel Gordon was engaged in
+the Chinese camp, which was formed at a place near Sungkiang, drilling
+recruits, and endeavouring to inspire the officers with the military
+spirit. He describes his work in the following short note, which is
+also interesting as expressing his impressions about the Chinese
+people:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I have the manual, and platoon, and company drill in full swing,
+also part of the battalion drill, and one or two men know their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+gun drill very fairly. This is so far satisfactory, and I think,
+if the whole country was not corrupt, they might go on well and
+quickly, but really it is most irritating to see the jealousies
+of the mandarins of one another. The people are first-rate,
+hard-working, and fairly honest; but it seems as soon as they
+rise in office they become corrupt. There is lots of vitality in
+the country, and there are some good men; but these are kept down
+by the leaden apathy of their equals, who hate to see reform,
+knowing their own deficiencies."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>By the end of November Gordon was able to think of returning home, as
+he had given a start to military reform in China; but before he sailed
+he had to receive a congratulatory address from the most prominent
+citizens and merchants of Shanghai, expressing their "appreciation and
+admiration of his conduct." They had not always been so
+discriminating, and at the beginning their sympathies had been for the
+Taepings, or at least for strict non-intervention. The Chinese
+Government also gave exceptional signs of its gratitude to the
+noble-minded soldier, who had rendered it such invaluable aid. It
+again offered him a large sum of money, which was declined with as
+much firmness, although less emphasis, as on the earlier occasion. But
+he could not reject the promotion offered him to the high rank of
+Ti-Tu, or Field Marshal in the Chinese army, or churlishly refuse to
+receive the rare and high dignity of the Yellow Jacket. The English
+reader has been inclined on occasion to smile and sneer at that
+honour, but its origin was noble, and the very conditions on which it
+was based ensured that the holders should be very few in number.</p>
+
+<p>The story of its origin will admit of being retold. When the Manchus
+conquered China, in the middle of the seventeenth century, they
+received material aid from a Chinese soldier named Wou Sankwei. He was
+rewarded with the Viceroyalty of the whole of south-western China, in
+which region he became supreme. After many years the Manchus thought
+he posed with too great an air of independence, and he was summoned to
+Peking to give an account of his stewardship. But Wou Sankwei was too
+old to be caught by so simple a ruse. He defied the Manchus, and
+established his authority throughout the larger part of the country
+south of the Great River. The young and afterwards illustrious Emperor
+Kanghi threw himself into the struggle with ardour, and it continued
+for many years, and devastated almost as large an area as did the
+Taeping rebellion. Kanghi did not obtain a decisive triumph until
+after the death of Wou Sankwei, when he bestowed a yellow riding
+jacket and an ornament of peacock's feathers for the cap on his
+principal lieutenants. He also decreed that this decoration should be
+made a regular order, to be conferred only on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> generals who had led
+victorious armies against rebel forces. Gordon was thus perfectly
+qualified to receive the order founded by the famous Manchu
+contemporary of the Grand Monarque.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese Government also sent him six mandarin dresses in the
+correct fashion for a commanding officer of the rank of Ti-Tu, and a
+book explaining how they should be worn. Gordon said very little about
+it, his only comment being: "Some of the buttons on the mandarin hats
+are worth thirty or forty pounds. I am sorry for it, as they cannot
+afford it over well; it is, at any rate, very civil of them." The two
+Empress Regents also struck a heavy gold medal in his honour, the
+destination of which will be told hereafter, and Li Hung Chang did
+everything possible to demonstrate the respect and regard he
+entertained for his European colleague. That that was no transitory
+feeling was well shown thirty-two years later, when the famous Chinese
+statesman seized the occasion of his visit to London to place wreaths
+on the statue and cenotaph of his old comrade in arms. General Gordon
+valued the Yellow Jacket and the Gold Medal very highly. When he gave
+up the medal for the cause of charity he felt its loss keenly, and it
+became a phrase with him to signify the height of self-sacrifice to
+say, "You must give up your medal." Prince Kung, in a special and
+remarkable despatch to the British Minister, narrated in detail the
+achievements of Gordon, and declared in graceful language that "not
+only has he shown himself throughout both brave and energetic, but his
+thorough appreciation of that important question, a friendly
+understanding between China and foreign nations, is also deserving of
+the highest praise." The Minister was requested to bring these facts
+to the notice of the British Government, and it was even suggested by
+the Chinese Prince that some reward that Gordon would appreciate at
+the hands of his own Sovereign should be conferred on him, and would
+be hailed with satisfaction in China. If I add to this list the sword
+of Chung Wang, captured from one of his lieutenants, and presented
+afterwards by Gordon to the Duke of Cambridge, the rewards of Gordon
+from the Chinese are fully catalogued. At the hands of his own
+Government he received for his magnificent service a brevet
+lieutenant-colonelcy, and somewhat later the Companionship of the
+Bath.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon had kept a journal, which he sent home; but subsequently, on
+finding that it was being circulated, he destroyed it. Of this fact
+there is no doubt, and it is of course impossible to say whether it
+contained more than the manuscript history of the Taeping war, which
+he lent me in 1881 as "a trustworthy narrative" for the purposes of my
+"History of China," and which was published many years later as a
+separate volume. The authorship of that history is a matter of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+speculation, but there seems little or no doubt that it was at least
+compiled under Gordon's own direction, from the reports of his
+lieutenants in China, and completed during his residence at Gravesend.</p>
+
+<p>Of the true personal journal Gordon wrote in 1864: "I do not want the
+same published, as I think, if my proceedings sink into oblivion, it
+would be better for every one; and my reason for this is that it is a
+very contested point whether we ought to have interfered or not, on
+which point I am perfectly satisfied that it was the proper and humane
+course to pursue, but I still do not expect people who do not know
+much about it to concur in the same.... I never want anything
+published. I am sure it does no good, and makes people chary of
+writing."</p>
+
+<p>The same feeling came out in his last letter to his mother from China,
+17th November 1864: "The individual is coming home, but does not wish
+it known, for it would be a signal for the disbanded to come to
+Southampton, and although the waits at Christmas are bad, these others
+are worse." Such a wish as this was impossible of gratification. The
+public press could not be silenced by the modesty of this retiring
+commander whose deeds had been so heroic and devoid of selfish
+purpose. The papers became so filled with accounts of his achievements
+that he gave up reading them, but <i>The Times</i> had at least
+crystallised the opinion of the day into a single sentence: "Never did
+soldier of fortune deport himself with a nicer sense of military
+honour, with more gallantry against the resisting, and with more mercy
+towards the vanquished, with more disinterested neglect of
+opportunities of personal advantage, or with more entire devotion to
+the objects and desires of his own Government, than this officer who,
+after all his victories, has just laid down his sword."</p>
+
+<p>The more calmly and critically the deeds of the Ever Victorious Army
+and Gordon's conduct during the campaign against the Taepings are
+considered, the greater will be the credit awarded to the high-minded,
+brave, and unselfish man who then gained the sobriquet of "Chinese"
+Gordon. Among all the deeds of his varied and remarkable career he
+never succeeded in quite the same degree in winning fame and in
+commanding success. At Khartoum the eyes of the world were on him, but
+the Mahdi was allowed to remain victorious, and the Soudan still
+awaits fresh conquest. But during the two Taeping campaigns he was
+completely successful, and closed his work with an unqualified
+triumph. It was also the only occasion when he led an army in the
+field, and proved his claims to be considered a great commander. Of
+serious warfare it may be said to have been his last experience, for
+his own Government was very careful to give him no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> active military
+employment&mdash;garrison, and even consular duties being deemed more
+suitable for this victorious leader than the conduct of any of those
+little expeditions commencing with the Red River and Ashanti for which
+he was pre-eminently qualified&mdash;and under the Khedive he controlled an
+army without finding a real foe. Gordon's title to rank among skilful
+military commanders rests on his conduct at the head of the Ever
+Victorious Army during the Taeping war. It has earned the praise of
+many competent military authorities as well as the general admiration
+of the public, and Lord Wolseley must have had it in his mind when, in
+vindicating his sanity, he exclaimed that he "wished other English
+generals had been bitten with his madness."</p>
+
+<p>Those who have thought that Gordon won his victories in China by sheer
+personal gallantry, and nothing else, have taken a very shallow view
+of the case, and not condescended to study the details. In his general
+conception of the best way to overcome the Taepings he was necessarily
+hampered by the views, wishes, jealousies, and self-seeking purposes
+of his Chinese colleagues. But for them, his strategy would have been
+of a very different character, as he himself often said. He had to
+adjust his means to the best attainable end, and it must be allowed
+that he did this with remarkable tact and patience&mdash;the very qualities
+in which he was naturally most deficient. If we consider his strategy
+as being thus fettered by the Chinese officials Li Hung Chang and
+General Ching, whose first object was not so much the overthrow of the
+Taeping Government as the expulsion of the Taepings from the province
+for which they were responsible, it will be admitted that nothing
+could be better than his conception of what had to be done, and how it
+was to be effected. The campaign resolved itself into the cutting off
+of all their sources of supply from the sea and Treaty ports, and the
+shutting up of their principal force within the walls of Soochow. How
+well and successfully that was accomplished has been narrated, but a
+vainglorious commander could not have been held back after the fall of
+Chanchufu from leading his victorious force to achieve a crowning
+triumph at Nanking, which Gordon could easily have carried by assault
+before the order in council withdrawing his services came into effect.</p>
+
+<p>More frequent opportunity was afforded for Gordon to reveal his
+tactical skill than his strategical insight, and in this respect the
+only trammels he experienced were from the military value and
+efficiency of his force, which had its own limitations. But still it
+would be unjust to form too poor an estimate of the fighting
+efficiency and courage of either Gordon's force or his Taeping
+opponents from the miserable exhibition the Chinese recently made of
+themselves during<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> the war with Japan. The heavy losses incurred, the
+several repulses Gordon himself experienced, would alone tell a
+different tale, if there were not the obstinate resistance offered to
+General Staveley and the French by the Taepings to show that they were
+not altogether contemptible adversaries. Gordon himself thought that
+his force could fight very well, and that his officers, if somewhat
+lacking in polish, were not to be surpassed in dash and devilry. For
+the Taepings, especially behind walls, and when it was impossible to
+out-man&oelig;uvre them, he had also the highest opinion, and his first
+object on every occasion was to discover a weak point in their
+position, and his patience and perspicuity were generally rewarded.
+The very first step he took on approaching any place that he had to
+attack was to reconnoitre it himself, either on foot or in one of his
+steamers, and he wrote a powerful despatch pointing out the general
+neglect of this precaution in the conduct of our Eastern campaigns,
+with its inevitable heavy attendant loss of precious lives. As he
+truly said, a careful reconnaissance generally revealed points of
+weakness in the enemy's position, and the Taepings, like all Asiatics,
+were easily demoralised when their line of retreat was threatened, or
+when attacked at some point where their preparations had not been
+perfected. Among his own personal qualifications, his untiring energy
+and his exceptional promptitude in coming to a decision were the most
+remarkable. No exertion relaxed his effort or diminished his ardour,
+and in face of fresh perils and disappointments he was always ready
+with a new plan, or prepared with some scheme for converting defeat
+into victory. One of his chief characteristics was his quickness in
+seeing an alternative course of action when his original plan had
+either failed or been thwarted by others. Of his personal courage and
+daring sufficient instances have been given to justify the assertion
+that in those qualities he was unsurpassable; and if he had never done
+anything else than lead the Ever Victorious Army, it would be
+sufficient to secure him a place among the most remarkable of English
+soldiers. In China he will be remembered for his rare self-abnegation,
+for his noble disdain of money, and for the spirit of tolerance with
+which he reconciled the incompatible parts of "a British officer and a
+Chinese mandarin."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>GRAVESEND AND GALATZ.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">After</span> the exciting and eventful ten years which began in the Crimea
+and ended in China, the most tranquil period in Gordon's career
+follows, until he was once again launched on the stormy sea of public
+affairs in Africa. He used to speak of the six years following his
+return from the Far East as the happiest of his life, and by a
+fortunate although unusual coincidence the details of his existence
+during the tranquil and uneventful period have been preserved with
+great amplitude and fidelity by several witnesses associated with him
+in his beneficent as well as his official work. It would be easy to
+fill a small volume with these particulars, which have been already
+given to the world, but here it will suffice to furnish a summary
+sufficient to bring out the philanthropic side of his character, and
+to explain how and why it came to be thought that Gordon was the man
+to solve that ever-pressing but ever-put-off problem of diminishing
+the pressure of excessive population and poverty in the eastern
+districts of London.</p>
+
+<p>General Gordon arrived in England early in 1865, and proceeded to join
+his family at Rockstone Place, Southampton, where he was then doubly
+welcomed, as his father was in declining health, and died soon
+afterwards. Here Gordon passed a quiet six months, refusing all
+invitations with extreme modesty, and in every way baffling the
+attempts of relations, friends, and admirers to make a lion of him. He
+would not permit anyone to say that his suppression of the Taeping
+rebellion was a marvellous feat, and he evaded and resented all the
+attempts made by those in power to bring him into prominence as a
+national hero. Modesty is becoming as an abstract principle of human
+conduct, but Gordon carried it to an excess that made it difficult not
+so much for his fellow-men to understand him, as for them to hold
+ordinary workaday relations with him. This was due mainly to two
+causes&mdash;a habitual shyness, and his own perception that he could not
+restrain his tongue from uttering unpalatable and unconventional
+truths. He was so unworldly and self-sacrificing in his own actions
+that he could not let himself become even in a passive sense
+subservient to the very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> worldly means by which all men more or less
+advance in public and private life. The desire of Ministers and War
+Office authorities to bring him forward, to eulogise his Chinese
+exploits, and in the end to give him worthy employment, was regarded
+by him as that secret favouritism that he abhorred. He retired into
+his shell at every effort made to bring him into prominence. He tore
+up his diary sooner than that it should be the means of giving him
+notoriety. He even refused special employment and promotion, because
+it would put him over the heads of his old comrades at the Woolwich
+Academy. The inevitable result followed. Those in power came to regard
+him as eccentric, and when occasions arose that would have provided
+him with congenial and much-desired employment on active service for
+his own country, his name was passed over, and the best soldier in
+England was left in inglorious and uncongenial inactivity. This was
+regrettable, but natural. The most heroic cannot pose as being too
+elevated above their fellows, or they will be left like Achilles
+sulking in his tent.</p>
+
+<p>There were moments, we have been told, when in the bosom of the family
+circle he threw off the reserve in which he habitually wrapped
+himself, and narrated in stirring if simple language the course of his
+campaigns in China. These outbursts were few and far between. They
+became still less frequent when he found that the effect of his
+description was to increase the admiration his relatives never
+concealed from him. His mother, whose feelings towards him were of a
+specially tender nature, and whose solicitude for his personal safety
+had been more than once evinced, took the greatest pride in his
+achievements, and a special pleasure at their recital. But even her
+admiration caused Charles Gordon as much pain as pleasure, and it is
+recorded that while she was exhibiting to a circle of friends a map
+drawn by him during his old term days at the Academy, he came into the
+room, and seeing that it was being made a subject of admiration, took
+it from his mother, tore it in half, and threw it into the fire grate.
+Some little time after he repented of this act of rudeness, collected
+the fragments, pasted them together, and begged his mother's
+forgiveness. This damaged plan or map is still in existence. His
+extraordinary diffidence and shrinking from all forms of praise or
+exaltation was thus revealed at a comparatively early stage of his
+career, and in connection with the first deeds that made him famous.
+The incident just described shows that his way of asserting his
+individuality was not always unattended with unkindness to those who
+were nearest and dearest to him. His distrust of his own temper, and
+of his capacity to speak and act conventionally, urged him towards a
+solitary life; and when his fate took him into places and forms of
+employment where solitude was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> essential condition of the service,
+it is not surprising that his natural shyness and humility, as well as
+that habit of speaking his own mind, not only without fear or favour,
+but also, it must be admitted, with considerable disregard for the
+feelings of others, became intensified, and the most noticeable of his
+superficial characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>But although Gordon was averse to praise and any special promotion, he
+was most anxious to resume the work of his profession, in which he
+took a peculiar pride, and for which he felt himself so thoroughly
+well suited. His temperament was naturally energetic and impulsive.
+The independent command he had exercised in China had strengthened
+these tendencies, and made a dull routine doubly irksome to one whose
+eager spirit sought action in any form that offered. The quiet
+domestic life of the family circle at Southampton soon became
+intolerable to his restless spirit, and although he was entitled to
+two years' leave after his long foreign service, he took steps to
+return to active service as an engineer officer within a very few
+months of his return to England.</p>
+
+<p>On 1st September 1865 he was appointed Commanding Royal Engineer
+officer at Gravesend, to superintend the erection of the new forts to
+be constructed in that locality for the defence of the Thames. For
+such a post his active military service, as well as his technical
+training, eminently suited him; and although there was little promise
+of excitement about it, the work was distinctly congenial, and offered
+him a field for showing practical judgment and skill as an engineer.
+He threw himself into his task with his characteristic energy and
+enthusiasm. But how far the latter was damped by his prompt discovery
+that the whole project of the Thames defences was faulty and unsound
+it is impossible to say, but his attention to his work in all its
+details certainly showed no diminution or falling off. There were five
+forts in all to be constructed&mdash;three on the south or Kent side of the
+river, viz., New Tavern, Shornmead, and Cliffe; and two, Coalhouse and
+Tilbury, on the north or Essex side. An immense sum had been voted by
+Parliament for their construction, and Gordon was as loud as an
+officer dare be in his denunciation of this extravagant waste of money
+as soon as he discovered by personal examination that the three
+southern forts could be turned into islands, and severed from all
+communication by an enemy cutting the river bank at Cooling; and also
+that the northern forts were not merely unprotected in the rear, like
+those of the Chinese, but completely commanded from the Essex range of
+hills. Notwithstanding this important discovery, made at the very
+beginning, the original scheme was prosecuted to the end, with
+enormous outlay and useless result, for an entirely new system of
+river defences had to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> be formed and carried out at a later period.
+But for these errors Gordon was in no sense responsible, and they
+would not have been committed if his advice and representations had
+been heeded.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Arthur Stannard, who was assistant to the manager of the firm which
+had been intrusted with the contract for the building of these forts,
+gave in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i> for April 1885 the best account we
+possess of the manner in which Colonel Gordon discharged his official
+duties at Gravesend.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Gordon's headquarters were at a quaint-looking, old-fashioned
+house with a good-sized garden, close to the site on which the New
+Tavern fort was to be erected. He considered himself to be on official
+duty from eight o'clock in the morning until two o'clock in the
+afternoon; and during these six hours he not only worked himself
+without intermission, but expected all those under him to work in the
+same untiring spirit. He was a severe and unsparing taskmaster, and
+allowed no shirking. No other officer could have got half the work out
+of his 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."</p>
+
+<p>Another instance of his unflagging energy and extreme activity was
+furnished in connection with the boat in which he had to visit the
+different parts of the defences. A two-oared, slow-moving boat was
+provided for the purpose, but Gordon soon grew tired of this slow
+means of locomotion, and he started a four-oared gig. He trained these
+men according to his own ideas, and expected them to row with all
+their might and main, and to lose not a minute in casting off their
+boat on his arrival. So fond was he of rapid motion, or so impressed
+with the value of time, that he would continue to urge them on,
+whenever any signs of slackening appeared, with exclamations: "A
+little faster, boys, a little faster!" and Mr Stannard states that he
+has seen the boatmen land after such a row as this in as limp a
+condition as four strong men could be. All his own movements were
+carried on at the run, and his activity was such that few younger and
+taller men were able to keep up with him. I well recollect myself my
+first interview with General Gordon in 1881, when he roused me up by a
+surprise morning visit at eight o'clock&mdash;I had not returned from a
+newspaper office till four o'clock&mdash;and carried me off, walking in a
+light, springy way which was half a run up to the top of Campden Hill,
+to interview the late Sir Harry Parkes.</p>
+
+<p>While many incidents and the general tenor of his conduct show the
+natural gentleness of Gordon and his softness of heart, he was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+strict disciplinarian, and even a martinet in some of his ways. As has
+been said, he came on duty at eight every morning punctually, but he
+would not allow himself to be intruded upon before that hour. Mr
+Stannard tells one story that furnishes striking evidence to this
+effect. Early in the morning the men were brought to a standstill in
+their work until Colonel Gordon arrived to decide some doubtful or
+disputed matter. It was noticed that his bedroom window was wide open,
+and the contractor's manager was induced to go up and knock at his
+door for instructions. Gordon opened his door a little way, and
+exclaimed in a testy and irritable tone, "Presently, presently." He
+made his regular appearance at eight o'clock, and no one ventured to
+again disturb him before the regulation hour.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to his meals he was most abstemious, and at the same time
+irregular. His brother describes an arrangement by which he was able
+to take, at all events, his midday meal, and at the same time to carry
+on his official work, especially in the matter of receiving visitors.
+He had a deep drawer in his table, in which the food was deposited.
+When anyone came to see him, the drawer was closed, and all signs of a
+meal were concealed. At all periods of his career he was a small and
+frugal eater, partly because he deprecated extravagance in living, and
+partly because he considered that the <i>angina pectoris</i> from which he
+thought he suffered could be best coped with by abstention from a
+sumptuous or heavy diet. Some days he would almost starve himself, and
+then in the night Nature would assert herself, and he would have to
+come downstairs and take whatever he found in the larder. It is
+recorded that on one occasion he sucked ten or a dozen raw eggs. But
+if he denied himself the luxuries and even the necessaries of a decent
+table, he possessed the true spirit of hospitality, and never expected
+his guests to follow any different practice than their own. For them
+he was always at pains to provide dainty fare and good wine. Nor must
+undue stress be laid on the isolated cases cited of his indifference
+to his personal comfort. Gordon was always attentive to his dress and
+appearance, never forgetting that he was a gentleman and an English
+officer.</p>
+
+<p>While quartered at Gravesend he received a visit from Sir William
+Gordon, who had just been appointed to the command of the troops in
+Scotland. Sir William was no relation, only a member of the same great
+clan, and he had served with Gordon in the trenches of the Crimea. He
+had a great admiration and affection for the younger officer, and
+begged him to accept the post of his <i>aide-de-camp</i> in the North. The
+idea was not a pleasant one to our Gordon, but his good-nature led him
+to yield to the pressing invitations of his friend; and after he had
+given his assent, he was ill with nervousness and regret at having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+tied himself down to an uncongenial post. In some way or other Sir
+William heard of his distress, and promptly released him from his
+promise, only exacting from him the condition that he should pay him a
+visit at his home in Scotland. Soon afterwards Sir William Gordon
+became seriously ill, and Charles Gordon hastened to the North, where
+he remained some time employed in cheering up his friend, who was
+suffering from hypochondria. Some time afterwards Sir William died
+under sad circumstances. He had wished to benefit General Gordon by
+his will, but the latter absolutely refused to have anything except a
+silver tea service, which he had promised Sir William, while alive, to
+accept, because "it would pay for his funeral," and save any one being
+put to expense over that inevitable ceremony. The fate of this tea
+service, valued at &pound;70, cannot be traced. It had disappeared long
+before Gordon's departure for Khartoum, and was probably sold for some
+beneficent work.</p>
+
+<p>The Sir William Gordon incident was not the only external affair that
+distracted his attention from the monotonous routine work of building
+forts on a set, but faulty and mistaken, plan. Glad as he was of any
+work, in preference to the dull existence of a prolonged holiday in
+the domestic circle, Gravesend was not, after all, the ideal of active
+service to a man who had found the excitement of warfare so very
+congenial to his own temperament. When, in the course of 1867 it
+became evident that an expedition would have to be sent to Abyssinia
+to release the prisoners, and to bring the Negus Theodore to his
+senses, Gordon solicited the Horse Guards to include him in any force
+despatched with this object. There is no reason to think that his wish
+would not have been complied with if the expedition had been fitted
+out from England, but it was very wisely decided that the task should
+be entrusted to the Anglo-Indian Army. The late Lord Napier of
+Magdala, then Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, was appointed to
+the command. The officers of his staff, as well as the troops under
+him, were all drawn from the Bombay Army, and although his connection
+by marriage, Sir Charles Staveley, held a command under Napier, and
+would willingly have assisted towards the gratification of his wish,
+an exception in Gordon's case could not be made without that
+favouritism which he most deprecated. Still, it was a great
+disappointment to him, and he shut himself up for a whole day, and
+would see no one.</p>
+
+<p>If the six years at Gravesend, "the most peaceful and happy of any
+portion of my life," as he truly said, had left no other trace than
+his official work, of which the details must necessarily be meagre,
+there would have been a great blank in his life, and the reader would
+necessarily possess no clue to the marked change between the Gordon
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> China and the Gordon of the Soudan. Not that there was any loss of
+power or activity, but in the transition period philanthropy had come
+to occupy the foremost place in Gordon's brain, where formerly had
+reigned supreme professional zeal and a keen appreciation&mdash;I will not
+say love&mdash;of warlike glory. His private life and work at Gravesend
+explain and justify what was said of him at that time by one of his
+brother officers: "He is the nearest approach to Jesus Christ of any
+man who ever lived."</p>
+
+<p>It has been written of him that his house at Gravesend bore more
+resemblance to the home of a missionary than the quarters of an
+English officer. His efforts to improve and soften the hard lot of the
+poor in a place like Gravesend began in a small way, and developed
+gradually into an extensive system of beneficence, which was only
+limited by his small resources and the leisure left him by official
+duty. At first he took into his house two or three boys who attracted
+his attention in a more or less accidental manner. He taught them in
+the evening, fed and clothed them, and in due course procured for them
+employment, principally as sailors or in the colonies. For a naturally
+bad sailor, he was very fond of the sea; and perhaps in his heart of
+hearts he cherished the thought that he was performing a national work
+in directing promising recruits to the first line of our defence, and
+the main prop of this Empire. Soon his few special pupils swelled into
+a class, not all boarders, but of outsiders who came in to learn
+geography and hear the Colonel explain the Bible; and not only that,
+but to be told of stirring deeds beyond the sea by one who had himself
+contributed to the making of history. We can well believe that before
+this uncritical but appreciative audience, from whose favour he had
+nothing to hope, or, as he would say, to fear, Gordon threw off the
+restraint and shyness habitual to him. It was very typical of the man
+that, where others thought only of instructing the poor and the
+ignorant, his chief wish was to amuse them and make them laugh.</p>
+
+<p>By this simple means his class increased, and grew too large for his
+room. Sooner than break it up or discourage new-comers, he consented
+to teach in the ragged schools, where he held evening classes almost
+every night. Where he had clothed two or three boys, he now
+distributed several hundred suits in the year; and it is said that his
+pupils became so numerous that he had to buy pairs of boots by the
+gross. All this was done out of his pay. His personal expenses were
+reduced to the lowest point, so that the surplus might suffice to
+carry on the good work. It very often left him nearly penniless until
+his next pay became due&mdash;and this was not very surprising, as he could
+never turn a deaf ear to any tale of distress, and often emptied his
+pockets at the recital of any specially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> touching misfortune. When any
+outside subject of national suffering appealed to his heart or touched
+his fancy, he would consequently have no means available of sending
+any help, and this was specially the case during the suffering of the
+Lancashire operatives after the close of the American Civil War. On
+that occasion he defaced the gold medal given him by the Chinese
+Empresses, and sent it anonymously to the fund, which benefited from
+it to the extent of &pound;10; but, as has been already stated, he made this
+sacrifice with the greatest pain and reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon's love of children, and especially of boys, was quite
+remarkable. He could enter into their feelings far better than he
+could into those of grown men, and the irritability which he could
+scarcely suppress even among his friends was never displayed towards
+them. He was always at their service, anxious to amuse them, and to
+minister to their rather selfish whims. Some accidental remark led his
+class to express a wish to visit the Zoo. Gordon at once seized the
+idea, and said they should do so. He made all the arrangements as
+carefully as if he were organising a campaign. His duties prevented
+his going himself, but he saw them off at the station, under the
+charge of his assistant, and well provided with baskets of food for
+their dinner and refreshment on their journey. Of course he defrayed
+the whole expense, and on their return he gave them a treat of tea and
+strawberries. He also thought of their future, being most energetic in
+procuring them employment, and anxious in watching their after-career.</p>
+
+<p>For some reason that is not clear he called these boys his "kings." He
+probably used it in the sense that they were his lieutenants, and he
+borrowed his imagery from the "Wangs," or kings of the Taeping ruler.
+I am told, however, that he really used the word in a spiritual sense,
+testifying that these boys were as kings in the sight of God. He
+followed the course of the first voyage of those who went to sea,
+sticking pins in a map to show the whereabouts of their respective
+vessels. It is not astonishing that his pupils should have felt for
+him a special admiration and affection. He not merely supplied all
+their wants, but he endeavoured to make them self-reliant, and to
+raise them above the sordid and narrow conditions of the life to which
+they were either born or reduced by the improvidence or misfortune of
+their parents. Of course Gordon was often deceived, and his confidence
+and charity abused; but these cases were, after all, the smaller
+proportion of the great number that passed through his hands. He
+sometimes met with gross ingratitude, like that of the boy whom he
+found starving, in rags, and ill with disease, and whom he restored to
+health, and perhaps to self-respect, and then sent back to his parents
+in Norfolk. But neither<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> from him nor from them did he ever receive
+the briefest line of acknowledgment. Such experiences would have
+disheartened or deterred other philanthropists, but they failed to
+ruffle Gordon's serenity, or to discourage him in his work.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the following incident is as characteristic as anything that
+took place between Gordon and his "kings." A boy whom he had twice
+fitted out for the world, but who always came to grief after a few
+months' trial, returned for a third time in the evening. Gordon met
+him at the gate, a mass of rags, in a deplorable condition, and
+covered with vermin. Gordon could not turn him away, neither could he
+admit him into his house, where there were several boys being brought
+up for a respectable existence. After a moment's hesitation, he led
+him in silence to the stable, where, after giving him some bread and a
+mug of milk, he told him to sleep on a heap of clean straw, and that
+he would come for him at six in the morning. At that hour Gordon
+appeared with a piece of soap, some towels, and a fresh suit of
+clothes, and, ordering the boy to strip, gave him a thorough washing
+with his own hands from head to foot at the horse-trough. It is to be
+regretted that there is no record of the after-fate of this young
+prodigal, although it would be pleasant to think that he was the
+unknown man who called at Sir Henry Gordon's house in 1885, after the
+news of Gordon's death, and wished to contribute &pound;25 towards a
+memorial, because he was one of the youths saved by General Gordon, to
+whom all his success and prosperity in life were due.</p>
+
+<p>But it must not be supposed that Gordon's acts of benevolence were
+restricted to boys. He was not less solicitous of the welfare of the
+sick and the aged. His garden was a rather pretty and shaded one. He
+had a certain number of keys made for the entrance, and distributed
+them among deserving persons, chiefly elderly. They were allowed to
+walk about, in the evening especially, and see the flowers,
+vegetables, and fruit which Gordon's gardener carefully cultivated.
+Gordon himself declared that he derived no special pleasure from the
+sight of flowers, for the simple reason that he preferred to look at
+the human face; and the same reason is the only one I can find he ever
+gave for his somewhat remarkable reticence about dogs and other
+domestic animals. It was said of him that he always had handy "a bit
+o' baccy for the old men, and a screw o' tea for the old women." He
+would hurry off at a moment's notice to attend to a dying person or to
+read the Bible by a sick-bed. In the hospital or the workhouse he was
+as well known as the visiting chaplain, and often he was requested by
+the parish clergyman to take his place in visiting the sick. His
+special invention for the benefit of his large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> number of clients was
+a system of pensions, which varied from a shilling to as much as a
+pound a week. Many of these payments he continued long after he left
+Gravesend, and a few were even paid until the day of his death. It is
+not surprising, in view of these facts, that Gordon remained a poor
+man, and generally had no money at all. As he wrote very truly of
+himself to his assistant Mr Lilley, "You and I will never learn wisdom
+in money matters."</p>
+
+<p>Many stories have been told of his tenderness of heart, and of his
+reluctance to see punishment inflicted, but perhaps the following is
+the most typical. A woman called on him one day with a piteous tale.
+Gordon went to his bedroom to get half a sovereign for her, and while
+he was away she took a fancy to a brown overcoat, which she hastened
+to conceal under her skirt. Gordon returned, gave her the money, and
+she left with a profusion of thanks. While on her road home the coat
+slipped down, and attracted the notice of a policeman, who demanded an
+explanation. She said, "I took it from the Colonel," and was marched
+back for him to identify his property, and charge her with the theft.
+When Gordon heard the story, he was far more distressed than the
+culprit, and refused to comply with the constable's repeated requests
+to charge her. At last a happy thought came to his relief. Turning to
+the woman, he said, with a twinkle in his eye, "You wanted it, I
+suppose?" "Yes," replied the astonished woman. Then turning to the
+equally astonished policeman he said, "There, there, take her away,
+and send her about her business."</p>
+
+<p>Among the various economies he practised in order to indulge his
+philanthropy was that of not keeping a horse, and he consequently took
+a great deal of walking exercise. During his walks along the Kentish
+lanes and foot-paths he distributed tracts, and at every stile he
+crossed he would leave one having such an exhortation as "Take heed
+that thou stumbleth not." Yet all this was done in an honest, and, as
+I believe, a secretly humorous spirit of a serious nature, for Gordon
+was as opposed to cant and idle protestations as any man. There is a
+strikingly characteristic story preserved somewhere of what he did
+when a hypocritical, canting humbug of a local religious secretary of
+some Society Fund or other paid a visit to a house while he was
+present. Gordon remained silent during the whole of the interview. But
+when he was gone, and Gordon was asked what he thought of him, he
+replied by waving his hand and drawing it across his throat, which he
+explained signified in China that his head ought to be cut off as a
+humbugging impostor.</p>
+
+<p>Although buried, as it were, at Gravesend, Gordon could not be
+altogether forgotten. The authorities at the Horse Guards could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+comply with his request to be attached to the Abyssinian expedition,
+but they were willing enough to do him what in official circles was
+thought to be a very good turn when they could. The English membership
+of the Danubian Commission became vacant, and it was remembered that
+in his early days Gordon had taken part in the delimitation
+negotiations which had resulted in the formation of that body. The
+post carried with it the good pay of &pound;2000 a year, as some
+compensation for the social and sanitary drawbacks and disadvantages
+of life in that region, and it was offered to Gordon, who accepted it.
+It cut short his philanthropical labours, but it drew him back into
+that current of active work for which he was already pining. He
+therefore accepted it, and having presented some of the Snake flags of
+the old Taeping Wangs to the local school in which he had toiled as a
+simple teacher, he left Gravesend quietly, and without any
+manifestation that it had lost its principal resident. Having
+mentioned the Snake flags, it is proper to add that the principal of
+these, including some of his own which were shot to ribbons, were left
+by General Gordon to his sister, the late Miss Gordon, who in her turn
+presented them, with the Yellow Jacket and its appendages, the chief
+mandarin dress, etc., to the Royal Engineers at Chatham. The Gravesend
+life closed with a notice in the local journal, from which the
+following extract may be made; but once a year the old flags that led
+the advance or retreat of the Chinese rebels are brought out from
+their cases and flaunted before the Gravesend scholars as the memorial
+of a brave and unselfish leader and teacher.</p>
+
+<p>The farewell article in the local paper read as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Our readers, without exception, will learn with regret of the
+departure of Lieut.-Colonel Gordon, R.E., C.B., from the town in
+which he has resided for six years, gaining a name by the most
+exquisite charity that will long be remembered. Nor will he be
+less missed than remembered in the lowly walks of life, by the
+bestowal of gifts, by attendance and administration on the sick
+and dying, by the kindly giving of advice, by attendance at the
+Ragged School, Workhouse, and Infirmary&mdash;in fact, by general and
+continued beneficence to the poor, he has been so unwearied in
+well-doing that his departure will be felt by many as a personal
+calamity. There are those who even now are reaping the rewards of
+his kindness. His charity was essentially charity, and had its
+root in deep philanthropic feeling and goodness of heart,
+shunning the light of publicity, but coming even as the rain in
+the night-time, that in the morning is noted not, but only the
+flowers bloom, and give a greater fragrance.... All will wish him
+well in his new sphere, and we have less hesitation in penning
+these lines from the fact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> that laudatory notice will confer but
+little pleasure upon him who gave with the heart and cared not
+for commendation."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Gordon left for Galatz on 1st October 1871. He had visited and
+described it fourteen or fifteen years before, and he found little or
+no change there. The special task intrusted to the Commission of which
+he was a member was to keep open by constant and vigilant dredging the
+mouth of the Sulina branch of the Danube. He discovered very soon that
+the duties were light and monotonous, and in the depressing
+atmosphere&mdash;social and political as well as climatic&mdash;of the Lower
+Danube, he pined more than ever for bracing work, and for some task
+about which he could feel in earnest. The same conclusion seems to
+have forced itself upon his mind at the beginning and at the end of
+his stay at Galatz. In one of his first letters he exclaims: "How I
+like England when I am out of it! There is no place in the world like
+it!" In another letter, written on the very day of his departure home,
+he wrote: "Tell S. to thank God that he was born an Englishman."
+Gordon was always intensely patriotic. His patriotism partook of the
+same deep and fervid character as his religion, and these and many
+other little messages in his private correspondence furnish striking
+evidence to the fact.</p>
+
+<p>The mention of Galatz recalls an incident, showing how long was his
+memory, and how much he clung to old friendships. During the
+Commune&mdash;that is to say, when he was still at Gravesend&mdash;the papers
+stated that a General Bisson had been killed at the Bridge of Neuilly
+on 9th April 1871. He wrote to Marshal Macmahon to inquire if he was
+the same officer as his old colleague on the Danube, and received, to
+his regret, an affirmative answer. General Bisson and Gordon had kept
+up a correspondence, in which the former always signed himself Bisson,
+C.B., being very proud of that honour, which was conferred on him for
+the Crimea. He was taken prisoner early in the Franco-Prussian war,
+and was shot by the Communists almost immediately on his return from
+the Prussian prison. Gordon's stay at Galatz was varied by an
+agreeable trip in 1872 to the Crimea, where he was sent to inspect the
+cemeteries with Sir John Adye. They travelled in an English gunboat,
+which proved a comfortable sea-boat, and Gordon wrote, "General Adye
+is a very agreeable companion." The cemeteries were found much
+neglected, and in a sad state of disrepair. The Russian officers were
+pronounced civil, but nothing more. But Gordon saw clearly that,
+having torn up the Black Sea Treaty, they were ready to recover
+Bessarabia, and to restore Sebastopol to the rank of a first-class
+naval fortress. After the Crimean tour he came to England on leave.
+His time was short, but he managed to pay a flying visit to
+Gravesend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>. He also could not resist the temptation of attending the
+funeral of the Emperor Napoleon in January 1873, and he expressed his
+opinion of that ill-starred ruler in his usual terse manner&mdash;"a
+kind-hearted, unprincipled man." His youngest brother, to whom he was
+much attached, and who had shared in the Woolwich frolics, died about
+this time, and his mother was seized with paralysis, and no longer
+recognised him. He felt this change most acutely, for between him and
+his mother there had been a peculiar attachment, and when he was at
+home she would hardly ever let him out of her sight. He used to call
+his home visits doing duty as his mother's <i>aide-de-camp</i>. When he
+left England for Galatz she was unconscious, and passed away some
+months later while he was abroad.</p>
+
+<p>It was while General Gordon was on the Danube that preparations were
+made for the expedition against the Ashantees, and many persons
+suggested General Gordon for the command. It would have been an
+excellent occasion for intrusting him with an independent command in
+his country's service; but Sir Garnet, now Lord, Wolseley had recently
+gained much credit by his conduct of the Red River Expedition, and was
+appointed to the command of this force. General Gordon was no doubt
+disappointed at the result, but not so much as he had been in the case
+of Abyssinia, and loyalty to an old Crimean colleague tempered his own
+loss with satisfaction at another's success. Still, on public grounds,
+it must be pronounced unfortunate that the last occasion which was
+offered of employing for a national cause the services of a soldier
+who added the fervour and modesty of Wolfe to the genius of Clive
+should have been allowed to pass by unutilised.</p>
+
+<p>A casual meeting with Nubar Pasha at Constantinople, on his way back
+from the Crimea in 1872, was destined to exercise what may be styled a
+determining influence on the rest of Gordon's life. At that meeting
+Nubar Pasha sounded him as to his willingness to take service under
+the Khedive, and Gordon, attracted by the prospect of doing good work
+on a larger sphere, expressed his own readiness to take up the task of
+establishing authority, and suppressing slavery in the Soudan,
+provided that the permission of his own Government were granted. He
+heard nothing more of the matter for twelve months, but at the end of
+September 1873 he received a communication to the effect that the
+Khedive wished to appoint him to succeed Sir Samuel Baker, and that
+the British Government were quite willing to grant him the necessary
+permission. In a letter of 8th November 1873 to the Adjutant-General
+he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I have written an account of what I know of the Khedive's having
+asked me to take Baker's place. It came about from a
+conversation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> I had with Nubar Pasha at our Embassy at
+Constantinople. This was twelve months ago. The next thing was a
+telegram a month ago. I have not determined what to do, but the
+Government have no objection."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He was not long, however, in making up his mind, and early in 1874 he
+was <i>en route</i> for Alexandria. One characteristic act in connection
+with his appointment deserves mention. The Khedive fixed his salary at
+&pound;10,000 a year, but Gordon absolutely refused to accept more than
+&pound;2000 a year&mdash;the same sum as he received for his post on the Danube.
+Various reasons have been given for this decision, but there is no
+ground for supposing that it was due to such a very narrow-minded
+prejudice as "that he would take nothing from a heathen." If he ever
+used these words, they must have been intended as a joke, and are not
+to be accepted seriously. A sufficient explanation of his decision is,
+that he had a supreme disdain for money, and the sum offered seemed
+far in excess of the post and work he had to perform. To have received
+&pound;10,000 a year would have added immensely to his worries. He would not
+have known what to do with it, and the voluntary cutting of his salary
+relieved him of a weight of responsibility. Perhaps also he was
+far-seeing enough to realise that he would be less the mere creature
+of the Egyptian ruler with the smaller than with the larger salary,
+while he could gratify his own inner pride that no one should say that
+any sordid motive had a part in his working for semi-civilized
+potentates, whether Chinese or Mussulmen.</p>
+
+<p>I am able to describe Gordon's exact feelings on this point in his own
+words. "My object is to show the Khedive and his people that gold and
+silver idols are not worshipped by all the world. They are very
+powerful gods, but not so powerful as <i>our</i> God. From whom does all
+this money come? from poor miserable creatures who are ground down to
+produce it. Of course these ideas are outrageous. Pillage the
+Egyptians is still the cry."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST NILE MISSION.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">A brief</span> description of the conquest by Mehemet Ali and his successors
+of the Soudan&mdash;a name signifying nothing more than "the land of the
+blacks"&mdash;and of the events which immediately preceded the appointment
+of Gordon, is necessary to show the extent of the work intrusted to
+him, and the special difficulties with which he had to contend.</p>
+
+<p>It was in 1819 that the great Pasha or Viceroy Mehemet Ali, still in
+name the lieutenant of the Sultan, ordered his sons Ismail and the
+more famous Ibrahim to extend his authority up the Nile, and conquer
+the Soudan. They do not seem to have experienced any difficulty in
+carrying out their instructions. Nobody was interested in defending
+the arid wastes of that region. The Egyptian yoke promised to be as
+light as any other, and a few whiffs of grape-shot dispersed the only
+adversaries who showed themselves. Ibrahim, who soon took the lead,
+selected Khartoum as the capital of the new province, in preference to
+Shendy, which had formerly been regarded as the principal place in the
+country. In this he showed excellent judgment, for Khartoum occupies
+an admirable position in the fork of the two branches of the Nile; and
+whatever fate may yet befall the region in which the Mahdi and his
+successor the Khalifa have set up their ephemeral authority, it is
+destined by Nature to be the central point and capital of the vast
+region between the Delta and the Equatorial Lakes.</p>
+
+<p>Khartoum lies on the left bank of the Blue Nile&mdash;Bahr-el-Azrak&mdash;rather
+more than three miles south of its confluence with the White
+Nile&mdash;Bahr-el-Abiad&mdash;at the northern point of the Isle of Tuti. The
+channel south of that island affords a slightly nearer approach to the
+White Nile, coming out immediately opposite the fortified camp of
+Omdurman, which the Mahdi made his headquarters and capital after the
+famous siege of 1884. There was nothing attractive or imposing about
+Khartoum. It contained 3000 mud houses, and one more pretentious
+building in the Governor's official residence or palace, known as the
+Hukumdariaha. It is surrounded by a wall and ditch, except where the
+Blue Nile supplies the need; and its western wall is not more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> than
+half a mile from the banks of the White Nile, so that with proper
+artillery it commands both rivers. The Nilometer at this place used to
+give the first and early intimation to the cultivators in Lower Egypt
+of the quantity of water being brought down from the rivers of
+Abyssinia. There seems no other conclusion possible than that sooner
+or later this practical service will compel Egypt, whenever she feels
+strong enough, to re-establish her power at Khartoum; already there is
+evidence that the time has arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Having conquered the Soudan easily, the rulers of Egypt experienced no
+difficulty in retaining it for sixty years; and if other forces,
+partly created by the moral pressure of England and civilized opinion
+generally, had not come into action, there is every reason to suppose
+that their authority would never have been assailed. Nor did the
+Egyptians stand still. By the year 1853 they had conquered Darfur on
+the one side, and pushed their outposts on the other 120 miles south
+of Khartoum. In the rear of the Egyptian garrison came the European
+trader, who took into his service bands of Arab mercenaries, so that
+he pushed his way beyond the Egyptian stations into the region of the
+Bahr Gazelle, where the writ of the Cairo ruler did not run. These
+traders came to deal in ivory, but they soon found that, profitable as
+it was, there was a greater profit in, and a far greater supply of,
+"black ivory." Thus an iniquitous trade in human beings sprang up, and
+the real originators of it were not black men and Mahommedans, but
+white men, and in many instances Englishmen. From slave buying they
+took to slave hunting, and in this way there is no exaggeration in
+declaring that villages and districts were depopulated. Such
+scandalous proceedings could not be carried on in the dark, and at
+last the Europeans involved felt compelled, by the weight of adverse
+opinion, or more probably from a sense of their own peril, to withdraw
+from the business. This touch of conscience or alarm did not improve
+the situation. They sold their stations to their Arab agents, who in
+turn purchased immunity from the Egyptian officers. The slave trade,
+by the pursuit and capture of any tribe rash enough to come within the
+spring of the Arab raiders, flourished as much as ever. The only
+change was that after 1860 Europeans were clear of the stigma that
+attached to any direct participation in it.</p>
+
+<p>The condition of the Soudan during this period has been graphically
+described by Captain Speke, Dr Schweinfurth, and Sir Samuel Baker.
+They all agree in their facts and their conclusions. The people were
+miserably unhappy, because the dread and the reality of compulsory
+slavery hung over their daily life. Those who were not already slaves
+realised their impending fate. Villages were abandoned, districts
+passed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> out of cultivation, and a large part of the population
+literally vanished. Sir Samuel Baker, speaking of the difference
+between a region he knew well in 1864 and in 1872, wrote in the latter
+year: "It is impossible to describe the change that has taken place
+since I last visited this country. It was then a perfect garden,
+thickly populated, and producing all that man could desire. The
+villages were numerous, groves of plantains fringed the steep cliffs
+on the river's bank, and the natives were neatly dressed in the bark
+cloth of the country. The scene has changed! All is wilderness. The
+population has fled! Not a village is to be seen! This is the certain
+result of the settlement of Khartoum traders. They kidnap the women
+and children for slaves, and plunder and destroy wherever they set
+their foot." How true all this was will be seen in the course of
+Gordon's own experiences.</p>
+
+<p>It has been stated that the Arab slave-dealers made terms with the
+Egyptian officials, and they were even not without influence and the
+means of gaining favourable consideration at Cairo itself. But as they
+increased in numbers, wealth, and confidence in themselves and their
+organisation, the Khedive began to see in them a possible danger to
+his own authority. This feeling was strengthened when the slavers,
+under the leadership of the since notorious Zebehr Rahama, the most
+ambitious and capable of them all, refused to pay their usual tribute.
+Dr Schweinfurth has given a vivid picture of this man in the heyday of
+his power. Chained lions formed part of his escort, and it is recorded
+that he had 25,000 dollars' worth of silver cast into bullets in order
+to foil the magic of any enemy who was said to be proof against lead.
+Strong as this truculent leader was in men and money, the Khedive
+Ismail did not believe that he would dare to resist his power. He
+therefore decided to have recourse to force, and in 1869 he sent a
+small military expedition, under the command of Bellal Bey, to bring
+the Bahr Gazelle into submission. Zebehr had made all his arrangements
+for defence, and on the Egyptian army making its appearance he
+promptly attacked and annihilated it. This success fully established
+the power and reputation of Zebehr, who became the real dictator of
+the Soudan south of Khartoum. The Khedive, having no available means
+of bringing his rebellious dependent to reason, had to acquiesce in
+the defeat of his army. Zebehr offered some lame excuse for his
+boldness and success, and Ismail had to accept it, and bide the hour
+of revenge.</p>
+
+<p>Zebehr, encouraged by this military triumph, turned his arms against
+the Sultans of Darfour, who had incurred his resentment by placing an
+embargo on wheat during the course of his brief campaign with Bellal.
+This offensive action still further alarmed the Khedive Ismail, who
+was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> fully alive to the danger that might arise to his own position if
+a powerful military confederacy, under a capable chief, were ever
+organised in the Soudan. Instead of allying himself with the
+Darfourians, as would probably have been the more politic course,
+Ismail decided to invade their territory simultaneously with Zebehr.
+Several battles were fought, and one after another the Sultans of
+Darfour, whose dynasty had reigned for 400 years, were overthrown and
+slain. Zebehr received in succession the Turkish titles of Bey and
+Pasha, but he was not satisfied, for he said that as he had done all
+the fighting, he ought to receive the Governor-Generalship of Darfour.
+If he failed to win that title from the Khedive, he succeeded in
+gratifying a more profitable desire, by leading off into slavery the
+larger half of the population of Darfour. He was still engaged in this
+pursuit at the time of Gordon's appearance on the scene, and the force
+at his disposal was thus described by that officer: "Smart,
+dapper-looking fellows, like antelopes, fierce, unsparing, the terror
+of Central Africa, having a prestige far beyond that of the
+Government&mdash;these are the slave-dealers' tools," and afterwards they
+no doubt became the main phalanx of the Mahdi's military system.</p>
+
+<p>The financial position of the Egyptian Government in the Soudan was as
+bad as the military and political. The Khedive's Governor-General at
+Khartoum, Ismail Yakoob Pasha, was nominally responsible for the
+administration of Darfour, although Zebehr reaped all the gain. This
+arrangement resulted in a drain on the Khedive's exchequer of &pound;50,000
+a year. The revenue failed to meet the expenditure in the other
+departments, and this was mainly due to the fact that the slavers no
+longer paid toll or tithe in the only trade that they had allowed to
+exist in the Soudan. What share of the human traffic they parted with
+was given in the way of bribes, and found no place in the official
+returns. All the time that this drain continued the Khedive was in a
+constant state of apprehension as to the danger which might arise to
+him in the south. He was also in receipt of frequent remonstrances
+from the English and other Governments as to the iniquities of the
+slave-trade, for which he was primarily in no sense to blame. On the
+other hand, he derived no benefit from the Soudan; and if he thought
+he could have obtained a secure frontier at Abou Hamid, or even at
+Wadi Halfa, he would have resigned all the rest without a sigh. But it
+was his strong conviction that no such frontier was attainable, and
+Ismail clung to his nominal and costly authority over the Soudan in
+the hope that some improvement might be effected, or that, in the
+chapter of accidents, the unexpected might come to his aid.</p>
+
+<p>Alarmed as to his own position, in view of the ambition of Zebehr, and
+harassed by the importunities of England, Ismail, acting on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+advice of his able and dexterous Minister, Nubar Pasha, one of the
+most skilful diplomatists the East has ever produced, came to the
+decision to relieve himself from at least the latter annoyance, by the
+appointment of Gordon. This was the main object the Khedive and his
+advisers had in view when they invited Gordon to accept the post of
+Governor of the Equatorial Provinces in succession to Sir Samuel
+Baker, who resigned what he found after many years' experience was a
+hopeless and thankless task. The post was in one sense peculiar. It
+was quite distinct from that of the Egyptian Governor-General at
+Khartoum, who retained his separate and really superior position in
+the administration of the Upper Nile region. Moreover, the finances of
+the Equatorial districts were included in the general Soudan Budget,
+which always showed an alarming deficit. These arrangements imparted a
+special difficulty into the situation with which Gordon had to deal,
+and his manner of coping with it will reveal how shrewd he was in
+detecting the root-cause of any trouble, and how prompt were his
+measures to eradicate the mischief. From the first he fully realised
+why he was appointed, viz. "to catch the attention of the English
+people"; but he also appreciated the Khedive's "terrible anxiety to
+put down the slave-trade, which threatens his supremacy." With these
+introductory remarks, the main thread of Gordon's career may be
+resumed.</p>
+
+<p>After the brief hesitation referred to in the last chapter, and the
+reduction of his salary to what he deemed reasonable dimensions,
+Gordon proceeded to Cairo, where he arrived early in the year 1874. As
+in everything else he undertook, Gordon was in earnest about the work
+he had to attempt, and no doubt he had already formed in his mind a
+general plan of action, which would enable him to suppress the
+slave-trade. Here it will suffice to say that his project was based on
+the holding of the White Nile by a line of fortified posts, and with
+the river steamers, which would result in cutting off the slave
+hunters from their best source of supply. The expression of his plans
+in his earnest manner showed up by contrast the hollowness of the
+views and policy of those who had obtained his services. In his own
+graphic and emphatic way he wrote: "I thought the thing real and found
+it a sham, and felt like a Gordon who has been humbugged." He found
+Cairo "a regular hot-bed of intrigues," and among not only the
+Egyptian, but also the European officials. With a prophetic grasp of
+the situation he wrote, "Things cannot last long like this." Had
+Gordon been long detained at Cairo, where the etiquette and the advice
+offered him by every one in an official position exasperated him
+beyond endurance, there is no doubt that he would have thrown up his
+task in disgust. He was animated by the desire to make the sham a
+reality, and to convert the project<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> with which he had been intrusted
+into a beneficial scheme for the suffering population of the Soudan.
+There, at least, he would be removed from the intrigues of the
+capital, and at liberty to speak his own thoughts without giving
+umbrage to one person and receiving worldly counsel from another.</p>
+
+<p>One of the chief bones of contention during the few weeks he passed at
+Cairo was the dispute as to how he should travel to the scene of his
+government. He wished to go by ordinary steamer, with one servant. The
+Minister insisted that he should travel by a special steamer, and
+accompanied by a retinue. Gordon's plan would have saved the Khedive's
+Government &pound;400, but he had to give way to the proprieties. The affair
+had an amusing issue. His special train to Suez met with an accident,
+and he and the Egyptian officials sent to see him off were compelled,
+after two hours' delay, to change into another train, and continue
+their journey in an ordinary passenger carriage, much to the amusement
+of Gordon, who wrote: "We began in glory and ended in shame!" On
+arrival at Souakim, Gordon was put into quarantine for a night, in
+order, as he said, that the Governor might have time to put on his
+official clothes.</p>
+
+<p>Soon his attention was drawn from such frivolities as these to more
+serious matters. He left Cairo on 21st February, reached Souakim on
+26th, left Souakim on 1st March, Berber on 9th March, and entered
+Khartoum 13th March. He brought with him 200 fresh troops, and was
+welcomed with considerable display and many hollow protestations of
+friendship by the Governor-General, Ismail Yakoob.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks before his arrival at Khartoum an important event had
+taken place, which greatly simplified his ulterior operations. The
+"sudd," an accumulation of mould and aquatic plants which had formed
+into a solid mass and obstructed all navigation, had suddenly given
+way, and restored communication with Gondokoro and the lakes. The
+importance of this event may be measured by the fact that whereas the
+journey to Gondokoro, with the "sudd" in existence, took twenty months
+and even two years to perform, it was reduced by its dispersal to
+twenty-one days. General Gordon wrote the following very pretty
+description of this grassy barrier and its origin:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"A curious little cabbage-like aquatic plant comes floating down,
+having a little root ready to attach itself to anything; he meets
+a friend, and they go together, and soon join roots and so on.
+When they get to a lake, the current is too strong, and so, no
+longer constrained to move on, they go off to the sides; others
+do the same&mdash;idle and loitering, like everything up here. After a
+time winds drive a whole fleet of them against the narrow outlet
+of the lake and stop it up. Then no more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> passenger plants can
+pass through the outlet, while plenty come in at the upper end of
+the lake; these eventually fill up all the passages which may
+have been made."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Gordon had the control of seven steamers, and in one of these he left
+Khartoum on 22nd March for the Upper Nile. He had already issued his
+first decree as Governor of the Equator, in which he declared the sale
+of ivory to be a Government monopoly, and forbade the importation of
+firearms and ammunition. It was while he was on this journey that he
+heard some birds&mdash;a kind of stork&mdash;laughing on the banks of the river.
+In his letters to his sister, which were to stand in the place of a
+diary, he facetiously remarks that he supposes they were amused at the
+idea of anyone being so foolish as to go up the Nile in "the hope of
+doing anything." But Gordon was not to be discouraged. Already he
+liked his work, amid the heat and mosquitoes day and night all the
+year round, and already he was convinced that he could do a good deal
+to ameliorate the lot of the unfortunate people. He reached Gondokoro
+on 16th April, where not only was he not expected, but he found them
+ignorant even of his appointment. He remained there only a few days,
+as he perceived he could do nothing without his stores, still <i>en
+route</i> from Cairo, and returned to Khartoum, which he reached in
+eleven days.</p>
+
+<p>This brief trip satisfied him of several simple facts bearing on the
+situation in the Equatorial Province which the Khedive had sent him
+with such a flourish of trumpets to govern. He found very easily that
+the Egyptian Government possessed no practical authority in that
+region. Beyond the two forts at Gondokoro&mdash;garrison 300 men&mdash;and
+Fatiko&mdash;garrison 200 men&mdash;the Khedive had no possessions, and there
+was not even safety for his representatives half a mile from their
+guns. As Gordon said: "The Khedive gave me a Firman as
+Governor-General of the Equator, and left me to work out the rest." He
+began the practical part of his task on the occasion of this return to
+Khartoum by insisting that the accounts of the Equatorial Province
+should be kept distinct from those of the Soudan, and also that Ragouf
+Pasha, sent nominally to assist but really to hinder him, should be
+withdrawn.</p>
+
+<p>Having asserted his individuality after several rows with Ismail
+Yakoob, he became impatient at the delayed arrival of his stores and
+staff, and hastened off to Berber to hurry their progress. As he was
+fond of saying, "Self is the best officer," and his visit to Berber
+hastened the arrival of the supplies which were necessary for his
+subsequent operations. His staff consisted of Colonel Long, of the
+United States Army, who had accompanied him to Gondokoro and been left
+there; Major Campbell, Egyptian Staff; Mr Kemp, an engineer; M.
+Linant,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> a Frenchman; Mr Anson, Mr Russell, and the Italian Romulus
+Gessi. Two Royal Engineer officers, Lieutenants Chippendall and
+Charles Watson, joined him before the end of the year. He worked very
+hard himself, and he expected those under him to do the same. The
+astonished Egyptian officials looked on in amazement at one in high
+rank, who examined into every detail himself, and who took his turn of
+the hard work. One of Gordon's forms of recreation was to get out and
+help to pull his <i>dahabeah</i>. Tucking up his trousers, he would wade
+through the river fearlessly, having learnt from the natives that
+crocodiles never attack a person moving.</p>
+
+<p>At first Ismail Yakoob and his colleagues were filled with curiosity
+and amusement at this phenomenal Englishman&mdash;so different, not merely
+from themselves, but from other Europeans&mdash;then apprehension seized
+them as to what he would do next in the way of exposing their neglect
+of duty, and finally only the capacity for one sentiment was
+left&mdash;relief whenever he turned his back on Khartoum.</p>
+
+<p>Having collected his staff and supplies, he started up the Nile once
+more, to begin the establishment of the line of fortified posts, which
+he had resolved on as the best means of maintaining and extending his
+own authority, and at the same time of curtailing the raids of the
+slave-dealers. The first of these forts or stations he established at
+the entrance of the Saubat river, and while there he made a discovery
+which showed how the slave-trade flourished with such impunity. He
+seized some letters from a slave-dealer to the Egyptian commander at
+Fashoda, stating that he was bringing him the slaves he wanted for
+himself and many others, besides 2000 cows. By several skilful
+man&oelig;uvres Gordon succeeded in rescuing all of them, restoring the
+cows to their owners, and compelling the soldiers of the slavehunters
+to return to their homes, generally in or near Khartoum. Nor was this
+his only success during the first two months of his government, for he
+detected one of his lieutenants in the act of letting a slave convoy
+pass in return for a bribe of &pound;70. On this occasion he had the
+satisfaction of delivering 1600 human beings from slavery. This will
+show that one of his principal difficulties was caused by his own
+subordinates, who were hand-in-glove with the leading slavehunters.
+Another of Gordon's troubles arose from the collapse of his staff
+under the terrible heat. Of those enumerated as having gone up with or
+to him in May, all were dead or invalided in September; and the duties
+of sick-nurse at last became so excessive that Gordon had to order, in
+his own quaint manner, that no one who was sick should be allowed to
+come to headquarters. Only in this way was he able to obtain the time
+necessary for the accomplishment, single<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> handed, of his various
+duties. Such was the strain on him that he gave positive injunctions
+that no more Europeans, and especially young English officers, were to
+be sent up to him.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as it was realised that the new Governor was in earnest, that
+he was bent on crushing the slave-trade, and that he would not permit
+corruption or extortion in any form, he became the mark of general
+hostility. The intrigues to mislead and discredit him were incessant.
+Abou Saoud, who had been formerly banished by Sir Samuel Baker from
+the Soudan, and then taken into high favour by Gordon, turned out a
+fraud and a failure, while Raouf Bey, the nominee of the Khartoum
+Governor-General, was sent back in disgrace. With regard to Abou Saoud
+it may be said that Gordon never really trusted him, that is to say he
+was not taken in by him, but believed he would be less able to do
+injury in his service than at a distance. It was precisely the same
+principle as led him to solicit the co-operation of Zebehr in 1884.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon's method of dealing with those who caused him trouble was short
+and simple. It consisted in a brief but unchallengeable order to go
+back to the base. As the officials would have been murdered by the
+people they had so long and so often injured if they attempted to seek
+shelter among them, they had no alternative save to obey; and thus,
+one after another, Gordon brushed the chief obstructionists from his
+path. He served the old troublesome soldiers who would not work or
+change their ways after the same fashion, by sending them to his
+Botany Bay at Khartoum. In the midst of all these troubles he kept
+well, although "a mere shadow," and he still retained the conviction
+that he would be able to do much good work in this unpromising region.</p>
+
+<p>In dealing with the natives, he endeavoured first to induce them to
+cultivate the ground, providing them with seed and dhoora (<i>sorghum</i>),
+and then to accustom them to the use of money. He bought their ivory
+and paid for it in coin, so that in a little time he found that the
+inhabitants, who had held aloof from all previous Egyptian officials,
+freely brought him their ivory and produce for sale. At the same time,
+he made it a point to pay scrupulously for any service the natives
+rendered, and he even endeavoured, as far as he could, to put
+employment in their way. The practice of the Egyptian officials had
+been to lay hands on any natives that came across their path, and
+compel them by force to perform any work they might deem necessary,
+and then to dismiss them without reward or thanks. The result was a
+deep-rooted execration of the whole Egyptian system, which found voice
+in the most popular war-cry of the region: "We want no Turks here! Let
+us drive them away!" But Gordon's mode was widely different.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> It was
+based on justice and reason, and in the long-run constituted sound
+policy. He paid for what he took, and when he used the natives to drag
+his boats, or to clear tracks through the grassy zone fringing the
+Nile, he always carefully handed over to them cows, dhoora, or money,
+as an equivalent for their work. On the other hand, he was not less
+prompt to punish hostile tribes by imposing taxes on them, and, when
+unavoidable, inflicting punishment as well. But the system averted, as
+far as possible, the necessity of extreme measures, and in this the
+first period of his rule in the Soudan he had few hostile collisions
+with the natives of the country. Indeed, with the exception of the
+Bari tribe, who entrapped Linant, Gordon's best lieutenant after
+Gessi, and slew him with a small detachment, Gordon's enemies in the
+field proved few and insignificant. Even the Baris would not have
+ventured to attack him but for the acquaintance with, and contempt of,
+firearms they had obtained during an earlier success over an Egyptian
+corps.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that this absence of any organised opposition was
+fortunate, for the so-called troops at the disposal of the Governor of
+the Equator were as miserably inefficient and contemptible, from a
+fighting point of view, as any General Gordon ever commanded; and at a
+later stage of his career he plaintively remarked that it had fallen
+to his lot to lead a greater number of cowardly and unwarlike races
+than anyone else. But it was not merely that they were such poor
+fighters that Gordon declared that three natives would put a company
+to flight, but they were so disinclined for any work, and so
+encumbered by their women and children, that their ability to make any
+military show might be as safely challenged as their combative spirit.
+Well might Gordon write: "I never had less confidence in any troops in
+my life." But even these shortcomings were not the worst. The Arab
+soldiers provided by the Egyptian Government, and sent up over and
+over again, in spite of Gordon's protests and entreaties, could not
+stand the climate. They died like flies. Of one detachment of 250,
+half were dead in three months, 100 of the others were invalided, and
+only 25 remained fit for duty. From a further body of 150 men sent as
+a reinforcement, half were reported on the sick list the day after
+their arrival. The main buttress of the Khedive's authority in this
+region was therefore hollow and erected on an insecure foundation. The
+Egyptian soldiers possessed firearms, and the natives, in their
+ignorance that they could not shoot straight, were afraid of them; but
+the natural progress of knowledge would inevitably prove fatal to that
+unreal supremacy, and eventually entail the collapse of the Cairo
+administration in the Soudan and the remoter districts on the
+Equator.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Realising the inefficiency of the Egyptian force, General Gordon set
+himself to the task of providing a better; and mindful of the
+contingent danger of creating a corps that might in the end prove a
+peril to the system it was meant to protect, he resolved that, if
+individually brave and efficient, it should be exceedingly limited in
+numbers, and incapable of casting aside its allegiance to the Khedive.
+He began in a small way by engaging the services of any stalwart
+Soudanese native whom chance placed in his path, and thus he organised
+in the first year of his rule a corps of about forty men as a sort of
+bodyguard. An accident brought him into contact with a party of the
+Niam Niam, a tribe of cannibals from the interior of Africa, but
+possessing a martial spirit and athletic frames. Gordon looked at them
+with the eye of a soldier, and on the spot enrolled fifty of them into
+the small force he was organising. He armed them with spears as well
+as guns, and as these spears were cutting ones, with a blade two feet
+long, they were the more formidable weapon of the two. Gordon
+describes the Niam Niam warriors as looking very fierce, and brave,
+and fearless. They were also thick-set and sturdy, and, above all, so
+indifferent to the tropical heat that they might be relied on not to
+break down from the climate like the Egyptian soldiers. Before the end
+of the year 1876 he had increased the numbers of these two contingents
+to 500 men. It was with these black troops that Gordon humbled the
+pride of the Baris, elated by their two successes, and provided for
+the security of the long Nile route to the lakes.</p>
+
+<p>There was another advantage besides the military in this practical
+measure, one of those numerous administrative acts, in every clime and
+under innumerable conditions, that established the fame and the sound
+sense and judgment of General Gordon. It promoted economy, and
+contributed to the sound finance which Gordon always set himself to
+establish wherever he was responsible. One of Gordon's first
+resolutions had been that his part of the Soudan should cease to be a
+drain, like the rest, on the Cairo Exchequer. He determined that he at
+least would pay his way, and on the threshold of his undertaking he
+had insisted, and carried in the teeth of powerful opposition his
+resolution, that the accounts of the Equatorial Province should be
+kept distinct from those of the Soudan. The employment of black
+soldiers was very economical as well as efficient, and contributed to
+the satisfactory result which was shown in the balance-sheet of the
+Equatorial Province as described by General Gordon for the year 1875.
+In that year the Khedive received &pound;48,000 from the Province which
+Gordon ruled at a total cost of only &pound;20,000, while he had also formed
+a surplus or reserve fund of &pound;60,000 more.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus accomplished as much as possible towards the
+strengthening<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> of the administration and tranquillisation of the
+people, some further particulars may be recorded of his measures and
+success in dealing with that slave-trade, the existence of which was
+the primary cause of his own appearance in the Soudan. Allusion has
+already been made to the considerable number of slaves rescued by a
+few grand <i>coups</i> at the expense of his own subordinates, but during
+the whole of these three years Gordon was in close contact with
+slaves, and the rescue of individuals was of frequent occurrence.
+Several touching incidents are recorded in the letters published from
+Central Africa as to his kindness towards women and infants, to some
+of whom he even gave the shelter of his own tent; and nothing could be
+more effective in the way of illustration than his simple description
+of the following passage with the child-wife of one of his own
+soldiers:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The night before I left this place a girl of twelve years, in
+one of those leather strap girdles, came up to the fire where I
+was sitting, and warmed herself. I sent for the interpreter, and
+asked what she wanted. She said the soldier who owned her beat
+her, and she would not stay with him; so I put her on board the
+steamer. The soldier was very angry, so I said: 'If the girl
+likes to stay with you, she may; if she does not, she is free.'
+The girl would not go back, so she stays on the steamer."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Nor was this the only incident of the kind to show not merely the
+tenderness of his heart, but the extraordinary reputation Gordon had
+acquired by his high-minded action among these primitive and
+down-trodden races. Here are some others that have been selected
+almost at random out of his daily acts of gentleness and true
+charity:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"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, and died quite quietly.... A wretched <i>sister</i> of yours
+[addressed to the late Miss Gordon] is struggling up the road,
+but she is such a wisp of bones that the wind threatens to
+overthrow her; so she has halted, preferring the rain to being
+cast down. I have sent her some dhoora, which will produce a
+spark of joy in her black and withered carcass. I told my man to
+see her into one of the huts, and thought he had done so. The
+night was stormy and rainy, and when I awoke I heard often a
+crying of a child near my hut within the enclosure. When I got up
+I went out to see what it was, and passing through the gateway, I
+saw your and my sister lying dead in a pool of mud&mdash;her black
+brothers had been passing and passing, and had taken no notice of
+her&mdash;so I ordered her to be buried, and went on. In the midst of
+the high grass was a baby, about a year or so old, left by
+itself. It had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> out all night in the rain, and had been left
+by its mother. I carried it in, and seeing the corpse was not
+moved, I sent again about it, and went with the men to have it
+buried. To my surprise and astonishment, she was alive. After
+considerable trouble I got the black brothers to lift her out of
+the mud, poured some brandy down her throat, and got her into a
+hut with a fire, having the mud washed out of her eyes. She was
+not more than sixteen years of age. There she now lies. I cannot
+help hoping she is floating down with the tide to the haven of
+rest. The next day she was still alive, and the babe, not a year
+old, seized a gourd of milk, and drank it off like a man, and is
+apparently in for the pilgrimage of life. It does not seem the
+worse for its night out, depraved little wretch!... The black
+sister departed this life at 4 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, deeply lamented by me, not
+so by her black brothers, who thought her a nuisance. When I went
+to see her this morning I heard the 'lamentations' of something
+on the other side of the hut. I went round, and found another of
+our species, a visitor of ten or twelve months to this globe,
+lying in a pool of mud. I said, 'Here is another foundling!' and
+had it taken up. Its mother came up afterwards, and I mildly
+expostulated with her, remarking, however good it might be for
+the spawn of frogs, it was not good for our species. The creature
+drank milk after this with avidity."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Such incidents explain the hold Gordon obtained over the indigenous
+population of the Upper Nile. He made friends right and left, as he
+said, and the trust of the poor people, who had never received
+kindness, and whose ignorance of the first principles of justice was
+so complete that he said it would take three generations of sound and
+paternal government to accustom them to it, in General Gordon was
+complete and touching. A chapter might be filled with evidence to this
+effect, but it is unnecessary, as the facts are fully set forth in the
+"Letters" from Central Africa. The result alone need be dwelt on here.
+For only too brief a period, and as the outcome of his personal
+effort, these primitive races saw and experienced the beneficial
+results of a sound and well-balanced administration. The light was all
+too quickly withdrawn; but while it lasted, General Gordon stood out
+as a kind of redeemer for the Soudanese. The poor slaves, from whose
+limbs the chains of their oppressors had only just been struck, would
+come round him when anxious about his health, and gently touch him
+with their fingers. The hostile chiefs, hearing, as Bedden did, that
+he restored his cattle to and recompensed in other ways a friendly
+chief who had been attacked in mistake, would lie in wait for him, and
+lay their views and grievances before him. He could walk fearlessly
+and unarmed through their midst, and along the river banks for miles,
+when an Egyptian official<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> would have required a regiment to guard
+him, and detached soldiers would have been enticed into the long grass
+and murdered. Even the hostile tribes like the Bari, who, from a
+mistaken view of their own military power, would not come to terms,
+showed their recognition of his merit by avoiding in their attacks the
+posts in which he happened to be. Thus there grew up round Gordon in
+the Soudan a sublime reputation for nobleness and goodness that will
+linger on as a tradition, and that, when these remote regions along
+the Equator fall under civilized authority, will simplify the task of
+government, provided it be of the same pattern as that dispensed by
+General Gordon.</p>
+
+<p>As the subject has a permanent practical value, the following passage
+embodying General Gordon's views is well worth repetition:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I feel sure that a series of bad governments have ruined the
+people. Three generations of good government would scarcely
+regenerate them. Their secretiveness is the result of the fear
+that if they give, it may chance that they may want. Their
+indolence is the result of experience that if they do well, or if
+they do badly, the result will be <i>nil</i> to them, therefore why
+should they exert themselves? Their cowardice is the result of
+the fear of responsibility. They are fallen on so heavily if
+anything goes wrong. Their deceit is the result of fear and want
+of moral courage, as they have no independence in their
+characters. For a foreign power to take this country would be
+most easy. The mass are far from fanatical. They would rejoice in
+a good government, let its religion be what it might. A just
+administration of law, and security of person against arbitrary
+conduct, would do a great deal. It is the Government that needs
+civilizing far more than the people. Mehemet Ali and his
+descendants have always gone on the principle of enriching
+themselves by monopolies of all sorts. None, not even the present
+Khedive (Ismail), have brought in civilizing habits or customs
+with any desire to benefit the country, or, at any rate, they
+have subordinated this desire to that of obtaining an increased
+revenue."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>But while Gordon brought kindness and conciliation into play, the
+settlement of the region entrusted to his care called for sterner
+measures, and he was not the man, with all his nobility of character
+and overflowing supply of the milk of human kindness, to refrain from
+those vigorous and decisive measures that keep turbulent races in
+subjection, and advance the cause of civilization, which in so many
+quarters of the world must be synonymous with British supremacy. The
+student of his voluminous writings will find many passages that
+express philosophical doubts as to our right to coerce black races,
+and to bind peoples who in their rude and primitive fashion are free
+to the car of our wide-world Empire. But I am under no obligation to
+save them the trouble of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> discovery by citing them, more especially
+because I believe that they give a false impression of the man. I have
+affirmed, and shall adduce copious and, as I think, convincing
+evidence, at every turn of his varied experiences, that the true
+Gordon was not the meek, colourless, milk-and-water, text-expounding,
+theological disputant many would have us accept as a kind of Bunyan's
+hero, but in action an uncompromising and resistless leader, who, when
+he smote, at once struck his hardest. Gordon has supplied the answer
+to his own misgivings as to our moral right to coerce and subject
+tribes who advanced their natural claims to be left undisturbed: "We
+cannot have them on our flank, and it is indispensable that they shall
+be subjected."</p>
+
+<p>Having organised his new forces, equipped all his steamers&mdash;one of
+which was fitted out with machinery that had been left in Baker's time
+to rust in the Korosko Desert&mdash;General Gordon set himself to the task
+of systematically organising the line of posts which he had conceived
+and begun to construct in the first stages of his administration. The
+object of these posts was twofold. By them he would cut the slave
+routes in two, and also open a road to the great Lakes of the Equator.
+In the first few months of his residence he had transferred the
+principal station from Gondokoro to Lardo, twelve miles lower down the
+stream, and on the left instead of the right bank of the river. These
+places lie a little on each side of the fifth degree of north
+latitude, and Gordon fixed upon Lardo as his capital, because it was
+far the healthier. Above Lardo he established at comparatively short
+stages further posts at, in their order, Rageef, Beddem, Kerri,
+Moogie, and Labor&eacute;, immediately beyond the last of which occur the
+Fola Falls, the only obstruction to navigation between Khartoum and
+the Lakes. Above those Falls Gordon established a strong post at
+Duffli, and dragged some of his steamers overland, and floated them on
+the short link of the Nile between that place and Lake Albert,
+establishing a final post north of that lake, at Wadelai. When his
+fleet commanded that lake, he despatched his lieutenant, Gessi, across
+it up the Victoria Nile, connecting the two great lakes, and continued
+his chain of posts along it by Magungo, Anfina, Foweira, and Mrooli,
+to the very borders of Mtesa's dominion in Uganda. By means of these
+twelve posts General Gordon established the security of his
+communications, and he also inspired his men with fresh confidence,
+for, owing to the short distances between them, they always felt sure
+of a near place of refuge in the event of any sudden attack. Thus it
+came to pass that whereas formerly Egyptian troops could only move
+about in bodies of 100 strong, General Gordon was able to send his
+boats and despatches with only two soldiers in charge of them; and
+having entirely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> suppressed the slave-trade within his own
+jurisdiction, he was left free to accomplish the two ulterior objects
+of his mission, viz. the installation of the Khedive's flag on the
+Lakes, and the establishment of definite relations with Mtesa, whose
+truculent vassal, Kaba Rega, of Unyoro, showed open hostility and
+resentment at the threatened encroachment on his preserves.</p>
+
+<p>It was neither a reprehensible nor an unintelligible vanity for the
+Egyptian ruler to desire the control of the whole of the great river,
+whose source had been traced south of the Equator, and 2000 miles
+beyond the limits of the Pharaohs' dominions. Nor was the desire
+diminished when, without sharing the gratification of the Prince in
+whose name he acted, General Gordon advanced cogent reasons for
+establishing a line of communication from Gondokoro, across the
+territory of Mtesa, with the port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. As
+Gordon pointed out, that place was nearly 1,100 miles from Khartoum,
+and only 900 from Mombasa, while the advance to the Lakes increased
+the distance from the one place by nearly 300 miles, and reduced that
+to the other in the same measure. This short and advantageous line of
+communication with the Equatorial Province and Upper Nile was beyond
+both the power and the sphere of the Khedive; but in the task of
+winning one of the most important of African zones formally recognised
+as lying within the British sphere of influence, the route advocated
+by General Gordon in 1875 has now become of the most undoubted value
+and importance.</p>
+
+<p>The aversion to all forms of notoriety except that which was
+inseparable from his duty led Gordon to shrink from the publicity and
+congratulations sure to follow if he were the first to navigate those
+inland seas on the Equator. Having made all the arrangements, and
+provided for the complete security of the task, he decided to baffle
+the plans in his honour of the Royal Geographical Society, by
+delegating the duty of first unfurling the Khedive's flag on their
+waters to his able and much-trusted lieutenant, Gessi. Although he
+sometimes took hasty resolutions, in flat opposition to his declared
+intentions, he would probably have adhered to this determination but
+for reading in one of Dr Schweinfurth's published lectures that "it
+may be that Lake Albert belongs to the Nile basin, but it is not a
+settled fact, for there are seventy miles between Foweira and Lake
+Albert never explored, and one is not authorised in making the Nile
+leave Lake Albert. The question is very doubtful." The accidental
+perusal of this passage changed General Gordon's views. He felt that
+this task devolved on him as the responsible administrator of the
+whole region, and that his natural shrinking from trumpery and too
+often easily-earned geographical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> honours, which he has bluntly
+asserted should only be granted by the Sovereign, did not justify his
+evading a piece of work that came within his day's duty. Therefore he
+resolved to ascertain the fact by personal examination, and to set at
+rest the doubts expressed by the German traveller.</p>
+
+<p>Expanding Dr Schweinfurth's remarks, he explained that "it was
+contended that the Nile did not flow out of Lake Victoria, and thence
+through Lake Albert, and so northward, but that one river flowed out
+of Lake Victoria and another out of Lake Albert, and that these two
+rivers united and formed the Nile. This statement could not be
+positively denied, inasmuch as no one had actually gone along the
+river from Foweira to Magungo. So I went along it with much suffering,
+and settled the question. I also found that from Foweira or Karuma
+Falls there was a series of rapids to Murchison Falls, thus <i>by
+degrees</i> getting rid of the 1000-feet difference of level between
+Foweira and Magungo." While mapping this region, Gordon one day
+marched eighteen miles through jungle and in pouring rain, and on each
+of the four following days he also walked fifteen miles&mdash;and the month
+was August, only a few miles north of the Equator, or, in other words,
+the very hottest period of the year. Having established the course of
+the Nile and its navigability to the Murchison Falls close to the
+Victoria Nyanza, General Gordon gave what he thought was a finishing
+touch to this exploring expedition by effecting an arrangement with
+King Mtesa.</p>
+
+<p>But in order to explain the exact significance of this step, and the
+consequent disappointment when it was found that the arrangement was
+illusory and destitute of practical value, it is necessary to go back
+a little, and trace the course of events in the Uganda region.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptian advance towards the south brought in its train two
+questions of external policy. One was with Abyssinia, of which we
+shall hear much in the next chapter; and the other was with the
+kingdom of Uganda and the kinglets who regarded Mtesa as their chief.
+Of these the principal was Kaba Rega, chief of Unyoro, and the
+recognised ruler of the territory lying between the two Lakes. He was
+a man of capacity and spirit, and had raised himself to the position
+he occupied by ousting kinsmen who had superior claims to the
+privileges of supreme authority. In the time of Gordon's predecessor,
+Sir Samuel Baker, Kaba Rega had come to the front as a native
+champion, resolved to defy the Egyptians and their white leaders to do
+their worst. In a spirited attack on Baker's camp at Masindi, he
+endeavoured to settle the pretensions of his invaders at a blow, but
+he found that numbers were no match for the superior arms of his
+opponent. But defeat did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> not diminish his spirit. Baker decreed his
+deposition as King of Unyoro, proclaiming in his stead a cousin named
+Rionga, but the order had no practical effect. Kaba Rega retired a
+little from the vicinity of the Egyptian forces; he retained "the
+magic stool" of authority over the lands and peoples of Unyoro, and
+his cousin Rionga possessed nothing beyond the empty title contained
+in an Egyptian official decree. This was the position when Gordon
+appeared on the scene, and his first obligation was to give something
+like force and reality to the pretensions of Rionga.</p>
+
+<p>If Kaba Rega had been satisfied to retain the practical marks of
+authority, it is probable that Gordon would have been well content to
+leave him alone, but irritated by the slight placed upon him by Sir
+Samuel Baker, he assumed the offensive on every possible occasion. He
+attacked Colonel Long, one of Gordon's lieutenants, on his way back
+from Mtesa, just as he had Baker; he threatened the Egyptian station
+at Foweira; and above all, he welcomed the thwarted slave-dealers, who
+were not averse to taking their revenge in any form at Gordon's
+expense. In these circumstances an active policy was forced on General
+Gordon, who promptly decided that Kaba Rega was "too treacherous" to
+be allowed to retain his kingdom, and that measures must be taken to
+set up Rionga in his place. It was at this moment, unfortunately, that
+General Gordon discovered the worthlessness of his troops, and when,
+in 1876, he had organised his new force, and was ready to carry out
+the policy he had decided on in 1874, he was thinking mostly of his
+departure from the Soudan, and had no time to proceed to extremities
+against these southern adversaries, for behind Kaba Rega stood Mtesa.</p>
+
+<p>When Gordon, in January 1876, entered the territory of Unyoro,
+belonging to Kaba Rega, he found it desirable to take up the cause of
+Anfina, in preference to that of Rionga, as the more influential
+chief; but neither proved in popularity or expertness a match for Kaba
+Rega. The possession of "the magic stool," the ancestral throne or
+copper seat of the family of Unyoro, believed to be identified with
+the fortunes of the little kingdom, alone compensated for the few
+losses in the open field, as Kaba Rega was always careful to retreat
+on the approach of his most dangerous adversary. Neither of his
+kinsmen was likely to prove a formidable foe. Rionga passed his hours
+in native excesses, in the joy of receiving the titular rank of Vakil
+to the Khedive. Anfina alienated Gordon's friendly feeling by
+suggesting the wholesale assassination of Kaba Rega's officers and
+followers when they came on a mission to his camp. Kaba Rega carried
+off the stool to the south, or rather the west, of Victoria Nyanza,
+and bided his time, while Mtesa wrote a half-defiant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> and
+half-entreating letter to Gordon, asking him to spare Unyoro. Mtesa
+had his own views of gain, and when Gordon proposed to establish a
+fortified post with a garrison of 160 men at Urundogani, the Uganda
+ruler begged that it might be stationed at his own capital, Dubaga,
+with the view of either winning over the troops to his service or
+employing them against his own enemies. Gordon saw through this
+proposal and withheld his consent, but his lieutenant, Nuehr Agha,
+acted on his own responsibility, and moved with his force to Dubaga.
+In a few weeks Gordon learnt that they were all, practically speaking,
+prisoners, and that his already heavy enough task had been increased
+by the necessity of rescuing them.</p>
+
+<p>Gordon accordingly advanced in person to Mrooli, the nearest point to
+Mtesa's capital without actually crossing his frontier, and as he had
+with him a strong force of his newly-raised black contingent, he felt
+confident of his capacity to punish Mtesa for any act of treachery,
+and to annex, if necessary, his kingdom. But Gordon did not wish to
+force a war on Mtesa, or to increase the burdens of the Nile dominion.
+All he wanted was the restoration of the men detained at Dubaga, and
+he soon received assurances that his presence, and the moral effect of
+the force he had brought with him, would attain this result without
+any necessity for fighting. As Gordon worded his complaint, it was a
+case not of his wishing to annex Mtesa, but of Mtesa annexing his
+soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>Having satisfied himself that Mtesa was not willing to risk a quarrel,
+General Gordon sent Nuehr Agha with ninety men to bring back the 140
+men detained at Dubaga, and the task was accomplished without any
+hitch or delay. This was due partly to the military demonstrations,
+and partly also to a clever diplomatic move by Gordon, who wrote to
+Mtesa expressing his readiness to recognise by treaty the independence
+of Uganda, and to provide a safe-conduct for the King's ambassadors to
+Cairo. At this time the late Dr Emin, who claimed to be an Arab and a
+Mahommedan, was at Dubaga, but his influence on the course of events
+was <i>nil</i>, and he and Gordon never met. After the return of the troops
+Gordon commenced his retirement to the Nile, and after an arduous and
+dangerous march of eighty miles through a swampy jungle beset by Kaba
+Rega's tribesmen, who were able to throw their spears with accurate
+aim for fifty yards, he succeeded in reaching Masindi without loss.
+Then Gordon drew up a plan of campaign for the effectual subjugation
+of Kaba Rega, but he did not wait to see it carried out, as the first
+move could not be made until the grass was dry enough to burn. As soon
+as that season arrived three columns were to march against the chief
+of Unyoro in the following order&mdash;one consisting of 150 black
+soldiers, and 3000 of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> the Lango tribe, under Rionga, moving from
+Mrooli to Kisoga; another of about the same strength from Keroto to
+Masindi; and the third operating from the Albert Lake with the
+steamer. The plan was a good one, but Kaba Rega, by having recourse to
+his old Fabian tactics, again baffled it.</p>
+
+<p>Although these events happened when Gordon had reached Cairo, it will
+be appropriate to give here the result of this campaign. The Unyoro
+chieftain retired before the Egyptians, who carried off much cattle,
+and when they in turn retired, he advanced and reoccupied his country.
+After a brief period the Egyptians definitely gave up their stations
+at Mrooli, Foweira, and Masindi, on the left bank of the Victoria
+Nile, and confined themselves to those on its right bank, and thus
+finally were Mtesa and Kaba Rega left to enjoy their own rude ideas of
+independence and regal power.</p>
+
+<p>So far as General Gordon was concerned, the Uganda question was then,
+both for this period and for his subsequent and more important
+command, definitely closed. But one personal incident remains to be
+chronicled. When Gordon received Mtesa's request to garrison Dubaga,
+and had actually planted a station on the Victoria Lake, he
+telegraphed the facts to the Khedive, who promptly replied by
+conferring on him the Medjidieh Order. At the moment that Gordon
+received this intimation he had decided that it would not be politic
+to comply with Mtesa's request to garrison Dubaga, and he had only
+just succeeded in rescuing an Egyptian force from a position of danger
+in the manner described. He felt that he had obtained this decoration
+"under false pretences," but the recollection of the hard and
+honourable work he had performed must have soon salved his conscience.</p>
+
+<p>At an early stage of his work Gordon felt disposed to throw it up, and
+during the whole three years a constant struggle went on within
+himself as to whether he should stay or return to England. Many causes
+produced this feeling. There was, in the first place, disillusionment
+on discovering that the whole thing, from the Egyptian Government
+point of view, was a sham, and that his name was being made use of to
+impose on Europe. But then he thought he saw an opportunity of doing
+some useful and beneficial work, and, stifling his disappointment, he
+went on. Arrived on the scene, he found himself thwarted by his
+Egyptian colleagues, and treated with indifference by the Cairene
+Government. He also discovered that his troops were worthless, and
+that not one of his officers, civil and military, cared a fig for the
+task in hand. Their one thought was how to do nothing at all, and
+Gordon's patience and energy were monopolised, and in the end
+exhausted, by attempts to extract work from his unwilling
+subordinates.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> Even the effort to educate them up to the simple
+recognition that a certain amount of work had to be done, and that
+unless it were well done, it had to be done over again, resulted in
+failure. To the plain instructions he gave, they would give an
+interpretation of their own; and while fully admitting on explanation
+that this was not the proper way of executing any task, they would
+invariably repeat it after their own fashion, until at length Gordon
+could see no alternative to performing the task himself. Thus were his
+labours indefinitely multiplied, and only his exceptional health and
+energy enabled him to cope with them at all. How much they affected
+him in his own despite may be judged from the exclamation which
+escaped him, after he had obtained a considerable success that would
+have elated any other leader&mdash;"But the worry and trouble have taken
+all the syrup out of the affair!"</p>
+
+<p>The personal glimpses obtainable of Gordon during these depressing
+years, while engaged on a task he foresaw would be undone by the
+weakness and indifference of the Egyptian authorities as soon as he
+gave it up, are very illustrative of his energy and inherent capacity
+for command. The world at large was quite indifferent to the heroism
+and the self-denial, amounting to self-sacrifice, which alone enabled
+him to carry on his own shoulders, like a modern Atlas, the whole
+administration of a scarcely conquered region, which covered ten
+degrees of latitude. But we who have to consider his career in all its
+bearings, and to discover, as it were, behind his public and private
+acts, the true man, cannot afford to pass over so lightly passages
+that are in a very special degree indicative of the man's character
+and temperament. In no other period of his career did he devote
+himself more strenuously to the details, in themselves monotonous and
+uninteresting, of a task that brought him neither present nor
+prospective satisfaction. When the tools with which he was supplied
+failed him, as they did at every turn, he threw himself into the
+struggle, and supplied the shortcomings of all the rest. When it was a
+matter of pulling the boats up the river, he was the first at the
+ropes, and the last to leave them, wading through the water with his
+trousers up. If it was his steamer that had run aground, all the
+active labour, as well as the organisation, fell on him. Sooner than
+add to the work of those in attendance on him, he would be seen
+preparing and cooking his own food; and because he could do it better
+than his native servant, he would clean his duck-gun, with the whole
+camp agape, until his ways were realised, at an Excellency doing his
+own work. Nor did he spare himself physically. His average day's walk,
+which satisfied him that he was in good health, was fourteen miles;
+but he often exceeded twenty miles, and on one occasion he even walked
+thirty-five miles under a tropical sun. Of the conduct of his soldiers
+against an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> enemy, or in coping with the difficulties of river
+navigation, he was always nervous, and whether for work or for
+fighting he used, he said, "to pray them up as he did his men in
+China"; but without his knowledge, one of his own soldiers was
+vigilantly observant of his conduct, and has recorded, through the
+instrumentality of Slatin Pasha, his recollections of Gordon as a
+fighter and leader of soldiers:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Gordon was indeed a brave man. I was one of his chiefs in the
+fight against the Mima and Khawabir Arabs; it was in the plain of
+Fafa, and a very hot day. The enemy had charged us, and had
+forced back the first line, and their spears were falling thick
+around us; one came within a hair's-breadth of Gordon, but he did
+not seem to mind it at all, and the victory we won was entirely
+due to him and his reserve of 100 men. When the fight was at its
+worst he found time to light a cigarette. Never in my life did I
+see such a thing; and then the following day, when he divided the
+spoil, no one was forgotten, and he kept nothing for himself. He
+was very tender-hearted about women and children, and never
+allowed them to be distributed, as is our custom in war, but he
+fed and clothed them at his own expense, and had them sent to
+their homes as soon as the war was over."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This picture of Gordon lighting a cigarette in the press of a doubtful
+battle may well be coupled with that already given during the Taeping
+rebellion, of his standing unarmed in the breach of an assaulted
+stockade, while around him pressed on or wavered the individuals of a
+forlorn hope. It will be difficult for anyone to find in all the
+annals of war another instance of human courage more nearly
+approaching the sublime.</p>
+
+<p>In November 1875 General Gordon had fully made up his mind to resign
+and return to Cairo, in consequence of the indifference with which he
+was treated by the Khedive's Government, and he had actually written
+the telegrams announcing this intention, and given orders to pack up
+the stores for the passage down the Nile, when the receipt of a long
+letter full of praise and encouragement from the Khedive Ismail
+induced him to alter his plans, to tear up the telegrams, and to
+continue his work. General Gordon gives his reason for changing his
+mind very briefly: "The man had gone to all this expense under the
+belief that I would stick to him; I could not therefore leave him." So
+he stayed on for another year. In July 1876 he formally and more
+deliberately resigned, but the execution of this decision had to be
+postponed by the necessity he felt under, as already explained, of
+solving the geographical questions connected with the Nile and the
+Lakes, and also of securing the southern frontier against Kaba Rega
+and Mtesa.</p>
+
+<p>These tasks accomplished, or placed in the way of accomplishment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+there remained no let or hindrance to his departure; and by the end of
+October he was in Khartoum. But even then he felt uncertain as to his
+ultimate plans, and merely telegraphed to the Cairo authorities that
+he intended to come down for a time. With his back turned on the scene
+of his labours, the old desire not to leave his work half done came
+over him, and all the personal inconvenience and incessant hardship
+and worry of the task were forgotten in the belief that he was called
+on by God "to open the country thoroughly to both Lakes." He saw very
+clearly that what he had accomplished in the three years of his stay
+did not provide a permanent or complete cure of the evils arising out
+of the slave-trade and the other accompaniments of misgovernment, and
+he did not like to be beaten, which he admitted he was if he retired
+without remedying anything. These reflections explain why, even when
+leaving, his thoughts were still of returning and resuming the work,
+little more than commenced, in those Mussulman countries, where he
+foresaw a crisis that must come about soon.</p>
+
+<p>But these thoughts and considerations did not affect his desire for a
+change to Lower Egypt, or even to visit home; and leaving Khartoum on
+12th November he reached Cairo on 2nd December. He then formally
+placed his resignation in the Khedive's hands, but it was neither
+accepted nor declined; and the Khedive, in some mysterious manner,
+seems to have arrived at the sound conclusion that after a brief rest
+General Gordon would sicken of inaction, and that it would be no
+difficult manner to lure him back to that work in the Soudan which had
+already established its spell over him. Of that work, considerable as
+it was as the feat of a single man, it need only be said that it would
+have remained transitory in its effect and inconclusive in its results
+if General Gordon had finally turned his back on it at the close of
+his tenure of the post of Governor of the Equatorial Province at the
+end of the year 1876. When he left Cairo in the middle of December for
+England there was really very little reason to doubt that at the right
+moment he would be ready to take up the work again.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="heading">END OF VOL. I.</p>
+
+<a name="END" id="END"></a>
+<div class="trans-note">
+<p class="heading">Transcriber's Note</p>
+
+<p>The transcriber made the following changes to the text to
+correct obvious errors:</p>
+
+<pre class="note">
+ 1. p.  34, charactistic --> characteristic
+ 2. p.  84, while sails --> white sails
+ 3. p. 162, lieutenaut --> lieutenant
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GORDON, VOLUME I***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 26419-h.txt or 26419-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/4/1/26419">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/4/1/26419</a></p>
+<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.</p>
+
+<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.</p>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/26419-h/images/fp016.jpg b/26419-h/images/fp016.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc77fdb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-h/images/fp016.jpg
diff --git a/26419-h/images/frontispiece.jpg b/26419-h/images/frontispiece.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5fc1c63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-h/images/frontispiece.jpg
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0000-image1a.jpg b/26419-page-images/f0000-image1a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a199ea4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0000-image1a.jpg
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0000-image1b.jpg b/26419-page-images/f0000-image1b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1ec4fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0000-image1b.jpg
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0001.png b/26419-page-images/f0001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..793131f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0001.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0002.png b/26419-page-images/f0002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c50d13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0002.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0003.png b/26419-page-images/f0003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..334715b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0003.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0004.png b/26419-page-images/f0004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b6c0770
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0004.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0005.png b/26419-page-images/f0005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e36b05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0005.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0006.png b/26419-page-images/f0006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..65757af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0006.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0007.png b/26419-page-images/f0007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e168c3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0007.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0009.png b/26419-page-images/f0009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..678d2e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0009.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/f0011.png b/26419-page-images/f0011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2bb8b73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/f0011.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0001.png b/26419-page-images/p0001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..971febd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0001.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0002.png b/26419-page-images/p0002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3d3445
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0002.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0003.png b/26419-page-images/p0003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54ead1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0003.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0004.png b/26419-page-images/p0004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b71d034
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0004.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0005.png b/26419-page-images/p0005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0172a9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0005.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0006.png b/26419-page-images/p0006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb8947d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0006.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0007.png b/26419-page-images/p0007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..12e7bb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0007.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0008.png b/26419-page-images/p0008.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee1d918
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0008.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0009.png b/26419-page-images/p0009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc70fd6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0009.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0010.png b/26419-page-images/p0010.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96598ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0010.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0011.png b/26419-page-images/p0011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e30c7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0011.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0012.png b/26419-page-images/p0012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3356ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0012.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0013.png b/26419-page-images/p0013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d1fa232
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0013.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0014.png b/26419-page-images/p0014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c993ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0014.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0015.png b/26419-page-images/p0015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f8fe53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0015.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0016.png b/26419-page-images/p0016.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0319938
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0016.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0017.png b/26419-page-images/p0017.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a181724
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0017.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0018.png b/26419-page-images/p0018.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a101735
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0018.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0019.png b/26419-page-images/p0019.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f158116
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0019.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0020.png b/26419-page-images/p0020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c74eda8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0020.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0021.png b/26419-page-images/p0021.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b03f955
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0021.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0022.png b/26419-page-images/p0022.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e35a69e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0022.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0023.png b/26419-page-images/p0023.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a1cf08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0023.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0024.png b/26419-page-images/p0024.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49983b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0024.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0025.png b/26419-page-images/p0025.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8ae4b4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0025.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0026.png b/26419-page-images/p0026.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9220829
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0026.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0027.png b/26419-page-images/p0027.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ee369c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0027.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0028.png b/26419-page-images/p0028.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b26f6db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0028.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0029.png b/26419-page-images/p0029.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f210df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0029.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0030.png b/26419-page-images/p0030.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2cb438f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0030.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0031.png b/26419-page-images/p0031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..98e62e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0031.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0032.png b/26419-page-images/p0032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e47491c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0032.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0033.png b/26419-page-images/p0033.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08d67fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0033.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0034.png b/26419-page-images/p0034.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e70c524
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0034.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0035.png b/26419-page-images/p0035.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bf8f4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0035.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0036.png b/26419-page-images/p0036.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c03a1c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0036.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0037.png b/26419-page-images/p0037.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ebaaf1e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0037.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0038.png b/26419-page-images/p0038.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..19655e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0038.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0039.png b/26419-page-images/p0039.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a77bbdf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0039.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0040.png b/26419-page-images/p0040.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7580c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0040.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0041.png b/26419-page-images/p0041.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43fa2f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0041.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0042.png b/26419-page-images/p0042.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e2b1b43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0042.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0043.png b/26419-page-images/p0043.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f63916b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0043.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0044.png b/26419-page-images/p0044.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c4fbe39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0044.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0045.png b/26419-page-images/p0045.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e41843
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0045.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0046.png b/26419-page-images/p0046.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d4f90b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0046.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0047.png b/26419-page-images/p0047.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd0e5be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0047.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0048.png b/26419-page-images/p0048.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..959f039
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0048.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0049.png b/26419-page-images/p0049.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e036abe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0049.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0050.png b/26419-page-images/p0050.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fbaed3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0050.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0051.png b/26419-page-images/p0051.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4bd2231
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0051.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0052.png b/26419-page-images/p0052.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6b572b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0052.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0053.png b/26419-page-images/p0053.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f87f2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0053.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0054.png b/26419-page-images/p0054.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4eb5ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0054.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0055.png b/26419-page-images/p0055.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f71da43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0055.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0056.png b/26419-page-images/p0056.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3525dd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0056.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0057.png b/26419-page-images/p0057.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..97b1c84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0057.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0058.png b/26419-page-images/p0058.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88f9170
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0058.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0059.png b/26419-page-images/p0059.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b55cb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0059.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0060.png b/26419-page-images/p0060.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b212f81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0060.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0061.png b/26419-page-images/p0061.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6de707e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0061.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0062.png b/26419-page-images/p0062.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b5af51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0062.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0063.png b/26419-page-images/p0063.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fae2606
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0063.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0064.png b/26419-page-images/p0064.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d618f8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0064.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0065.png b/26419-page-images/p0065.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46c572a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0065.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0066.png b/26419-page-images/p0066.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..57e9356
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0066.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0067.png b/26419-page-images/p0067.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41a1d95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0067.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0068.png b/26419-page-images/p0068.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e2c322d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0068.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0069.png b/26419-page-images/p0069.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..704a618
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0069.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0070.png b/26419-page-images/p0070.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b0d428
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0070.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0071.png b/26419-page-images/p0071.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d1db4ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0071.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0072.png b/26419-page-images/p0072.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a055571
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0072.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0073.png b/26419-page-images/p0073.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5faee82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0073.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0074.png b/26419-page-images/p0074.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c039ced
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0074.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0075.png b/26419-page-images/p0075.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe53c3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0075.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0076.png b/26419-page-images/p0076.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c87ff2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0076.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0077.png b/26419-page-images/p0077.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd4fc1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0077.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0078.png b/26419-page-images/p0078.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d18801e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0078.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0079.png b/26419-page-images/p0079.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c8a886
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0079.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0080.png b/26419-page-images/p0080.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f884b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0080.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0081.png b/26419-page-images/p0081.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..906d46b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0081.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0082.png b/26419-page-images/p0082.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39c8864
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0082.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0083.png b/26419-page-images/p0083.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f4e042
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0083.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0084.png b/26419-page-images/p0084.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d7e4c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0084.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0085.png b/26419-page-images/p0085.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f9298a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0085.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0086.png b/26419-page-images/p0086.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a0218ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0086.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0087.png b/26419-page-images/p0087.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad677aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0087.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0088.png b/26419-page-images/p0088.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a84f0b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0088.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0089.png b/26419-page-images/p0089.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fbdba23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0089.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0090.png b/26419-page-images/p0090.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11f844a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0090.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0091.png b/26419-page-images/p0091.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..577a091
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0091.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0092.png b/26419-page-images/p0092.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb7c95e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0092.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0093.png b/26419-page-images/p0093.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4c14a20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0093.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0094.png b/26419-page-images/p0094.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35b870e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0094.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0095.png b/26419-page-images/p0095.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..059ec4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0095.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0096.png b/26419-page-images/p0096.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b4a16d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0096.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0097.png b/26419-page-images/p0097.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..130c73b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0097.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0098.png b/26419-page-images/p0098.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de6dab7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0098.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0099.png b/26419-page-images/p0099.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1241cfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0099.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0100.png b/26419-page-images/p0100.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ff6b95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0100.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0101.png b/26419-page-images/p0101.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d831a72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0101.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0102.png b/26419-page-images/p0102.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49fb3fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0102.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0103.png b/26419-page-images/p0103.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb3798c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0103.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0104.png b/26419-page-images/p0104.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a61a0b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0104.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0105.png b/26419-page-images/p0105.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..40cdfa0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0105.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0106.png b/26419-page-images/p0106.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ee0ef9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0106.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0107.png b/26419-page-images/p0107.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d08c9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0107.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0108.png b/26419-page-images/p0108.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d1fd8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0108.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0109.png b/26419-page-images/p0109.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca0df05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0109.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0110.png b/26419-page-images/p0110.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f32880
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0110.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0111.png b/26419-page-images/p0111.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd6fafe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0111.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0112.png b/26419-page-images/p0112.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c0c99c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0112.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0113.png b/26419-page-images/p0113.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7bab4b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0113.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0114.png b/26419-page-images/p0114.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae21021
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0114.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0115.png b/26419-page-images/p0115.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8128f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0115.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0116.png b/26419-page-images/p0116.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4127199
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0116.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0117.png b/26419-page-images/p0117.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..428973a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0117.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0118.png b/26419-page-images/p0118.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1fc05e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0118.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0119.png b/26419-page-images/p0119.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..499e9ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0119.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0120.png b/26419-page-images/p0120.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91d23b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0120.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0121.png b/26419-page-images/p0121.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c431468
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0121.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0122.png b/26419-page-images/p0122.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..afd1208
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0122.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0123.png b/26419-page-images/p0123.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d1ebdab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0123.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0124.png b/26419-page-images/p0124.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..942b659
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0124.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0125.png b/26419-page-images/p0125.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29006db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0125.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0126.png b/26419-page-images/p0126.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..77ac940
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0126.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0127.png b/26419-page-images/p0127.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca7f510
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0127.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0128.png b/26419-page-images/p0128.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b6d7f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0128.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0129.png b/26419-page-images/p0129.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ddba68c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0129.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0130.png b/26419-page-images/p0130.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9550391
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0130.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0131.png b/26419-page-images/p0131.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6e5031
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0131.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0132.png b/26419-page-images/p0132.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e70cc84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0132.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0133.png b/26419-page-images/p0133.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd42a38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0133.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0134.png b/26419-page-images/p0134.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9abee84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0134.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0135.png b/26419-page-images/p0135.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fea800
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0135.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0136.png b/26419-page-images/p0136.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f1a64f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0136.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0137.png b/26419-page-images/p0137.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..09ef09c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0137.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0138.png b/26419-page-images/p0138.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f06843
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0138.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0139.png b/26419-page-images/p0139.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb3dad3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0139.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0140.png b/26419-page-images/p0140.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd1db72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0140.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0141.png b/26419-page-images/p0141.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f562dcd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0141.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0142.png b/26419-page-images/p0142.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a08f640
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0142.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0143.png b/26419-page-images/p0143.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad1f75d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0143.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0144.png b/26419-page-images/p0144.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ace820b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0144.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0145.png b/26419-page-images/p0145.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..370a464
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0145.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0146.png b/26419-page-images/p0146.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59005df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0146.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0147.png b/26419-page-images/p0147.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..abe20a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0147.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0148.png b/26419-page-images/p0148.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5b8c3cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0148.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0149.png b/26419-page-images/p0149.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd8463e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0149.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0150.png b/26419-page-images/p0150.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df92ae3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0150.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0151.png b/26419-page-images/p0151.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db937e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0151.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0152.png b/26419-page-images/p0152.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..93aa399
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0152.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0153.png b/26419-page-images/p0153.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..847b7ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0153.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0154.png b/26419-page-images/p0154.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79c5b15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0154.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0155.png b/26419-page-images/p0155.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da7fdec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0155.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0156.png b/26419-page-images/p0156.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eaccac8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0156.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0157.png b/26419-page-images/p0157.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a271faa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0157.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0158.png b/26419-page-images/p0158.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a49935
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0158.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0159.png b/26419-page-images/p0159.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd240f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0159.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0160.png b/26419-page-images/p0160.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ac40e54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0160.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0161.png b/26419-page-images/p0161.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..131da17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0161.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0162.png b/26419-page-images/p0162.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6fb5580
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0162.png
diff --git a/26419-page-images/p0163.png b/26419-page-images/p0163.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..26bd0d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419-page-images/p0163.png
diff --git a/26419.txt b/26419.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..02f0793
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7921 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Life of Gordon, Volume I, by Demetrius
+Charles Boulger
+
+
+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 Life of Gordon, Volume I
+
+
+Author: Demetrius Charles Boulger
+
+
+
+Release Date: August 24, 2008  [eBook #26419]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GORDON, VOLUME I***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs, Richard J. Shiffer, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 26419-h.htm or 26419-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/4/1/26419/26419-h/26419-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/4/1/26419/26419-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully
+      as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other
+      inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an
+      obvious error is noted at the end of this e-book.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF GORDON
+
+MAJOR-GENERAL, R.E., C.B.; TURKISH FIELD-MARSHAL, GRAND
+CORDON MEDJIDIEH, AND PASHA; CHINESE TITU (FIELD-MARSHAL),
+YELLOW JACKET ORDER.
+
+
+   "_'Tis a name which ne'er hath been dishonour'd,
+And never will, I trust--most surely never
+By such a youth as thou._"
+
+                           --SWINTON ON ADAM GORDON.
+
+by
+
+DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER
+
+Author of "The History of China;" "England and Russia in Central
+Asia;" "Lord William Bentinck," Etc., Etc.
+
+With Portrait
+
+VOLUME I
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+T. Fisher Unwin
+Paternoster Square
+MDCCCXCVI
+[All rights reserved.]
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL GORDON
+A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN SHORTLY AFTER THE CRIMEA AND LENT BY HIS NIECE,
+MISS DUNLOP.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+As so many books of a more or less biographical nature have been
+written about General Charles Gordon, it is both appropriate and
+natural that I should preface the following pages with a statement of
+a personal character as to how and why I have written another.
+
+In the year 1881 I told General Gordon that I contemplated describing
+his career as soon as I had finished writing my "History of China."
+His laughing reply was: "You know I shall never read it, but you can
+have all my papers now in the possession of my brother, Sir Henry
+Gordon." My history took a very long time to write, and the third
+volume was not published until April 1884, when General Gordon was
+hemmed in, to use his own words, at Khartoum.
+
+For over two years General Gordon's papers and letters remained in my
+custody, and they included the Equator and Soudan correspondence,
+which was so admirably edited by Dr Birkbeck Hill in that intensely
+interesting volume, "Colonel Gordon in Central Africa." The papers
+relating to China and the Taeping Rebellion were freely used in my
+history. To them I have the privilege of adding in the present volume
+an authoritative narrative of the events that followed the execution
+of the Taeping Wangs at Soochow, and of thus rendering tardy justice
+to the part taken in them by Sir Halliday Macartney. Among the
+contents of the large portmanteau in which all these documents were
+stored, I noticed a thick bundle of letters, in somewhat faded
+handwriting, and an examination of their contents showed me that they
+were of the deepest interest as relating to the important events of
+the Crimean War, and to the first seven years of Gordon's service in
+the Army. I at once went to Sir Henry Gordon, who honoured me with his
+friendship and confidence in no less a degree than his distinguished
+and ever-lamented brother, and begged of him permission to publish
+them. He at once gave his consent, which was ratified by the late Miss
+Augusta Gordon, the hero's favourite sister. The letters appeared in
+July 1884, under the title of "General Gordon's Letters from the
+Crimea, the Danube, and Armenia." In the proper place I have told what
+Kinglake, the historian of the war, thought of them and their author.
+
+In the rush of books that followed the fall of Khartoum, no favourable
+opportunity for carrying out my original purpose presented itself;
+and, indeed, I may say that the anonymous biographical work I
+performed during the course of the year 1885 would have filled a
+large-sized volume. Moreover, the terrible events of the fall of
+Khartoum, and the failure of the relieving expedition, were too close
+at hand to allow of a just view being taken of them, and it was
+necessary to defer an intention which I never abandoned. It seemed to
+me that the tenth anniversary of the fall of Khartoum would be an
+appropriate occasion for the appearance of a Life claiming to give a
+complete view and final verdict on the remarkable career and character
+of the man, with whom his own friendly inclination had made me
+exceptionally well acquainted.
+
+In 1893, therefore, I began to take steps to carry out my project, and
+to the notification of my intention and the application for assistance
+in regard to unpublished papers, I received from several of the
+principal representatives of the Gordon family encouraging replies.
+But at this time both Sir Henry Gordon and Miss Gordon were dead, and
+I discovered that the latter had bound her literary executrix, Miss
+Dunlop, a niece of General Gordon's, by a promise not to divulge the
+bulk of the unpublished papers during her lifetime. I am happy to
+say, however, that Miss Dunlop, without accepting any responsibility
+for what I have written, has with the greatest possible kindness read
+these pages, and assisted me to attain complete accuracy in the facts,
+so far as they relate to family and personal matters, but excluding
+altogether from her purview all military and political topics. For
+that co-operation, unfortunately restricted by the condition of the
+promise to Miss Gordon, I avail myself of this opportunity to express
+my grateful thanks; and I am also indebted to Miss Dunlop for the
+youthful unpublished portrait of Gordon which forms the frontispiece
+of this volume, and also for that of the house in which he was born.
+
+When I was first confronted with the difficulty that the unpublished
+papers would not be accessible to me, I contemplated the abandonment
+of my task; but a brief consideration made me conclude that, even
+without these documents, I had special knowledge, derived from Sir
+Henry Gordon and many other sources, that would enable me to deal with
+all the more important passages of General Gordon's life. The result
+must be judged from the Life itself; but I have not sought to make any
+partisan attack on anyone, although, when I have felt compelled to
+criticise and censure, I have done so with a full sense of
+responsibility as well as with reluctance. I may be pardoned the
+confidence I express when I say that I am sure nothing in the
+unpublished documents will affect the main conclusions to which I have
+come on the Khartoum mission, its inception and disastrous close.
+
+I am permitted by the courtesy of the proprietors of _The Times_ to
+reproduce in these pages the several articles and letters which
+originally appeared in the columns of that paper.
+
+It is a personal matter, of no interest except to myself, but I should
+like to state that the work would have been out much sooner but for a
+long and serious illness.
+
+                                   DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER
+
+  _29th August 1896._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  VOLUME I.
+
+  CHAP.                                                            PAGE
+
+    I. BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE                                           1
+
+   II. THE CRIMEA, DANUBE, AND ARMENIA                               16
+
+  III. THE CHINA WAR                                                 45
+
+   IV. THE TAEPING REBELLION                                         61
+
+    V. THE EVER-VICTORIOUS ARMY                                      78
+
+   VI. GRAVESEND AND GALATZ                                         127
+
+  VII. THE FIRST NILE MISSION                                       141
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+  PORTRAIT OF GENERAL GORDON, TAKEN SOON AFTER THE CRIMEA _Frontispiece_
+
+  HOUSE IN WHICH GENERAL GORDON WAS BORN               _To face page_ 16
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF GORDON.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE.
+
+
+Charles George Gordon was born on 28th January 1833, at No. 1 Kemp
+Terrace, Woolwich Common, where his father, an officer in the Royal
+Artillery, was quartered at the time. The picture given elsewhere of
+this house will specially interest the reader as the birthplace of
+Gordon. It still stands, as described by Gordon's father in a private
+memoir, at the corner of Jackson's Lane, on Woolwich Common.
+
+The name "Gordon" has baffled the etymologists, for there is every
+reason to believe that the not inappropriate connection with the
+Danish word for a spear is due to a felicitous fancy rather than to
+any substantial reality. There is far more justification for the
+opinion that the name comes through a French source than from a
+Danish. The Gorduni were a leading clan of Caesar's most formidable
+opponents, the Nervi; a Duke Gordon charged among the peers of
+Charlemagne; and the name is not unknown at the present day in the
+Tyrol. The "Gordium" of Phrygia and the "Gordonia" of Macedonia are
+also names that suggest an Eastern rather than a Northern origin.
+History strengthens this supposition and entirely disposes of the
+Danish hypothesis. The first bearer of the name Gordon appeared in
+Scotland at far too near a date to the Danish descents upon that
+country to encourage the view that he was a member of that most
+bitterly hated race. Nowhere were the Danes more hated or less
+successful than in Scotland, yet we are asked to believe that the
+founder of one of the most powerful families in that kingdom belonged
+to this alien and detested people. The silence itself of the
+chronicler sufficiently refutes the idea that the first Gordon was a
+renegade or a traitor, as he must have been if he were a Dane.
+
+In all probability the first Gordon, who helped Malcolm Canmore, and
+received in return a large grant of lands in Berwick, which became
+known as the Gordon country, was one of the many Norman knights
+attracted to the Court of Edward the Confessor. Accepting for the
+occasion the popular legendary version of Shakespeare, rather than the
+corrected account of modern historians, he may be supposed to have
+found his way north to the camp of Siward, where the youthful and
+exiled Scotch Prince had sought shelter from Macbeth, and it is no
+undue stretch of fancy to suggest that he took his part in the
+memorable overthrow of that usurper at Dunsinane, and thus obtained
+the favour of his successor. The growth of the Gordon family in place
+and power was rapid. To the lands on the borders was soon added the
+Huntly country on Deeside, where Aboyne Castle now stands, and in a
+very short period the Gordons ranked among the most powerful and
+warlike clans of Scotland. As Sir Walter Scott wrote of Adam Gordon,
+in words which might be appropriately applied to the subject of this
+biography:
+
+  "'Tis a name which ne'er hath been dishonour'd,
+  And never will, I trust--most surely never
+  By such a youth as thou!"
+
+Be its remote origin what it may, no name has appeared more
+prominently or more honourably in the British Army Lists during the
+last century and a half than that of Gordon. One of the most famous of
+our regiments bears and has nobly upheld the name. In honourable and
+friendly rivalry with the equally numerous and equally distinguished
+clans of Grant and Cameron, the Gordons have figured on every
+battlefield from Minden to Candahar, thus establishing at the same
+time the political wisdom of Chatham, who first turned the Highlanders
+from a cause of danger into a source of strength, and the military
+ardour and genius of their own race. Thus it came to pass that the
+spirit of remote warlike ages was perpetuated, and that the profession
+of arms continued to be the most natural one for any bearer of the
+name Gordon. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the
+practice of his nearest relations, as well as the traditions of his
+race, marked out Charles Gordon for a soldier's career.
+
+Passing over an uncertain connection with the General Peter Gordon,
+who rose high in the Russian service under Peter the Great, the
+nearest direct ancestor of whom we can speak with absolute confidence
+was Charles Gordon's great-grandfather David Gordon, who served as a
+lieutenant in Lascelles' regiment of foot--afterwards the 47th
+Regiment--at the battle of Prestonpans. Although the majority of the
+clans were still loyal to the Stuarts, it seems from this that some of
+them had entered the Hanoverian service probably in that most
+distinguished regiment, the First Royal Scots, which a few years
+before Culloden had fought gallantly at Fontenoy. At Prestonpans David
+Gordon had the bad fortune to be made prisoner by the forces of
+Charles Edward, and he found on the victorious side the whole of the
+Gordon clan, under the command of Sir William Gordon of Park, a
+younger son of the Earl of Huntly. As he was able to claim kindred
+with Sir William, David Gordon received better treatment than he might
+have expected, and in a short time was allowed to go free, either on
+an exchange of prisoners or more probably on his parole. This incident
+is specially interesting, because, after making every allowance for
+the remoteness and vagueness of the old Highland custom of cousinship,
+it seems to bring Charles Gordon's ancestry into sufficiently close
+relationship with the main Gordon stem of the Huntlys. After his
+release David Gordon does not appear to have taken any further part in
+the war which terminated at Culloden, and he emigrated shortly
+afterwards to North America, where his death is recorded as having
+taken place at a comparatively early age at Halifax in the year 1752.
+
+That he came of gentle blood is also proved by the fact that the Duke
+of Cumberland stood sponsor to his son, who bore the Duke's names of
+William Augustus. This second Gordon, of the particular branch that
+has interest for us, also entered the army, and held a commission in
+several regiments. The most memorable event in his life was his taking
+part in Wolfe's decisive victory on the heights of Abraham. In 1773 he
+married a lady, Miss Anna Maria Clarke, whose brother was rector of
+Hexham in Northumberland, and by her had a family of four daughters
+and three sons. Of the latter, two died at an early age, and only the
+youngest, William Henry, born in 1786, survived to manhood. He is
+especially interesting to us, because he was the father of General
+Gordon.
+
+Like his father and grandfather, William Henry Gordon chose the
+profession of a soldier, and entered the Royal Artillery. He saw a
+great deal of active service, being with his corps in the Peninsula
+and at Maida, commanding at a later period the Artillery at Corfu and
+Gibraltar, and attaining before his death in 1865 the rank of
+Lieutenant-General. He was also connected with the Woolwich Arsenal as
+Director of the Carriage Department. He has been described as an
+excellent officer if a somewhat strict disciplinarian, and his firm
+character of noble integrity lived again in his sons. He married, in
+1817, Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Enderby, a merchant whaler,
+one of those west country worthies who carried on the traditions of
+Elizabeth to the age of Victoria. It would not be possible to present
+a complete picture of Gordon's mother, and therefore none will be
+attempted here; but all the available evidence agrees in describing
+her as a paragon of women, and as having exercised an exceptional
+influence over her children. Gordon himself bore the most expressive
+testimony to her virtues and memory when, long years afterwards, he
+closed an exordium on the filial affection due to a mother with the
+outburst--"Oh! how my mother loved me!"
+
+Such in brief were the forebears of the hero who comes next after
+Nelson in national veneration. To understand him and his career, it
+must be remembered that he came of a gallant race, with a quick sense
+of honour, seeing clearly the obvious course of duty, and never
+hesitating in its fulfilment. These qualities were not peculiar to the
+man, but inherited from his race, and as they had never been
+contaminated by the pursuit of wealth in any form, they retained the
+pristine vigour and fire of a chivalrous and noble age. What was
+personal and peculiar to Charles Gordon had to be evolved by
+circumstance and the important occurrences with which it was his lot
+to be associated throughout his military and public career, but his
+soldierly talent and virtue must be mainly assigned to the traditions
+and practice of his ancestors.
+
+Of the five sons of General William Henry Gordon and Elizabeth
+Enderby, Charles George Gordon was the fourth. His eldest brother,
+Henry William Gordon, born in 1818, had entered the army, first in the
+8th Regiment, and transferred in a short time to the 59th, when, at
+the early age of ten, Charles Gordon was sent off to school at
+Taunton. The selection of this school in the western country was due
+to the head-master, Mr Rogers, being a brother of a governess in the
+Gordon family. Little is known of his early childhood beyond the fact
+that he had lived, before he was ten, at Corfu, where his father held
+a command for some years. The Duke of Cambridge has publicly stated
+that he recollects, when quartered at Corfu at this period, having
+seen a bright and intelligent boy who occupied the room next to his
+own, and who subsequently became General Gordon. At Taunton Gordon
+remained during the greater part of five years, enjoying the
+advantages of one of the most excellent grammar schools in the West of
+England, and although he failed to make any special mark as a scholar,
+I find that, whether on account of his later fame or for some special
+characteristic that marked him out from the general run of boys, his
+name is still remembered there by something more than the initials cut
+upon his desk. If he distinguished himself in anything it was in
+map-making and drawing, and he exhibited the same qualifications to
+the end of his career. How careful and excellent the grounding at
+Taunton school must have been was shown by the fact that, after one
+year's special coaching at Mr Jefferies' school at Shooter's Hill,
+Gordon passed direct into the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. It
+is noteworthy that during the whole of the period we are now
+approaching, he never showed the least tendency to extravagance, and
+his main anxiety seems to have been to save his parents all possible
+expense, more especially because they had a large family of daughters.
+To the end of his life, and in each successive post, Gordon was the
+slave of duty. At this time, and during the years that follow, down to
+the Chinese campaigns, his guiding thought was how to save his family
+the smallest expense on his account, and yet at the same time to hold
+his head high, and to show himself worthy of his race.
+
+Gordon entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1848, when he
+had not completed his sixteenth year, and during the four years he
+remained there he gave some evidence of the qualities that
+subsequently distinguished him, at the same time that he showed a
+lightness of disposition which many will think at strange variance
+with the gravity and even solemnity of his later years. Among his
+fellow-students he was not distinguished by any special or exclusive
+devotion to study. He was certainly no bookworm, and he was known
+rather for his love of sport and boisterous high spirits than for
+attention to his lessons or for a high place in his class. More than
+once he was involved in affairs that, if excusable and natural on the
+score of youth, trenched beyond the borders of discipline, and the
+stories of life at the Academy that he recited for many years after he
+left were not exactly in harmony with the popular idea of the ascetic
+of Mount Carmel.
+
+As the reader treasures up the boyish escapades of Nelson and Clive,
+so will enduring interest be felt in those outbreaks of the boy
+Gordon, which made him the terror of his superiors. They are recorded
+on the unimpeachable evidence of his elder brother, and some of them
+were even narrated by Gordon himself to his niece nearly thirty years
+after they happened. Sir Henry is the writer.
+
+     "Charles Gordon with a brother (William Augustus) more unruly
+     than himself, finding the time hang heavily upon their hands
+     during the vacation, employed themselves in various ways. Their
+     father's house (at Woolwich) was opposite to that of the
+     Commandant of the Garrison, and was overrun with mice. These were
+     caught, the Commandant's door quietly opened, and the mice were
+     transferred to new quarters. In after life (that is in 1879, when
+     in the Soudan) Charles Gordon wrote to one of his nieces: 'I am
+     glad to hear the race of true Gordons is not extinct. Do you not
+     regret the Arsenal and its delights? 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 crossbows we had made, they were grand with screws. One
+     Sunday afternoon twenty-seven panes of glass were broken in the
+     large storehouses. They were found to have been perforated with a
+     small hole (ventilation), and Captain Soady nearly escaped a
+     premature death; a screw passed his head, and was as if it had
+     been screwed into the wall which it had entered. Servants were
+     kept at the door with continual bell-ringings. Your uncle Freddy
+     (a younger brother) was pushed into houses, the bell rung, and
+     the door held to prevent escape. Those were the days of the
+     Arsenal.'"
+
+Sir Henry continues:
+
+     "But what Charles Gordon considered as his greatest achievement
+     was one that he in after years often alluded to. At this time
+     (1848) the senior class of Cadets, then called the Practical
+     Class, were located in the Royal Arsenal, and in front of their
+     halls of study there were earthworks upon which they were
+     practised from time to time in profiling and other matters. The
+     ins and outs of these works were thoroughly well known to Charles
+     Gordon and his brother, who stole out at night--but we will leave
+     him to tell his own story. He says: 'I forgot to tell----of how
+     when Colonel John Travers of the Hill Folk (he lived on Shooter's
+     Hill) was lecturing to the Arsenal Cadets in the evening, a crash
+     was heard, and every one thought every pane of glass was broken;
+     small shot had been thrown. However, it was a very serious
+     affair, for like the upsetting of a hive, the Cadets came out,
+     and only darkness, speed, and knowledge of the fieldworks thrown
+     up near the lecture-room enabled us to escape. That was before I
+     entered the curriculum. The culprits were known afterwards, and
+     for some time avoided the vicinity of the Cadets. I remember it
+     with horror to this day, for no mercy would have been shown by
+     the Pussies, as the Cadets were called.'"
+
+After he entered the Academy the same love of fun and practical joking
+characterised him. Sir Henry writes: "After he had been some time at
+the Academy and earned many good-conduct badges, an occasion arose
+when it became necessary to restrain the Cadets in leaving the
+dining-hall, the approach to which was by a narrow staircase. At the
+top of this staircase stood the senior corporal, with outstretched
+arms, facing the body of Cadets. This was too much for Charlie Gordon,
+who, putting his head down, butted with it, and catching the officer
+in the pit of the stomach not only sent him down the stairs, but
+through the glass door beyond. The officer jumped up unhurt, and
+Gordon was placed in confinement and nearly dismissed.
+
+"Upon another occasion, when he was near his commission, a great deal
+of bullying was going on, and in order to repress it a number of the
+last comers were questioned, when one of them said that Charlie Gordon
+had on one occasion hit him on the head with a clothesbrush. The lad
+admitted it was not a severe blow; nevertheless Charlie Gordon was for
+this slight offence put back six months for his commission, which
+turned out well in the end, since it secured for him a second
+lieutenancy in the Royal Engineers in place of the Royal Artillery."
+This alteration in the branch of the service to which he was attached
+was due to his own act. He decided that, as his contemporaries would
+be put ahead of him, he would work for the Engineers instead of the
+Artillery.
+
+Even to the end of his life there were two sides to his character.
+Private grief, much disappointment, and a long solitary existence,
+contributed to make him a melancholy philosopher, and a sometimes
+austere critic of a selfish world, but beneath this crust were a
+genial and generous disposition that did not disdain the lighter side
+of human nature, a heart too full of kindness to cherish wrath for
+long, and an almost boyish love of fun that could scarcely be
+repressed. If this was the individual in his quieter and contemplative
+moods, an energy that never tired, and a warlike spirit that only
+needed the occasion to blaze forth, revealed the man of action. It may
+be pronounced a paradox to say so, but to the end of his life the true
+Gordon was more of the soldier than the saint.
+
+Even in the midst of his escapades at the Academy, something of the
+spirit of the future hero revealed itself. However grave the offence
+or heavy the punishment, he was never backward in taking his share--or
+more than his share--of the blame for any scrape into which he and his
+friends were brought by their excessive high spirits. On more than one
+occasion his ardour and sense of justice resulted in his being made
+the scapegoat of worse offenders, and it seems probable that he
+generally bore more than his proper share of the blame and punishment
+for acts of insubordination. But there were limits to his capacity of
+suffering and sense of guilt, and when one of his superiors declared
+that he "would never make an officer," he touched a point of honour,
+and Gordon's vigorous and expressive reply was to tear the epaulettes
+from his shoulder and throw them at his superior's feet. In this
+incident the reader will not fail to see a touch and forecast of
+greatness. He was ever willing to pay the penalty of youthful
+indiscretion, but he was sensitive to the reproach of honour, and his
+exuberant spirits detracted in no respect from his sense of the
+nobility of his profession. His earnestness saved him from the
+frivolity into which a light heart and good health might have led him,
+and compensated for his disinclination to devote all his spare time to
+the severer studies of his college.
+
+On June 23rd, 1852, nearly four years after he entered the Royal
+Military Academy, Charles Gordon passed out with the rank of second
+lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. Notwithstanding some remissness in
+his work, he had passed through all his examinations--"Those terrible
+examinations," as he said long years afterwards--"how I remember them!
+Sometimes I dream of them,"--and in accordance with the regulations in
+force he was sent to Chatham for the purpose of completing there his
+technical training as an engineer officer. Chatham, as is well known,
+is the Headquarters of the Royal Engineer Corps, to which it stands in
+the same relation as Woolwich to the Artillery. There Gordon remained
+until February 1854, constantly engaged on field work and in making
+plans and surveys, at which his old skill as a draughtsman soon made
+him exceptionally competent. This kind of work was also far more
+congenial to him than the cramming at the Academy, and he soon gained
+the reputation of being an intelligent and hard-working subaltern. In
+the month named he attained the grade of full lieutenant, and on
+taking his step he was at once ordered to Pembroke Dock, then one of
+the busiest naval depots and most important military arsenals in the
+country. The war clouds were already lowering over Eastern Europe, and
+although all hope of maintaining peace had not been abandoned,
+arrangements were in progress for the despatch, if necessary, of a
+strong naval and military expedition to the Black Sea.
+
+At Pembroke, Gordon was at once employed on the construction of the
+new fortifications and batteries considered necessary for the defence
+of so important a position, and in one of his letters home he wrote:
+"I have been very busy in doing plans for another fort, to be built at
+the entrance of the haven. I pity the officers and men who will have
+to live in these forts, as they are in the most desolate places, seven
+miles from any town, and fifteen from any conveyance." Seclusion and
+solitude had evidently no charms for him at that period. In another
+letter about this time he wrote expressing his relief at being "free
+from the temptations of a line regiment," and concluded with the
+self-depreciatory remark that he was "such a miserable wretch that he
+was sure to be led away." In yet another letter from Pembroke, written
+not many weeks after his arrival, he reveals something of the deep
+religious feeling which was no doubt greatly strengthened by his
+experiences in the Crimea, and which became stronger and more
+pronounced as years went on. In writing to his favourite sister in the
+summer of 1854, he gives the following interesting bit of biographical
+information: "You know I never was confirmed. When I was a cadet I
+thought it was a useless sin, as I did not intend to alter (not that
+it was in my power to be converted when I chose). I, however, took my
+first sacrament on Easter Day (16th April 1854) and have communed ever
+since."
+
+Charles Gordon was still occupied on the Pembroke fortifications when
+war broke out with Russia on the Eastern Question. His father was at
+the time stationed at Gibraltar in command of the Royal Artillery, and
+was never employed nearer the scene of hostilities during the war. But
+his two elder brothers were at the front--the eldest, the late Sir
+Henry Gordon, at Balaclava, where he served in the Commissariat, and
+the next brother, the late General Enderby Gordon, with his battery
+under Lord Raglan. At the battle of the Alma, fought on 20th September
+1854, Enderby Gordon specially distinguished himself, for he worked
+one of the two guns of Turner's Battery, which exercised such a
+decisive influence on the fortunes of the day. Readers of Kinglake's
+"History" will remember that it was the flank fire of these two guns
+which compelled the Russian battery of sixteen guns on the Causeway to
+retire and thus expose the Russian front to our attack. It is a little
+curious to find that while one brother was thus distinguishing himself
+in the first battle of the war, another was writing from Pembroke Dock
+as follows: "---- says there were no artillery engaged in the battle
+of the Alma, so that Enderby was safe out of that." Enderby Gordon
+also distinguished himself at Inkerman, where he acted as aide-de-camp
+to General Strangeways. He subsequently earned the reputation of a
+good officer during the Indian Mutiny, and when he died he had, like
+his father, attained the rank of Lieutenant-General, and received
+besides the Companionship of the Bath. One characteristic incident has
+been recorded of him. As he commanded a column in India, he had only
+to ask for promotion to obtain it; this he declined to do, because he
+would thus have stepped over a friend.
+
+In General Gordon's own letters from the Crimea there are frequent
+references to his eldest brother, Henry Gordon, a man of whom it may
+be said here that the best was never publicly known, for during a long
+and varied career, first in the combative branch of the army as an
+officer of the 59th Regiment, and then as a non-combative officer in
+the Ordnance Department, he showed much ability, but had few
+opportunities of special distinction. In several of General Gordon's
+transactions Sir Henry was closely mixed up, especially with the Congo
+mission; and I should like to say, of my own knowledge, that he was
+thoroughly in sympathy with all his projects for the suppression of
+the slave trade, had mastered the voluminous Blue Books and official
+papers, from the time of Ismail to the dark days of Khartoum, in so
+thorough a manner that the smallest detail was fixed in his brain, and
+had so completely assimilated his brother's views that an hour's
+consultation with him was almost as fertile a source of inspiration
+as it would have been with the General himself. I believe that the
+original cause of Sir Henry's influence over his brother was that he
+disclaimed having any, and that he most carefully avoided any attempt
+to force his advice on his younger brother, as so many of our elders
+deem to be their right and prerogative. General Gordon was a bad
+listener to advice at any time or from anyone. He acted almost
+entirely on his own judgment, and still more on his own impulse. His
+first thoughts were his best thoughts, or, perhaps, as Tennyson says,
+"his third thoughts, which are a maturer first." Sir Henry knew the
+ingrained and unalterable character of his brother, and adapted
+himself to it, partly through affection and partly through admiration,
+for in his eyes Charles Gordon was the truest of heroes. No man ever
+possessed a truer or more solicitous friend than General Gordon found
+in him. Sir Henry was thoroughly devoted to him and his interests, and
+carried out all his wishes and instructions to the very letter.
+
+Having said this much about the relations between Gordon and his
+brother, it would be an inexcusable omission to pass over the still
+more striking sympathy and affection that united him with his sisters.
+From his first appointment into the service he corresponded on
+religious and serious subjects with his elder sister, the late Miss
+Gordon, who only survived her brother a few years, with remarkable
+regularity, and as time went on the correspondence became more, rather
+than less constant, and in his letters to her were to be found his
+most secret thoughts and aspirations. Most of the letters from the
+Crimea were addressed to his mother; but, in an interesting volume
+published in 1888, Miss Gordon presented the world with the remainder
+of her brother's letters, spread over thirty active and eventful
+years. One of General Gordon's most cherished objects, resembling in
+that, as in other respects, Lord Lawrence, was to add to the comfort
+of his sisters, and when he left England on his last fatal mission to
+Egypt, his will, made the night before he left for Brussels, provided
+that all he possessed should be held in trust for the benefit of his
+well-beloved sister, Mary Augusta, and that it was to pass only on her
+death to the heirs he therein designated. It is not necessary to enter
+into fuller particulars on this subject, but it may be proper to say
+that his affection for his other sisters was not less warm or less
+reciprocated. Of his six sisters, of whom two alone survive, it is
+only necessary to refer here (in addition to Miss Gordon) to the
+youngest, who married Dr Andrew Moffitt, who was not merely head
+medical officer with the Ever Victorious Army, but Gordon's right-hand
+man in China. Dr Moffitt was a man of high courage; on one occasion he
+saved Gordon's life when a Taeping attempted to murder him in his
+tent, and an English officer, who served with the Force, has described
+him in these two lines: "He was imbued with the same spirit as his
+future brother-in-law; he was a clever Chinese scholar and an A1
+surgeon." Dr Moffitt, who received a gold medal and order, besides the
+Red Button of a Mandarin, from the Chinese Government for his
+brilliant services against the Taepings, died prematurely. To say less
+about these family relations would be an omission; to say more would
+be an intrusion, and they may be left with the reflection that as no
+one who knew him will dispute the depth and the strength of General
+Gordon's sentiments as a friend, his feelings towards the members of
+his own family cannot well be impugned.
+
+Some account of the personal appearance of General Gordon will be
+deemed necessary, and may be appropriately given at this stage,
+although the subject is a dangerous one, because so very few people
+form the same impression about any one's appearance. There has been
+much discussion as to General Gordon's exact height, and I have been
+to much pains to obtain some decisive evidence on the subject.
+Unfortunately no such records as to height, etc., are kept about
+officers, and my search proved fruitless, more especially as the
+records at Woolwich for the period required were destroyed by fire
+some years ago. The best evidence I have obtained is that of General
+Gordon's tailors, Messrs Batten & Sons, of Southampton, who write: "We
+consider, by measurements in our books, that General Gordon was 5 ft.
+9 in." As he had contracted a slight stoop, or, more correctly
+speaking, carried his head thrown forward, he looked in later life
+much less than his real height. The quotations at the end of this
+chapter will show some difference of opinion. His figure was very
+slight, but his nervous energy could never be repressed, and he was
+probably stronger than his appearance suggested. The suggestion of
+delicate health in his look and aspect, arising, as he was led to
+believe, but erroneously, from _angina pectoris_, or some mysterious
+chest pain, may have induced a belief that he was not robust, but this
+seems to have been baseless, because throughout his life, whether in
+the trenches of Sebastopol, the marshes of the Yangtse delta, or the
+arid plains of the Soudan, he appears to have equally enjoyed
+excellent health.
+
+The only specific mention of serious illness was during his stay in
+the Soudan as Governor-General, when the chest pains became acute.
+These were at length traced to an enlarged liver, and perhaps the
+complaint was aggravated by excessive smoking. In the desert, far
+removed from medical aid, he obtained much relief from the use of
+Warburg's Tincture.
+
+In his ordinary moods there was nothing striking about the face. The
+colour of the eye was too light--yet the glance was as keen as a
+rapier, and, as the little Soudan boy Capsune, whom he had educated,
+said, "Gordon's eyes looked you through and through"--the features
+were not sufficiently marked, the carriage of the man was too
+diffident and modest to arrest or detain attention, and the
+explanation of the universal badness of the numerous photographs taken
+of him at all stages of his career is probably to be found in the
+deficiency of colouring and contrast. Everything in his appearance
+depended on expression, and expression generally baffles the
+photographer. Perhaps the least objectionable of all these
+portraitures is the steel plate in Dr Birkbeck Hill's volume on
+"Gordon in Central Africa," and that not because it is a faithful
+likeness, but because it represents a bust that might well be imagined
+to belong to a hero. It was only when some great idea or some subject
+in which he was interested seized his imagination that one could
+perceive that the square jaw denoted unshakable resolution, and that
+the pale blue eye could flash with the fire of a born leader of men.
+In tranquil moments no one would have been struck by a casual glance
+at his face, but these were rare, for in congenial company, and with
+persons he trusted, Gordon was never tranquil, pacing up and down the
+room, with only brief stops to impress a point on his listener by
+holding his arm for a few seconds, and looking at him intently to see
+if he followed with understanding and interest the drift of his
+remarks, lighting cigarette after cigarette to enable him to curb his
+own impetuosity, and demonstrating in every act and phrase the truth
+of his own words that "inaction was intolerable to him." Such was the
+man as I recall him on the all too few occasions when it was my
+privilege and good fortune to receive him during his brief visits to
+London of late years, and to hear from him his confidential views on
+the questions in which he took so deep an interest. One final remark
+must be hazarded about the most remarkable point after all in General
+Gordon's personality. I refer to his voice. It was singularly sweet,
+and for a man modulated in a very low tone, but there was nothing
+womanish about it, as was the case with his able contemporary Sir
+Bartle Frere, whose voice was distinctly feminine in its timbre. I
+know of no other way to describe it than to say that it seemed to me
+to express the thorough and transparent goodness of the speaker, and
+the exquisite gentleness of his nature. If angels speak with the human
+voice, Gordon's tone must have borne affinity to theirs.
+
+In completing this subject it may be appropriate to quote a few of the
+more important and interesting descriptions of his personal
+appearance, contributed by those who had opportunities of seeing him.
+
+An officer, who served with General Gordon in China, describes his
+first interview with him in the following words:--
+
+     "C---- introduced me to a light-built, active, wiry, middle-sized
+     man of about thirty-two years of age, in the undress uniform of
+     the Royal Engineers. The countenance bore a pleasant frank
+     appearance, eyes light blue, with a fearless look in them, hair
+     crisp and inclined to curl, conversation short and decided. This
+     was Major C. G. Gordon."
+
+General Sir Gerald Graham who, to use his own words, was Gordon's
+"school-fellow at Woolwich, his comrade in the Crimea and China, and
+for many years past a more or less regular correspondent," has put on
+record the following interesting description of the hero, and it
+should not be forgotten that, excepting his companion, Colonel Donald
+Stewart, and Mr Power, General Graham was the last Englishman to see
+General Gordon in this world.
+
+     "Not over 5 feet 9 inches in height, but of compact build, his
+     figure and gait characteristically expressed resolution and
+     strength. His face, although in itself unpretending, was one that
+     in the common phrase 'grew upon you.' Time had not streaked with
+     grey the crisp, curly brown hair of his youth and traced lines of
+     care on his ample forehead and strong clear face, bronzed with
+     exposure to the tropical sun. His usual aspect was serene and
+     quiet, and although at times a ruffling wave of uncontrollable
+     impatience or indignation might pass over him, it did not disturb
+     him long. The depth and largeness of Gordon's nature, which
+     inspired so much confidence in others, seemed to afford him a
+     sense of inner repose, so that outer disturbance was to him like
+     the wind that ruffles the surface of the sea, but does not affect
+     its depths. The force and beauty of Gordon's whole expression
+     came from within, and as it were irradiated the man, the steady,
+     truthful gaze of the blue-grey eyes seeming a direct appeal from
+     the upright spirit within. Gordon's usual manner charmed by its
+     simple, unaffected courtesy, but although utterly devoid of
+     self-importance he had plenty of quiet dignity, or even of
+     imperious authority at command when required. With his friends he
+     had a fund of innocent gaiety that seemed to spring from his
+     impulsiveness, while his strong sense of humour often enabled him
+     to relieve his impatience or indignation by a good-natured
+     sarcasm."
+
+Two further descriptions by men who served under him at Gravesend in
+the interval between the Taeping War and the first mission to the
+Soudan will suffice to complete the personal impressions that may help
+the reader to form some idea of the appearance of General Gordon. The
+first is from the pen of Mr W. E. Lilley, who brought out a special
+volume on Gordon at Gravesend.
+
+     "In Colonel Gordon's appearance there was nothing particularly
+     striking. He was rather under the average height, of slight
+     proportions, and with little of the military bearing in his
+     carriage, so that one would hardly have imagined that this
+     kindly, unassuming gentleman was already one who had attracted
+     the notice of his superiors by his courage and zeal in the
+     Crimean War, and who had won lasting renown by subduing in China
+     one of the greatest revolts the world had ever seen. This last
+     exploit had gained for him the name by which he was from that
+     time best known, viz. "Chinese Gordon." The greatest
+     characteristic of his countenance was the clear blue eye, which
+     seemed to have a magical power over all who came within its
+     influence. It read you through and through; it made it impossible
+     for you to tell him anything but the truth, it inspired your
+     confidence, it kindled with compassion at any story of distress,
+     and it sparkled with good humour at anything really funny or
+     witty. From its glance you knew at once that at any risk he would
+     keep his promise, that you might trust him with anything and
+     everything, and that he would stand by you if all other friends
+     deserted you."
+
+The other impression, formed under precisely the same circumstances,
+is that of Mr Arthur Stannard, recorded in the _Nineteenth Century_ of
+April 1885.
+
+     "The next moment I was looking into Chinese Gordon's eyes. What
+     eyes they were! Keen and clear, filled with the beauty of
+     holiness, bright with an unnatural brightness, their expression
+     one of settled feverishness, the colour blue-grey as is the sky
+     on a bitter March morning. In spite of the beautiful goodness of
+     his heart and the great breadth of his charity, Gordon was far
+     from possessing a placid temperament or from being patient over
+     small things. Indeed his very energy and his single-mindedness
+     tended to make him impatient and irritable whenever any person or
+     thing interfered with his intentions or desires.... For a man of
+     his small stature his activity was marvellous--he seemed able to
+     walk every one else off their legs over rough ground or
+     smooth.... In Gordon strength and weakness were most
+     fantastically mingled. There was no trace of timidity in his
+     composition. He had a most powerful will. When his mind was made
+     up on a matter it never seemed to occur to him that there could
+     be anything more to say about it. Such was his superb confidence
+     in himself!"
+
+When Gordon had been only a few months at Pembroke Dock he received
+orders to proceed to Corfu, and believing it to be due to his father's
+request, he wrote: "I suspect you used your influence to have me sent
+there instead of to the Crimea. It is a great shame of you." But the
+Fates were to be stronger than any private influence, for four days
+after he wrote those lines he received fresh orders directing him to
+leave for the Crimea without delay in charge of huts. It seems that
+the change in his destination was due to Sir John Burgoyne, to whom he
+had expressed the strongest wish to proceed to the scene of war. On
+4th December 1854, he received his orders at Pembroke, on the 6th he
+reported himself at the War Office, and in the evening of the same day
+he was at Portsmouth. It was at first intended that he should go out
+in a collier, but he obtained permission to proceed _via_ Marseilles,
+which he pronounced "extremely lucky, as I am such a bad sailor." This
+opinion was somewhat qualified later on when he found that the
+Government did not prepay his passage, and he expressed the opinion
+pretty freely, in which most people would concur, that "it is very
+hard not to give us anything before starting." He left London on the
+14th December, Marseilles in a French hired transport on the 18th, and
+reached Constantinople the day after Christmas Day. He was not much
+struck with anything he saw; pronounced Athens "very ugly and dirty,"
+and the country around uncommonly barren; and was disappointed with
+the far-famed view on approaching Constantinople. The professional
+instinct displayed itself when he declared that the forts of the
+Dardanelles did not appear to be very strong, as, although numerous,
+they were open at the rear and overlooked by the heights behind. On
+28th December Gordon left Constantinople in the _Golden Fleece_
+transport conveying the 39th Regiment to Balaclava. The important huts
+had not yet arrived in the collier from Portsmouth, but they could not
+be far behind, and Gordon went on in advance. The huts, it may be
+added, were built to contain twenty-four men, or two captains and four
+subalterns, or two field-officers or one general, and the number of
+these entrusted to the charge of Gordon was 320. These reinforcements
+were the first sent out to mitigate the hardships the British Army
+underwent during a campaign that the genius of Todleben and the
+fortitude of his courageous garrison rendered far more protracted and
+costly than had been anticipated.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE HOUSE IN WHICH GENERAL GORDON WAS BORN, ON
+WOOLWICH COMMON.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE CRIMEA, DANUBE, AND ARMENIA.
+
+
+Charles Gordon reached Balaclava on New Year's Day, 1855. He found
+everyone engaged in foraging expeditions, that the siege of Sebastopol
+excited no interest, that the road from the bay to the hill was like a
+morass, and that a railway to traverse it was being slowly laid down.
+Gordon remained about three weeks at Balaclava assisting in the
+erection of huts, and in the conveyance of some of them to the front.
+When this task was accomplished he was himself ordered to the
+trenches, where his work could not fail to be more exciting and also
+more dangerous than that upon which up to this he had been engaged.
+
+Before following him it will be useful to summarise the leading events
+that had taken place in the Crimea up to this date. War between
+England and France on the one side, and Russia on the other, was
+finally declared in March 1854, the allied forces landed in the Crimea
+early in September 1854, and the first battle was fought on the Alma
+stream on the 20th of that month. In that battle 60,000 allied
+troops--20,000 English, 40,000 French--attacked 120,000 Russians in a
+strong and well-chosen position. The result was a brilliant victory
+for the allies, and there is no doubt that it was mainly won by the
+dashing attack of the English Infantry. The losses were--French, 60
+killed and 500 wounded; English, 362 killed and 1620 wounded, thus
+furnishing clear evidence as to the force which bore the brunt of the
+engagement. The Russian loss was computed to be not less than 6000, or
+double that of the allies.
+
+As the allied forces advanced towards Sebastopol the Russian Army
+assumed the offensive. The brilliant and never-to-be-forgotten Cavalry
+charges on 25th October, of the Light and Heavy Brigades, under
+Cardigan and Scarlett respectively, at Balaclava in the valley that
+stretched at the foot of the hills overlooking the bay of that name,
+had not merely vindicated the reputation of English horsemen for dash
+and daring, but had done something--at excessive cost, it is true--to
+clear the advance for the whole army. When the Russians, assuming in
+their turn the offensive, attacked our camps on the heights of
+Inkerman, they were repulsed with heavy loss on both sides, and with
+the result that more than six months elapsed before they again
+ventured to show any inclination to attack in the open field, and then
+only to meet with fresh discomfiture on the banks of the Tchernaya.
+
+The battle of Inkerman was fought in the early morning of 5th
+November, and again the brunt of the fighting fell on the English
+army. The Russian General, Todleben, subsequently stated that he
+reluctantly decided to attack the English camp instead of the French,
+because "the English position seemed to be so very weak." Here again
+the losses give no misleading idea of the proportionate share of the
+two allied armies in the struggle. While the Russian loss was put down
+in all at 11,000 men, the French lost 143 killed and 786 wounded; the
+English, 597 killed and 1760 wounded.
+
+The opinion has been confidently expressed that if a rapid advance and
+attack had been made on Sebastopol immediately after Inkerman, the
+fortress would have been easily captured; but both before and during
+the siege the Russians made the best use of every respite the Allies
+gave them, and this lost opportunity, if it was one, never recurred.
+It will thus be seen that some of the most interesting incidents of
+the war had passed before Gordon set foot in the Crimea, but for an
+engineer officer the siege and capture of the fortress created by
+Todleben under the fire of his foes presented the most attractive and
+instructive phase of the campaign.
+
+At this time the French army mustered about 100,000 men, the British
+about 23,000, and the Russian garrison of Sebastopol 25,000. In
+addition, there was a covering army, under the Grand Dukes and General
+Liprandi, which, despite its losses at Inkerman, was probably not less
+than 60,000 but the successive defeats at Alma, Balaclava, and
+Inkerman had broken the confidence of the troops and reduced their
+leaders to inaction. The batteries were nearly completed when Gordon
+reached the front, and a good deal had already been written and said
+about the hardships of the soldiers. Gordon was a man of few wants,
+who could stand any amount of fatigue, and throughout his life he was
+always disposed to think that soldiers should never complain. Writing
+as late as 12th February 1855, when the worst of the winter was over,
+he says: "There are really no hardships for the officers; the men are
+the sufferers, and that is partly their own fault, as they are like
+children, thinking everything is to be done for them. The French
+soldier looks out for himself, and consequently fares much better."
+Something of the same conclusion had been forced on him when on board
+the French transport between Marseilles and Athens when he wrote: "The
+poor French soldiers, of whom there were 320 on board without any
+shelter, must have suffered considerably from cold; they had no
+covering, and in spite of the wet, cold, and bad weather, they kept up
+their health however, and their high spirits also, when our men would
+have mutinied." And again, later on: "We have capital rations, and all
+the men have warm clothing, and more than enough of that. They of
+course grumble and growl a good deal. The contrast with the French in
+this respect is not to our advantage." It must in fairness be
+remembered that the worst of the maladministration was over before he
+reached the scene, and that he came with those reinforcements, not
+merely of men, but still more especially of supplies, which ended "the
+winter troubles," and converted them into the sanguine hopes and views
+of the spring.
+
+Gordon was not long in the trenches before he came under fire, and the
+account of his first experience of real warfare may be given in his
+own words:--
+
+     "The night of February 14th I was on duty in the trenches, and if
+     you look at the plan I sent you and the small sketch enclosed I
+     will explain what I had to do. The French that night determined
+     to join their sentries on their right and our sentries on our
+     left, in advance of their and our trenches, so as to prevent the
+     Russians coming up the ravine, and then turning against our
+     flank. They determined to make a lodgment in the ruined house
+     marked _B_ on the sketch, and to run a trench up the hill to the
+     left of this, while I was told to make a communication by
+     rifle-pits from the caves _C_ to the ruined house _B_. I got,
+     after some trouble, eight men with picks and shovels, and asked
+     the captain of the advance trench to give me five double sentries
+     to throw out in advance. It was the first time he had been on
+     duty here; and as for myself, I never had, although I kept that
+     to myself. I led forward the sentries, going at the head of the
+     party, and found the sentries of the advance had not held the
+     caves, which they ought to have done after dark, so there was
+     just a chance of the Russians being in them. I went on, however,
+     and, though I did not like it, explored the caves almost alone.
+     We then left two sentries on the hill above the caves, and went
+     back, to get round and post two sentries below the caves.
+     However, just as soon as we showed ourselves outside the caves
+     and below them, bang! bang! went two rifles, the bullets hitting
+     the ground close to us. The sentries with me retired in a rare
+     state of mind, and my working party bolted, and were stopped with
+     great difficulty. What had really happened was this: It was not a
+     Russian attack, but the two sentries whom I had placed above the
+     caves _had fired at us_, lost their caps, and bolted to the
+     trench. Nothing after this would induce the sentries to go out,
+     so I got the working party to go forward with me. The Russians
+     had, on the report of our shots, sent us a shower of bullets,
+     their picket not being more than 150 yards away. I set the men to
+     work, and then went down to the bottom of the ravine, and found
+     the French in strength hard at work also. Having told them who we
+     were, I returned to the trench, where I met Colonel ---- of the
+     1st Royals. I warned him if he went out he would be sure to be
+     hit by our own sentries or the Russians. He would go, however,
+     and a moment afterwards was hit in the breast, the ball going
+     through his coats, slightly grazing his ribs, and passing out
+     again without hurting him. I stayed with my working party all
+     night, and got home very tired."
+
+In further illustration of the confusion prevailing in the trenches at
+night, he mentions in the same letter that while trying to find the
+caves he missed his way, and "very nearly walked into the town by
+mistake."
+
+This was the more surprising because Gordon's intimate knowledge of
+the trenches was remarkable and well known. The following testimony
+given by Sir Charles Staveley affords striking proof that this
+reputation was not undeserved:--
+
+     "I happened to mention to Charlie Gordon that I was field officer
+     for the day for command in the trenches next day, and, having
+     only just returned from sick leave, that I was ignorant of the
+     geography of our left attack. He said at once, 'Oh! come down
+     with me to-night after dark, and I will show you over the
+     trenches.' He drew me out a very clear sketch of the lines (which
+     I have now), and down I went accordingly. He 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."
+
+The late Sir George Chesney, a very competent and discriminating
+witness, gives evidence to the same effect:--
+
+     "In his humble position as an Engineer subaltern he attracted the
+     notice of his superiors, not merely by his energy and activity,
+     but by a special aptitude for war, developing itself amid the
+     trench work before Sebastopol in a personal knowledge of the
+     enemy's movements _such as no other officer attained_. We used to
+     send him to find out what new move the Russians were making."
+
+The next incident of the siege described by Gordon occurred about a
+week after his _bapteme de feu_ in the caves. While the French were
+somewhat deliberately making at Inkerman a battery for fifteen guns,
+the Russians, partly in a spirit of bravado, threw up in a single
+night a battery for nearly twenty guns immediately opposite, at a
+distance of not more than 600 yards from the French. As this was made
+in the open ground, it was a defiance which could not be tolerated,
+and the French accordingly made their arrangements to assault it.
+Kinglake has graphically described the surprise of the French when
+they discovered this "white circlet or loop on the ground," and the
+attempt made by three battalions, with two other battalions in
+reserve, to capture it. A battalion of Zouaves, under the command of
+Colonel Cere, carried it in fine style, but the Russian reserves came
+up in great force, and their own reserves "declining to come to the
+scratch," as Gordon laconically put it, the Zouaves were in their turn
+compelled to fall back, with a loss of 200 killed. Encouraged by this
+success, the Russians gave the French another surprise a few days
+later, throwing up a second battery 300 yards further in advance of
+the first "white circlet." These two batteries, mounting between them,
+according to Kinglake, twenty-two guns, were finally strengthened and
+equipped by 10th March, and although the French talked much of
+storming them, nothing was done, much to Gordon's disgust. It was
+while these operations were in progress that Charles Gordon had a
+narrow escape of being killed. A shot from one of the Russian
+rifle-pits "as nearly as possible did for me," he wrote; "the bullet
+was fired not 180 yards off, and passed an inch above my nut into a
+bank I was passing." His only comment on this is very characteristic:
+"They are very good marksmen; their bullet is large and pointed."
+
+This was the first but not the last escape he had during the siege.
+One of his brothers, writing home some three months later, a few days
+before the assault on the Redan, wrote as follows: "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 about five yards in front of him and burst, not
+touching him. If it had not burst it would have taken his head off."
+Of this later shave Gordon himself says nothing, but he describes a
+somewhat similar incident, which had, however, a fatal result. "We
+lost one of our captains named Craigie by a splinter of a shell. The
+shell burst above him, and by what is called chance struck him in the
+back, killing him at once."
+
+During the three months March, April, and May, the siege languished,
+and Gordon apologises for the stupidity of his letters with the
+graphic observation: "It is not my fault, as none of the three
+nations--French, English, or Russian--will do anything."
+
+At the end of May, however, there was a renewal of activity. General
+Pelissier succeeded to the French command, and, unlike his
+predecessors, made it his primary object to act in cordial
+co-operation with the English commander. He was also in favour of an
+energetic prosecution of the siege, with the view to an early
+assault. All the batteries were by this time completed, and 588 guns,
+with 700 rounds in readiness for each gun, were opposed to the 1174 in
+the Russian fortress. It only remained to utilise this terrific force,
+and at last orders were given for the commencement of what was known
+as the third bombardment. After nearly two days' incessant firing the
+French stormed the Mamelon and two advance redoubts. These were
+successfully carried and held, at the same time that the English
+stormed a position called the Quarries, close under the formidable
+Redan. Of this bombardment Gordon gives in one of his letters a very
+good description:--
+
+     "On the 6th we opened fire from all our batteries. I was on duty
+     in the trenches. I could distinctly see the Russians in the Redan
+     and elsewhere running about in great haste, and bringing up their
+     gunners to the guns. They must have lost immensely, as our shot
+     and shell continued to pour in upon them for hours without a
+     lull. Never was our fire so successful. Before seven we had
+     silenced a great many of their guns, while our loss was very
+     small--only one man killed and four wounded. I was struck
+     slightly with a stone from a round shot and stunned for a second,
+     which old Jones has persisted in returning as wounded. [It was,
+     notwithstanding, a real wound.] However, I am all right, so do
+     not think otherwise. Our fire was continued all night, and the
+     next day until four o'clock, when we opened with new batteries
+     much nearer, and our fire then became truly terrific. Fancy 1000
+     guns (which is the number of ourselves, the French, and Russians
+     combined) firing at once shells in every direction. On our side
+     alone we have thirty-nine 13" mortars. At half-past five three
+     rockets gave the signal for the French to attack the Mamelon and
+     the redoubts of Selingkinsk and Volhynia. They rushed up the
+     slope in full view of the allied armies. The Russians fired one
+     or two guns when the French were in the embrasures. We then saw
+     the Russians cut out on the other side, and the French after
+     them, towards the Malakoff Tower, which they nearly reached, but
+     were so punished by the guns of this work that they were obliged
+     to retire, the Russians in their turn chasing them through the
+     Mamelon into their own trenches. This was dreadful, as it had to
+     be assaulted again. The French, however, did so immediately, and
+     carried it splendidly. The redoubts of Volhynia and Selingkinsk
+     were taken easily on our side. In front of the right attack a
+     work called the Quarries had to be taken, which was done at the
+     same time as the Mamelon. The Russians cut out and ran, while our
+     men made their lodgment for our fellows. We were attacked four
+     times in the night, but held the work. If we had liked to
+     assault, I am sure we should have taken the place with little
+     loss, some of our men being close to the Redan. The French took
+     twenty guns and 400 prisoners, and found the Mamelon so traversed
+     as to have no difficulty in making their lodgment. We were driven
+     from the Quarries three times in the night, the Russians having
+     directed all their efforts against them. Our loss is supposed to
+     be 1000 killed and wounded. Nearly all our working party had to
+     be taken for fighting purposes. The attacking columns were 200
+     strong; one went to the right, and the other to the left of the
+     Quarries. The reserve consisted of 600 men. The Russians fought
+     desperately."
+
+A further week was occupied with a heavy but desultory bombardment,
+but at last on 17th June what is known as "the fourth bombardment"
+proper began, and after it had continued for about twenty-four hours,
+orders were given for the assault to be made by the French on the
+Malakoff and the English on the Redan on the 18th June, a date ever
+memorable in military annals. The silence of the Russian guns induced
+a belief that the allied fire had overpowered theirs, and in
+consequence orders for the attack were given twenty-four hours sooner
+than had been intended. Kinglake, in his exhaustive History, has shown
+how this acted adversely on the chances of the assault, because the
+Russian gunners had really only reserved their fire, and also
+especially because the Redan, which we had to attack under the
+original arrangement between Lord Raglan and General Pelissier, had
+hardly suffered any damage from the bombardment. General Gordon's long
+account of this memorable assault will long be referred to as a
+striking individual experience:--
+
+     "I must now commence my long story of our attempted assault. To
+     take up my account from 14th June, which was the last letter I
+     wrote to you, Seeley, my fellow-subaltern at Pembroke, arrived on
+     the 15th, and joined the right. On the evening of the 16th it was
+     rumoured we were to commence firing again in the morning. I was
+     on duty on the morning of the 17th, and I went down at half-past
+     two A.M. At 3 A.M. all our batteries opened, and throughout the
+     day kept up a terrific fire. The Russians answered slowly, and
+     after a time their guns almost ceased. I mentioned in my report
+     that I thought they were reserving their fire. [If this view had
+     only been taken by the Generals, especially Pelissier, a dreadful
+     waste of life would have been averted, and the result might have
+     proved a brilliant success.] We did not lose many men. I remained
+     in the trenches until 7 P.M.--rather a long spell--and on coming
+     up dined, and found an order to be at the night attack at twelve
+     midnight on June 17 and 18. I was attached to Bent's column, with
+     Lieutenants Murray and Graham, R.E., and we were to go into the
+     Redan at the Russians' right flank. Another column, under Captain
+     de Moleyns and Lieutenants Donnelly and James, R.E., was to go
+     in at the angle of the salient; and another under Captain Jesse,
+     Lieutenants Fisher and Graves, was to go in at the Russian left
+     flank. We passed along in our relative positions up to the
+     advanced trench, which is 200 yards from the Redan, where we
+     halted until the signal for the attack should be given from the
+     eight-gun battery, where Lord Raglan, Sir G. Brown, and General
+     Jones were.
+
+     "About 3 A.M. the French advanced on the Malakoff Tower in three
+     columns, and ten minutes after this our signal was given. The
+     Russians then opened with a fire of grape, which was terrific.
+     They mowed down our men in dozens, and the trenches, being
+     confined, were crowded with men, who foolishly kept in them
+     instead of rushing over the parapet of our trenches, and by
+     coming forward in a mass, trusting to some of them at least being
+     able to pass through untouched to the Redan, where of course,
+     once they arrived, the artillery could not reach them, and every
+     yard nearer would have diminished the effect of the grape by
+     giving it less space for spreading. We could then have moved up
+     our supports and carried the place.
+
+     "Unfortunately, however, our men dribbled out of the ends of the
+     trenches, ten and twenty at a time, and as soon as they appeared
+     they were cleared away. Some hundred men, under Lieutenant
+     Fisher, got up to the abattis, but were not supported, and
+     consequently had to retire.
+
+     "About this time the French were driven from the Malakoff Tower,
+     which I do not think they actually entered, and Lord Raglan very
+     wisely would not renew the assault, as the Redan could not be
+     held with the Malakoff Tower in the hands of the Russians.
+     Murray, poor fellow, went out with the skirmishers of our
+     column--he in red, and they in green. He was not out a minute
+     when he was carried back with his arm shattered with grape.
+     Colonel Tylden called for me, and asked me to look after him,
+     which I did, and as I had a tourniquet in my pocket I put it on.
+     He bore it bravely, and I got a stretcher and had him taken back.
+     He died three hours afterwards. I am glad to say that Dr Bent
+     reports he did not die from loss of blood, but from the shock,
+     not being very strong.
+
+     "A second after Murray had gone to the rear, poor Tylden, struck
+     by grape in the legs, was carried back, and although very much
+     depressed in spirits he is doing well. Jesse was killed at the
+     abattis--shot through the head--and Graves was killed further in
+     advance than any one. We now sat still waiting for orders, and
+     the Russians amusing themselves by shelling us from mortars. When
+     we appeared, the Russians lined their parapets as thick as
+     possible, and seemed to be expecting us to come on. They flew two
+     flags on the Malakoff Tower the whole time in defiance of us.
+     About ten o'clock some of the regiments got orders to retire.
+     We, the Royal Engineers, however, stayed until twelve o'clock,
+     when we were told that the assault was not to be renewed, and
+     that we could go. Thus ended our assault, of the result of which
+     we felt so sure. The first plan made was that we should fire for
+     three hours and go in at six o'clock, but the French changed it,
+     and would not wait until we had silenced the enemy's artillery
+     fire, and so we attacked at 3 A.M. My father can tell the effect
+     of grape from twelve 68-pounders and 32-pounders at 200 yards
+     upon a column; but whatever may be the effect, I am confident
+     that if we had left the trenches in a mass, some of us would have
+     survived and reached the Redan, which, once reached, the Highland
+     Brigade and Guards would have carried all before them, and the
+     place would have fallen. General Jones was struck by a stone in
+     the forehead, but not much hurt. I believe it is said that the
+     trenches were too high to get over. As the scaling-ladders were
+     carried over them, this can hardly be sustained. So much for
+     _our_ assault.
+
+     "Now for the assault which was made from the left attack. General
+     Eyre had an order given him to make a feint at the head of the
+     creek if we were successful at the Redan; however, at five
+     o'clock, when we had failed at the Redan, we heard a very sharp
+     attack on the head of the creek. The 44th and other regiments
+     advanced, drove the Russians out of a rifle-pit they held near
+     the cemetery, and entered some houses there. The Russians then
+     opened a tremendous fire on the houses, and the men took shelter
+     in line, being under no command, their own officers not knowing
+     where they were to go, or anything about the place, and no
+     Engineer officer being with them. The men sheltered themselves in
+     the houses until they were knocked about their ears. They then
+     remained in different places--in fact, wherever they could get
+     any shelter, until dusk, as, if they had attempted to retire,
+     they would have been all destroyed. The men of General Eyre's
+     column found lots of drink in the houses. Our losses in the four
+     columns are--1400 killed and wounded, 64 officers wounded, and 16
+     killed. The French lost 6000 killed and wounded, they say!
+     Nothing has occurred since the assault, but it is determined to
+     work forward by sap and mine!"
+
+In a subsequent letter he wrote: "Remember, in spite of all the absurd
+reports in the papers, that our troops never once passed the abattis
+in front of the Redan, which is sixty yards from it, and that we have
+never spiked a gun of the Russians," and before closing his narrative
+account of the Redan, the passage in which Mr Kinglake refers to
+Gordon's evidence and action on this eventful day may well be quoted.
+It appears from his statement that Gordon lost his temper through
+excitement at the repulse, and even upbraided and used angry language
+to his old friend and comrade, Lieutenant, now General Sir Gerald,
+Graham, on his coming back to the trenches. Such language, it may be
+pointed out, could not have been used with less justice to any soldier
+taking part in the assault than to the man who had carried a ladder
+farther than anyone else, and twice endeavoured to place it against
+the Redan. It illustrates the perfervid zeal and energy of the young
+officer, who explained in his letters home how he thought the Russian
+fortress might have been carried at a rush, and appropriately
+introduces the passage in which Mr Kinglake records his opinion of
+Gordon:
+
+     "This impassioned lieutenant of sappers was a soldier marked out
+     for strange destinies, no other than Gordon--Charles Gordon--then
+     ripening into a hero, sublimely careless of self, and a warrior
+     saint of the kind that Moslems rather than Christians are fondly
+     expecting from God."
+
+I cannot refrain from quoting here a letter I received from Mr
+Kinglake when I sent him a copy of my edition of "General Gordon's
+Letters from the Crimea," etc., as it records a somewhat more
+deliberate opinion on his character and career:--
+
+
+                                   "28 HYDE PARK PLACE,
+                                   "MARBLE ARCH, W., _27th July 1884_.
+
+     "DEAR SIR,--I indeed feel greatly obliged to you for your
+     kindness in sending me a copy of 'General Gordon's Letters from
+     the Crimea.'
+
+     "Already I have read a great part of the volume, and I need
+     hardly say that, apart from the reasons which link me to the
+     Crimea, I have been greatly interested by seeing what was
+     thought, and felt, and expressed in his early days by this really
+     phenomenal man, whose romantic elevation above all that is base
+     and common has made him, in even these days, a sort of warlike
+     and heroic Redeemer.
+
+     "Your Preface well and ably expresses an opinion that is widely
+     entertained as to the conduct of our Government towards Gordon,
+     and I don't know enough of the question to be able to gainsay
+     your conclusion, but it would seem at first glance that,
+     considering the imperative reasons, the vast distances, the
+     changeful condition of things, and the consequent changes of
+     mind, the task of doing justice between the Government and this
+     heroic envoy would be one of some complexity. With my repeated
+     thanks,--I remain, dear sir, very truly yours,
+
+                                   "A. W. KINGLAKE."
+
+
+
+
+Ten days after the repulse at the Redan, Lord Raglan, the gallant
+soldier over whose bier Pelissier wept like a child, died "of wear and
+tear and general debility," as Gordon put it, and the siege again
+entered upon another dull and uninteresting stage. Nearly three
+months were to elapse before the capture of the fortress that had
+resisted so long, and the only incident of marked importance during
+that period was the battle of the Tchernaya, in which the officers in
+the trenches had no part. In that action the last effort of the
+Russian commanders to relieve the place and extricate Todleben from
+his peril was repulsed by the whole allied forces, for in this
+engagement both the Italians and Turks took part, with a loss of seven
+or eight thousand men. The only comment Gordon makes on the action is
+that "the Sardinians behaved very well." At last, on 8th September, a
+second general assault was delivered, the English again attacking the
+Redan, and, more fortunate in one sense than on the earlier occasion,
+effected a lodgment in the fortress, but were then driven out with
+heavy loss. But the French succeeded in storming and holding the
+Malakoff, which commanded the Redan, and the Russians retired to the
+northern side of the harbour during the night after blowing up their
+ships. The fall of Sebastopol, especially after the doubts held and
+expressed in July and August as to whether the siege would not have to
+be raised, caused the greatest excitement and widespread satisfaction.
+General Gordon sent home the following graphic description of this
+final and at last successful attack:--
+
+     "I must now endeavour to give you my idea of our operations from
+     the eventful 8th of September to the present 16th. We knew on the
+     7th that it was intended that the French should assault the
+     Malakoff Tower at twelve the next day, and that we and another
+     column of the French should attack the Redan and central bastion.
+     The next day proved windy and dusty, and at ten o'clock began one
+     of the most tremendous bombardments ever seen or heard. We had
+     kept up a tolerable fire for the last four days, quite warm
+     enough; but for two hours this tremendous fire extending six
+     miles was maintained. At twelve the French rushed at the
+     Malakoff, took it with ease, having caught the defenders in their
+     bomb-proof houses, where they had gone to escape from the shells,
+     etc. They found it difficult work to get round to the Little
+     Redan, as the Russians had by that time got out of their holes.
+
+     "However, the Malakoff was won, and the tricolour was hoisted as
+     a signal for our attack. Our men went forward well, losing
+     apparently few, put the ladders in the ditch, and mounted on the
+     salient of the Redan, but though they stayed there five minutes
+     or more, they did not advance, and tremendous reserves coming up
+     drove them out. They retired well and without disorder, losing in
+     all 150 officers, 2400 men killed and wounded. We should have
+     carried everything before us if the men had only advanced. The
+     French got driven back with great loss at the central bastion,
+     losing four general officers. They did not enter the work. Thus,
+     after a day of intense excitement, we had only gained the
+     Malakoff. It was determined that night that the Highlanders
+     should storm the Redan the next morning.
+
+     "I was detailed for the trenches, but during the night I heard
+     terrible explosions, and going down to the trenches at 4 A.M. I
+     saw a splendid sight--the whole town in flames, and every now and
+     then a terrific explosion. The rising sun shining on the scene of
+     destruction produced a beautiful effect. The last of the Russians
+     were leaving the town over the bridge. All the three-deckers,
+     etc., 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 reading the Service over
+     them. About ten o'clock Fort Paul was blown up--a beautiful
+     sight. The town was not safe to be entered on account of the fire
+     and the few Russians who still prowled about. The latter cut off
+     the hands and feet of one Frenchman. They also caught and took
+     away a sapper who would go _trying_ to plunder--for as to plunder
+     there was and is literally nothing but rubbish and fleas, the
+     Russians having carried off everything else. I have got the lock
+     and sight off a gun (which used to try and deposit its contents
+     very often in my carcass, in which I am grateful to say it
+     failed) for my father, and some other rubbish (a Russian cup,
+     etc.) for you and my sisters. But you would be surprised at the
+     extraordinary rarity of knick-knacks. They left their pictures in
+     the churches, which form consequently the only spoil, and which I
+     do not care about buying. I will do my best to get some better
+     things if it is possible. On the 10th we got down to the docks,
+     and a flag of truce came over to ask permission to take away
+     their wounded from the hospital, which we had only found out that
+     day contained 3000 wounded men. These unfortunate men had been
+     for a day and a half without attendance. A fourth of them were
+     dead, and the rest were in a bad way. I will not dwell any more
+     on it, but could not imagine a more dreadful sight.
+
+     "We have now got into the town, the conflagration being out, and
+     it seems quite strange to hear no firing. It has been a splendid
+     city, and the harbour is magnificent. We have taken more than
+     4000 guns, destroyed their fleet, immense stores of provisions,
+     ammunition, etc. (for from the explosions they did not appear to
+     be short of it), and shall destroy the dockyard, forts, quays,
+     barracks, storehouses, etc. For guns, Woolwich is a joke to it.
+     The town is strewn with our shell and shot, etc. We have traced
+     voltaic wires to nearly every powder magazine in the place. What
+     plucky troops they were! When you hear the details of the siege
+     you will be astonished. The length of the siege is nothing in
+     comparison with our gain in having destroyed the place.
+
+     "We are not certain what the Russians are doing on the north
+     side, and as yet do not know whether we shall follow them up or
+     not. We ought to, I think. It is glorious going over their horrid
+     batteries which used to bully us so much. Their dodges were
+     infinite. Most of their artillerymen, being sailors, were
+     necessarily handy men, and had devised several ingenious modes of
+     riveting, which they found very necessary. There was a vineyard
+     under our attack, a sort of neutral ground where no one dared to
+     venture, either Russian or English. We found lots of ripe grapes
+     there. The Russians used to fire another description of grape
+     into it. One night I was working with a party at this very spot,
+     and out of 200 men we lost 30 killed and wounded. We are engaged
+     in clearing the roads, burning the rubbish, and deodorizing the
+     town, taking account of the guns, etc. Nothing is stirring; the
+     Russians fire a little into the town. We hear they are
+     retreating, but do not believe it. The French, it seems, took the
+     Malakoff by surprise. They had learnt from a deserter that the
+     Russians used to march one relief of men out of the place before
+     the other came in on account of the heavy fire; whilst this was
+     being done the French rushed in and found the Malakoff empty. The
+     Russians made three attempts to retake it, the last led by a
+     large body of officers alone. Whenever the Russians commenced a
+     battery they laid down first a line of wires to the magazine with
+     which they could blow it up at any time."
+
+With this final tribute to the courage of the Russian garrison,
+Charles Gordon's account of the siege and fall of Sebastopol closes.
+He took part in the expedition to Kimburn, when General Spencer
+commanded a joint force of 9000 men intended to dislodge the Russians
+from a fort they had built at that place, and also to attack a corps
+of 10,000 men supposed to be stationed at the important town of
+Kherson. The fort surrendered after four hours' bombardment by the
+fleet--the garrison not being "the same style of soldiers as the
+Sebastopol men"--but the Kherson force was never encountered, retiring
+as the allies advanced, who in their turn retired for fear of being
+drawn too far into the country. In one of several letters while on
+this expedition Gordon says that the Czar Alexander the Second was
+near Kimburn during the attack, and that he sent the Governor a
+telegram, "Remember Holy Russia," which the Russian General did by
+getting drunk. The expedition was then withdrawn after installing a
+French garrison in the fort, and Charles Gordon returned to his old
+quarters before Sebastopol. A fortnight after his arrival he was
+appointed to take part in the destruction of the docks, which was to
+signalise the downfall of Russia's power in the Black Sea. This
+closing episode is very well described in several of his letters
+written during the month of December 1855:--
+
+     "I am now, as you see, stationed in the dockyard preparing the
+     shafts and galleries for the demolition of the docks. The French
+     will destroy one half and ourselves the other. The quantity of
+     powder we shall use is 45,000 lbs., in charges varying from 80
+     lbs. to 8000 lbs. The French do not sink their shafts so deep as
+     we do, but use heavier charges. The docks are very well made, and
+     the gates alone cost L23,000. We are taking one gate to London,
+     and the French another to Paris. Our shafts are some of them very
+     deep, and in others there are from eight to ten feet of water.
+     There is not much prospect of the Russians leaving the north
+     side. We can see them hutting themselves.... Our works at the
+     docks approach completion, and we hope to blow up some portion of
+     them on Saturday. The French blew up one last Saturday. The
+     explosion presented a splendid appearance and succeeded
+     admirably, not a stone being left standing. The powder for our
+     demolition will be upwards of twenty-two tons. The Russians still
+     (27th December) hold the north forts, and do not appear to be
+     likely to leave this year as their huts are all built. We can see
+     them quite distinctly on the other side.... _January 20,
+     1856._--We have blown up part of our docks, and are very busy
+     with the remainder, which we hope to get over by the end of the
+     month. I do not anticipate any movement of the army until March,
+     when I suppose we shall go to Asia to relieve Kars, and make the
+     Russians retire from the Turkish territory.... _February 3,
+     1856._--We all of us have been extremely busy in loading and
+     firing our mines in the docks, which required all our time, as we
+     were so very short of officers, having only three, while the
+     French had twelve. Our force of sappers was only 150 and the
+     French had 600. We have now finished the demolition, which is
+     satisfactory as far as the effects produced are concerned; but
+     having used the voltaic battery instead of the old-fashioned
+     hose, we have found that electricity will not succeed in large
+     operations like this, and I do not think that anyone will use it
+     if there is a possibility of using hose. I am now engaged in
+     making plans of the docks, and have not much time to myself. The
+     French have done their work very well, using more powder than we,
+     and firing all their mines with hose. I will try and get you a
+     photograph of the docks as they _were_ and as they _are_, which
+     will tell you more than a dozen letters would. We had an alarm
+     down here the other night about twelve o'clock. The Russians on
+     the north side opened a tremendous fire throughout the whole line
+     on us and on the French. We were all out under arms, expecting an
+     attack by boats, but after being well shelled for an hour, the
+     Russians left off, and all was again silent; but for the time it
+     lasted the fire was terrific. I heard afterwards that it was
+     caused by a French navy captain, who pulled over to the other
+     side of the harbour, and tried to burn a steamer which was lying
+     on its side. He and his companions arrived unperceived, found the
+     steamer quite new, and were getting into it, when the Russian
+     sentinel challenged. They answered 'Russe,' but the sentry called
+     'To arms,' and the Russians fired into the boat, and then
+     continued the fire from all their guns, I suppose expecting a
+     grand attack. Only one man, however, was hurt by a splinter on
+     the arm. The French will blow up Fort Nicholas on Monday. They
+     only got their order the night before last, and are obliged to
+     make a hasty demolition of it. They will use 105,000 lbs. of
+     powder in the demolition. The Russians had ruined this fort, but
+     had not had time to put in the powder; the excavations were
+     complete. It certainly is a splendid fort, mounting 128 guns, and
+     capitally finished for barracks. It would hold 6000 men. The
+     Russians evidently intended this to be an exceptionally strong
+     place, and they appear to have been making a quay all the way
+     round the dockyard creek. We have seen a great deal of the French
+     engineers; they are older men than ours, and seem well educated.
+     The non-commissioned officers are much more intelligent than our
+     men. With us, although our men are not stupid, the officers have
+     to do a good deal of work which the French sapper
+     non-commissioned officer does. They all understand line of least
+     resistance, etc., and what they are about. The Russians do not
+     molest us much now. We can hear them call out and sing,
+     especially on Sundays. We can see them drill, which they do every
+     day. They even have the coolness to go out and fish in the
+     harbour. We never fire, neither do the French. I do not think
+     they purpose leaving the north side; in fact, it would not be at
+     all wise of them to do so. We had some French engineers to dine
+     with us the other day; they were very agreeable, and we learnt a
+     great deal from them about their mining. They used to hear the
+     Russians mining within ten feet of them, and when they did this
+     they used to put in their powder as quick as possible and blow in
+     the Russian mines. The Russians had two systems or layers of
+     mines, one about ten feet below the surface of the ground and the
+     other about forty feet. The French only knew of the higher one,
+     and they found out after the place was taken that their advanced
+     trenches were quite mined and loaded in the lower tier. In the
+     Bastion du Mat there were no less than thirty-six mines loaded
+     and tamped. I saw one myself in the upper tier when I was
+     surveying it. They (the Russians) worked out a strata of clay
+     between two layers of rock, so that no wood was required to keep
+     the earth from falling in."
+
+Soon after these letters a truce was concluded with the Russians in
+anticipation of the peace which was ultimately signed at Paris in
+March 1856. The prospects of peace were not altogether agreeable to
+the English army, which had been raised to an effective strength of
+more than 40,000 men, and was never in a better condition for war than
+at the end of the two years since it first landed in the Chersonese.
+Gordon's correspondence contains two or three remarks, giving
+characteristic evidence to the strength and extent of this sentiment.
+
+In one passage he says: "We do not, generally speaking, like the
+thought of peace until after another campaign. I shall not go to
+England, but expect I shall remain abroad for three or four years,
+which _individually_ I would sooner spend in war than peace. There is
+something indescribably exciting in the former."
+
+Another comment to the same effect is the following: "Suders, the
+Russian General, reviewed us and the French army last week. He must
+have thought our making peace odd."
+
+Gordon did not obtain any honour or promotion for his Crimean
+services. He was included in Sir Harry Jones's list of Engineer
+Subalterns who had specially distinguished themselves during the
+siege. The French Government, more discerning than his own, awarded
+him the Legion of Honour.
+
+The letters from the Crimea are specially interesting for the light
+they throw on General Gordon's character. They illustrate better than
+anything else he wrote during his career the soldierly side of his
+character. The true professional spirit of the man of war peers forth
+in every sentence, and his devotion to the details of his work was a
+good preparatory course for that great campaign in China where his
+engineering skill, not less than his military genius, was so
+conspicuously shown. As a subaltern in the Crimea Gordon showed
+himself zealous, daring, vigilant, and with that profound national
+feeling that an army of Englishmen was the finest fighting force in
+the world, combined with an inner conviction that of that army his
+kindred Highlanders were the most intrepid and leading cohort. This
+was a far more attractive and comprehensible personality than the
+other revealed in later days, of the Biblical pedant seeking to
+reconcile passing events with ancient Jewish prophecies, and to see in
+the most ordinary occurrences the workings of a resistless and
+unalterable fate. That was not the true Gordon, but rather the
+grafting of a new character on the original stem of Spartan simplicity
+and heroism. But to the very end of his career, to the last message
+from Khartoum, the old Gordon--the real Gordon, the one who will never
+be forgotten--revealed himself just as he was in the trenches before
+Sebastopol.
+
+Gordon's connection with the Russian War and the Eastern Question did
+not terminate with the Treaty of Paris. On 10th May he received orders
+to join Colonel Stanton, for the purpose of assisting in the
+delimitation of the new frontier in Bessarabia. He imagined that the
+work would take six months; it really took a year. A not unimportant
+principle was involved in this question, and an error in a map was
+nearly securing for the Russians a material advantage. At the Paris
+Congress it was determined to eloin the Russians from the Danube and
+its tributary lakes and streams. The Powers therefore stated that the
+Russian frontier should pass south of Bolgrad, judging from the small
+scale-map supplied by the Russians that Bolgrad was north of Lake
+Yalpukh, which opens into the river Danube. When the Boundary
+Commission came on the ground, they found that Bolgrad was on Lake
+Yalpukh, and that if the frontier passed to the south of it the
+Russians would have access to the Danube; and therefore, knowing the
+spirit of the Treaty, the English Commissioners referred the question
+to the Paris Congress. A sketch was prepared by Gordon and his
+colleagues, to show the diplomatists its exact position, and led to
+the frontier being laid down north of Bolgrad and Lake Yalpukh.
+Austria, as well as France, Turkey, and Russia, was represented on
+this Commission, and Gordon's comrade was Lieutenant, afterward
+General Sir Henry, James, who had served with him in the trenches, and
+who had one day lost his way and walked into the Russian lines, as
+Gordon himself had so nearly done.
+
+Gordon's letters give an interesting account of his work, and bring
+out with his usual clearness all the points at issue; but it is
+unnecessary to follow very closely the events of the year he passed in
+the lower Danube region. How excellent his work must have been can be
+judged from the fact that the Government sent him back some years
+later to act as British Consul at Galatz. The delimitation work
+commenced with a personal inspection of the frontier from Katamori on
+the Pruth to Boma Sola on the Black Sea, a distance of 200 miles. Then
+the frontier was defined on the map, and finally it had to be marked
+on the ground with the usual posts and distinctive marks. Thirty-two
+separate plans had to be prepared before the frontier could be
+adjusted, and the frequent bickerings and quarrels gave rise to many
+surmises that the negotiations might be broken off and hostilities
+ensue. The main point of dispute as to Bolgrad threatened to form a
+_casus belli_ with even a new arrangement of the Powers, as France
+gave up the case, and thus encouraged Russia to prove more obdurate.
+But England and the other Powers stood firm, and Bolgrad was included
+in Moldavia.
+
+The following extracts give a tolerably complete account of what was
+done. Writing from Kichenief on 9th January 1857, Gordon said:
+
+     "We are now settled as to the frontier question. Russia has given
+     up Bolgrad and received a portion of territory in exchange equal
+     to that surrendered, both as to number of inhabitants and also as
+     to extent of land. This mode of compensation will give us more
+     than half our work to do over again. I had almost finished my
+     plans, and one-half of these will have to be redrawn. However, it
+     is a consolation to know that the thing is settled. We heard all
+     this by telegraph from Paris, and by the same message learnt that
+     we are to proceed at once to work on the frontier in order to get
+     it finished by 30th March, and thus allow of the ceded territory
+     being handed over to the Moldavians on that day. You may imagine
+     what a hurry they are in to get this finished. The Russians
+     pretend to believe that they have got the best of the dispute,
+     but it will be difficult to persuade the world to be of the same
+     opinion. Although so cold, there is not much snow, and it is
+     beautifully clear weather, capital for sledging. The new frontier
+     leaves Tobak and Bolgrad in Moldavia, and gives a piece of land
+     near the Pruth in exchange to Russia.... The territory will be
+     given over in two parts. The southern consists of Ismail, Kilia,
+     Reni, and Bolgrad, as well as the delta of the Danube. The
+     northern part consists of the land between the Pruth and
+     Yalpukh.... We have finished our work, everything has been
+     signed, and the total number of the plans we have made is upwards
+     of 100. For my part, I have had enough of them for my whole
+     life."
+
+This wish was not to be gratified, for before Colonel Stanton's
+Commission was dissolved orders came for him to hand over his officers
+and men to Colonel--now Field-Marshal Sir Lintorn--Simmons, for the
+purpose of settling the boundary in Armenia, where a dispute had
+arisen about the course of the river Aras, the ancient Araxes. Gordon,
+who had now had two and a half years of foreign service without a
+break, did not relish this task, and even went to the expense of
+telegraphing for permission to exchange; but this effort was in vain,
+for the laconic reply of the Commander-in-Chief was: "Lieutenant
+Gordon must go." If Gordon had under-estimated the time required for
+the Bessarabian delimitation, he slightly over-estimated that for the
+Armenian, as his anticipated two years was diminished in the result to
+twenty-one months.
+
+He left Constantinople on 1st May 1857 on board a Turkish steamer,
+_Kars_, bound for Trebizonde. The ship was overcrowded with dirty
+passengers, and the voyage was disagreeable, and might have been
+dangerous if the weather had not proved exceptionally favourable. On
+arriving at Trebizonde horses had to be engaged for the ten days'
+journey across the 180 miles of difficult country separating that port
+from Erzeroum, the Armenian capital. The total caravan of the English
+and French Commissioners--the latter being Colonel Pelissier, a
+relative of the Marshal--numbered ninety-nine horses; and the Turkish
+Commissioner, being unable to obtain any money from his Government,
+seized the horses necessary for his journey in a manner that first
+opened Gordon's eyes to the ways of Pashas. He stopped on the road
+every caravan he met, threw off their goods, put on his own, and
+impounded the animals for his journey. After a brief stay at
+Erzeroum--which Gordon describes as a very pretty place at a distance,
+but horribly dirty when entered, and where there are eight or nine
+months of very hard winter--the Commission passed on to Kars, which
+became its headquarters. The heroic defence of that fortress was then
+recent, and it is still of sufficient interest as a military episode
+to justify the quotation of the evidence Gordon, with his
+characteristic desire to be well informed, collected on the spot while
+the events themselves were fresh. For convenience' sake, his remarks
+on Kars and the whole campaign are strung together here, although they
+appeared in several letters:--
+
+     "Kars is, as you can easily imagine, a ruined city, and may
+     perhaps never recover its former strength and importance. As far
+     as the works of defence are concerned, they are excessively badly
+     traced. A little pamphlet published by Kmety, a Hungarian, gives
+     a graphic description of the siege. One thing difficult if not
+     impossible to realise without seeing it, is the large extent of
+     the position. Kars has been twice in the hands of the Russians
+     during the last thirty years, Paskievitch having taken it by
+     assault in 1829. We passed the battlefield at Kuyukdere, where
+     the Russians in very small force under Bebutoff were attacked by
+     a very superior force of Turks, under the direction of General
+     Guyon, the Hungarian. By some mistake the Turkish left lost its
+     way during the night, and was eight miles distant from the field
+     when the right came into action. The battle was very hotly
+     contested, but the Turks had at last to retire with the loss of
+     several guns. Had the affair gone off as Guyon[1] intended, the
+     Russians would have been licked. This battle, I should add, was
+     fought in August 1854, before any English officer had arrived in
+     this country. The Russian loss was very severe: there were 3,200
+     wounded alone brought into Gumri for treatment. The first day
+     from Gumri we passed Baiandoor, where the Turks and Russians had
+     a small battle in 1853, and where the former lost a splendid
+     opportunity of taking Gumri, which was nearly denuded of troops.
+     My Turkish colleague, Osman Bey (I believe this officer to be
+     identical with Ghazi Osman, the defender of Plevna), was present,
+     and got into Gumri as a spy, disguised in the character of a
+     servant. The Russian army avenged the slight check they received
+     from the Turks by taking all their artillery of the right wing."
+
+     [1] Guyon was an Englishman, but one of the National Commanders
+         in the Hungarian Rebellion of 1848. I have given a brief
+         account of his adventurous career at pp. 148-49 of "General
+         Gordon's Letters from the Crimea," etc.
+
+As illustrating his professional zeal and powers of scientific
+examination, the following description of the fortress of Alexandropol
+or Gumri is a striking production from so young an officer:--
+
+     "The fortress of Alexandropol (40 deg. 47' N. lat., 43 deg. long.
+     45' E., 4500 feet above the sea) is situated on the left bank
+     of the river Arpatchai, which here forms the boundary between
+     Russia and Turkey. It is distant thirty-five miles from Kars and
+     eighty-four miles from Tiflis. The plain on which it is situated
+     is perfectly level and very peculiar. It has a stratum of alluvial
+     soil for the depth of one foot six inches on the surface, and then
+     a substratum of fine uniform lava, ten to fifteen feet thick,
+     supposed to have issued from Mount Alagos (13,450 feet), an
+     extinct volcano thirty miles from Alexandropol. The depth of the
+     earth allows the growth of grain, but entirely prevents that of
+     trees, which with their roots cannot penetrate into the lava. The
+     Russians have taken advantage of this bed of lava in the ditch of
+     the fortress. The fortress is well constructed and in perfect
+     repair. There are upwards of 200 guns (varying from 36-pounders
+     to 12-pounders) mounted on the works, and about 100 in reserve,
+     of which 30 are field-guns with their equipment wagons, etc. The
+     garrison would be 5000 to 6000, including artillery. There are
+     large supplies of ammunition and military stores. The ditch,
+     twelve feet deep, of the two western fronts has not been
+     excavated near the flanks on account of the expense. The Russians
+     have constructed in the centres of the two curtains a
+     _caponniere_ with two guns in each flank to defend the dead
+     angles caused by the non-excavation of the whole of the ditch. In
+     the centre of these two fronts is a large _caponniere_, mounting
+     ten guns in the upper tier and eight in the lower tier. This
+     _caponniere_ is on a lower level than the enceinte of the place.
+     The counterscarp at the north-west and south-west angles of these
+     two fronts is for the distance of twenty yards composed of a
+     crenellated wall four feet six inches thick. This was caused by
+     the irregularity of the ground. The bomb-proof barracks of the
+     northern fronts mount in casemate two tiers of fourteen guns at
+     the curtains. The flanks have five guns in casemates open to the
+     rear, in addition to the guns on the parapet above. The lunette
+     in the ditch is eight feet deep. The eastern front has an escarp
+     fourteen feet high cut in the lava, and well flanked by the
+     _caponniere_ defending the entrances, mounting four guns. The
+     bomb-proof barracks in the northern fronts have one tier of eight
+     guns in casemate at the curtains, and three guns in each flank in
+     casemates open to the rear. The two outworks are closed at the
+     gorge with a loopholed wall, flanked by a small guard-house. They
+     have no ditches, but an escarp of ten feet in the lava. The tower
+     marked _A_ in my plan is sixty yards in diameter, with a well in
+     the centre. It has its gorge closed with a ditch and loopholed
+     wall. It mounts fifteen guns on the top, and fifteen guns in
+     casemate. It is proposed to connect it by a crenellated wall with
+     the main work. The tower marked _B_ has a ditch and small glacis.
+     It mounts eight guns in casemate, and eight on the top. Its
+     object is to flank the long ravine which runs southward from it.
+     All the buildings in the interior of the fortress are bomb-proof.
+     The great fault of the fortress as it is constructed at present
+     is that it does not so much as see the town with its population
+     of 9310. It is now proposed, however, to make a large work on the
+     site marked _K_ with a view of meeting this want. During the war
+     in 1853, when the Turks were 35,000 strong at Baiandoor, six
+     miles from Alexandropol, and the Russians had only two battalions
+     in the fortress, the latter demolished all the houses which were
+     on this ground. I think that should it ever be in our power to
+     besiege this place (which is not likely, from the enormous
+     difficulty of getting a siege train there), that batteries might
+     be established on the hillocks between the fortress and the
+     river, to breach the large _caponniere_ and the tower _A_ which,
+     from the formation of the ground, would not be opposed by more
+     fire than the direct fire of the works they were intended to
+     breach, and which would be limited by their circular form to
+     about seven guns. The soil is not unfavourable on these hills.
+     The hill on which the cemetery of the officers killed at Kars and
+     Kuyukdere is situated is also favourable for batteries. The
+     principal well, which is sunk to a good depth, is in the
+     north-eastern bastion."
+
+General Gordon's letters contain two or three interesting descriptions
+that, in view of more recent events, deserve quotation. Of the Kurds
+he thus speaks, and the description stands good at the present day:--
+
+     "We met on our road a great number of Kurds, who live as their
+     fathers did, by travelling about, robbing, etc., with their
+     flocks. Their children are short of clothing. In spite of the
+     Cossacks, etc., they are as lawless as ever, and go from Turkey
+     to Russia and back again as they like. They are fine-looking
+     people, armed to the teeth, but are decreasing in numbers. They
+     never live in houses, but prefer tents and caves. On the
+     mountains we fell in with the tribes of Kurds, who live at this
+     height during the summer months, quite isolated from the rest of
+     mankind. I paid a visit to the chief of a tribe of 2000, and he
+     passed a great number of compliments on the English. This Bey is
+     all powerful with his tribe; he settles all disputes, divides the
+     pasture land among the families, etc. Although living in such a
+     deserted spot, they read the Turkish papers, and they asked
+     several questions about the English war with Persia. They are
+     very fanatical, and are much encouraged in their religious
+     fervour by the Sultan's agents. Their houses consist of stone
+     walls covered with camel's-hair tents, which are quite
+     waterproof, and lined inside with capital carpets made by
+     themselves. We encamped near them and obtained our milk, etc.,
+     from them; but, in order to let us know their habits, they stole
+     the horse of the Russian officer's interpreter during the night.
+     I should not mind trusting them at all, for the Bey would not
+     allow them to take our horses; perhaps this was only from his
+     hatred to the Russians."
+
+He gives some particulars of the Lazes, to one of whose villages he
+paid a visit, and as he believed that he was the only Englishman who
+had ever done so, his remarks were based on special local knowledge:--
+
+     "On one side of it was Lazistan, and this part of Lazistan is
+     peopled by the fiercest tribe of Lazes, who scarcely acknowledge
+     even the Sultan. We had an escort of forty infantry, and were not
+     molested. This tribe and the Kabouletians supply the
+     Constantinople Turks with slaves, whom they kidnap from the
+     Gourelians, who are on the Russian side. The Adjars (the tribe
+     referred to) are most daring, and even proposed to us to bring
+     any person we might choose out to Batoum for L40 to L120. In
+     consequence of these kidnappings, etc., a deadly enmity exists
+     between the two peoples, and whenever they get a chance they kill
+     one another. During the last eighteen months sixty-two people
+     have been kidnapped, sixteen killed, and twenty or thirty wounded
+     on the part of the Gourelians. The Russian guards of the frontier
+     are helpless against these people, for the latter are armed with
+     a capital rifle and are also splendid shots, while the Cossacks
+     have only a trumpery smooth bore. The country of the Adjars is
+     very mountainous indeed, and quite impracticable except on foot,
+     being covered with dense forests."
+
+Of Ani, the ancient, once famous, and now deserted capital of Armenia,
+he gives the following picture:--
+
+     "We passed through Ani, the ancient capital of Armenia. This city
+     is completely deserted, and has splendid churches still standing
+     in it. These churches are capitally built and preserved. Some
+     coloured drawings on their walls are to be seen even now. The
+     towers and walls are almost intact, but the most extraordinary
+     thing about so large a place is the singular quietness. There are
+     many ruined cities in the neighbourhood, and all dating from
+     about the eleventh century. At that period Ani itself contained
+     100,000 inhabitants and 500 churches, which shows that more
+     people went to church among them than with us. Before the end of
+     that century it passed into the hands of the Greeks and Saracens.
+     Afterwards the Mongols took it, and at last an earthquake drove
+     out the remaining inhabitants in 1339, since which time it has
+     been perfectly deserted. The churches of Ani were built with
+     lava, and crosses of black lava were let in very curiously into
+     the red lava. With the exception of the churches and the king's
+     palace, the city is level with the ground, the foundations of the
+     houses being alone discernible. These churches were covered with
+     Armenian inscriptions cut on the walls."
+
+The delimitation work in itself was uninteresting, being carried on in
+barren and solitary regions where there was nothing but rock, without
+either grass or inhabitants. Gordon said he would not take thirty
+square miles for a gift, and yet the Turks and Russians clung to it,
+bringing witnesses from among the tribes who would swear whatever they
+were paid for. The question at issue was where the old frontier
+between the Persian province of Erivan and the Pashalik of Baizeth was
+fixed. The Persians ceded the province of Erivan to Russia in 1828,
+and both the Turks and Russians had their own, and necessarily
+conflicting, views as to where the frontier was. General Gordon's own
+belief that there had never been any real frontier at all was no doubt
+the right one. The English officers, without any assistance from their
+Turkish colleagues, who merely looked on when they were not keeping up
+the supply of witnesses, had to effect the best arrangement they could
+with the Russians. In the course of his survey of the frontier, which
+he said he examined almost foot by foot, Gordon came to Mount Ararat,
+which he very nearly ascended, as he tells the reader in the following
+graphic narrative:--
+
+     "When we arrived at the foot of Mount Ararat we were unable to
+     proceed along the frontier any further because the ground becomes
+     extremely broken by the innumerable streams of lava which have
+     run down from it. The ground is black with cinders. They look as
+     if quite recently emitted, and no one would imagine from their
+     appearance that Ararat had been extinct so long. Our road went
+     along the northern or Russian slope of Ararat, and passed
+     through a very old city called Kourgai, where there are still the
+     remains of a church and part of an old castle. Even the Armenians
+     do not pretend to know its history, but some of them say that
+     Noah lived there. It is situated half-way up the mountain, and
+     there is no living person within twelve miles of it. There used
+     to be a populous village named Aralik, with 5000 inhabitants, a
+     little above it, but in 1840 an earthquake shook Mount Ararat,
+     and in four minutes an immense avalanche had buried this place so
+     completely as to leave scarcely any vestige of its site. Not a
+     single person escaped, which is not to be wondered at,
+     considering the mass that fell. Stones of twenty or thirty tons
+     were carried as far as fifteen to twenty miles into the plain. It
+     has left a tremendous cleft in Ararat itself. Other villages were
+     destroyed at the same time, but none so completely as this. The
+     village immediately below Aralik was also destroyed, but the
+     graveyard remained untouched, and the tombstones stand up intact
+     in the midst of the ruins. The common people say that it was
+     saved on account of a saint who was buried there. All these
+     places have a very lonely look. Both the Kurds and the Armenians,
+     if they can possibly help it, never pass near Mount Ararat, while
+     they think it a great sin to ascend it.
+
+     "I must now tell you of my ascent, or rather my near ascent, of
+     Great Ararat.
+
+     "I and my interpreter and three sappers went up to a Kurdish
+     encampment where an old Kurd lived who assisted five of our
+     countrymen to ascend about two years ago. The only assistance,
+     however, that he appeared able to give us was to show us where
+     these Englishmen had encamped the night before their ascent. We
+     consequently pitched our tents there, and settled ourselves for
+     the night. The night proved to be very stormy, with thunder and
+     rain, which was a bad lookout for us. However, we started at 4
+     A.M. the next morning, and had some very hard work up to the line
+     of perpetual snow. My interpreter and two of the sappers gave it
+     up before this, but I and the other, Corporal Fisher, held on.
+
+     "The whole of this time there was a thick fog, which now and then
+     cleared away, though only for brief moments, and enabled us to
+     get a splendid view of the country spread out as a map beneath
+     us, with cumuli clouds floating about. The snow which I mounted
+     was at a very steep slope, and quite hard, nearly ice, on the
+     surface. It was so steep that we could not sit down without
+     holding on tightly to our poles. Corporal Fisher was about half a
+     mile to my left, and had a better ascent as it was not quite so
+     steep. About two o'clock I began to get very tired, not able to
+     get up more than two yards without resting. This was caused by
+     the rarefication of the air. The mist cleared just at this time
+     for a minute, and I was enabled to see the summit about 1000 feet
+     above me, but still a further very steep ascent. Little Ararat
+     was also visible 3000 feet below me. It began to snow soon after
+     this, and became intensely cold. The two together settled me, and
+     I turned round, although very reluctantly, and sitting down, slid
+     over in a very few minutes the distance which had taken me so
+     many hours to clamber up. Corporal Fisher managed to get up to
+     the top, and describes the crater to be very shallow, although
+     the top is very large. The Kurd told me afterwards that the road
+     I took was very difficult, and that the other English explorers
+     went up a road which was comparatively easy. I believe, however,
+     that if the weather had been more favourable I should have
+     succeeded."
+
+This was not his only mountaineering experience. Some weeks later he
+ascended Mount Alagos--that is, the Motley Mount, from its various
+colours. It is 13,480 feet above the sea, or about 3000 feet lower
+than Ararat.
+
+     "We started with some Kurdish guides to the mountain, and after a
+     good deal of delay got to the place where the only path to the
+     summit commences. Here we were obliged to dismount and take to
+     our legs. After about two hours and a half we got to the summit,
+     and were extremely glad of it, for although it is not to be
+     compared to Mount Ararat, it is still rather difficult. Trusting
+     to my Ararat experience, I thought of descending in the snow, and
+     started. I was much astonished at finding the slope far steeper
+     than I expected, and consequently went down like a shot, and
+     reached the bottom one hour and a half before the others. A
+     Russian doctor tried it after me, and in trying to change his
+     direction was turned round, and went to the bottom sometimes head
+     foremost. He was not a bit hurt. There was no danger, as we had
+     only to keep ourselves straight. My trousers are the only
+     sufferers! I was the first up. None of the Russians succeeded!"
+
+With one more quotation, Gordon's description of Etchmiazin, the
+celebrated monastery where the Armenian Catholicos resides, the
+extracts from these early letters may be concluded:--
+
+     "We passed through the oldest of the Armenian churches and
+     monasteries, a place called Etchmiazin. It professes to be 1500
+     years old, and certainly has the appearance of great antiquity;
+     it was existing during the time of the ruined city of Ani, and is
+     built in a similar style. The relics there are greatly esteemed.
+     People make pilgrimages to this monastery from all parts. There
+     is, firstly, an arm of St Gregory, which is enclosed in a gold
+     case covered with precious stones; next the piece of the ark,
+     which is necessarily of great antiquity; a piece of the cross and
+     of the spear, and a finger-nail of St Peter complete the relics.
+     All these are enveloped in gold cases, and richly ornamented with
+     every sort of precious stones. The monastery owns ten villages
+     and a great deal of land. The monks gave us a grand dinner, and
+     their feeding certainly was not bad. The monks' council chamber
+     was splendidly got up, all the ceiling being carved and gilded."
+
+The concluding stages of the delimitation work were rapidly concluded,
+and before the end of September 1857 Colonel Simmons and his staff had
+returned to Constantinople. The illness of all the English officers
+except Gordon detained them some weeks in the Turkish capital, and he
+wrote home that his surveying duties had been superseded by those of
+sick nurse. But before the end of October he was back again in
+England, and met his father and the other members of his family after
+a still longer interval. While engaged on the frontier commission, his
+comrade in the trenches, Lieutenant William Christian Anderson, of his
+own Corps, had married one of his sisters, but, after a very short
+period of wedded happiness, he died suddenly. After his death a son
+was born who bore the same name, is now an officer in the Royal
+Artillery, and served on General Graham's staff at Souakim. Charles
+Gordon summed up his comrade's character in these words:--
+
+     "I am extremely distressed to hear of poor Willie Anderson's
+     death, and every one who knew him will be so. He was a sterling
+     good comrade and officer, greatly liked by both officers and men,
+     and our Corps has sustained a great loss in him. I am so very
+     sorry for poor dear ----. It is such a sudden blow to her, and I
+     am sure they must have been so happy together during their short
+     married life."
+
+Gordon, therefore, found a certain amount of gloom in the family
+circle during the Christmas of 1857, and as his desire to join the
+staff of the army was not immediately attainable, the orders he
+suddenly received in April 1858 to again proceed to the Caucasus, in
+consequence of a slight frontier dispute with Russia, were not
+altogether disagreeable to him as a return to that active work which
+he loved. For some reason, which was probably the wish to save a
+little money by economy in travelling, with the view of carrying out
+his generous plans towards others, he took his passage to
+Constantinople in a slow steamer from the Thames, touching at Havre.
+He described his fellow-passengers as not very select, but amusing,
+and the voyage as "a yachting excursion, time being apparently no
+object." He only remained ten days at Constantinople, and reached
+Redout Kaleh in the Caucasus on 3rd June, visiting Sebastopol on the
+way. He described it as still an utter ruin; "the grass had so
+overgrown the place where the camps stood that it was with difficulty
+I found my hut."
+
+On 12th June Gordon joined his Russian colleague, Ogranovitch, at
+Ozurgeth; but the Turkish representative did not arrive for a month
+later, which interval Gordon employed in recording his impressions of
+Russian and Georgian society in the Caucasus:--
+
+     "I dined with the Governor-General, Prince Eristaw, who left the
+     next day for Swaneti to overawe the subjects of the late Prince
+     (he was shot at Kutais for stabbing Prince Gagarin, the
+     predecessor of Prince Eristaw), who do not seem to have realised
+     his death. The Prince takes two battalions of infantry and two
+     guns nominally as an escort. There are some very pretty ladies at
+     Kutais who dance their national dances capitally. They dance
+     alone, and all the gentlemen beat time with their hands. I was
+     surprised at seeing the ladies wear a sort of bracelet of black
+     beads, to which they attached great value. I am sure they are
+     nothing more than bog oak.... I have since discovered they are
+     _cannel coal, not bog oak_. The ladies are very pretty, but have
+     not very cleanly habits in general; they prefer their nails
+     tipped, and do not hesitate at taking a bone and gnawing it. They
+     live in extremely dirty houses, or rather huts. They are
+     generally all princesses, and the men all princes, who, however,
+     do not hesitate to accept small donations. I am always in fear
+     and trembling lest they should give me anything, as it is
+     necessary to give in return. I, unfortunately, happened to notice
+     a certain glass letterweight with the Queen on it, and observed
+     that it was like Her Majesty. I was given it on the spot, and
+     with deep regret had to part with my soda-water machine the next
+     day. I admire nothing now, you may be sure. The servants of
+     Prince Dimitri Gouriel have made a good thing out of my visit,
+     for each time they bring anything--butter, fruit, etc.--orders
+     are given that an equivalent be given them in money. My hands get
+     quite sticky with shaking hands with so many princes, but I have
+     hitherto borne up like a martyr under my trials. On being invited
+     to the house of a prince, you would figure yourself invited to a
+     palace; but it is not the case here, and you would find it out to
+     your cost if you did not take something to eat in your pockets."
+
+The work of this Commission proved exceedingly fatiguing--Gordon
+breaking in characteristically with the statement: "I do not complain
+when there is no occasion"--and consisted chiefly in replacing the
+pyramids carefully removed by the population during the twelve months
+since they were erected. The successful result of this Commission was
+entirely due to Gordon's energy and untiring labour. His Russian and
+Turkish colleagues were always quarrelling, and Gordon had to play the
+part of peacemaker--for which, he said, "I am naturally not well
+adapted"--an admission that may be commended to those who think that
+Gordon was a meek and colourless individual, with more affinity to a
+Methodist parson than the dauntless and resolute soldier he really
+was.
+
+Early in October the whole delimitation was concluded, and without a
+hitch, much to Gordon's satisfaction. By 17th November he had reached
+Constantinople on his way home, but notwithstanding the special
+hardships of his work and his long absence from England, with one
+brief interval, he was still anxious for work and action. In the
+closing letter of his correspondence he said: "I do not feel at all
+inclined to settle in England and be employed in any sedentary way,
+and shall try and get employed here (Constantinople) if it is
+possible."
+
+While these letters contain a very vivid account of the striking and
+remarkable events that occurred during the long military and
+diplomatic struggle with Russia, they are not less interesting or
+important for the many unconscious glimpses Gordon gives into his own
+character. In them may be found references to habits and things which
+show that the young officer was a sportsman, and by no means
+indifferent to creature comforts; and as the most careful search
+through all his later writings of every kind will bring no similar
+discovery, these acquire a special importance as showing that the
+original Gordon only differed from his comrades in being more earnest,
+more active, and more enthusiastic. I take at random such statements
+as "Our feeding is pretty good, but the drinking is not," "The
+Russians gave a spread [vulgar] on Saturday, noisily and badly got up.
+Their wine was simply execrable," and "How I wish I could get some
+partridge shooting! My bag up to the present (on the Danube) is
+200--not bad! eh?" Then again, on a more delicate subject, there are
+numerous references to ladies, and to his appreciation of beauty. In a
+chaffing passage in one of his letters, he wrote that one of his
+sisters "wants me to bring home a Russian wife, I think; but I am sure
+you would not admire the Russian ladies I have seen." Again, the
+ladies of the Caucasus are pronounced "very pretty," and "the
+Gourelians are beautiful--in fact, I never saw so many handsome women
+as the peasants among them." At this time Gordon was certainly not a
+misogynist, but I am assured that the rumours as to his having met
+with an early disappointment in love are quite baseless of truth. From
+a very early period of his life, certainly before the Crimea, Gordon
+had made up his mind not to marry, and was in the habit of going even
+further, and wishing himself dead. This sentiment led him to
+constantly refer to himself as "the dead man"; and some years later he
+wrote, "There is a Miss ---- here, the nicest girl I ever met; but
+don't be afraid, the dead do not marry." His own secret opinion seems
+to have been that marriage spoilt both men and women, and it will be
+at least admitted that if he had married he could never have lived the
+disinterested, heroic life which remains a marvel for the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE CHINA WAR.
+
+
+Gordon was back in England in good time for the Christmas festivities
+of 1858, and a few months later--1st April 1859--he was gazetted to
+the rank of Captain. About the same time he also received the
+appointment of Field-Work Instructor and Adjutant at Chatham, where
+his practical knowledge gained in the Sebastopol trenches was turned
+to good account in the theoretical training of future officers of his
+Corps. He was thus employed when the conflict in China, which had been
+in progress for some years, assumed a graver character in consequence
+of the Chinese refusal to ratify the Treaty of Tientsin and Admiral
+Hope's repulse in front of the Taku forts. Gordon at once volunteered
+for active service, and on 22nd July 1860 he sailed for the Far East.
+He did not reach Tientsin until the following 26th September, being,
+as he said in his first letter home, "rather late for the amusement,
+which won't vex mother." Not only had he missed the capture of the
+Taku forts, but also the one battle of the war, that fought at
+Chan-chia-wan on 9th September. He was, however, in time for the sack
+of the Summer Palace, which he describes in the following letter:--
+
+     "On the 11th October we were sent down in a great hurry to throw
+     up works and batteries against the town, as the Chinese refused
+     to give up the gate we required them to surrender before we would
+     treat with them. They were also required to give up all the
+     prisoners. You will be sorry to hear that the treatment they have
+     suffered is very bad. Poor De Norman, who was with me in Asia, is
+     one of the victims. It appears that they were tied so tight by
+     the wrists that the flesh mortified, and they died in the
+     greatest torture. Up to the time that elapsed before they arrived
+     at the Summer Palace they were well treated, but then the
+     ill-treatment began. The Emperor is supposed to have been there
+     at the time.
+
+     "To go back to the work--the Chinese were given until twelve on
+     the 13th to give up the gate. We made a lot of batteries, and
+     everything was ready for the assault of the wall, which is
+     battlemented and 40 feet high, but of inferior masonry. At 11.30
+     P.M. the gate was opened, and we took possession; so our work
+     was of no avail. The Chinese had then until the 23rd to think
+     over our terms of peace, and to pay up L10,000 for each
+     Englishman and L500 for each native soldier who died during their
+     captivity. This they did, and the money was paid, and the Treaty
+     signed yesterday. I could not witness it, as all officers
+     commanding companies were obliged to remain in camp.
+
+     "Owing to the ill-treatment the prisoners experienced at the
+     Summer Palace, the General ordered it to be destroyed, and stuck
+     up proclamations to say why it was so ordered. We accordingly
+     went out, and, after pillaging it, burned the whole place,
+     destroying in a Vandal-like manner most valuable property which
+     would not be replaced for four millions. We got upwards of L48
+     a-piece prize money before we went out here; and although I have
+     not as much as many, I have done well. Imagine D---- giving
+     sixteen shillings for a string of pearls, which he sold the next
+     day for L500!
+
+     "The people are civil, but I think the grandees hate us, as they
+     must after what we did to the Palace. You can scarcely imagine
+     the beauty and magnificence of the places we burnt. It made one's
+     heart sore to burn them; in fact, these palaces were so large,
+     and we were so pressed for time, that we could not plunder them
+     carefully. Quantities of gold ornaments were burnt, considered as
+     brass. It was wretchedly demoralising work for an army. Everybody
+     was wild for plunder.
+
+     "You would scarcely conceive the magnificence of this residence,
+     or the tremendous devastation the French have committed. The
+     throne-room was lined with ebony, carved in a marvellous way.
+     There were huge mirrors of all shapes and kinds, clocks, watches,
+     musical boxes with puppets on them, magnificent china of every
+     description, heaps and heaps of silks of all colours, embroidery,
+     and as much splendour and civilization as you would see at
+     Windsor; carved ivory screens, coral screens, large amounts of
+     treasure, etc. The French have smashed everything in the most
+     wanton way. It was a scene of utter destruction which passes my
+     description."
+
+It may be of interest to state here that Gordon bought the throne
+referred to. Its supports are the Imperial Dragon's claws, and the
+cushions are of yellow Imperial silk. He presented it long afterwards
+to the headquarters of his Corps at Chatham, where it now stands.
+
+On the exchange of the Treaty ratifications, which took place within
+the walls of the Imperial capital, the force under Sir Hope Grant was
+withdrawn to Tientsin, and after a brief space from China. But pending
+the payment of the instalments of the war indemnity, a garrison of
+3000 men, under General Staveley, was left at Tientsin, and Captain
+Gordon was attached to this force. He had a very busy time of it at
+first, for suitable quarters had to be provided for our troops, and
+Gordon was fully employed in the construction of barracks and stables.
+Among the other tasks that engaged his attention at the time was the
+management of a fund for the benefit of the Chinese poor, and he was
+much distressed by an unfortunate accident that attended its
+distribution.
+
+     "We had collected about nine hundred dollars for the poor, and
+     had asked the mandarins to issue tickets to the most deserving.
+     This they would not do, so a certain day was fixed upon which to
+     distribute the funds. There were about 3000 beggars, and in the
+     crush seven women and one boy were killed. The poor women on
+     their little feet, on which they are never very safe, were thrown
+     down and trampled upon."
+
+During the eighteen months that Gordon resided at Tientsin he took
+every opportunity of seeing the country, and as often as he could he
+rode from that town along the banks of the Peiho river to the Taku
+forts at its mouth. The distance is about forty miles each way, and he
+computed that he accomplished it not fewer than twenty times. He also
+visited Peking in August 1861, and remained several days on a visit to
+Sir Frederick Bruce at the British Legation. At that date rumours were
+already current that the Emperor Hienfung, who never returned to
+Peking after our occupation, but made Yehol his capital and place of
+residence, was dead. These were true, but some time elapsed before it
+was officially announced that the Emperor had died on the 22nd of that
+month, the very day that Gordon reached Peking himself, and wrote the
+following letter:--
+
+     "The Emperor is reported to be dead, and his coffin has been sent
+     for; but this is no proof, since it is the custom to send for a
+     man's coffin when he is seriously ill, and it is kept for him
+     even if he lives fifty years after."
+
+Writing again some time after, he says on the grave event: "A great
+operation relating to the funeral of Hienfung is going on: a marble
+block, weighing sixty tons, is being removed from the quarries to the
+west of Peking to the cemetery in the east. It is drawn along upon a
+huge truck by six hundred ponies, and proceeds at the rate of four
+miles per day. When it arrives it is to be set up and carved into the
+shape of an elephant; several other large stones are also _en route_."
+
+But the most interesting expedition Gordon undertook from Tientsin was
+that to the Great Wall, and here I must borrow Dr Birkbeck Hill's
+graphic description, which is based on a long letter from Gordon
+himself:--
+
+     "In December 1861, accompanied by Lieutenant Cardew of the 67th
+     Regiment, he made a tour on horseback to the outer Wall of China
+     at Kalgan. A Chinese lad of the age of fourteen who knew a little
+     English acted as their servant and interpreter, while their
+     baggage was carried in two carts. In the course of their journey
+     they passed through districts which had never before been visited
+     by Europeans. Against the northern side of the city of Siuen-hoa
+     (_not_ Si_n_en-hoa, as printed in Dr Hill's book) they found that
+     the sand had drifted with the wind till it had formed a sloping
+     bank so high that it reached to the top of the walls, though they
+     were nearly twenty feet high. Nature had followed in the steps of
+     the generals of old, and had cast up a bank against the town. At
+     Kalgan the Great Wall was with its parapet about 22 feet high and
+     16 feet broad. Both of its faces were built of bricks, each of
+     which was three times the size of one of our bricks. The space
+     between was filled in with rubble. 'It is wonderful,' writes
+     Colonel Gordon, 'to see the long line of wall stretching over the
+     hills as far as the eye can reach.' From Kalgan they travelled
+     westwards to Taitong, where the wall was not so high. There they
+     saw huge caravans of camels laden with 'brick tea' going towards
+     Russia. Here they were forced to have the axle-trees of their
+     carts widened, for they had come into a part of the country where
+     the wheels were always set wider apart than in the province
+     whence they came. Their carts therefore no longer filled the deep
+     ruts which had been worn in the roads.
+
+     "The chief object of their journey had been to ascertain whether
+     there was in the inner wall any pass besides the Tchatiaou, which
+     on that side of the country led from the Russian territory to
+     Peking. They pushed along southwards, in vain trying for a long
+     time to find a way eastward over the mountains. It was not till
+     they reached Taiyuen that they struck into the road that led to
+     Peking or Tientsin.
+
+     "In this town, for the first time on their journey, they got into
+     any kind of trouble. When their bill was brought them for their
+     night's lodging they found that the charge was enormous. Seeing
+     that a dispute would arise, they sent on their carts, and waited
+     at the inn till they felt sure that they had got well on their
+     way. They then, like the three Quakers with whom Charles Lamb
+     travelled to Exeter, offered what they thought a reasonable sum.
+     It was refused. They tried to mount their horses, but the people
+     of the inn stopped them. Major Gordon took out his revolver, for
+     show more than for use, for he allowed them to take it from him.
+     He thereupon said, 'Let us go to the Mandarin!'
+
+     "To this they agreed, and at the same time they gave him back his
+     revolver. They all walked towards the Mandarin's house--the two
+     Englishmen alongside their horses. On the way Major Gordon said
+     to his companion, 'Are you ready to mount?' 'Yes,' he answered.
+     So they mounted quietly, and went on with the people. When they
+     reached the Mandarin's they turned horses, and scampered after
+     their carts as fast as they could. The people yelled and rushed
+     after them, but it was too late.
+
+     "Some way beyond Taiyuen they came upon the pass over the
+     mountains which led down into the country drained by the Peiho.
+     The descent was a terrible one. All along the cold had been
+     intense--so much so that raw eggs were frozen hard as if they had
+     been boiled. To add to their troubles, when they were on in front
+     their carts were attacked by robbers; but the Chinese lad--an
+     ugly imp--kept them off with his gun. When they drew near
+     Paoting-fu they sent on with the lad the two carts and their
+     tired horses, which had now carried them for three weeks without
+     the break of a single day, and they hired a fresh cart in which
+     they thought to ride to Tientsin. But with the boy gone they had
+     no interpreter, and in their impatience, 'their new driver'--to
+     quote our traveller's own words--'got rather crossly dealt with.'
+     They stopped near Paoting-fu for the night. Early next morning as
+     they were washing they heard the gates of the inn open and the
+     rumble of cartwheels. They guessed what was happening. 'Half
+     stripped as I was, I rushed out and saw our cart bolting away. I
+     ran for a mile after it, but had to come back and hire another
+     with which we got to Tientsin--more than fourteen days over our
+     leave.'"
+
+From this pleasant but uneventful occupation Gordon was summoned to a
+scene where important events were in progress, and upon which he was
+destined to play what was perhaps, after all, the most brilliant part
+in the long course of his remarkable career. His brother puts the
+change into a single sentence:--
+
+     "On the 28th of April 1862 Captain Gordon left the Peiho and
+     arrived at Shanghai on 3rd of May, and at once dropped into the
+     command of a district with the charge of the engineer part of an
+     expedition about to start, with the intention of driving the
+     rebels out of a circuit of thirty miles from Shanghai."
+
+By the end of March 1862 the Chinese Government had sufficiently
+carried out its obligations to admit of the withdrawal of the force at
+Tientsin, and General Staveley transferred the troops and his quarters
+from that place to Shanghai, where the Taeping rebels were causing the
+European settlement grave anxiety, and what seemed imminent peril. The
+Taepings, of whose rebellion some account will be given in the next
+chapter, were impelled to menace Shanghai by their own necessities.
+They wanted arms, ammunition, and money, and the only means of
+obtaining them was by the capture of the great emporium of foreign
+trade. But such an adventure not merely implied a want of prudence and
+knowledge, it could only be attempted by a breach of their own
+promises. When Admiral Hope had sailed up the Yangtsekiang and visited
+Nanking, he demanded and received from Tien Wang, the Taeping king or
+leader, a promise that the Taeping forces should not advance within a
+radius of thirty miles of Shanghai. That promise in its larger extent
+had soon been broken, and an attack on Shanghai itself, although
+unsuccessful, crowned the offences of the rebels, and entailed the
+chastisement a more prudent course would have averted. Without
+entering into the details here that will be supplied later on, it will
+suffice to say that in January 1862 the Taepings advanced against
+Shanghai, burning all the villages _en route_, and laid irregular
+siege to it during more than six weeks. Although they suffered several
+reverses, the European garrison was not in sufficient strength to
+drive them away, and a general anxiety prevailed among the European
+community when the arrival of General Staveley altered the posture of
+affairs.
+
+Before Gordon arrived two affairs of some importance had taken place.
+At Wongkadza, a village twelve miles west of Shanghai, General
+Staveley obtained a considerable success, which was, however, turned
+into a disaster by the disobedience of his orders. The Taepings had
+retired to some stronger stockades, and General Staveley had ordered
+the postponement of the attack until the next day, when the trained
+Chinese troops, carried away by their leaders' impetuosity, renewed
+the assault. The result was a rude repulse, with the loss of nearly
+100 men killed and wounded. The next day the stockades were evacuated,
+and within another week the fortified villages of Tsipu and Kahding
+were also taken. It was at this point that Gordon arrived from
+Tientsin, and reached the scene of action just as the arrangements for
+attacking the important village of Tsingpu were being completed.
+
+That the Taepings were not contemptible adversaries, at least those
+under their redoubtable leader Chung Wang, was shown by their
+attempting to destroy Shanghai by fire, even while these operations
+were in progress. The plot nearly succeeded, but its promoters were
+severely punished by the summary execution of 200 of their number. The
+force assembled for the attack on Tsingpu assumed almost the
+dimensions of an army. General Staveley commanded 1,429 British troops
+with twenty guns and mortars, in addition to a naval brigade of 380
+men and five guns. There was also a French contingent of 800 men and
+ten guns, under Admiral Protet. At Tsingpu Gordon specially
+distinguished himself by the manner in which he reconnoitred the
+place, and then placed and led the ladder parties after two breaches
+had been pronounced practical. The Taepings fought well, but the place
+was carried, and the Chinese auxiliaries killed every one they found
+with arms in their hands. Commenting on Gordon's part in this affair,
+General Staveley wrote in his official despatch:--
+
+     "Captain Gordon was of the greatest use to me when the task of
+     clearing the rebels from out of the country within a radius of
+     thirty miles from Shanghai had to be undertaken. He reconnoitred
+     the enemy's defences, and arranged for the ladder parties to
+     cross the moats, and for the escalading of the works; for we had
+     to attack and carry by storm several towns fortified with high
+     walls and deep wet ditches. He was, however, at the same time a
+     source of much anxiety to me from the daring manner he approached
+     the enemy's works to acquire information. Previous to our attack
+     upon Tsingpu, and when with me in a boat reconnoitring the place,
+     he begged to be allowed to land in order better to see the nature
+     of the defences; presently, to my dismay, I saw him gradually
+     going nearer and nearer, by rushes from cover to cover, until he
+     got behind a small outlying pagoda within 100 yards of the wall,
+     and here he was quietly making a sketch and taking notes. I, in
+     the meantime, was shouting myself hoarse in trying to get him
+     back, for not only were the rebels firing at him from the walls,
+     but I saw a party stealing round to cut him off."
+
+A letter from Gordon gives an interesting account of the two
+subsequent affairs at Nanjao, where Admiral Protet was killed, and at
+Cholin, where the Taepings suffered a severe but, as it proved, not a
+decisive defeat.
+
+     "On going through the village a Chang-mow (rebel leader) came out
+     of a house rubbing his eyes, evidently having been taking a
+     siesta; he was horrified, and bolted, but was soon caught, and
+     the sailors had much difficulty in saving his life from the
+     villagers, who flew upon and would have killed him. Poor man! he
+     had such a nice costume when taken, but in five minutes
+     afterwards you would scarcely have known him; all his finery, and
+     even more, had been taken from him. The small force encamped and
+     entrenched themselves 900 yards from Cholin, much to the surprise
+     and anger of the garrison. They came down in force on the next
+     morning with no end of banners. Upon the principle that inquiring
+     minds should not be balked, they were allowed to come pretty
+     close, but then the poor things received a check, and the
+     beautiful silk banners were furled up and carried back to the
+     town.
+
+     "The next day General Staveley sent us word to come back, since
+     he would attack Nanjao first, but as there were nearly 1000
+     villagers depending upon our protection and crowding round our
+     camp, I was sent back with an armed party, and Captain Willes
+     remained in front of the town. I went back by a different road
+     and came on the General four miles from Nanjao. We marched on,
+     and halted near the town, which was reconnoitred during the
+     night, and the guns placed in position by 5 P.M. On the 17th we
+     opened fire at seven, and attacked the place. Here Admiral Protet
+     was killed; he was among 500 men, and was the only one struck.
+     The town was a wretched affair, and a good many Chang-mows
+     escaped. These Chang-mows are very funny people; they always run
+     when attacked. They are ruthlessly cruel, and have a system of
+     carrying off small boys under the hope of training them up as
+     rebels. We always found swarms of these boys who had been taken
+     from their parents (whom the rebels had killed) in the provinces.
+
+     "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. I started soon after the
+     attack for Cholin, and got there on the 18th. The rebels had made
+     a _sortie_ since my departure, and had got into a pretty mess.
+     Willes let them come up and then advanced on them; over sixty
+     were killed, and several taken prisoners. The General then came.
+     We got our guns in position during the night, opened fire next
+     morning, and assaulted at seven. The place was miserable and
+     poor. The Armstrong guns, which enfiladed one face, did great
+     execution."
+
+The fruits of these successes were lost by the signal overthrow and
+practical annihilation of a large Chinese army at Taitsan. One of
+General Staveley's detachments was cut off, and with his
+communications threatened he found himself compelled to abandon
+Kahding, and to retire towards Shanghai. Tsingpu had also to be
+abandoned, and the garrison suffered some loss in effecting its
+retreat. Of the first results of General Staveley's campaign there
+thus remained very little, and it was only in the autumn that these
+places were retaken, and the campaign against the Taepings in the
+Shanghai districts continued with varying fortune throughout the
+remainder of the year 1862 and the early months of 1863.
+
+While these military events were in progress Major Gordon, who was
+raised to the rank of Major in the army in December 1862 for his
+services in China, had been trusted with the congenial task, and one
+for which he was pre-eminently well suited, of surveying and mapping
+the whole of the region for thirty miles. This work, necessary in
+itself for many reasons, proved of incalculable value to him in the
+operations which he eventually undertook and carried out to a
+successful issue against the rebels. His own letters show how
+thoroughly he fulfilled his instructions, and how his surveys ended in
+his complete mastery of the topography of the region between the Grand
+Canal, the sea, and the Yangtsekiang:--
+
+     "I have been now in every town and village in the thirty miles'
+     radius. The country is the same everywhere--a dead flat, with
+     innumerable creeks and bad pathways. The people have now settled
+     down quiet again, and I do not anticipate the rebels will ever
+     come back. They are rapidly on the decline, and two years ought
+     to bring about the utter suppression of the revolt. I do not
+     write about what we saw, as it amounts to nothing. There is
+     nothing of any interest in China; if you have seen one village
+     you have seen all the country. I have really an immensity to do.
+     It will be a good thing if the Government support the
+     propositions which are made to the Chinese.
+
+     "The weather here is delightful--a fine cold, clear air which is
+     quite invigorating after the summer heats. There is very good
+     pheasant-shooting in the half-populated districts, and some quail
+     at uncertain times. It is extraordinary to see the quantities of
+     fishing cormorants there are in the creeks. These cormorants are
+     in flocks of forty and fifty, and the owner in a small canoe
+     travels about with them. They fish three or four times a day, and
+     are encouraged by the shouts of their owners to dive. I have
+     scarcely ever seen them come up without a fish in their beaks,
+     which they swallow, but not for any distance, for there is a ring
+     to prevent it going down altogether. They get such dreadful
+     attacks of mumps, their throats being distended by the fish,
+     which are alive, when the birds seem as if they were pouter
+     pigeons. They are hoisted into the boats and then are very
+     sea-sick. Would you consider the fish a dainty?"
+
+And again he writes about the Taepings, who were not in his eyes "a
+people nobly struggling to be free," but a horde of ruthless
+marauders.
+
+     "We had a visit from the marauding Taepings the other day. They
+     came close down in small parties to the settlement and burnt
+     several houses, driving in thousands of inhabitants. We went
+     against them and drove them away, but did not kill many. They
+     beat us into fits in getting over the country, which is
+     intersected in every way with ditches, swamps, etc. You can
+     scarcely conceive the crowds of peasants who come into Shanghai
+     when the rebels are in the neighbourhood--upwards of 15,000, I
+     should think, and of every size and age--many strapping fellows
+     who could easily defend themselves come running in with old women
+     and children.
+
+     "The people on the confines are suffering very greatly, and are
+     in fact dying of starvation. It is most sad this state of
+     affairs, and our Government really ought to put the rebellion
+     down. Words could not depict the horrors these people suffer from
+     the rebels, or describe the utter desert they have made of this
+     rich province. It is all very well to talk of non-intervention,
+     and I am not particularly sensitive, nor are our soldiers
+     generally so, but certainly we are all impressed with the utter
+     misery and wretchedness of these poor people.... In the midst of
+     those terrible times the British and foreign merchants behaved
+     nobly and gave great relief, while the Chinese merchants did not
+     lag behind in acts of charity. The hardest heart would have been
+     touched at the utter misery of these poor harmless people, for
+     whatever may be said of their rulers, no one can deny but that
+     the Chinese peasantry are the most obedient, quiet, and
+     industrious people in the world."
+
+The propositions referred to in the former of these two letters were
+that the services of Major Gordon should be lent to the Chinese
+Government for the suppression of the Taeping rebellion, that he
+should assume the command of an Anglo-Chinese legion of which the
+nucleus already existed, and that he might enlist the services of a
+certain number of our own officers. Considerable delay took place in
+the execution of this project, as it was necessary to send to Europe
+for the necessary authority; and another explanation was given
+subsequently to the effect that Gordon insisted on finishing his
+survey first. But Sir Charles Staveley, who nominated Major Gordon for
+the work, has effectually disposed of this latter statement by
+declaring that the former was the true and only cause. At length these
+propositions were sanctioned, and on 26th March 1863 Major Gordon
+proceeded to Sungkiang, a town west of Shanghai and south of Tsingpu,
+to take over the command of the Chinese force, which had already been
+named the Ever Victorious Army, and which in his hands justified its
+name.
+
+Before closing this chapter it will be well to give some account of
+the origin of this force, and of the more important events that
+preceded Gordon's appointment to the command. As far back as April
+1860 the Viceroy of the Two Kiang provinces had begged the English and
+French representatives to lend him military assistance in dealing with
+the rebels. The request was not complied with, but when some of the
+richest native merchants of Shanghai, with one Takee at their head,
+formed themselves into a patriotic association, and bound themselves
+to provide the funds required to raise a European-led force, no
+impediments were placed in their way. In July 1860 the services of two
+American adventurers who had had some military experience in Central
+America and elsewhere were enlisted and taken into the pay of this
+merchants' guild. Their names were Ward and Burgevine, and they were
+both adventurers of an unscrupulous and unattractive type. In addition
+to excellent pay, they were promised handsome money rewards for the
+capture of specified places, and what spoil there was to take should
+be theirs. Such a prospect was very inviting to the bold spirits of a
+great port like Shanghai, with its trading ships from every quarter
+of the world, and they succeeded in recruiting about 100 Europeans
+and 200 Manilla men or Spanish half-breeds.
+
+In order to test the quality of this force it was decided to attack
+Sungkiang; and in July, only a week or so after it was organised, Ward
+led his somewhat motley band against that place. The result was
+unfavourable, as his attack was repulsed with some loss. Nothing
+daunted, Ward collected some more Manilla men and renewed the attack.
+He succeeded in capturing one of the gates, and in holding it until an
+Imperial army of 10,000 men arrived, when the town was carried by
+storm. Having thus proved its mettle, Ward's force became very
+popular, and it was increased by many fresh recruits, chiefly Greeks
+and Italians. It also was strengthened by the addition of some
+artillery, two six-pounder and later two eighteen-pounder guns.
+
+The Chinese merchants then offered Ward and his quarter-master
+Burgevine a large reward for the capture of Tsingpu; and their legion,
+accompanied by a Chinese force of 10,000 men, who were, however, only
+to look on while it did the fighting, accordingly marched on that
+place. The attack made during the night of 2nd August resulted in a
+most disastrous repulse, most of the Europeans being either killed or
+wounded, Ward himself receiving a severe wound in the jaw. He renewed
+the attack with fresh men and two eighteen-pounders three weeks later;
+but after bombarding the place for seven days, he was attacked by the
+Taeping hero Chung Wang, and routed, with the loss of his guns and
+military stores. It was on this occasion that Chung Wang, following up
+his success, and doubly anxious to capture Shanghai because this new
+and unexpected force was organised there, attacked that town, and was
+only repulsed by the English and French troops who lined its walls.
+
+This reverse at Tsingpu destroyed the reputation of Ward's force, and
+for several months he remained discredited and unemployed. In March
+1861 he reappeared at Sungkiang, at the head of sixty or seventy
+Europeans whom he had recruited for the Imperial cause; but at that
+moment the policy of the foreign Consuls had undergone a change in
+favour of the Taepings, and Ward was arrested as a disturber of the
+peace. Perhaps a more serious offence was that the high pay he offered
+and prospect of loot had induced nearly thirty British sailors to
+desert their ships. He was released on his claiming that he was a
+Chinese subject, and also on his sending orders to his colleague
+Burgevine to return the troops they had enlisted. Burgevine thought he
+saw in this a chance of personal distinction, and before disbanding
+the men he made with them another attack on Tsingpu. This attack, like
+its two predecessors, was repulsed with heavy loss, and the original
+Ward force was thus finally discredited. It should be borne in mind,
+to distinguish it from what followed, that it was a mercenary force of
+European and Spanish half-breeds, without a single Chinese in it.
+
+In September 1861 these two men altered their proceedings, and gave a
+new turn to the whole question. As it was impossible for them to
+recruit foreigners, they induced Takee and his associates to provide
+the funds for a native Chinese force, which they undertook to train
+and organise. In this task they made considerable progress, and with a
+view to making it popular with the Chinese, and also to give the men
+confidence, this new force was named, probably by Takee, the Chun Chen
+Chun or Ever Victorious Army. This proud title was given long before
+the claim to it was justified, but its subsequent appropriateness has
+buried in oblivion the slender claim it possessed to it on its
+inception.
+
+By the end of January 1862 Ward had succeeded in training two
+regiments of 1000 men each, and with these he captured Quanfuling and
+200 boats in the rear of the Taeping force, which attacked Shanghai
+for a third time in that month. When the English and French forces
+assumed the offensive before the arrival of Sir Charles Staveley, part
+of Ward's Corps accompanied them in the attack on Kachiaou. It led the
+attack, and behaved extremely well, thus giving rise to very
+favourable anticipations as to what a properly-trained Chinese army
+might do.
+
+In a second action at Tseedong the force maintained the reputation it
+had gained. The Chinese fought with great bravery, and the difficulty,
+in fact, was in keeping them back. The English general reviewed them
+after this encounter, and declared himself much impressed with their
+appearance. Representations were made at Peking, and on 16th March
+1862 an Imperial decree gave the first public recognition of the Ever
+Victorious Army.
+
+Although reverses followed, the Corps maintained the reputation it had
+gained for steadiness and discipline. Under General Staveley at
+Wongkadza it acted well and lost heavily, and in all the subsequent
+movements of that officer it took a prominent part. When Tsingpu was
+captured, as already described, one of Ward's regiments was left in it
+as a garrison, but on the evacuation of that place in consequence of
+the return of Chung Wang with fresh and more numerous forces, it
+narrowly escaped annihilation. It was then that the Taeping general
+named them in scornful irony, "Cha-Yang-Kweitser," or "Sham Foreign
+Devils," the point of the sarcasm being that these troops wore an
+European costume.
+
+During the summer of 1862, when the heat rendered active operations
+impossible, everything was done to increase both the numbers and the
+efficiency of the Ever Victorious Army. By the month of July its
+strength had been raised to 5000 men, the commissioned officers being
+all Europeans except one Chinese, named Wongepoo, who had been given a
+commission for special gallantry by Admiral Hope. Ward was in chief
+command, and Colonel Forrester and Burgevine were his first and second
+lieutenants. When the weather became a little cooler in August, it was
+determined to utilise this force for the recapture of Tsingpu, which
+was taken at the second assault on the 9th of that month, although not
+without heavy loss in officers and men. Six weeks later the important
+Taeping position at Tseki, across the Hangchow Bay and not far distant
+from Ningpo, was attacked by Ward and a party of English blue-jackets.
+The operation was perfectly successful, but Ward was shot in the
+stomach and died the next day. His loss was a very considerable one,
+for, as Gordon said, "he managed both the force and the mandarins very
+ably." Colonel Forrester should have succeeded to the command, but he
+declined the post, which then devolved upon Burgevine.
+
+After a brief space the services of Captain Holland of the Royal
+Marine Light Infantry were lent to Burgevine in the capacity of Chief
+of the staff, and as this was done at the suggestion of the Futai
+Li--since famous to Europeans as Li Hung Chang--it did not conduce to
+greater harmony between him and Burgevine, for their antagonism had
+already become marked. An occasion soon offered to fan this feeling to
+a flame. A Chinese army under Li and General Ching advanced to attack
+a Taeping position near Tsingpu, at the same time that Burgevine at
+the head of his corps assailed it from the other side. The brunt of
+the fighting fell on the latter, but when Li issued his bulletin he
+claimed all the credit of the victory, and totally ignored Burgevine
+and his men. Burgevine did not accept this rebuff meekly, and his
+peremptory manner offended the Chinese. The breach was widened by the
+distrust many of the Chinese merchants as well as officials felt as to
+his loyalty, and soon it was seen that the funds so freely supplied to
+Ward would not be forthcoming in his case.
+
+Burgevine's character has been described in the following sentence by
+Gordon himself:--
+
+     "He was a man of large promises and few works. His popularity was
+     great among a certain class. He was extravagant in his
+     generosity, and as long as he had anything would divide it with
+     his so-called friends, but never was a man of any administrative
+     or military talent, and latterly, through the irritation caused
+     by his unhealed wound and other causes, he was subject to violent
+     paroxysms of anger, which rendered precarious the safety of any
+     man who tendered to him advice that might be distasteful. He was
+     extremely sensitive of his dignity."
+
+The situation between the Chinese authorities and Burgevine soon
+became so strained that the former presented a formal complaint to
+General Staveley, and begged him to remove Burgevine. This, as the
+English commander pointed out, was for obvious reasons beyond his
+power, but he made representations to his Government, and suggested
+that an English officer should be lent to the Chinese, and he
+nominated Gordon as the best qualified for the work. Pending the
+arrival of the required authority, the Chinese, assisted by
+Burgevine's own impetuosity, brought their relations with him to a
+climax. The merchant Takee withheld the pay of the force; Burgevine
+was first ordered to proceed with his troops to Nanking, and then, on
+consenting, the order was withdrawn; some weeks later a fresh order to
+the same effect was issued, and Burgevine demanded the payment of all
+arrears before he would move, and thus Li's object of exposing
+Burgevine as a disobedient officer to the Government that employed him
+was attained.
+
+The Ever Victorious Army, excited by the absence of its pay, and
+worked upon by the exhortations of its chief, was on the point of
+mutiny, and Burgevine hastened to Shanghai to obtain by force rather
+than persuasion the arrears. On 4th January 1863 he saw Takee, a
+violent scene ensued, and Burgevine used violence. Not only did he
+strike Takee, but he carried off the treasure necessary to pay his
+men. Such conduct could not be upheld or excused. Li Hung Chang made
+the strongest complaint. Burgevine was dismissed the Chinese service,
+and General Staveley forwarded the notice to him with a quiet
+intimation that it would be well to give up his command without making
+a disturbance. Burgevine complied with this advice, handed over the
+command to Captain Holland, and came back to Shanghai on 6th of
+January. He published a defence of his conduct, and expressed his
+regret for having struck Takee.
+
+Captain Holland was thus the third commander of the Ever Victorious
+Army, and a set of regulations was drawn up between Li Hung Chang and
+General Staveley as to the conduct and control of the force. It was
+understood that Captain Holland's appointment was only temporary until
+the decision of the Government as to Gordon's nomination arrived, but
+this arrangement allowed of the corps again taking the field, for
+although it cost the Chinese L30,000 a month, it had done nothing
+during the last three months of the year 1862. Early in February 1863,
+therefore, Captain Holland, at the head of 2,300 men, including a
+strong force of artillery--600 men and twenty-two guns and
+mortars--was directed to attack Taitsan, an important place about
+fifty miles north-east of Shanghai. An Imperialist army of nearly
+10,000 men acted in conjunction with it. The affair was badly managed
+and proved most disastrous.
+
+After a short bombardment a breach was declared to be practicable, and
+the ladder and storming parties were ordered to the assault.
+Unfortunately, the reconnoitring of the Taeping position had been very
+carelessly done, and the attacking parties were checked by a wet
+ditch, twenty feet wide and six feet deep, of which nothing had been
+seen. Situated only forty yards from the wall of the town, and without
+any means of crossing it, although some few did by throwing across a
+ladder, the storming party stood exposed to a terrific fire. Captain
+Holland ordered a retreat, but it was not managed any better than the
+attack. The light guns were removed too quickly, and the heavy ones
+were stuck so fast in the mud that they could not be removed at all.
+The Taepings attacked in their turn, and the greatest confusion
+prevailed, during which the survivors of the larger half of the Ever
+Victorious Army escaped in small detachments back to Sungkiang. Twenty
+European officers were killed or wounded, besides 300 Chinese
+privates. Captain Holland exposed himself freely, but this, his only
+action in independent command, resulted in complete and unqualified
+failure. Gordon himself summed up the causes of this serious and
+discouraging reverse:--
+
+     "The causes of the failure were the too cheap rate at which the
+     rebels were held. The force had hitherto fought with the allies
+     with them (except at Tsingpu). They now had to bear the brunt of
+     the fighting themselves, the mistake of not having provided
+     bridges in spite of the mandarin's information, and the too close
+     proximity of the heavy guns to the walls, and the want of cover
+     they had, and finally the withdrawal of the lighter guns before
+     the heavy guns, whose removal they should have covered. There is
+     little doubt that the rebels had been warned by persons in
+     Shanghai of the intended attack, and that several foreigners, who
+     had been dismissed by Captain Holland, were with the rebels
+     defending the breach. As may be imagined, Burgevine's removal had
+     caused considerable feeling among his acquaintances, who were not
+     sorry to see the first expedition of the force under an English
+     officer fail, being in hopes that the command would again revert
+     to Burgevine."
+
+This reverse occurred on 13th February, and no further steps of any
+consequence were taken until the appointment of Major Gordon, which at
+last was sanctioned in the latter portion of March, about a week
+before ill-health compelled General Staveley to resign his command in
+China. That officer was connected with the Gordon family, his sister,
+a most amiable and sympathetic lady, being Lady Gordon, widow of the
+late Sir Henry Gordon. As far back as May 1861--that is, prior to most
+of the events described in this chapter--Gordon's sensitiveness about
+his family connection with the commanding officer in China had
+impelled him to write this letter:--
+
+     "I was much put out in Henry's writing, and I think hinting he
+     could do something for me, and I went to Staveley and told him
+     so. It is the bother of one's life to be trying after the honours
+     of the profession, and it has grown in late years into a regular
+     trade--everyone uses private interest."
+
+When Gordon gave this early manifestation of his independent spirit he
+was little more than twenty-eight years of age, but it should
+certainly be noted as showing that in one respect he was very little
+changed in his later years from what he was in his youth.
+
+After these reverses in February nothing more was attempted until
+Major Gordon arrived at Sungkiang on 25th March 1863 to take over the
+command of the force. It is to be hoped that the last few pages have
+made clear what that force was like. In the first place, it had been
+one composed entirely of Europeans, a band somewhat resembling those
+that have set up and cast down the mushroom republics that separate
+the conquests of Pizarro from those of Cortes. That force achieved
+nothing and had an ignominious end. It was succeeded by the larger
+force of drilled Chinese, to which was given the name of the Ever
+Victorious Army. Although these Chinese showed far more courage than
+might have been expected of them, none of their leaders--Ward,
+Burgevine, or Holland--seemed able to turn their good qualities to any
+profitable purpose. They were as often defeated as successful, and at
+the very moment of Gordon's assuming the command the defeat of Captain
+Holland at Taitsan, and a subsidiary reverse of Major Tapp at Fushan,
+had reduced their _morale_ to the lowest point, and even justified a
+belief that for military purposes this force was nearly, if not quite,
+worthless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE TAEPING REBELLION.
+
+
+In order to bring before the reader the magnitude of Gordon's
+achievements in China it is necessary to describe briefly the course
+of the Taeping rebellion, and to show the kind of opponents over whom
+he was destined to obtain so glorious and decisive a victory. But as
+this would be to tell a thrice-told tale, I content myself with giving
+in an abridged form the account I prepared from the papers of General
+Gordon and other trustworthy sources, which appears in the last volume
+of my "History of China."
+
+As far back as the year 1830 there had been symptoms of disturbed
+popular feeling in Kwangsi, the most southern province of China
+adjacent to Tonquin. The difficulty of operating in a region which
+possessed few roads, and which was only rendered at all accessible by
+the West River or Sikiang, had led the Chinese authorities, much
+engaged as they were about the foreign question, to postpone those
+vigorous measures, which, if taken at the outset, might have speedily
+restored peace and stamped out the first promptings of revolt. The
+authorities were more concerned at the proceedings of the formidable
+secret Association, known as the "Triads," than at the occurrences in
+Kwangsi, probably because the Triads made no secret that their object
+was the expulsion of the Manchus and the restoration of the old Ming
+dynasty. The true origin of the Triads is not to be assigned, but
+there seems reasonable ground for the suspicion that they were
+connected with the discontented monks of a Buddhist monastery which
+had been suppressed by the Government. Between them they seem to have
+formed the inception of what became the famous Taeping rebellion.
+
+The summer of 1850 witnessed a great accession of energy on the part
+of the rebels in Kwangsi, which may perhaps have been due to the death
+of the Emperor Taoukwang. The important town of Wuchow on the Sikiang,
+close to the western border of Kwantung, was besieged by a force
+reported to number 50,000 men. The governor was afraid to report the
+occurrence, knowing that it would carry his own condemnation and
+probable disgrace; and it was left for a minor official to reveal the
+extent to which the insurgents had carried their depredations. Two
+leaders named Chang assumed the style of royalty; other bands appeared
+in the province of Hoonan as well as in the southern parts of
+Kwantung, but they all collected by degrees on the Sikiang, where they
+placed an embargo on merchandise, and gradually crushed out such trade
+as there had been by that river. Their proceedings were not restricted
+to the fair operations of war. They plundered and massacred wherever
+they went. They claimed to act in the name of the Chinese people; yet
+they slew all they could lay hands upon, without discrimination of age
+or sex.
+
+The confidence of the insurgents was raised by frequent success, and
+by the manifest inability of the Canton Viceroy to take any effectual
+military measures against them. Two hundred imperial troops were
+decoyed into a defile, and slaughtered by an overwhelming force in
+ambush. This reverse naturally caused considerable alarm in Canton
+itself, and defensive measures were taken. Governor Yeh was sent
+against them with 2000 men, and he succeeded in compelling, or as some
+say in inducing, them to retreat. Any satisfaction this success may
+have occasioned was soon dispelled, for at Lienchow, near the small
+port of Pakhoi, the rebels not merely gained a victory, but were
+joined by the troops sent to attack them. But these successes at
+several different points were of far less significance than the
+nomination of a single chief with the royal title of Tien Wang, or the
+Heavenly King.
+
+The man on whom their choice fell was named Hung-tsiuen. He was the
+son of a small farmer, who lived in a village near the North River,
+about thirty miles from Canton. If he was not a Hakka himself, he
+lived in a district which was considered to belong exclusively to that
+strange race, which closely resembles our gipsies. He belonged to a
+degraded race, therefore, and it was held that he was not entitled to
+that free entry into the body of the civil service, which is the
+natural privilege of every true-born Chinese subject. His friends
+declared that he came out high at each of the periodical examinations,
+but their statements may have been false in this as in much else. The
+fact is clear that he failed to obtain his degrees, and that he was
+denied admission into the public service. Hung was therefore a
+disappointed candidate, the more deeply disappointed, perhaps, that
+his sense of injured merit and the ill-judging flattery of his
+admirers made his rejection appear unjust.
+
+Hung was, at all events, a shrewd observer of the weakness of the
+Government, and of the popular discontent. He perceived the
+opportunity of making the Manchu dynasty the scapegoat of national
+weakness and apathy. He could not be the servant of the Government.
+Class contempt, the prejudices of his examiners, or it may even have
+been his own haughty presumption and self-sufficiency, effectually
+debarred him from the enjoyment of the wealth and privileges that fall
+to the lot of those in executive power in all countries, but in
+Asiatic above every other. To his revengeful but astute mind it was
+clear that if he could not be an official he might be the enemy of the
+Government and its possible subverter.
+
+The details of his early career have been mainly recorded by those who
+sympathised with the supposed objects of his operations; and while
+they have been very anxious to discover his virtues, they were always
+blind to his failings. The steps of his imposture have therefore been
+described with an amount of implicit belief which reflected little
+credit on the judgment of those who were anxious to give their
+sanction to the miracles which preceded the appearance of this
+adventurer in the field. Absurd stories as to his dreams, allegorical
+coincidences showing how he was summoned by a just and all-powerful
+God to the supreme seat of power, were repeated with a degree of faith
+so emphatic in its mode of expression as to make the challenge of its
+sincerity appear extremely harsh. Hung, the defeated official
+candidate, the long-deaf listener to the entreaties of Christian
+missionaries, was thus in a brief time metamorphosed into Heaven's
+elect for the Dragon Throne, into the iconoclastic propagator of the
+worship of a single God, and the destroyer of the mass of idolatry
+stored in the hearts and venerated in the temples of the Chinese
+people for countless ages. Whether Hung was merely an intriguer or a
+fanatic, he could not help feeling some gratitude to those who so
+conveniently echoed his pretensions to the Throne at the same time
+that they pleaded extenuating circumstances for acts of cruelty and
+brigandage often unsurpassed in their infamy.
+
+If he found the foreigners thus willing to accept him at his own
+estimate, it would have been very strange if he had not experienced
+still greater success in imposing upon the credulity of his own
+countrymen. To declare that he had dreamt dreams which showed that he
+was selected by a heavenly mandate for Royal honours was sufficient to
+gain a small body of adherents, provided only that he was prepared to
+accept the certain punishment of detection and failure. If Hung's
+audacity was shown by nothing else, it was demonstrated by the lengths
+to which he carried the supernatural agency that urged him to quit the
+ignominious life of a Kwantung peasant for the career of a pretender
+to Imperial honours. The course of training to which he subjected
+himself, the ascetic deprivations, the loud prayers and invocations,
+the supernatural counsels and meetings, was that adopted by every
+other religious devotee or fanatic as the proper novitiate for those
+honours based on the superstitious reverence of mankind, which are
+sometimes no inadequate substitute for temporal power and influence,
+even when they fail to pave the way to their attainment.
+
+Yet when Hung proceeded to Kwangsi there was no room left to hope that
+the seditious movement would dissolve of its own accord, for the
+extent and character of his pretensions at once invested the rising
+with all the importance of open and unveiled rebellion. After the
+proclamation of Hung as Tien Wang, the success of the Kwangsi rebels
+increased. The whole of the country south of the Sikiang, with the
+strong military station of Nanning, fell into their hands, and they
+prepared in the early part of the year 1851 to attack the provincial
+capital Kweiling, which commanded one of the principal high roads into
+the interior of China. So urgent did the peril at this place appear
+that three Imperial Commissioners were sent there direct by land from
+Peking, and the significance of their appointment was increased by the
+fact that they were all Manchus. They were instructed to raise troops
+_en route_, and to reach Kweiling as soon as possible. Their movements
+were so dilatory that that place would have fallen if it had not been
+for the courage and military capacity shown by Wurantai, leader of the
+Canton Bannermen. This soldier fully realised the perils of the
+situation. In a memorial to the Throne he spoke plainly:--
+
+     "The outer barbarians (Europeans) say that of literature China
+     has more than enough, of the art of war not sufficient. The whole
+     country swarms with the rebels. Our funds are nearly at an end,
+     and our troops few; our officers disagree, and the power is not
+     concentrated. The commander of the forces wants to extinguish a
+     burning wagon-load of fagots with a cupful of water. I fear we
+     shall hereafter have some serious affair--that the great body
+     will rise against us, and our own people leave us."
+
+The growth of the rebellion proved steady if slow. Although 30,000
+troops were stated to be concentrated opposite the Taeping positions,
+fear or inexperience prevented action, and the numbers and courage of
+the Imperialists melted away. Had the Chinese authorities only pressed
+on, they must, by sheer weight, have swept the rebels into Tonquin,
+and there would thus have been an end of Tien Wang and his
+aspirations. They lacked the nerve, and their vacillation gave
+confidence and reputation to an enemy that need never have been
+allowed to become formidable.
+
+While the Imperial authorities had been either discouraged or at the
+least lethargic, the pretender Tien Wang had been busily engaged in
+establishing his authority on a sound basis, and in assigning their
+respective ranks to his principal followers who saw in the conferring
+of titles and posts, at the moment of little meaning or value, the
+recognition of their past zeal and the promise of reward for future
+service. The men who rallied round Tien Wang were schoolmasters and
+labourers. To these some brigands of the mountain frontier supplied
+rude military knowledge, while the leaders of the Triads brought as
+their share towards the realisation of what they represented as a
+great cause skill in intrigue, and some knowledge of organisation.
+Neither enthusiasm nor the energy of desperation was wanting; but for
+those qualities which claim respect, if they cannot command success,
+we must look in vain. Yet the peasants of Kwangsi and the artisans of
+Kwantung assumed the title of "Wang" or prince, and divided in
+anticipation the prizes that should follow the establishment of some
+dynasty of their own making.
+
+The war dragged on in the Sikiang valley during two years, but the
+tide of success had certainly set in the main against the
+Imperialists, as was shown by the scene of operations being
+transferred to the northern side of that river. The campaign might
+have continued indefinitely until one side or the other was exhausted
+had not the state of the province warned Tien Wang that he could not
+hope to feed much longer the numerous followers who had attached
+themselves to his cause. He saw that there would very soon remain for
+him no choice except to retire into Tonquin, and to settle down into
+the ignominious life of a border brigand. To Tien Wang the thought was
+intolerable, and in sheer desperation he came to the resolve to march
+northwards into the interior of China. It was not the inspiration of
+genius but the pressure of dire need that urged the Taeping leader to
+issue his orders for the invasion of Hoonan. He issued a proclamation
+on the eve of beginning this march, announcing that he had received
+"the divine commission to exterminate the Manchus and to possess the
+Empire as its true sovereign."
+
+It was at this stage in the rebellion that the name "Taepings" came
+into general use, and various accounts are given as to its origin.
+Some say it was taken from the small town of that name in the
+south-west of Kwangsi, where the insurrection began; others that the
+characters mean "Universal Peace," and that it was the style assumed
+by the new dynasty. In seeming contradiction with this is the fact
+that some of the Taepings themselves declared that they never heard
+the name, and did not know what it meant. At this particular juncture
+the rebels were in the heart of Kwangsi, at the district capital of
+Woosuen. In May 1851 they moved to Siang, a little north of that
+place. They ravaged the country, making no long stay anywhere. In
+August they were at Yungan, where 16,000 men were ranged under the
+banner of the Heavenly King, and for a moment Tien Wang may have
+thought of making a dash on Canton. Respect for Wurantai's military
+capacity induced him to forego the adventure, and at Yungan, where he
+remained until April 1852, the Taeping leader made his final
+arrangements for his march northwards.
+
+At Yungan a circumstance occurred which first promised to strengthen
+the Taepings, and then to lead to their disruption. Tien Wang was
+joined there by five influential chiefs and many members of the Triad
+Society. For a time it seemed as if these allies would necessarily
+bring with them a great accession of popular strength; but whether
+they disapproved of Tien Wang's plans, or were offended by the
+arrogant bearing of the Wangs, who, but the other day little better
+than the dregs of the people, had suddenly assumed the yellow dress
+and insignia of Chinese royalty, the Triad leaders took a secret and
+hurried departure from his camp, and hastened to make their peace with
+the Imperialists. The principal of these members of the most
+formidable secret society in China--Chang Kwoliang by name--was given
+a military command of some importance, and afterwards distinguished
+himself among the Imperial commanders. In April 1852 the Taeping army
+left its quarters at Yungan and marched direct on Kweiling, the
+principal city of the province, where the Imperial commissioners sent
+from Peking had long remained inactive. Tien Wang attacked them at the
+end of April or the beginning of May, but he was repulsed with some
+loss. Afraid of breaking his force against the walls of so strong a
+place, he abandoned the attack and marched into Hoonan. Had the
+Imperial generals only been as energetic in offensive measures as they
+had shown themselves obstinate in defence, they might have harassed
+his rear, delayed his progress, and eventually brought him to a
+decisive engagement under many disadvantages. But the Imperial
+Commissioners at Kweiling did nothing, being apparently well satisfied
+with having rid themselves of the presence of such troublesome
+neighbours.
+
+On 12th of June the Taepings attacked the small town of Taou in Hoonan
+with better success. Some resistance was offered, and one of the
+Taeping Wangs, known as the "Southern King," was killed. This was a
+great loss, because he was a man of some education, and had taken the
+most prominent part in the organisation of the Taeping rebellion.
+General Gordon inclined to the opinion that he was the real originator
+of the whole rising. His loss was a severe blow to the Taepings, whose
+confidence in themselves and their cause was alike rudely shaken. They
+could not however turn back, for fear of the force at Kweiling, and to
+halt for any time was scarcely less dangerous. Necessity compelled
+them therefore to press on, and in August they captured the three
+small towns of Kiaho, Ching, and Kweyang. Their next march was both
+long and forced. Overrunning the whole adjacent country, they appeared
+early in the month of September before the strong and important town
+of Changsha, situated on the river Seang, and only fifty miles south
+of the large lake Tungting.
+
+At this town, the capital of Hoonan, some vigorous preparations had
+been made to withstand them. Not merely was the usual garrison
+stationed there, but it so happened that Tseng Kwofan, a man of great
+ability and some considerable resolution, was residing near the town
+at the time. Tseng Kwofan had held several offices in the service, and
+as a member of the Hanlin enjoyed a high position and reputation; but
+he was absent from the capital on one of those frequent periods of
+retirement to their native province which the officials of China have
+to make on the occasion of any near relative's death.
+
+When tidings of the approach of the Taepings reached him he threw
+himself with all the forces he could collect into Changsha. At the
+same time he ordered the local militia to assemble as rapidly as
+possible in the neighbourhood, in order to harass the movements of the
+enemy. He called upon all those who had the means to show their duty
+to the state and sovereign by raising recruits or by promising rewards
+to those volunteers who would serve in the army against the rebels.
+Had the example of Tseng Kwofan been followed generally, it is not too
+much to say that the Taepings would never have got to Nanking. As it
+was, he set the first example of true patriotism, and he had the
+immediate satisfaction of saving Changsha.
+
+When the Taepings reached Changsha they found the gates closed and the
+walls manned. They proceeded to lay siege to it; they cut off its
+supplies, and they threatened the garrison with extermination. They
+even attempted to carry it by storm on three separate occasions.
+During eighty days the siege went on; but the Taepings were then
+compelled to admit that they were as far from success as ever. They
+had suffered very considerable losses, including another of their
+Wangs, the Western King, and although it was said that the loss of the
+Imperialists was larger, they could better afford it. On the 1st
+December they accordingly abandoned the siege and resumed their march
+northwards. They crossed the Tungting Lake on boats and junks which
+they had seized, and secured the town of Yochow on the Yangtsekiang
+without meeting any resistance. Here they captured much war material,
+including a large supply of gunpowder left by the great Chinese
+Viceroy, Wou Sankwei, of the seventeenth century. From Yochow they
+hastened down the river. The important city of Hankow surrendered
+without a blow. The not less important town of Wouchang, on the
+opposite or southern bank of the river, was then attacked, and after a
+siege of a fortnight carried by storm. The third town of Hanyang,
+which completes the busy human hive where the Han joins the great
+river, did not attempt any resistance.
+
+These successes raised the Taepings from the depths of despair to the
+heights of hope. The capture of such wealthy places dispelled all
+their doubt and discouragement. They were able to repay themselves for
+the losses and hardships they had undergone, and the prize they had
+thus secured furnished ground for hoping for more. But even now it was
+no part of their mission to stand still. They waited at Hankow only
+long enough to attach to their cause the many thousands attracted to
+Tien Wang's flag by these successes. The possibility of pursuit by
+Tseng Kwofan at the head of the warlike levies of Hoonan, where each
+brave is considered equal to two from another province, was still
+present to their minds. But he unfortunately rested content with his
+laurels, while the Taepings swept like an irresistible wave or torrent
+down the valley of the Yangtsekiang.
+
+The capture of Kiukiang, a town situated on the river near the
+northern extremity of the lake Poyang, and of Ganking followed in
+quick succession, and on 8th March the Taepings sat down before
+Nanking, the old capital of the Mings. The siege lasted only sixteen
+days. Notwithstanding that there was a considerable Manchu force in
+the Tartar city, which might easily have been defended apart from the
+Chinese and much larger town, the resistance offered was singularly
+faint-hearted. The Taepings succeeded in blowing in one of the gates.
+The townspeople fraternised with the assailants, and the very Manchus,
+who had looked so valiant in face of Sir Hugh Gough's force ten years
+before, now surrendered their lives and their honour after a mere show
+of resistance to a force which was nothing better than an armed
+rabble. The Manchu colony of Nanking, to the number of some 4000
+families, had evidently fallen off from its high renown. Instead of
+dying at their posts, they threw themselves on the pity of the Taeping
+leader. Their cowardice helped them not; of 20,000 Manchus not 100
+escaped. The tale rests on irrefragable evidence. "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."
+
+The capture of Nanking and this sweeping massacre of the dominant race
+seemed to point the inevitable finger of fate at the Tatsing dynasty.
+It was no longer possible to regard Tien Wang and his miscellaneous
+gathering as an enemy beneath contempt. Without achieving any
+remarkable success, having indeed been defeated whenever they were
+opposed with the least resolution, the Taepings found themselves in
+possession of the second city in the Empire. With that city they
+acquired the control of the navigation of the Great River, and they
+cut off the better part of the communications between the northern and
+southern halves of the Empire. They abandoned Hankow, and confined
+their occupation of the river banks to the part between Kiukiang and
+Nanking; but they determined to secure the Grand Canal, which enters
+the river east of the city. On 1st April 1853 they occupied
+Chinkiangfoo, on the southern side of the river, and they held it, but
+although they also captured Yangchow on the northern bank, they
+evacuated it in a few days. These successes were obtained without any
+loss, as all the garrisons fled at the mere approach of the dreaded
+Taepings.
+
+The Imperialist authorities seemed paralysed by the rapidity and
+success of the rebels, who devoted all their efforts to strengthening
+the defences of Nanking and to provisioning it in view of all
+eventualities. But the thoughts of Tien Wang and his immediate
+advisers were still of offensive and forward measures, and when
+Nanking was equipped for defence a large part of the Taeping army was
+ordered to march against Peking. At this time it was computed that the
+total number of the Taepings did not fall short of 80,000 trustworthy
+fighting men, while there were perhaps more than 100,000 Chinese
+pressed into their service as hewers of wood and drawers of water. The
+lines of Nanking and the batteries along the Yangtsekiang were the
+creation of the forced labour of the population which had not fled
+before the Taepings.
+
+On the 12th of May an army, stated to consist of 200,000 men, but
+probably consisting of less than half that number of combatants,
+crossed the Yangtse and marched northwards. It would be uninteresting
+to name the many small places they captured on their way, but on 19th
+June they reached Kaifong, the capital of Honan, and once of China
+itself. They had thus transferred in a few weeks their advanced posts
+from the Yangtsekiang to the Hwangho, or Yellow River.
+
+The garrison of Kaifong made a resolute defence, and repulsed the
+Taepings, who at once abandoned the siege in accordance with their
+usual custom, and resumed their march. They succeeded in crossing the
+Yellow River under the eyes of the Kaifong garrison, and they then
+attacked Hwaiking, an important prefectural town, where they
+encountered a stout resistance. They besieged it for two months, and
+then had to give up the attempt. Forces were gathering from different
+directions, and it became necessary to baffle their opponents. They
+marched westwards for some distance along the southern bank of the
+Hwangho, turned suddenly north at Yuenking, and on reaching Pingyang
+they again turned in an easterly direction, and secured the Lin
+Limming Pass which leads into the Metropolitan province of Pechihli.
+The whole of the autumn of 1853 was taken up with these manoeuvres,
+and it was on 30th September that the Taepings first appeared in the
+province containing the capital. They met with little or no
+opposition. They had mystified their pursuers, and surprised the
+inhabitants of the districts through which they passed. Having forced
+the Limming Pass, the Taepings found no difficulty in occupying the
+towns on the south-west border of Pechihli. The defeat of the Manchu
+garrison in a pass that was considered almost impregnable gave the
+Taepings the prestige of victory, and the towns opened their gates one
+after another. They crossed the Hootoo River on a bridge of boats
+which they constructed themselves, and then occupied the town of
+Shinchow; on 21st October they reached Tsing, about twenty miles south
+of Tientsin and only one hundred from Peking; but beyond this point
+neither then nor at any other time did the rebels succeed in getting.
+
+The forcing of the Limming Pass produced great confusion at Peking. It
+was no longer a question of suffering subjects and disturbed
+provinces. The capital of the Empire, the very person of the Emperor,
+was in imminent danger of destruction at the hands of a ruthless foe.
+The city was denuded of troops. Levies were hastily summoned from
+Manchuria in order to defend the line of the Peiho and the approaches
+to the capital. Had the Taepings shown better generalship there is no
+saying but that they would have succeeded in capturing it, as the
+Imperialists had left quite unguarded the approach by Chingting and
+Paoting, and the capture of Peking would have sounded the knell of the
+Manchu dynasty. But the Taepings did not seize the chance--if it were
+one--and they were far from being in the best of spirits. They had
+advanced far, but it looked as if it was into the lion's mouth. Their
+march had been a remarkable one, but it had been attended with no
+striking success. In their front was the Tientsin militia,
+strengthened by a large if nondescript force, led by the Mongol chief
+Sankolinsin. In their rear the levies of Hoonan, of the vast district
+that had suffered from their exactions, were closing up, and soon they
+were closely beleaguered in a hastily-fortified camp at Tsinghai. In
+this they were besieged from the end of October to the beginning of
+March 1854. The Imperial generals, afraid to risk an assault, hoped to
+starve them out, and so they might have done had not Tien Wang sent a
+fresh army to extricate this force from its peril. Then the retreat
+began, but, beset by assailants from every side, it was slow and
+disastrous. The struggle went on until March 1855, when Sankolinsin
+was able to declare that not a Taeping remained north of the Yellow
+River. Only a very small portion of the two armies sent to capture
+Peking ever returned to the headquarters of Tien Wang.
+
+While these events, and others that do not call for description as
+being of minor importance, were in progress, symptoms of
+disintegration were already beginning to reveal themselves in the camp
+at Nanking. After its capture Tien Wang himself retired into the
+interior of his palace and never afterwards appeared in public. All
+his time was passed in the harem, and the opportunity was thus given
+his more ambitious lieutenants to assert themselves. Tung Wang, the
+"Eastern King," became principal Minister. He, too, claimed to have
+communion with Heaven, and on celestial advice he began to get rid of
+those of his comrades who opposed his schemes. He even summoned Tien
+Wang to his presence and reproved him for his proceedings. A plot was
+then formed against Tung Wang, and he was slain with three of his
+brothers, in the presence of Tien Wang, by another of the Taeping
+chiefs. Nor did the slaughter stop there, for it is alleged, although
+the numbers must not be accepted literally, that 200,000 of his
+partisans--men, women, and children--were massacred. These internal
+dissensions threatened to break up the Taeping confederacy, and no
+doubt they would have done so but for the appearance of the most
+remarkable man associated with the movement, and one of the most
+heroic figures in China's history.
+
+A young officer, rejoicing in the innumerable Chinese name of Li, had
+attracted Tung Wang's favourable notice, and was by him entrusted with
+a small command. It will be more convenient to speak of him by his
+subsequent title of Chung Wang, or the "Faithful King." He
+distinguished himself in his first enterprise by defeating a large
+Imperial army besieging Chinkiang, and in relieving the garrison when
+on the point of surrender. But while engaged on this task the
+Imperialists closed in on his rear and cut off his retreat back to
+Nanking, whither Tien Wang hastily summoned him to return. He
+endeavoured to make his way along the northern bank, but was checked
+at Loohoo by the ex-Triad Chang Kwoliang, the same who deserted the
+Taepings in Kwangsi. Chang had crossed the river to oppose him, and
+Chung Wang, hastily conveying his army over the river, fell upon and
+destroyed the weakened force that the Imperial general had left there,
+under General Chi, who committed suicide. Chang Kwoliang crossed after
+him, but only to suffer defeat, and Chung Wang made his way into
+Nanking. He then attacked the main Imperial army before its walls,
+under the Emperor's generalissimo Heang Yung, and drove it out of its
+entrenchments. Heang took his defeat so much to heart that he also
+committed suicide, but Chang Kwoliang made a supreme effort to
+retrieve the day, and succeeded in retaking all the lost positions,
+with the exception of the Yashua Gate of Nanking.
+
+While these events were in progress in the Taeping capital, some
+events that must be briefly referred to happened on a different scene.
+The Triads, aided by the mob, rose in Shanghai, overcame the Emperor's
+officers and garrison, and on 7th September 1853 obtained complete
+mastery of the native city. The foreign settlement was placed in a
+state of siege, the men-of-war covered the approaches to the
+factories, and a volunteer corps was carefully organised and
+constantly employed. Then an Imperial army re-appeared on the scene,
+and laid siege to Shanghai, but it was conducted with no skill, and
+the situation remained unchanged. After twelve months' delay the
+French Admiral, Laguerre, decided to help the Imperialists, and he
+began to bombard the walls in December 1854. He combined with them in
+an assault, and 400 French sailors and the Imperialists attacked the
+walls which had been breached. The assault ended disastrously, for the
+rebels defended the houses, and at last drove back the assailants with
+much loss. The pressure of famine compelled the besieged some months
+later to make a _sortie_, when the Imperialists recovered the town. A
+similar rising, with a similar result, occurred at Amoy. The
+insurgents caused a great loss of life and property, but in the end
+the authorities gained the upper hand. These events compelled the
+foreign consuls and their Governments to reconsider their policy,
+which had been one of sympathy towards the Taepings, and gradually the
+conviction became universal that it would be well for civilization and
+trade if a speedy end were put to the Taeping rebellion. But for our
+own quarrel and war with the central Government these views would have
+borne fruit in acts at an earlier date than they did.
+
+During the campaign of 1858 the Taepings more than held their own
+through the courage and activity shown by Chung Wang. He relieved the
+town of Ganking when closely pressed by Tseng Kwofan, and although he
+could not prevent a fresh beleaguerment of Nanking, it caused him no
+apprehension because the Emperor's generals were well known to have no
+intention of attacking. Notwithstanding this, it was clearly foreseen
+that in time Nanking must fall by starvation. In these straits Chung
+Wang proved the saviour of his party. The city was invested on three
+sides; only one remained open for any one to carry out the news of
+Tien Wang's necessities. In this moment of peril there was a general
+reluctance to quit the besieged town, but unless someone did, and that
+quickly, the place was doomed. In this supreme moment Chung Wang
+offered to go himself. At first the proposal was received with a
+chorus of disapproval, but at last, when he went to the door of Tien
+Wang's palace and beat the gong which lay there for those who claimed
+justice, he succeeded in overcoming the opposition to his plan, and in
+impressing upon his audience the real gravity of the situation. His
+request was granted, and having nominated trusty men to the command
+during his absence, he left by the southern gate. A few days later and
+Tseng's last levies constructed their fortified camp in front of it.
+The Emperor's generals unfortunately reverted to their old dilatory
+measures, because they failed to realise the importance with which the
+possession of Nanking still invested the Taepings. Without that city
+they would have been nothing but a band of brigands, who could easily
+have been dispersed. With it they could claim the status of a separate
+dynasty. Yet the capture of Nanking was put off until the last act of
+all. These sapient leaders, whose military knowledge was antiquated,
+acted with an indifference to the most obvious considerations, that
+would have been ludicrous if it had not been a further injury to a
+suffering people. In 1858 their apathy was such that it not merely
+saved Nanking but played the whole game into the hands of Chung Wang.
+
+That chief succeeded in collecting a small force, with which he at
+once began to harass Tseng's army. By transferring his army rapidly
+from one side of the river to the other, he succeeded in supplying his
+deficiency in numbers; but with all his activity he could make no
+impression on the mass of his opponents. He even got the worst of it
+in several skirmishes, but by a supreme effort he succeeded in
+overpowering the Imperial force north of the river at Poukou, and thus
+relieved the pressure on Nanking. But this was only momentary, and
+after a doubtful and wearisome campaign throughout the year 1859, the
+situation again became one of great gravity for the besieged Taepings
+who were now confined to Nanking and a few other towns in the Yangtse
+valley.
+
+In this extremity Chung Wang conceived a fresh plan for extricating
+his cause from the difficulties that beset it. By January 1860 all
+Chung Wang's arrangements were completed. He distributed considerable
+sums of money among his men to put them in good humour, and then set
+forth. His first movements were directed to misleading his enemy as to
+his real object, and having succeeded in this he marched as rapidly as
+possible towards the important harbour of Hangchow, in the bay of the
+same name, south of Shanghai. On 19th March he succeeded in capturing
+the Chinese city, but the Tartar portion held out, and a relieving
+army compelled Chung Wang to retire. What seemed an unredeemed
+calamity proved a stroke of good fortune, for the Imperialists had
+sent their best troops to pursue him, and thus materially weakened the
+force before Nanking. Chung Wang saw his chance, and while the
+Imperialists were rejoicing in Hangchow at its recovery, he hastened
+back by forced marches, and fell upon the besieging army. In the
+desperate engagement that followed 5000 Imperialists were slain, and
+the remainder were driven ignominiously from the field. Thus, at the
+blackest moment of their fortunes, did Chung Wang succeed in
+delivering his kinsmen who had so long been shut up in Nanking. This
+siege had then continued with more or less interruption for seven
+years.
+
+Nor did Chung Wang's success stop here. He fought a battle at Tayan
+with his old adversary Chang Kwoliang, and defeated him with a loss of
+10,000 men. At the height of the engagement Chang Kwoliang was drowned
+while crossing a canal, and this decided the battle. Encouraged by
+these successes, and with increased forces--for most of the prisoners
+he took were incorporated in his army--Chung Wang assumed the
+offensive, and after winning no fewer than three regular engagements,
+he succeeded in capturing the important city of Soochow, on the Grand
+Canal, and this became his chief quarters during the remainder of this
+long struggle. By these successes he obtained fresh supplies, and
+commanded the great and hitherto little touched resources of the
+wealthy province of Kiangsu. It was thus that he was brought into the
+neighbourhood of Shanghai, and made those attempts to acquire
+possession of the Chinese city which were set forth in the last
+chapter, and which were the true cause of the inception of the
+foreign, or foreign-trained force, that began with Ward.
+
+After his repulse at Shanghai, Chung Wang was recalled to Nanking. He
+went reluctantly, leaving Hoo Wang, "the Protecting King," as his
+deputy at Soochow. He found there everything in confusion, and that
+Tien Wang, instead of laying in rice for a fresh siege, was absorbed
+in his devotion and amusements, while the other chiefs were engaged in
+plundering their own subjects. Dissatisfied with what he saw at
+Nanking, Chung Wang again took the field, and transferred the scene of
+hostilities to the province of Kiangsi, but although he showed great
+activity, and marched 800 miles, he gained little, and, indeed, was
+defeated on one or two occasions. Nor could he save Ganking, which,
+after being besieged for three years, surrendered to Tseng Kwotsiuen,
+and thus all hope of succour from the west, or of retreat there, in
+the last resort, was removed from the hard-beset garrison of Nanking.
+As some set-off to this reverse, Chung Wang captured the ports of
+Ningpo and Hangchow, after a gallant defence by a small Manchu
+garrison. The Taepings could scarcely now hope for durable success,
+but their capacity for inflicting an enormous amount of injury was
+evidently not destroyed. Chung Wang's energy and military skill alone
+sustained their cause, but the lovers of rapine and turbulence flocked
+in their thousands to his standard.
+
+In the Yangtse valley--in fact, wherever Chung Wang was not--the
+Taepings met with many reverses that counterbalanced these successes.
+Several Chinese armies approached Nanking from different sides, and
+Tien Wang in a state of panic summoned Chung Wang, his only champion,
+back to his side. That warrior obeyed the summons, leaving Mow Wang in
+charge of Soochow, but he could do no good. He found nothing but
+disorder at the Taeping capital, and no troops with which he could
+venture to assume the offensive against the powerful army, in numbers
+at all events, that the two Tsengs had drawn round Nanking. In this
+position his troubles were increased by the suspicion of Tien Wang,
+who deprived him of all his honours, and banished him to the province
+of Anhui, adjacent to both Kiangsi and Kiangsu, and joined with them
+in the same viceroyalty. This order to depart was a relief to Chung
+Wang, who was thus able to complete his own measures for the defence
+of Soochow and the other places along the Canal that had fallen to his
+arms. He saw clearly that the success of the foreigners in keeping him
+back at a distance of thirty miles from Shanghai, and in expelling him
+from Ningpo, signified his being shut in just as effectively on the
+east, as he already was on the west by the fall of every place except
+Nanking, and by the miserable inefficiency of the garrison in that
+place. He may have really despaired, but this Chinese Frederick was
+resolved, if he could, to break his chains. Unfortunately for him, a
+new and more formidable antagonist than any he had met appeared on the
+scene at this juncture, in the person of Gordon.
+
+This summary of the progress and nature of the Taeping rebellion up to
+the 25th March 1863 when Gordon assumed the command will make clear
+what follows to the general reader. It would be as great a mistake to
+minimise the fighting military strength of the Taepings as it would be
+to exaggerate it. There was a moment, years before Gordon came on the
+scene, when the Imperial commanders by a little energy and promptitude
+might have stamped out the rebellion; but having missed the
+opportunity the military skill and daring of Chung Wang had revived
+the Taeping cause, and made it more formidable than ever from a
+military point of view. The blunders of the Imperial commanders
+precluded any confidence as to their superior numbers and resources
+effecting their natural result, and although Gordon himself declared
+that the Taeping cause was a lost one before he assumed the command,
+no cause could be pronounced irretrievable with a leader so expert and
+resolute as Chung Wang, and opponents so incapable and craven as his
+were. But another thing was certainly incontestable, and that was that
+the Taepings could not in any sense be regarded as patriots. Their
+regular mode of conduct stamped them at once as undiscriminating
+plunderers of all, whether Chinese or Manchu, who had the misfortune
+to fall into their hands, and their acts of cruelty surpassed
+description and even belief. Some instances of the massacres they
+perpetrated have been mentioned, but these were only a few out of the
+many that stained, or rather characterised, their usual proceedings.
+It will suffice to say that their ordinary way of dealing with their
+prisoners was to crucify them, and there will then be no difficulty in
+accepting the conclusion that the Chinese population thoroughly
+detested them, and regarded them as a scourge rather than as
+deliverers.
+
+Nor does a closer examination of the system of administration set up
+at Nanking by the leader Tien Wang raise one's opinion of the cause or
+its promoters. The foreign missionaries long thought that the Taepings
+were the agents of Christianity, and that their success would lead to
+the conversion of China. That faith died hard, but at last in 1860 a
+missionary had to confess that after visiting Nanking "he could find
+nothing of Christianity but its name falsely applied to a system of
+revolting idolatry," and out of that and other irresistible testimony
+resulted the conclusion that the conversion of China by the agency of
+the Taepings was a delusion. The missionaries were not alone in their
+belief among foreigners. The Consuls and their Governments entertained
+a hope that the Taepings might establish an administration which would
+be less difficult to deal with than they had found the existing one at
+Peking. They attempted to, and did in an informal manner, establish
+some relations with Tien Wang. They acquainted him with the articles
+of the Treaty of Tientsin, and they requested him to conform with its
+conditions. On a second occasion Sir George Bonham, our head
+representative in China, even honoured him with a visit; but closer
+acquaintance in the case of our diplomatists, as of the missionaries,
+stripped the Taepings of the character with which interested persons
+would wish they had been invested. From the first feeling of
+friendship and sympathy there consequently ensued a slow but steady
+revulsion, until at last the general feeling was that the Taepings
+were little more than marauders, and as such a scourge to the country
+and a standing injury to the trade and interests of Europeans. Then
+came the desire to see the rising suppressed, and finally the
+disillusionment culminated in active measures being taken to assist
+the Imperial Government in suppressing a rebellion which had defied
+all its efforts for more than ten years. Of these measures the
+appointment of Major Gordon to the command of the Ever Victorious Army
+was both the last and the most effectual in producing the desired
+result.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE EVER VICTORIOUS ARMY.
+
+
+The appointment of any English officer would have led to some
+improvement in the direction of the Chinese Imperial forces assembled
+for the suppression of the Taeping rebellion; but the nature of the
+operations to be carried out, which were exclusively the capture of a
+number of towns strongly stockaded and protected by rivers and canals,
+rendered it specially necessary that that officer should be an
+engineer. In addition to the advantages of his scientific training,
+Major Gordon enjoyed the benefit of the preliminary course he had gone
+through under General Staveley. He had seen the Taepings fight, and
+something also of the defence and capture of their positions. He had
+also thoroughly mastered the topographical features of the region in
+and beyond which he was about to conduct military operations. There is
+little doubt that he assumed the command with a plan of campaign
+already decided upon in his brain. The Taepings with whom he had to
+deal derived their power and importance from the possession of
+Soochow, and from their access to several ports whence they obtained
+arms and ammunition. Therefore the capture of that city and the
+cutting off of their supplies represented his principal objects. Very
+much had to be accomplished before Soochow could be even approached,
+and the main object of Gordon's first campaign was the capture of
+Quinsan, which he saw would be far more suitable as headquarters for
+him and his force than the existing one at Sungkiang. Even before that
+could be attempted many matters had to be arranged. Not only had Major
+Gordon to relieve more than one beleaguered loyal garrison, but he had
+to establish his authority over his own force, which was on the verge
+of mutiny and clamouring for the return of Burgevine. His own opinion
+of that force was given in the following letter to a military
+friend:--
+
+     "I hope you do not think that I have a magnificent army. 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 officers
+     and men, although ragged and perhaps slightly disreputable, are
+     in capital order and well disposed."
+
+Before entering on these matters the following letter to his mother
+will be read with interest, as showing what was in Gordon's mind at
+the time he assumed the command. The letter was written on 24th March
+1863, the day before he rode over to Sungkiang to take up his command.
+
+     "I am afraid you will be much vexed at my having taken the
+     command of the Sungkiang force, and that I am now a mandarin. I
+     have taken the step on consideration. I think that anyone who
+     contributes to putting down this rebellion fulfils a humane task,
+     and I also think tends a great deal to open China to
+     civilization. I will not act rashly, and I trust to be able soon
+     to return to England; at the same time, I will remember your and
+     my father's wishes, and endeavour to remain as short a time as
+     possible. I can say that, if I had not accepted the command, I
+     believe the force would have been broken up and the rebellion
+     gone on in its misery for years. I trust this will not now be the
+     case, and that I may soon be able to comfort you on this subject.
+     You must not fret on this matter. I think I am doing a good
+     service.... I keep your likeness before me, and can assure you
+     and my father that I will not be rash, and that as soon as I can
+     conveniently, and with due regard to the object I have in view, I
+     will return home."
+
+Major Gordon rode over to Sungkiang, situated on the line of the
+thirty-mile radius from Shanghai, on 25th March, and the following
+morning he inspected his force. He delivered a brief address, stating
+that there was no intention to dismiss any of them, and that so long
+as they behaved well he would carefully uphold their rights and
+interests. These words had a tranquillising effect, and Major Gordon's
+assumption of the command might be described as being then ratified by
+the Ever Victorious Army. The good he effected was very nearly undone
+two days later by the civil magistrate hanging some soldiers for
+marauding. After the affair looked like becoming serious, Gordon
+succeeded in pacifying his men and restoring order. In this state of
+affairs it was most desirable that no time should be lost in resuming
+active operations, and the Taeping successes at Taitsan and Fushan
+rendered them doubly necessary.
+
+The first task entrusted to Major Gordon was the relief of Chanzu,
+which was closely assailed by the Taepings and believed to be on the
+point of surrendering. Chanzu lies some distance south of Fushan and
+west of Taitsan, and its garrison at this time was composed of
+Taepings who had deserted their comrades and joined the Imperial
+forces. Several attempts had been made to relieve it, but without
+success, and Gordon was urged by his Chinese colleagues to signalise
+his assumption of the command by carrying out this most desirable and
+necessary task. The best means of approaching it was by the river, and
+on 31st March Gordon accordingly sailed from Shanghai to the mouth of
+the Fushan Creek. His force numbered about 1200 men, and included 200
+artillery with four 12-pounders and one 32-pounder. The enemy had
+constructed some stockades at Fushan, outside the ruined city of that
+name, and Gordon attacked these on the 4th April. He began with a
+heavy bombardment, and when he ordered the advance the Taepings,
+disheartened by his fire, evacuated their positions and retired with
+very little loss to either side. Gordon then marched on Chanzu, ten
+miles south of Fushan, and reached it without further fighting. The
+relief of Chanzu being thus effected, Gordon hastened back to
+Sungkiang, where he arrived little more than a week after he left it.
+The success and swiftness of this movement greatly impressed Li Hung
+Chang, who publicly recorded his great satisfaction at the very
+different manner in which the new commander transacted business from
+Burgevine.
+
+In a letter to the British Consul at Shanghai, Mr Markham, Li wrote:--
+
+     "The officer Gordon having received command of the Ever
+     Victorious Army, having immediately on doing so proceeded to
+     Fushan, working day and night, having worked harmoniously with
+     the other generals there, having exerted himself and attacked
+     with success the walled city of Fushan and relieved Chanzu, and
+     at once returned to Sungkiang and organised his force for further
+     operations to sweep out the rebels, having proved himself
+     valiant, able, and honest, I have congratulated myself and
+     memorialised his Imperial Majesty to confer on him the dignity
+     and office of Tsung-ping (Brigadier-General), to enable me to
+     consider him as part of my command. Again, since Gordon has taken
+     the command, he has exerted himself to organise the force, and
+     though he has had but one month he has got the force into shape.
+     As the people and place are charmed with him, as he has already
+     given me returns of the organisation of the force, the formation
+     of each regiment, and the expenses ordinary and extraordinary in
+     the clearest manner, wishing to drill our troops and save our
+     money, it is evident that he fully comprehends the state of
+     affairs."
+
+On his return to Sungkiang, Major Gordon devoted himself to the
+thorough reorganisation of his force. He began by abolishing the
+system of rewards for the capture of towns, and he forbade plundering
+on pain of death. These were strong steps to take with a force such as
+that he had under him, but he succeeded in making them acceptable by
+increasing the pay of the men, and by substituting on his staff
+English officers--the services of a few being lent him by the
+commanding officer at Shanghai--for the adventurers who had followed
+Ward and Burgevine. The total strength of the force was fixed at 4000
+men, and his artillery consisted of four siege and two field
+batteries. The men were paid regularly by a Chinese official appointed
+by Li Hung Chang, and the cost to the Chinese Government averaged
+L20,000 a month. At the same time, Gordon collected a pontoon train
+and practised his men in all the work of attacking fortified places
+before he ventured to assume the offensive. He also organised a
+flotilla of small steamers and Chinese gunboats capable of navigating
+the canals and creeks which traversed the province of Kiangsu in all
+directions. Of these the principal was the steamer _Hyson_--a
+paddle-wheel vessel drawing 3-1/2 feet of water, armed with a
+32-pounder in her bow, and a 12-pounder at her stern, and possessing
+the faculty of moving over the bed of a creek on her wheels--and it
+took a very active and prominent part in the subsequent operations.
+
+The strategy on which Major Gordon at once decided, and from which he
+never deviated, was to cut off the Taeping communications with the sea
+and the river Yangtsekiang, whence they were able to obtain supplies
+of ammunition and arms from little-scrupulous foreign traders. The
+expulsion of the Taepings from the Shanghai district and from Ningpo
+had done something towards the success of this project, but they still
+held Hangchow and the line of the Yangtsekiang to within ten miles of
+the entrance of the Woosung River on which Shanghai stands. The loss
+of Fushan and Chanzu had made an indent in this territory, and in
+order to complete this breach in the Taeping position, Gordon had
+decided and made all his plans to attack Quinsan, when he was
+compelled to defer it in consequence of the following incident.
+
+The rude repulse at Taitsan had been, it will be recollected, the
+culminating misfortune of the force before Gordon's assumption of the
+command, but a Chinese army under Li Hung Chang's brother, San Tajin,
+continued to remain in the neighbourhood of the place. The Taeping
+commander laid a trap for him, into which he fell in what was, for a
+Chinese officer fully acquainted with the fact that treachery formed
+part of the usages of war in China, a very credulous manner. He
+expressed a desire to come over, presents and vows were exchanged, and
+at a certain hour he was to surrender one of the gates. The Imperial
+troops went to take possession, and were even admitted within the
+walls, when they were suddenly attacked on both flanks by the
+treacherous Taepings. Fifteen hundred of San Tajin's men were killed
+or captured, and he himself was severely wounded. In consequence of
+this reverse, the main Chinese army, under General Ching, a brave but
+inexperienced officer, could not co-operate with Gordon against
+Quinsan, and it was then decided that Gordon himself should proceed
+against Taitsan, and read the triumphant foe at that place a lesson.
+It was computed that its garrison numbered 10,000 men, and that it had
+several European deserters and renegades among its leaders, while the
+total force under Gordon did not exceed 3000 men. Their recent
+successes had also inspired the Taepings with confidence, and, judging
+by the previous encounters, there seemed little reason to anticipate a
+satisfactory, or at least a speedy issue of the affair for the
+Imperialists. That the result was more favourable was entirely due to
+Gordon's military capacity and genius.
+
+Major Gordon acted with remarkable and characteristic promptitude. He
+only heard of the catastrophe to San Tajin on 27th April; on 29th
+April, after two forced marches across country, he appeared before
+Taitsan, and captured a stockade in front of one of its gates. Bad
+weather prevented operations the next day, but on 1st May, Gordon
+having satisfied himself by personal examination that the western gate
+offered the best point of attack, began the bombardment soon after
+daybreak. Two stone stockades in front of the gate had first to be
+carried, and these, after twenty minutes' firing, were evacuated on
+part of Gordon's force threatening the retreat of their garrison back
+to the town. The capture of these stockades began and ended the
+operations on that day. The next morning Gordon stationed one regiment
+in front of the north gate to cut off the retreat of the garrison in
+that direction, and then resumed his main attack on the west gate. By
+this time he had been joined by some of his gunboats, and their fire,
+aided by the artillery he had with him, gradually made a good
+impression on the wall, especially after the guns had been drawn as
+near as 200 yards to it. The breach was then deemed sufficiently
+practicable; the gunboats went up the creek as near the walls as
+possible, and the two regiments advanced to the assault. The Taepings
+fought desperately in the breach itself, and no progress was made. It
+is probable that a reverse would have followed had not the howitzers
+continued to throw shells over the wall, thus inflicting heavy losses
+on the Taepings, who swarmed in their thousands behind. At that
+critical moment Gordon directed another regiment to escalade the wall
+at a point which the Taepings had left unguarded, and the appearance
+of these fresh troops on their flank at once decided the day, and
+induced the Taeping leaders to order a retreat. The Taepings lost
+heavily, but the loss of the Ever Victorious Army was in proportion
+equally great. The latter had twenty men killed and 142 wounded, one
+European officer killed and six wounded. But the capture of Taitsan
+under all the circumstances was an exceptionally brilliant and
+decisive affair. With it may be said to have begun the military
+reputation of the young commander, whose admirable dispositions had
+retrieved a great disaster and inflicted a rude blow on the confidence
+of a daring enemy.
+
+From Taitsan he marched to Quinsan; but his force was not yet
+thoroughly in hand, and wished to return to Sungkiang, in accordance
+with their practice under Ward of spending their pay and prize-money
+after any successful affair before attempting another. Gordon yielded
+on this occasion the more easily because he was impressed by the
+strength of Quinsan, and also because his ammunition had run short.
+But his trouble with his men was not yet over, and he had to face a
+serious mutiny on the part of his officers. For improved economy and
+efficiency Gordon appointed an English commissariat officer, named
+Cookesley, to control all the stores, and he gave him the rank of
+lieutenant-colonel. This gave umbrage to the majors in command of
+regiments, who presented a request that they should be allowed the
+higher rank and pay of lieutenant-colonel; and when this was refused
+they sent in their resignations, which were accepted. The affair was
+nearly taking a serious turn, as the troops refused to march; but
+Gordon's firmness overcame the difficulty. Two of the majors were
+reinstated, and the others dismissed, but this incident finally
+decided Gordon to change his headquarters from Sungkiang to some place
+where the bad traditions of Ward and Burgevine were not in force. The
+active operations now undertaken against Quinsan served to distract
+the attention of the men, and to strengthen their commander's
+influence over them. General Gordon's own description of this affair
+is well worth quoting:--
+
+     "The force arrived at their old camping ground near the east gate
+     of Quinsan on the evening of 27th of May. General Ching had
+     established some five or six very strong stockades at this place,
+     and, thanks to the steamer _Hyson_, had been able to hold them
+     against the repeated attacks of the rebels. The line of rebel
+     stockades was not more than 800 yards from his position. The
+     force encamped near the stockades; and at daybreak of the 28th
+     the 4th and 5th Regiments, with the field artillery, moved to
+     attack them. The right stockade was attacked in front, and its
+     right flank turned, on seeing which the rebels retreated. They
+     were in large force, and had it not been for the numerous bridges
+     they had constructed in their rear, they would have suffered
+     much, as the pursuit was pressed beyond the north gate close up
+     to a stockade they held at the north-east angle of the city.
+     Captain Clayton, 99th Regiment, a very gallant officer who had
+     gained the goodwill and admiration of every one of the force, was
+     unfortunately wounded in the attack, and died some months
+     afterwards of his wounds. Our loss was two killed and sixteen
+     wounded.
+
+     "General Ching was now most anxious to get me to attack the east
+     gate on the following day. His object was that he had written to
+     the Futai Li, who had in turn passed the statement on to Peking,
+     to say that he had his stockades on the edge of the ditch, and
+     merely wanted a boat to get into the city. This he showed by a
+     plan. The east gate looked, if possible, more unpromising than it
+     did before, and I declined to attack it without reconnoitring the
+     other side of the city. Accordingly, the next day, 29th May, I
+     went in the _Hyson_ with General Ching and Li Hung Chang to
+     reconnoitre the west side, and after three hours' steaming came
+     within 1000 yards of the main canal, which runs from the west
+     gate of Quinsan to Soochow. At the junction of the creek we came
+     up with this main canal at the village of Chunye. This place is
+     eight miles from Quinsan, and twelve from Soochow. The only road
+     between these two places runs along the bank of the creek. The
+     rebels had here on its bank two stockades of no great strength,
+     and about 500 yards inland, they had, near the village of Chunye,
+     a very strong stone fort. About 1000 yards from the stockades the
+     creek was staked across. At the time of our arrival large numbers
+     of troops were passing towards and from Soochow with horsemen,
+     etc. We opened fire on them and on their boats. The rebels seemed
+     perfectly amazed at seeing us, and were ready for a run. General
+     Ching was as sulky as a bear when he was informed that I thought
+     it advisable to take these stockades the next day, and to attack
+     on this side of the city.
+
+     "At dawn on 30th May the 4th Regiment, 350 strong, with field
+     artillery, all in boats and _Hyson_, accompanied by some fifty
+     Imperial gunboats, started for Chunye. The Imperial gunboats
+     started some hours previous, but had contented themselves with
+     halting one and a half miles from the stockades. The whole
+     flotilla--some eighty boats, with their large white sails and
+     decorated with the usual amount of various-coloured flags, with
+     the _Hyson_ in the middle--presented a very picturesque sight,
+     and must have made the garrison of Quinsan feel uncomfortable, as
+     they could see the smallest move from the high hill inside the
+     city, and knew, of course, more than we did of the importance of
+     the stockades about to be attacked.
+
+     "At noon we came up to the stakes before alluded to, and landed
+     the infantry. The Imperial gunboats, now very brave, pulled up
+     the stakes, and a general advance with the steamer and troops
+     was made. The rebels stood for a minute, and then vacated the
+     stockades and ran. The reason of the rebels defending these
+     stockades so badly was on account of the ill-feeling between the
+     chiefs in charge of Quinsan and Chunye, and the neglect of the
+     former to furnish rice to the latter.
+
+     "The _Hyson_ [with Gordon on board] now steamed up towards
+     Soochow at a slow pace, owing to the innumerable boats that
+     crowded the creek, which, vacated by their owners, were drifting
+     about with their sails up in every direction. The rebels were in
+     clusters along the bank, marching in an orderly way towards
+     Soochow. The _Hyson_ opened fire on them and hurried their
+     progress, and, hanging on their rear, kept up a steady fire till
+     they reached Ta Edin, where a large arch bridge spanned the
+     creek, and where the rebels had constructed a splendid stone
+     fort. We expected that the rebels would make a stand here, but
+     they merely fired one shot, which was answered by a shell from
+     the _Hyson_, which went into the embrasure, and the rebels
+     continued their flight. It became rather hazardous to pass this
+     fort and leave it unoccupied, with the number of armed rebels who
+     were between Chunye and Ta Edin. The _Hyson_, moreover, had no
+     force on board of any importance. There were with me five or six
+     Europeans and some thirty Chinamen--gunners, etc. However, six of
+     us landed, and held the fort somehow till more Imperialists came
+     up, while the _Hyson_ pushed on towards Soochow.
+
+     "The _Hyson_ continued the pursuit, threading her way through the
+     boats of all descriptions which crowded the creek, and harassing
+     the rear of the rebel columns which extended along the road for
+     over a mile. About two miles from Ta Edin another stone fort was
+     passed without a shot being fired; this was Siaon Edin.
+     Everything was left in the forts by the rebels. Soon after
+     passing this place the steamer headed some 400 rebels, and
+     Captain Davidson ran her into the bank, and took 150 of them
+     prisoners on board the _Hyson_--rather a risk, considering the
+     crew of that vessel and her size. Soon after this four horsemen
+     were descried riding at full speed about a mile in rear of the
+     steamer. They came up, passed the steamer amid a storm of
+     bullets, and joined the rebel column. One of them was struck off
+     his horse, but the others coolly waited for him, and one of them
+     stopped and took him up behind him. They deserved to get off.
+     About three miles further on another stockade of stone was passed
+     at a broken bridge called Waiquaidong, and the pursuit was
+     carried on to about three-quarters of a mile from Soochow. It was
+     now getting late (6 P.M.), and we did not know if the rebels in
+     our rear might not have occupied the stockades, in which case we
+     should have had to find another route back. On our return we met
+     crowds of villagers, who burnt at our suggestion the houses in
+     the forts at Waiquaidong and Siaon Edin, and took the boats that
+     were in the creek.
+
+     "We met many boats that had appeared deserted on our passing up
+     sailing merrily towards Soochow, but which, when they saw the red
+     and green of the steamer and heard her whistle, were immediately
+     run into the bank and were deserted. Just before Siaon Edin was
+     reached we came on a large body of rebels, who opened a sharp
+     fire of rifles on us striking the gun twice. They had got under
+     cover of a bridge, which, however, after a short delay, we
+     managed to enfilade with a charge of grape and thus cleared them
+     out. We then steamed into the bank and took in more prisoners.
+     Four chiefs, one a Wang, galloped past on horseback; and although
+     not two yards from the steamer, they got away. The Wang got
+     shoved into the water and lost his pony. A party of rebels were
+     encamped in Siaon Edin, not dreaming of any further annoyance for
+     that night, and were accordingly astonished to hear the steamer's
+     whistle, and rushed out in amazement, to meet a shell at the
+     entrance, which killed two of them. The steamer now pushed on to
+     Ta Edin, and found it unoccupied; while waiting there to collect
+     some of the prisoners, about 200 rebels came so suddenly on the
+     steamer that we were obliged to whistle to keep them off till the
+     gun could be got ready.
+
+     "It was now 10.30 P.M., and the night was not very clear. At this
+     moment the most tremendous firing and cheering was heard from
+     Chunye, and hurried our progress to that place. Just before we
+     reached it a gunboat disarranged the rudder, and then we were
+     dodging about from side to side for some ten minutes, the firing
+     and cheering going on as before. At last we got up to the
+     junction of the creek, and steaming through the Imperial, and
+     other boats, we came on the scene of action. The gunboats were
+     drawn up in line, and were firing as fast as they could. The
+     stone fort at the village was sparkling with musketry, and at
+     times astounding yells burst forth from it. The _Hyson_ blew her
+     whistle, and was received with deafening cheers from the
+     gunboats, which were on the eve of bolting. She steamed up the
+     creek towards Quinsan, and at the distance of 200 yards we saw a
+     confused mass near a high bridge. It was too dark to distinguish
+     very clearly, but on the steamer blowing the whistle the mass
+     wavered, yelled, and turned back. It was the garrison of Quinsan
+     attempting to escape to Soochow, some seven or eight thousand
+     men.
+
+     "Matters were in too critical a state to hesitate, as the mass of
+     the rebels, goaded into desperation, would have swept our small
+     force away. We were therefore forced to fire into them, and
+     pursue them towards Quinsan, firing, however, very rarely, and
+     only when the rebels looked as if they would make a stand. The
+     steamer went up to about a mile from Quinsan, and then returned.
+     Several officers landed and took charge of the prisoners who were
+     extended along the bank, and at 4 A.M., 31st May, everything was
+     quiet. The _Hyson_ had fired some eighty or ninety rounds during
+     the day and night; and although humanity might have desired a
+     smaller destruction, it was indispensably necessary to inflict
+     such a blow on the garrison of Soochow as would cause them not to
+     risk another such engagement, and thus enable us to live in peace
+     during the summer--which it indeed did, for the rebels never came
+     on this road again. Their loss must have been from three to four
+     thousand killed, drowned, and prisoners. We took 800, most of
+     whom entered our ranks. They lost all their arms and a very large
+     number of boats. At 5 A.M. on 31st May the troops at Chunye and
+     the _Hyson_ moved towards Quinsan, and found the remainder of the
+     force who had been left at the east gate already in the city. The
+     possession of Quinsan was of immense importance in a strategical
+     point of view. The circumference of its walls is some five miles,
+     but they are very inferior. Its ditch is over forty yards wide,
+     and from the nature of the creeks around it would prove very
+     difficult to take. The high hill enclosed within its walls would
+     enable the slightest move to be seen, and if two or three guns
+     were placed on the spurs of this hill it would form a very
+     formidable citadel. The rebels did not know its importance till
+     they lost it."
+
+Such was the capture of Quinsan, told in the simple words of its
+captor. It confirmed the reputation gained by the fall of Taitsan, and
+proved that the new commander was a man of extraordinary military
+intuition as well as energy. There is scarcely room to doubt that if
+Gordon had attacked Quinsan where the Chinese commander wished him to
+do, at its very strongest point, he would have met with a rude
+repulse. By attacking them on the side of Soochow, and by threatening
+their communication with that place, he terrified the large garrison
+so much that in the end they evacuated the place without resistance.
+Gordon himself believed that if the mandarins at the head of the
+Imperial army would have consented to support him in immediate
+measures for an assault on Soochow, that city would have fallen in the
+panic that ensued after the loss of Quinsan. The opportunity being
+lost, it will be seen that many months of arduous fighting followed
+before the same result was achieved.
+
+The reasons which rendered a change in the headquarters of the force
+desirable have already been mentioned, and Major Gordon at once
+decided to remove them to Quinsan, a strong and advantageously-placed
+position embarrassing to the Taepings, and equally encouraging to the
+Imperialists. But if this removal was necessary on grounds of
+discipline and policy, it was very unpopular with the men themselves,
+who were attached to Sungkiang, where they could easily dispose of
+their plunder. They determined to make an effort to get the offensive
+order withdrawn, and a proclamation was drawn up by the most
+disaffected, who were the non-commissioned officers, and sent to Major
+Gordon with an intimation that the artillery would blow all the
+officers to pieces unless their demands were complied with. Major
+Gordon at once sent for all the non-commissioned officers, who paraded
+before him. When he demanded the name of the writer of the
+proclamation they were silent. At this Major Gordon announced that
+unless the name was given up, he would shoot one out of every five of
+them. At this statement the men groaned, when Gordon, noticing the man
+who groaned loudest, and shrewdly conceiving him to be a ringleader,
+seized him with his own hands, dragged him from the ranks, and ordered
+two of his bodyguard to shoot the man on the spot. The order was at
+once carried out, and then Gordon, turning to the rest, gave them one
+hour to reflect whether they would obey orders, or compel him to shoot
+one in every five. Within this time they gave way, and discipline was
+restored. Gordon in his official despatch expressed regret for the
+man's death, but, as he truly said, "it saved many others which must
+have been lost if a stop had not been put to the independent way of
+the men." But the matter did not quite end here, for more than 2000
+men deserted, but Gordon found no difficulty in filling their places
+from his prisoners and the villages round Quinsan. It is worthy of
+note that his own bodyguard was mainly composed of Taeping prisoners,
+and some of the most faithful of them had been the bearers of the
+Snake banners of the rebel Wangs.
+
+Having thus settled the differences within his own force, and having
+fully established his own authority, Major Gordon would have
+prosecuted the attack on Soochow with vigour, if other difficulties
+had not occurred which occupied his time and attention. In the first
+place, there was a serious quarrel with General Ching, who was sore
+because he had not gained the credit for the capture of Quinsan, and
+who did everything he could to hamper and humiliate the force. At last
+he went to the length of firing on a column of Gordon's force, and as
+he refused all satisfaction, that officer was on the point of marching
+to attack him, when Dr--now Sir Halliday--Macartney arrived in his
+camp, being sent in a fully accredited manner, and escorted by the
+Futai's bodyguard, as a peace messenger from Li Hung Chang. On this
+occasion Sir Halliday Macartney first gave evidence of the exceptional
+diplomatic tact which he has since evinced in so many important
+negotiations, when China derived much advantage from his energy,
+ability, and devotion to her cause. The storm then blew over, but the
+second affair was more serious. Li Hung Chang became remiss in his
+payment of the force, and on 25th July Gordon sent in his formal
+resignation. There is every reason to believe that at this moment
+Gordon was thoroughly sick of his command, and would willingly have
+returned to Europe. The difficulties with his own men, the want of
+co-operation, to say nothing of appreciation on the part of the
+Chinese authorities, had damped even his zeal in what he reiterated
+was the good cause of restoring peace and security to a suffering
+people; and in addition to these troubles he had to carry on a
+correspondence with anonymous writers, who made many baseless charges
+in the Shanghai and Hongkong papers of cruelty against the men under
+his command. The English General at Shanghai used all his influence,
+however, with the Chinese Governor to pay up the arrears, and with
+Gordon to retain the command, because, as he said, there was "no other
+officer who combined so many dashing qualities, let alone skill and
+judgment."
+
+But the event that really decided Gordon to withdraw his resignation
+was the unexpected return of Burgevine. That adventurer had proceeded
+to Peking after his dismissal from the command, and obtained some
+support from the American minister in pressing his claims on the
+Chinese. He had been sent back to Shanghai with letters which,
+although they left some loophole of escape, might be interpreted as
+ordering Li Hung Chang to reinstate him in the command. This Li,
+supported by the English commanding officer at Shanghai, had
+resolutely refused to do, and the feud between the men became more
+bitter than ever. Burgevine remained in Shanghai and employed his time
+in selling the Taepings arms and ammunition. In this way he
+established secret relations with their chiefs, and seeing no chance
+of Imperial employment he was not unwilling to join his fortunes to
+theirs. This inclination was increased by the belief that he might be
+able to form a force of his own which would give a decisive turn to
+the struggle, and his vanity led him to think that he might pose on
+the rebel side as no unequal adversary of Gordon, to whom all the time
+he professed the greatest friendship. These feelings arose from or
+were certainly strengthened by the representations made by several of
+the officers and men whom Gordon had dismissed from his army. They
+easily led Burgevine to think that he was not forgotten, and that he
+had only to raise his standard to be joined by many of his old men.
+
+A fortnight before Gordon's resignation Dr Macartney--who had some
+time before begun his remarkable career in the Chinese service, and of
+whom Gordon himself said: "He drilled troops, supervised the
+manufacture of shells, gave advice, brightened the Futai's intellect
+about foreigners, and made peace, in which last accomplishment his
+_forte_ lay"--wrote to him, stating that he had positive information
+that Burgevine was enlisting men for some enterprise, that he had
+already enrolled 300, and that he had even chosen a special flag for
+his force. A few days later Burgevine, probably hearing of this
+communication, wrote to Gordon, begging him not to believe any rumours
+about him, and stating that he was coming up to see him. Gordon
+unfortunately believed in this statement, and as he wished to exhibit
+special lenience towards the man whom he had displaced in the command,
+he went bail for him, so that he retained his personal liberty when
+the Chinese arrested Burgevine's agent Beechy, and wished to arrest
+Burgevine himself. On 2nd August Burgevine threw off the mask. At the
+head of a band of thirty-two rowdies, he seized the new steamer
+_Kajow_ at Sungkiang, and with that vessel hastened to join the
+Taepings. The very day that this happened Gordon reached Shanghai for
+the purpose of resigning his command, but on the receipt of this
+intelligence he at once withdrew his resignation and hastened back to
+Quinsan. Apart from public considerations, he felt doubly bound to do
+this because Burgevine had not been arrested on his pledged word.
+
+The position was undoubtedly critical, for the prospect of plunder
+offered by Burgevine was very attractive to mercenaries like the Ever
+Victorious Army, and there was a very real risk that the force at
+Quinsan, deprived of its commander, might be induced to desert _en
+masse_ under the persuasive promises of Burgevine. When Gordon reached
+Quinsan he was so apprehensive as to what might occur that he removed
+his heavy artillery and most of his munitions of war to Taitsan, where
+General Brown, in command at Shanghai, undertook to see that they were
+protected. The situation at Quinsan was full of peril, for although
+Burgevine had thrown away a chance, by taking a roundabout instead of
+a direct route to Soochow, of striking a decisive blow before Gordon
+could get back, the Taeping leader, Mow Wang, had not been so
+negligent, and his operations for the recovery of several places taken
+by Gordon in the last few days of his command were on the point of
+success, when that officer's return arrested the course of his plans.
+It must be pointed out that after this date the Taepings fought with
+far more skill than before. They had a very considerable European
+contingent, probably nearly 300 men, and these served not only as
+leaders, but as trainers of the rebel Chinese forces. They had also
+obtained some good cannon, and the steamer _Kajow_ proved of material
+value on water. Gordon found on his return, therefore, that the
+difficulties of the campaign were materially increased. His opponents
+were far stronger and more confident, while his own resources remained
+unchanged. Gordon tersely summed up the situation in an official
+despatch: "There is no knowing what an immense amount of damage might
+have been done if the rebels had had a more energetic man than
+Burgevine, and it would be as well not to point out the line which
+might have been taken."
+
+The first engagements of this more difficult and keenly-contested
+phase of the campaign took place at Kahpoo, a place on the canal some
+miles south of Soochow. Gordon had taken it a week before he left for
+Shanghai, as a sort of parting gift to the Chinese, but when he
+arrived there on 9th August he found the garrison hard pressed,
+although the _Hyson_ was stationed there--and indeed nothing but his
+arrival with a third steamer, the _Cricket_, averted its recapture.
+After five days' operations, that do not require description, the
+neighbourhood of Kahpoo was cleared of rebels, and Gordon returned to
+Quinsan, where the most essential task had to be accomplished of
+restoring the discipline of his own force. As some assistance in this
+difficult task General Brown lent him the services of 200 Beluches,
+whose admirable conduct and splendid appearance went far to restore a
+healthy spirit among his own men. At the same time these troops
+ensured the safety of Quinsan and also of Gordon himself, at least
+against the treachery of Burgevine's sympathisers.
+
+The season of the year, the hottest and most trying of the long
+Chinese summer, compelled inaction, and Gordon felt doubly the need of
+caution now that he was brought face to face with the most arduous
+undertaking of the whole war, viz. the siege and capture of Soochow.
+General Ching's headquarters were at Ta Edin, and he had also occupied
+in force Waiquaidong, only two miles from the eastern gate of Soochow.
+Before the end of September he had pushed on still further, and
+erected his stockades within half a mile of that position. At this
+moment Gordon, anxious as to what might happen to his too-adventurous
+colleague, advanced with his force to his aid, and took up the supreme
+direction of the attack on Soochow. As usual, Gordon began by making a
+careful examination of the extensive rebel positions at and round
+Soochow, and the result of it was that he decided to capture the
+stockades and village of Patachiaou, one mile distant from the south
+wall of that city. His plan met with easy success, for the Taepings
+were not expecting an attack in that quarter, and offered little
+resistance.
+
+Easily as they had been driven out of it, the Taepings made a very
+determined effort to retake it a few days later, and it was only by
+desperate exertions that Gordon succeeded in holding what he had won.
+This was the first occasion on which Burgevine and the _Kajow_
+steamer, commanded by Captain Jones, "a daring and capable officer,"
+to use Gordon's words, came into action. The rebels were extremely
+confident for this reason, and also because they had some heavy
+artillery. Gordon had to keep to his stockades, and to send the
+_Hyson_ out of action from fear of its being damaged by the enemy's
+shell, but the Taepings were afraid to come to close quarters, and
+eventually retreated before a well-timed _sortie_. In this engagement
+Gordon had the co-operation of a French-trained Chinese regiment,
+under the command of a gallant officer, Captain Bonnefoy. After this
+there was a lull, but Gordon felt too weak to attempt anything serious
+against Soochow, and he deprecated all operations until he could
+strike an effective blow. In this respect he differed materially from
+his Chinese colleague, General Ching, who was most restless and
+enterprising, but his ill-directed energy produced no result, and even
+assisted the enemy's plans.
+
+At this juncture the Taeping hero Chung Wang arrived from Nanking with
+reinforcements, and imparted a new vigour to the defence. But whether
+on account of jealousy, or of disappointment at the poor services he
+had rendered, it also resulted in the dismissal of Burgevine, an
+incident of which some brief account may be given before following the
+main course of the campaign. More than one ground of dispute led up to
+this conclusion. In the first place, Burgevine was disappointed at
+finding several of the rebel Wangs as clever and ambitious as he was,
+and they were disappointed at the amount of service and help he could
+give them. This feeling culminated in angry scenes, when, on being
+sent into Shanghai in disguise to purchase arms with a large sum of
+money, he returned to Soochow without either money or weapons. He was
+apparently given, as a last chance, the opportunity of regaining his
+reputation by entrapping Gordon into the rebel power, and he
+thoroughly entered into the scheme, although he failed to carry it
+out. On 3rd October--that is to say, two days after the failure to
+retake Patachiaou--Burgevine made the first step in this plot by
+addressing a letter to Gordon, thanking him for the offer of medicines
+he had sent, and offering to meet him whenever he liked to discuss
+matters. On the 6th he met Gordon at the stockades, and declared his
+willingness to abandon the Taepings and come over with all his force,
+including the _Kajow_. He and his companions were guaranteed their
+lives, and the arrangement seemed complete. Two days later he had a
+second interview with the English officer, when he made the
+extraordinary proposition that he and Gordon should join bands,
+attack both Taepings and Imperialists, and fight for their own hand.
+This mad and unprincipled proposal excited Gordon's anger, but it was
+only Burgevine's old filibustering idea revived under unfavourable
+conditions. It was while smarting under this rebuff that Burgevine
+proposed to Captain Jones a fresh plot for entrapping Gordon, while
+he, unsuspecting evil, was engaged in conferences for their surrender;
+but to Jones's credit, let it be stated that he refused to have any
+part in such black treachery. Thereupon Burgevine attempted to take
+Jones's life, either to conceal his own treachery or to enable him to
+carry out his interrupted plans. Much delay occurred in carrying out
+the project of Burgevine's desertion, and Gordon, rendered specially
+anxious to save his and the other foreigners' lives, because one party
+had escaped without Burgevine, wrote a strong letter on the subject to
+Mow Wang, Chung Wang's chief lieutenant. He also sent him a present of
+a pony, at which the rebel chief was so much pleased that he agreed to
+release Burgevine, and on 18th October that person appeared at the
+outworks of Gordon's position. His personal safety was entirely due to
+Gordon's humane efforts, and to the impression that officer had made
+on the Taepings as a chivalrous opponent. The American Consul at
+Shanghai, Mr Seward, officially thanked Major Gordon for his "great
+kindness to misguided General Burgevine and his men." Nearly two years
+later this adventurer met the fate he so narrowly escaped on several
+occasions. He had been forbidden by his own Consul as well as the
+Chinese Government ever to return to China, but in June 1865 he broke
+his parole. Before he could be arrested he met with his death by
+accident, being drowned when crossing a Chinese river, but rumours
+were prevalent that his death was an act of vengeance instigated by
+his old enemy the Futai, Li Hung Chang.
+
+The assumption of the supreme command by Chung Wang was soon followed
+by those offensive operations which had made that dashing leader the
+most famous of all the rebel generals. Gordon and the bulk of his
+corps were at Patachiaou, south of Soochow--only General Ching and the
+Chinese army were north of that place--and he resolved to attack them
+and force his way through to Chanzu, which he wished to recover as
+opening a road to the river and the outer world. Gordon divined his
+intention, and for some time prevented him carrying it out by making
+threatening demonstrations with his gunboats on the western side of
+Soochow; but his own attention was soon diverted to another part of
+the country where a new and unexpected danger threatened his own
+position and communications. A large rebel force, computed to number
+20,000 men, had suddenly appeared behind Major Gordon's position and
+attacked the Imperial garrison stationed at Wokong, a place on the
+canal twelve or thirteen miles south of Soochow. The news that reached
+Gordon on 12th October from this quarter was that the garrison, having
+been repulsed in a _sortie_ with a loss of several hundred men, could
+not hold out many hours. Gordon at once hastened to the rescue at the
+head of one of his regiments, and with the invaluable _Hyson_ steamer.
+He found his allies quite cowed, afraid even to open the gates of
+their stockades to admit him and his men, and the enemy drawn up in
+imposing lines at a distance of about 1500 yards. He at once ordered
+the attack, and during three hours the engagement was contested in the
+most obstinate and spirited manner. The rebels, having their line of
+retreat secure, fought bravely. Gordon had to bring up his heavy guns
+to within forty yards of the wall before they would gave way, and even
+then they stood at the second and third inner stockades. Gordon never
+gave them a chance of recovering, but having got them on the run, kept
+them at it for a distance of ten miles. This was one of Gordon's
+greatest victories in the open field. The Taepings never fought
+better, yet with 1000 good Chinese troops Gordon routed more than
+20,000 of them.
+
+Chung Wang had begun his march towards Chanzu, but after some slight
+successes met with a rude repulse at Monding, where he also lost the
+steamer _Kajow_, which was sunk by an accidental explosion. He then
+established his headquarters at Wusieh, a place on the Grand Canal,
+about twenty-five miles north of Soochow. Here he hoped to effect some
+diversion that might relieve the increasing pressure on Soochow
+itself.
+
+In the meantime that pressure had greatly increased, owing to the
+bolder measures to which Gordon resorted after the European contingent
+abandoned the Taeping side. His first step was to attack and capture
+the stockades at Wuliungchow, a village two miles west of Patachiaou,
+which commanded a passage leading from the Taiho Lake to the south
+gate of Soochow. Gordon managed to conceal the real object of his
+attack from the Taepings, and to capture the stockades with little
+loss. The wet weather and the unexpected nature of the attack
+explained this easy success, for the stockades were strong and well
+placed. Chung Wang returned from Wusieh with the special object of
+retaking them, but he was repulsed with some loss, and then hurried
+back to that place. A few days later part of Gordon's force, under
+Major Kirkham, was sent to Wokong, which was again being threatened by
+the Taepings, and obtained a brilliant success, capturing 1300
+prisoners and not fewer than 1600 boats, including sixteen gunboats.
+
+Having achieved this success on the south, Gordon proceeded with his
+plans to secure an equally advantageous position on the north side. He
+left two regiments at Wuliungchow, which he greatly strengthened, and
+with the remainder he went to Waiquaidong, where he proposed to
+deliver his attack on the Leeku stockades, only a short distance in
+front of the north gate of Soochow. This operation was carried out
+with complete success, and it was promptly followed up by the capture
+of the rebel positions at Wanti, which enabled the forces round
+Soochow to join hands with the other considerable Imperial army that
+had been placed in the field by the energy of Li Hung Chang, and
+entrusted to the command of his brother, San Tajin. This last force
+was opposed to Chung Wang, but although numerically the stronger, the
+want of the most rudimentary military knowledge in its commander
+reduced this army of 20,000 men to inglorious inaction. At this stage
+of the struggle it will be well to sum up in Gordon's own words the
+different positions held by the contending forces:--
+
+     "We held the Taiho Lake with the steamers the _Hyson_, the
+     _Tsatlee_, _Firefly_, and 200 men (Imperialists), which cruised
+     off Moodow, and prevented supplies coming to Soochow up the creek
+     which leads from that village to the small West Gate, or
+     Shih-mun, of Soochow, and where they had many actions with the
+     rebel gunboats. The next great water outlet was closed to the
+     rebels by our possession with 1000 men (Imperialists) of
+     Wuliungchow. Off the Pon-mun, or South Gate, the next main water
+     and road communication to the south was closed to them by our
+     occupation by 1500 men (Imperialists) of the Patachiaou stockades
+     on the Grand Canal, south of the south-east angle of Soochow. The
+     next, which led from the east gate of Soochow to Quinsan, was
+     closed by Ching's force of 3000 or 4000 men, nearly two miles
+     from the gate. These men were well posted in strong and
+     well-constructed stockades. The next position held was Leeku,
+     where I had one regiment, and at Wanti there was another
+     regiment. The total force in the stockades was about 8500 men,
+     leaving for field operation 2500 Imperialists, 2100 of the
+     Quinsan Corps, and 400 Franco-Chinese. San Tajin had 20,000 to
+     30,000, in three separate camps. He was utterly incapable for
+     command of any sort.
+
+     "The rebels held Soochow with some 40,000 men in and around the
+     city. The city of Wusieh held some 20,000 men, and Chung Wang had
+     at Mahtanchow some 18,000 more. Chung Wang's position was central
+     between Wusieh and Soochow, some ten miles in advance of the
+     Grand Canal, so as to be able to give help to either city, and to
+     attack on the flank any advance made by us on their grand line of
+     communications by that canal."
+
+The city of Soochow, now so closely beleaguered, was of imposing
+appearance. An English traveller who saw it at this time thus
+describes it:--
+
+     "Further than the eye could penetrate in the misty morning
+     stretched the grizzled walls of Soochow, a city celebrated for
+     ages in the history of China for its size, population, wealth,
+     and luxury, but now stripped of its magnificence, and held by an
+     army of Taeping banditti against the Imperial forces. To the
+     right and left, mile after mile, rose the line of lofty wall and
+     grey turret, while above all appeared not only the graceful
+     pagodas, which have been for ages the boast of Soochow and the
+     dense foliage of secular trees--the invariable glory of Chinese
+     cities--but also the shimmering roofs of newly decorated palaces
+     confidently occupied by the vainglorious leaders of the
+     rebellion. The proximity of the rebel line became apparent with
+     surprising suddenness, for, following their usual custom, they
+     greeted the rising sun with a simultaneous display of gaudy
+     banners above the line of their entrenchments. The mud walls they
+     had thrown up in advance, scarcely distinguishable before, were
+     now marked out by thousands of flags of every colour from black
+     to crimson, whilst behind them rose the jangling roll of gongs,
+     and the murmurs of an invisible multitude."
+
+Had Gordon been free to act, or even if he had possessed authority
+over the two Chinese commanders, his plan of campaign would have been
+simple and decisive. He would have effected a junction of his forces
+with San Tajin; and having overwhelmed Chung Wang and his 18,000 men
+with his combined army of double that strength, he would have appeared
+at the head of his victorious troops before the bewildered garrison of
+Wusieh. He would probably have thus terminated the campaign at a
+stroke. Even the decisive defeat of Chung Wang alone might have
+entailed the collapse of the cause now tottering to its fall. But
+Major Gordon had to consider not merely the military quality of his
+allies, but also their jealousies and differences. General Ching hated
+San Tajin on private as well as on public grounds. He desired a
+monopoly of the profit and honour of the campaign. His own reputation
+would be made by the capture of Soochow. It would be diminished and
+cast into the shade were another Imperial commander to defeat Chung
+Wang and close the line of the Grand Canal. If Gordon detached himself
+from General Ching, he could not feel sure what folly that jealous and
+impulsive commander might not commit. He would certainly not pursue
+the vigilant defence before Soochow necessary to guard the extensive
+line of stockades, and to prevent its large garrison sallying out and
+assailing his own rear. Gordon had consequently for these
+considerations to abandon the tempting idea of crushing Chung Wang and
+capturing the towns in the rear of Nanking, and to have recourse to
+safer if slower methods.
+
+But if he had to abandon the larger plan, he still stuck tenaciously
+to his main idea that the way to capture Soochow was to isolate it,
+and above all to sever Chung Wang's communication with it. Several
+weeks passed before Gordon could complete the necessary arrangements,
+but at last, on 19th November, he left Leeku at the head of the
+greater part of his own force and a large contingent of Ching's braves
+to attack the stockades at Fusaiquan on the Grand Canal, about four
+miles north of Leeku. The Taeping position was a strong one, including
+eight separate earthworks, a stone fort, and several stockades. Gordon
+said "it was far the best built and strongest position he had yet
+seen," but the rebels evacuated it in the most cowardly manner without
+attempting the least resistance. Gordon goes on to say: "Our loss was
+none killed, and none wounded! We had expected a most desperate
+defence. If ever men deserved beheading, the Taeping leaders did on
+this occasion." The immediate consequence of this success was that
+Chung Wang quitted his camp in face of San Tajin, and, joining the
+Wusieh corps, concentrated his whole force for the defence of the
+Grand Canal.
+
+Having thus strengthened his position towards the north, Gordon, very
+much to Ching's satisfaction, fell in with his views to begin a direct
+attack on Soochow itself. For good reasons it was decided that the
+north-east angle of Soochow was the weakest, but before it could be
+attacked it was necessary to capture the strong stockades which the
+rebels had erected in front of the East and North Gates. The East
+Gate, or Low Mun, stockades were selected for the first attack, and as
+the scene of a reverse to Ching's force on 14th October, the Chinese
+commander was specially anxious to capture them. They were exceedingly
+formidable, consisting of a line of breastwork, defended at intervals
+with circular stockades, and the position was well chosen and strongly
+fortified. After reconnoitring it, and obtaining all the information
+he could from deserters, Gordon determined on a night attack; but
+unfortunately not only were his plans revealed to the Taepings by
+traitors in his own camp, but his arrangements miscarried. As is often
+the case with night attacks, the plan of attack was not adhered to,
+and much confusion followed. The breastwork was carried by a small
+part of his troops, but the stockades in its rear were never reached.
+Encouraged by Gordon's example, who seemed to be at every point at the
+same moment, his men held on to the breastwork, but the supports would
+not move up, and when he hastened to the rear to encourage them, the
+Taepings under Mow Wang attacked in their turn and manned the
+breastwork. There was nothing now to be done but to draw off the
+troops, which was executed with comparatively slight loss; but 165
+officers and men were killed or wounded--the majority being killed or
+missing. This loss would have been much greater if the Taepings had
+only had the courage to leave their position, but fortunately they
+showed themselves unable to follow up their success. This was Gordon's
+first defeat, but it was so obviously due to special causes that it
+did not much dishearten his men, or diminish the high reputation he
+and his force had gained by thirteen previous victories.
+
+But the necessity to retrieve such a reverse was obvious, and Gordon
+collected the whole of his corps for the purpose of capturing the Low
+Mun stockades. He also placed his siege guns in position, and began a
+heavy bombardment in the morning of 29th November as the preliminary
+to attack. On his side, Mow Wang made all his preparations for
+defence, which had been rendered the more necessary because there were
+dissensions among the Taeping leaders themselves, one of whom, named
+Lar Wang, had offered to surrender with his followers to General Ching
+on terms. Partly on this account Chung Wang rode into Soochow with a
+bodyguard of a few hundred men by the only bridle-path available, and
+his presence composed for the moment the quarrels of the Taeping
+leaders. But the result depended on the successful defence of the
+stockades in front of the East Gate, and Gordon was equally intent on
+capturing them. After a short bombardment the breastwork seemed so
+knocked about that Gordon ordered a column to advance to the assault,
+but it was met by a tremendous fire and compelled to turn back. Then
+the bombardment was renewed, and the field-pieces were pushed forward
+as far as possible. A second assault was then delivered, but the
+creek--fourteen yards across--was too wide for the bridge, and things
+again looked black, when the officers boldly jumped into the water,
+and their men following, the whole position was captured at a rush.
+Once this success was gained, the defence of the Taepings, who had
+fought well, collapsed, and stockade after stockade was carried with
+little or no loss. Gordon himself, with a mere handful of men,
+captured three more stockades and a stone fort that he said could have
+held out after all the other positions had fallen. The loss of the
+corps in this severe but decisive engagement was heavy, amounting to 6
+officers killed, and 3 wounded; 50 men killed, and 128 wounded,
+besides 5 Europeans of the Bodyguard. But this assault was decisive,
+inasmuch as it was the last that had to be made on the defences of
+Soochow before the fall of that place.
+
+At this point it will be appropriate to say something about Gordon's
+relations with his own officers, many of whom contemplated, whenever
+dissatisfied with their treatment or at prolonged inaction, selling
+their cause and services to the Taepings. During the siege he
+discovered that Captain Perry had written a letter giving the enemy
+information, but Gordon agreed to look over the offence on the
+condition that Perry led the next forlorn hope, which happened to be
+the affair at the Leeku stockades. Gordon had forgotten the condition,
+but Perry remembered it, and led the assault. He was shot in the
+mouth, and fell into the arms of his commander, ever at the point of
+danger. Perry was the first man killed, and Gordon's epitaph was that
+he was "a very good officer." Although Gordon was a strict and even
+severe disciplinarian, he was always solicitous of the interests of
+the officers who worked under him, and he set apart the greater
+portion of his pay in the Chinese service, which had been fixed at
+L1,200 a year, for their benefit, more especially for the purchase of
+medicine and comforts for the ill or wounded. There was no
+exaggeration at all in the statement that he left China without any
+savings and as poor as when he reached it.
+
+From the gallant deeds of Gordon and his corps the course of the siege
+passes to the intrigues and negotiations between General Ching and Lar
+Wang. These had made so much progress that Lar Wang's troops abandoned
+the formidable stockades in front of the North Gate, which were
+occupied without the least attempt at resistance. Several interviews
+took place with the Taeping leaders, and Gordon was present at some of
+these, but Li Hung Chang asserts that he was not present at the most
+important of them; and that he was not a signatory of the convention
+of surrender. He was strongly in favour of good terms being granted to
+the rebels, and impressed his views on both Li Hung Chang, who had
+come up to the camp to be present at the fall of Soochow, and General
+Ching. From both he received the most positive assurances that the
+lives of all the Wangs would be spared, and such was no doubt their
+intention, but events were too strong for them. The most interesting
+of these leaders, with, of course, the exception of Chung Wang, was
+Mow Wang, who would have nothing to say to a surrender, and wished to
+fight to the death. He was the man who had sent back Burgevine, and
+Gordon admired his courage so much that he resolved to spare no effort
+to save his life. He asked Li to assign Mow Wang to him, and this
+request was granted. Unfortunately all these efforts were thrown away,
+for on the 4th December, during a banquet given at Mow Wang's palace,
+the other Wangs had fallen upon and murdered that chief, who would
+have resisted with all his force their projected surrender of the
+place. The next day Lar Wang, who had taken an oath of brotherhood
+with General Ching, gave up one of the gates, and his numerous
+followers undertook to shave their heads in token of surrender. The
+Imperialist troops occupied the gate, and prepared to take possession
+of the city, but Gordon would not allow any of his men to leave the
+stockades as he foresaw the impossibility of preventing them from
+plundering if they were permitted to advance into the city. But he
+went and represented the case to Li Hung Chang, and demanded two
+months' pay for his men as a reward for their good service, and as
+some compensation for the loss of loot. Li replied that he could not
+grant the request, and Gordon at once resigned for the second time
+during his connection with the Chinese Government. There was serious
+risk of an outbreak on the part of the discontented soldiers of the
+Ever Victorious Army, but on General Ching providing one month's pay
+Gordon used his influence with his men to march quietly back to
+Quinsan. The men at first received this order with shouts of
+dissatisfaction, and even threatened to attack the Futai Li, but
+Gordon succeeded in overcoming their objections, and the worst that
+happened was a noisy demonstration as the troops passed Li Hung
+Chang's tent, where Gordon and another officer stood on guard.
+
+The Chinese officials were delighted to thus get rid of the Ever
+Victorious Army, without which they would never have seen the inside
+of Soochow. Its presence diminished their credit and interfered with
+the execution of the plans which they had no doubt held throughout all
+the negotiations with Lar Wang. Neither Li nor Ching wished Lar Wang
+and his colleagues to be saved, and thus allowed to become rivals to
+themselves in the race of official honour and wealth. There was
+nothing surprising in this, and the only matter for astonishment is
+that Lar Wang, well acquainted with the Punic faith of his countrymen,
+and with such a black record from the Government point of view, should
+have so easily placed faith in the word of his enemies. This was the
+more extraordinary because Gordon himself went into the city and saw
+Lar Wang at his own house before he left for Li Hung Chang's quarters,
+where a banquet had been arranged, and asked him very pressingly
+whether he was quite satisfied. Gordon himself seems to have had
+suspicions or apprehensions, for he even offered to take him on board
+his own steamer with which he was going to cruise in the Taiho Lake.
+Lar Wang, however, was quite confident, and said that all was well.
+This confidence was doubly unfortunate, for Gordon had excused himself
+from the Futai's banquet on the ground that his presence might seem
+humiliating to the Taeping leaders, whereas it was the only thing that
+could have averted their fate. As Gordon was leaving the city the
+Wangs passed him, laughing and talking, and riding apparently unarmed
+to the Futai's quarters. The next time Gordon saw them was when he
+beheld their headless bodies lying on the river bank near their host's
+camp.
+
+Gordon after this walked through the city, as some hours would elapse
+before the steamer could get round to the south-west side, where he
+intended to embark. While on his way he was joined by Dr Macartney.
+They both proceeded to the walls near the Eastern Gate, and on looking
+towards the Futai's quarters Gordon noticed a large crowd, but he did
+not attach any significance to it. About half an hour later a large
+number of Imperial soldiers entered the city, and set up a yell, as
+was their custom, and fired off guns. Gordon represented to their
+officers that this conduct was against the agreement, and might lead
+to disturbance, as the city was still crowded with Taepings. At this
+juncture General Ching appeared. As Gordon was supposed to be on his
+steamer on his way to the lake, he seemed taken aback, and turned
+pale. To Gordon's repeated inquiries as to whether all was well, he
+made a rambling statement that Lar Wang had made unreasonable demands,
+that he had refused to carry out the exact terms of the surrender, and
+finally, that he had run away. Gordon then asked Dr Macartney, as he
+knew Chinese, to go to Lar Wang's house, and reassure him if he found
+him there, but this statement must be taken in conjunction with the
+important narrative I give two pages further on. Gordon went a little
+way with General Ching, and then decided to wait at the North Gate for
+further intelligence, while the Chinese commander continued his round.
+Gordon then began to question his own interpreter as to what he
+thought, and on receiving the reply that "there was something
+improper," he determined to proceed himself with all speed to Lar
+Wang's house. On his way he passed through crowds of excited Taeping
+soldiers, and he also met a band of Imperialists laden with plunder.
+Lar Wang's palace had been pillaged and gutted, but an uncle of his,
+named Wangchi, was there, and he begged Gordon to help him to escort
+the females of Lar Wang's family to his own house. Gordon agreed to do
+this, but when he reached Wangchi's house, he found five or six
+hundred armed men in the courtyard. The doors were closed, and Wangchi
+refused to allow either Gordon or his interpreter to leave. During the
+night large bodies of excited Taepings, who knew that their chiefs had
+been entrapped, although, fortunately, not aware of their murder,
+rallied on this spot, and Gordon was thus placed in a position of the
+greatest personal peril.
+
+At length leave was given him to send his interpreter, escorted by two
+Taepings, to summon his own bodyguard, and to take an order to
+another part of his force to seize the Futai and hold him as a hostage
+for the safety of the Wangs. The interpreter was attacked on the way
+by Imperialists, who wounded him, and tore up Gordon's letters. When
+one of the Taeping guides brought back this news Gordon was allowed to
+leave himself for the same purpose; but he was arrested on the way by
+some Imperialists, detained for several hours, and the morning was far
+advanced before he was able to send back his bodyguard for the
+protection of Wangchi's house and family. He then moved a further
+force into the city, to prevent the massacre that the Imperialists
+seemed to be contemplating, and in this task he was gallantly seconded
+by Captain Bonnefoy and the Franco-Chinese contingent. Having taken
+these steps, Gordon waited near the Eastern Gate for all his steamers,
+with which he intended to seize the Futai, and make him give up the
+Wangs. At this moment General Ching approached him, but before he
+could begin his excuses, "he met with such a storm that he made a
+precipitate retreat into the city." Ching then sent an English
+officer, one of Gordon's own force, to explain matters, but he did not
+know whether the chiefs were alive or dead. He went on to say,
+however, that Lar Wang's son was in his tent, and on the boy being
+sent for, he said that his father had been executed on the opposite
+side of the creek. The steamers had still not arrived, and Gordon
+asked one of his lieutenants, Prince F. von Wittgenstein, to cross the
+creek in his boat and report what he saw. He returned with the
+intelligence that there were nine headless bodies. Gordon then crossed
+himself, and identified Lar Wang and several of his companions. There
+was consequently no further doubt as to what had happened, or anything
+left for Gordon to do than to secure them decent burial. Having done
+this he abandoned his trip to the Taiho Lake, and hastened to Quinsan.
+
+The exact mode of this assassination seems to have been as follows:
+When the Wangs came out of the city they were met by General Ching,
+who did not, however, accompany them to the Futai Li Hung Chang. That
+official received them in a stockade near his boat, some conversation
+ensued, and then Li left the stockade. Here again reference should be
+made to the authoritative narrative that follows. A party of Imperial
+troops closed the gates, seized the Wangs, and at once beheaded them.
+Li Hung Chang very soon afterwards left his quarters for a different
+and remote part of the Imperial camp.
+
+This treacherous act, although quite in accordance with Chinese
+traditions, was generally denounced at the time, and has excited much
+discussion since. Major Gordon certainly felt it very keenly, for he
+considered that his word had been pledged as much as the Chinese
+commander's for the safety of the leaders who surrendered. It has been
+shown how energetically he acted once he suspected that anything was
+wrong, but it seems as if it were going too far to say that he thought
+for a moment of exacting a summary revenge on the person of Li Hung
+Chang. Sir Henry Gordon, writing with at least a sense of
+responsibility, says on this point: "It is not the fact that Major
+Gordon sought the Futai with the intention of shooting him. It is a
+complete misrepresentation to say he did so. It is true he endeavoured
+unsuccessfully to have an explanation with him, but not of the nature
+asserted." But it must also be reaffirmed that as long as Gordon
+thought he could save the Wangs' lives he was prepared to secure the
+person of Li Hung Chang and hold him as a hostage for their safety. Of
+that, at least, there can be no question.
+
+I must now ask the reader to return to the point when Gordon and Dr
+Macartney were standing on the wall near the Low Mun Gate, in order
+that the following important and authoritative narrative may be
+understood. General Ching entered by this gate at the head of a party
+of his troops, and Gordon, somewhat uneasy at the signs of commotion
+he thought he had detected across the creek, at once addressed him,
+asking--"Well, how did it go off? Have the Wangs seen the Futai?"
+
+Taken off his guard, or confused between the sudden question and his
+own knowledge of what had occurred, Ching quickly replied, "They have
+not seen the Futai."
+
+"What!" replied Gordon, equally hastily; "that must be nonsense. I saw
+the Wangs myself ride out of the city to the rendezvous, and spoke to
+them."
+
+Ching then corrected himself by saying, "Oh, yes, that is all right,
+but they have not shaved their heads, and they want to retain half the
+city," the western half, that nearest to the relieving force, still at
+a considerable distance from Soochow, under the heroic Chung Wang.
+
+To which Gordon at once responded, "That won't do. They must conform
+with what has been agreed upon," and turning to Macartney, he said,
+"Will you go to the Lar Wang's palace and tell him that this cannot
+be, and meet me afterwards at Wuliungchow, where I am to join the
+steamer _Hyson_ to go on the Taiho Lake?"
+
+Macartney at once accepted the mission, and proceeded to the Lar
+Wang's palace, but before following him thither it is necessary to
+refer to two earlier passages, one known and the other up to this
+moment unknown, in the relations of General Gordon and Sir Halliday
+Macartney.
+
+The passage which is known is that where Macartney, sent as the
+representative of the Futai Li Hung Chang, and escorted by that
+Governor's own bodyguard, healed the breach caused between Gordon and
+General Ching by the latter firing on some of Gordon's troops and
+treating the matter with marked levity, which so enraged Gordon that
+he was on the point of attacking the Imperialist troops when Sir
+Halliday Macartney arrived as peacemaker, and with equal tact and
+energy averted the catastrophe. This incident has already been
+referred to, and need not further detain us. I come now to the second
+and more interesting matter.
+
+Some weeks before the fall of Soochow, but at a moment when it had
+become clear that the place could not hold out much longer, Gordon
+approached Macartney and said: "I want to speak to you very privately,
+and as I do not wish any one to hear our conversation, will you come
+on board my boat?" When they were both on board, Gordon ordered his
+Chinese sailors to pull out to the centre of the lake before he would
+say a word. Having thus rendered secrecy assured, Gordon spoke as
+follows:--
+
+     "Macartney, I have brought you out here so that nobody should
+     know of our conversation, and that we might speak out as man to
+     man. I must tell you, in the first place, that as soon as Soochow
+     falls I intend to resign the command and return home. With that
+     intention in my mind, I have been anxiously considering who was
+     the best man to name as my successor in the command of the Ever
+     Victorious Army, and, after the most careful consideration, I
+     have come to the conclusion that you are the best man. Will you
+     take the command?"
+
+This unexpected question was the more embarrassing to Macartney,
+because, long before Gordon was appointed, rumour had freely credited
+him with coveting the command of the Ever Victorious Army in
+succession to Burgevine, and, as a matter of fact, the Chinese
+authorities had wished him to have the command. However, nothing had
+come of the project, and Macartney, after his post as Burgevine's
+military secretary had ceased to exist with the dismissal and treason
+of that adventurer, was appointed to a separate command of a portion
+of the Imperialist forces. The course of events had now, in an
+unexpected but highly complimentary manner, brought the realisation of
+any hopes he may have entertained on the subject within his reach. He
+replied to Gordon as follows:--
+
+     "As you speak so frankly to me, I will speak equally frankly to
+     you, and tell you something I have never told a living person.
+     Rumour has credited me with having aspired to the command of this
+     force, but erroneously so. My ambition was to work myself up at
+     Court, and only to take the command if forced on me as a
+     provisional matter, and as a stepping-stone to my real object,
+     which was, when my knowledge of the language was perfected, to
+     acquire at Peking some such influence as that possessed by
+     Verbiest and the other French missionaries in the seventeenth and
+     eighteenth centuries. I should never have mentioned this to you
+     lest you should not have believed it, but now that the command is
+     at my feet I may make this avowal without any hesitation as to
+     your accepting it. As you really think I can best succeed to the
+     command of the force when you resign it, I am perfectly willing
+     to accept the task."
+
+To which Gordon replied: "Very well, then. That is settled." With this
+private understanding, as to which nothing has been published until
+this moment, the conversation closed with a final injunction from
+Gordon of profound secrecy, as, should it become known, he might be
+unable to get certain of his more ambitious officers to take part in
+capturing the city. When Gordon therefore turned to Macartney, and
+asked him to proceed to the Lar Wang's palace and inform him that the
+terms of the convention must be carried out, it is necessary in order
+to throw light on what follows to state what their relations were at
+that moment. Gordon had selected Macartney as his successor in
+preference to all his own officers.
+
+Macartney hastened to the Lar Wang's palace, but as he had lent Gordon
+his horse, his movements were slightly retarded. On reaching the
+building he noticed some signs of confusion, and when he asked one of
+the attendants to take him at once to his master, he received the
+reply that the Lar Wang was out. Sir Halliday Macartney is not a man
+to be lightly turned from his purpose, and to this vague response he
+spoke in peremptory terms:
+
+"The matter is of the first importance. I _must_ see the Lar Wang.
+Take me to him."
+
+Then the servant of the Taeping leader did a strange thing.
+
+"You _cannot_ see my master," he said, and turning his face to the
+wall, so that no one else might see, he drew his open hand in a
+cutting position backwards and forwards. This is the recognised
+Chinese mode of showing that a man's head has been cut off.
+
+Being thus apprised that something tragic had happened, Macartney
+hastened away to Wuliungchow to keep his appointment with Gordon, and
+to acquaint him with what had taken place at the Lar Wang's palace.
+But no Gordon came, and more than a day elapsed before Macartney and
+he met again under dramatic circumstances at Quinsan. After waiting at
+Wuliungchow some hours, Sir Halliday resolved to proceed to the
+Futai's camp, and learn there what had happened. But on arriving he
+was informed that the Futai was not in the camp, that no one knew
+where he was, and that Gordon was in a state of furious wrath at the
+massacre of the Wangs, which was no longer concealed. Macartney then
+endeavoured to find Gordon, but did not succeed, which is explained by
+the fact that Gordon was then hastening to Quinsan to collect his own
+troops. Baffled in these attempts, Macartney returned, after a great
+many hours, to his own camp near the Paotichiaou Bridge, there to
+await events, and on his arrival there he at last found the Futai Li
+who had come to him for security. Li put into his hands a letter,
+saying, "I have received that letter from Gordon. Translate its
+contents."
+
+After perusing it, Macartney said: "This letter is written in a fit of
+indignation. You and Gordon are and have been friends, and I am also
+the friend of you both. The most friendly act I can do both of you is
+to decline to translate it. Let me therefore return you the letter
+unread."
+
+"Very well," replied Li; "do as you think best, but as I am not to
+know the contents, I do not wish to have the letter. Please keep it."
+
+Sir Halliday Macartney kept the letter, which remained in his
+possession for some time, until, in fact, he handed it, with an
+explanatory account of the whole affair, to Sir Harry Parkes, as will
+be explained further on.
+
+After this point had been settled, Li Hung Chang went on to say that
+he wished Macartney to go and see Gordon at Quinsan, and speak to him
+as follows:--
+
+     "Tell Gordon that he is in no way, direct or indirect,
+     responsible in this matter, and that, if he considers his honour
+     involved, I will sign any proclamation he likes to draft, and
+     publish it far and wide that he had no part in or knowledge of
+     it. I accept myself the full and sole responsibility for what has
+     been done. But also tell Gordon that this is China, not Europe. I
+     wished to save the lives of the Wangs, and at first thought that
+     I could do so, but they came with their heads unshaved, they used
+     defiant language, and proposed a deviation from the convention,
+     and I saw that it would not be safe to show mercy to these
+     rebels. Therefore what was done was inevitable. But Gordon had no
+     part in it, and whatever he demands to clear himself shall be
+     done."
+
+I do not gather that Sir Halliday Macartney had any serious misgivings
+about this mission when he undertook it. His relations with Gordon
+were, as has been shown, of a specially cordial and confidential
+character, and even if he failed to induce Gordon to abandon the
+threatening plans he had described in his letter to Li Hung Chang,
+which was in his pocket, there was no reason to apprehend any
+personal unpleasantness with one who had given the clearest proof of
+friendship and esteem. As I cannot give the full text of the original
+letter from General Gordon, I content myself by stating that its two
+principal passages were that Li Hung Chang should at once resign his
+post of Governor of Kiangsu, and give up the seals of office to
+Gordon, so that he might put them in commission until the Emperor's
+pleasure should be ascertained; or that, failing that step, Gordon
+would forthwith proceed to attack the Imperialists, and to retake from
+them all the places captured by the Ever Victorious Army, for the
+purpose of handing them back again to the Taepings. When Gordon went
+so far as to write a letter of that character, which, it must be
+admitted, was far in excess of any authority he possessed, it must be
+clear that the envoy, who came to put forward counsels that were
+intended to restore harmony, but that by so doing might assume the
+aspect of palliating the Futai's conduct, could not count on a very
+cordial reception from a man of Gordon's temperament, whose sense of
+honour and good faith had been deeply injured by the murder of the
+rebel leaders.
+
+Still, Sir Halliday accepted the mission without hesitation, and
+hastened to carry it out without delay. It was late in the day when he
+saw Li Hung Chang, but having procured a native boat with several
+rowers, he set off in the evening, and reached Quinsan in the middle
+of the night. Gordon was then in bed and could not be disturbed, and
+while Macartney waited he drank some coffee Gordon's servant made for
+him, which he much needed, as he had left Soochow without having
+broken his fast during the whole day. After a short time, and before
+day had really broken, Gordon sent down word that he would see him,
+and Macartney went upstairs to an ill-lighted room, where he found
+Gordon sitting on his bedstead. He found Gordon sobbing, and before a
+word was exchanged, Gordon stooped down, and taking something from
+under the bedstead, held it up in the air, exclaiming:
+
+"Do you see that? Do you see that?"
+
+The light through the small Chinese windows was so faint that
+Macartney had at first some difficulty in recognising what it was,
+when Gordon again exclaimed:
+
+"It is the head of the Lar Wang, foully murdered!" and with that burst
+into hysterical tears.
+
+At once perceiving that any conversation under these circumstances
+would do no good, Macartney said he would retire and see Gordon later.
+Some hours afterwards breakfast was served in a large room downstairs,
+where there were present not only many of the officers, but also
+several European merchants and traders of Shanghai, who had been in
+the habit of supplying the force with its commissariat requirements.
+Gordon came in, and Macartney took a seat beside him. After a few
+minutes' silence Gordon turned to Macartney, and said abruptly:
+
+"You have not come for yourself. You have come on a mission from the
+Futai. What is it?"
+
+When Macartney suggested that so public a place might not be the most
+suitable, Gordon said: "There are only friends here. I have no
+secrets. Speak out."
+
+There was no longer any honourable way of avoiding the challenge, and
+Macartney described exactly what has been already recorded as to Li
+Hung Chang having come to him with Gordon's letter, which from
+friendly motives he had declined to translate, and stating that Li
+took the whole responsibility on himself, and would exonerate Gordon
+from the least complicity in the affair, with which the Chinese
+statesman averred Gordon had had nothing to do. He went on to urge
+with regard to the measures threatened by Gordon in expiation of the
+massacre that they were not justifiable, and would not in the end
+redound to Gordon's own credit. In conclusion, he said he felt sure
+that "a little reflection would show Gordon that to carry on a
+personal war with the Futai would be to undo all the good that had
+been done. Moreover, you must recollect that although you, no doubt,
+have at this moment the military force to carry out your threats, it
+will no longer be paid by the Chinese authorities. You will only be
+able to keep your men at your back by allowing them to plunder, and
+how long will that prove successful, and what credit will you get by
+it?"
+
+Gordon here stamped his foot, saying he would have none of Macartney's
+mild counsels. To which Macartney replied, "Mild or not, they are the
+only ones your Minister at Peking and our Queen will approve. Nay,
+what I advise you to do is even that you would yourself do if you
+would but reflect, and not let yourself be influenced by those men
+sitting at your table."
+
+To these undoubtedly prudent representations, supported as they were
+by at least one of those present, Mr Henry Dent, who got up and said
+that, in his opinion, Dr Macartney's advice ought to be followed,
+while the others who wished the war to go on from interested motives
+remained silent, Gordon did and would not listen. The hot fit of rage
+and horror at the treacherous murder of the Wangs, kept at fever-point
+by the terrible memorial in his possession, was still strong upon him,
+and his angry retort was--"I will have none of your tame counsels,"
+and there and then ordered the _Hyson_, with a party of infantry, to
+be got ready to attack the Futai, at the same time offering Macartney
+a passage in the steamer.
+
+On hearing this decisive declaration Macartney left the table, and
+hastening to one of Gordon's officers, who was a personal friend, he
+begged the loan of a horse and a pair of spurs. Having obtained what
+he wanted, he set off riding as hard as he could by the road, which
+was somewhat shorter than the canal, so that he might warn Li Hung
+Chang as to what was going to happen, and also bring up his own troops
+to oppose the advance of Gordon, who actually did move out of Quinsan
+with the intention of carrying out his threats, but returned there
+when his flotilla had proceeded half way.
+
+By that time he had fortunately reflected on the situation, and a
+sanguinary struggle was averted. Gordon came to see that his honour
+was not in the slightest or most remote degree involved, and that
+China was not a country to which the laws of chivalry could be
+applied; but before he had reached this stage of mental equilibrium he
+had penned a most regrettable and cruelly unjust despatch, not about
+Li Hung Chang or any one involved in the massacre, but about Dr, now
+Sir Halliday Macartney, whose sole fault had been that he wished to
+make peace, and to advise Gordon to act in the very sense which he
+afterwards himself adopted.
+
+In a despatch to General Brown, commanding at Shanghai, which appears
+in the Blue Book (China, No. 3, 1864, p. 198), Gordon wrote: "I then
+went to his (Li's) boat and left him a note in English, informing him
+of what my intention had been, and also my opinion of his treachery. I
+regret to say that Mr Macartney did not think fit to have this
+translated to him.... On 8th December the Futai sent Mr Macartney to
+persuade me that he could not have done otherwise, and I blush to
+think that he could have got an Englishman, late an officer in Her
+Majesty's army, to undertake a mission of such a nature." This
+statement, appearing in an official publication, has been largely
+quoted, especially in Mr Egmont Hake's "Story of Chinese Gordon," and
+the original injury done by Gordon, for which at the time he atoned,
+was thus repeated in an offensive and altogether unjustifiable form
+twenty years after Gordon had stated publicly that he was sorry for
+having written this passage, and believed that Sir Halliday Macartney
+was actuated by just as noble sentiments as himself.
+
+It is not an agreeable task for any biographer to record that his hero
+was in the wrong, but as General Gordon frankly and fully admitted
+that in this matter he was altogether to blame, and as Mr Hake's error
+shows that his retractation never obtained that publicity which he
+himself desired, I conceive myself to be carrying out his wishes in
+placing the following facts prominently before the reader.
+
+When the Blue Book was published with the despatch referred to, Dr
+Macartney took no notice of it. Some time afterwards he met the late
+Sir Harry Parkes, then Consul-General at Shanghai, and he described
+what I have set forth in the same language. Sir Harry Parkes, than
+whom England never had a finer representative in the Far East, at once
+said: "This is very interesting. Sir Frederick Bruce is coming down
+shortly. I wish you would write out what you have told me, so that I
+might show it to him." Dr Macartney wrote out his narrative, and with
+it he sent Gordon's original letter to Li Hung Chang. Those documents
+have never been published, but they should still exist in the Shanghai
+Consulate. Sir Frederick Bruce's (brother of the ambassador Lord
+Elgin, and himself the First British Minister at Peking) comment after
+perusing them was: "Dr Macartney showed very great judgment and good
+sense, and no blame attaches to him in this matter."
+
+A considerable period intervened between the breakfast scene at
+Quinsan and Gordon's next meeting with Macartney. In that period much
+had happened. Gordon had forgiven Li Hung Chang, done everything that
+Macartney had recommended as the right course in the memorable scene
+at Quinsan, and by some of the most remarkable of his military
+exploits had crushed the Taeping rebellion, but the two principal
+actors in this affair had not crossed each other's path.
+
+Six weeks after Gordon brought his operations in the field to an end
+at Chanchufu in May he returned to Soochow, and Li Hung Chang, wishing
+to do him honour, asked him to an official breakfast at his yamen. At
+the same time Li Hung Chang said to Macartney: "I have asked Gordon to
+breakfast. I know you and he have had some difference. How would you
+meet him if you came too?"
+
+To this question Macartney replied: "I would meet Gordon exactly as
+Gordon met me. It is true that Gordon did me an injustice, but I am
+quite ready to blot it out from my memory if Gordon will admit it.
+Gordon acted under a strong feeling of excitement when he was not
+master of himself, and I have no more thought of holding him strictly
+responsible for what he wrote at such a moment than I would a madman."
+
+Li Hung Chang said: "Very well, then. I ask you to come to breakfast
+to meet him." On Macartney's return to his house he found a letter
+from Gordon waiting for him. In this letter Gordon admitted that he
+had done him a wrong, and was prepared to sign any paper to that
+effect that Macartney might prepare.
+
+Macartney thereupon replied to Gordon, pointing out that the mere
+publication of a letter of retractation was not an adequate reparation
+for an injurious statement which had been given a wide circulation,
+and to a certain extent placed beyond recall by appearing in an
+official publication, but that if he might publish Gordon's own
+letter offering to do this in the _North China Herald_, he would be
+satisfied, and the matter, as far as he was concerned, might be
+considered at an end. To this course Gordon at once acquiesced,
+subject to the omission of one paragraph affecting a third person, and
+in no respect relating to Sir Halliday or his conduct. This letter,
+which the Editor of that paper stated he "published at Colonel
+Gordon's request," on 23rd July 1864, read as follows:--
+
+
+                                   "SHANGHAI, _July 5, 1864_.
+
+     "MY DEAR MACARTNEY,--It is with much regret that I perceive in
+     the last Blue Book issued on China affairs a Report from me to
+     General Brown on the occurrences at Soochow, which report
+     contains an injurious remark on your conduct.
+
+     "I am extremely sorry that I ever penned that remark, as I
+     believe you went out of your way on this occasion wholly on the
+     same public grounds which led eventually to my taking the field
+     myself, and I can only excuse my having done so by recollecting
+     the angry feelings with which I was actuated at that time.
+
+     "It will be my duty to rectify this error in other quarters, and
+     in the meantime I beg you to make what use you may think fit of
+     this letter.--Yours truly,
+
+                                   "C. G. GORDON."
+
+
+
+On the next day Gordon and Macartney met at breakfast at the yamen of
+the Futai Li Hung Chang, and Gordon at once came up to Macartney and
+said:
+
+     "Do not let us talk of the past, but of the future. I am one of
+     those who hold that when a man has wronged another he should seek
+     opportunities through his life of making him redress. Now you are
+     founding an Arsenal at Soochow, and I am going back to England,
+     where I have a brother in the Arsenal at Woolwich. From him I can
+     get you books, plans, and useful information. I will do so."
+
+Gordon was as good as his word. He sent Macartney expensive plans and
+books, besides most valuable information. He also promised to write to
+the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief, admitting that he was not
+justified in his criticism of Dr Macartney, who had acted in every way
+becoming an English gentleman and officer. Thus ended the
+misunderstanding between the two Englishmen who rendered China the
+best service she has ever obtained from foreigners; and knowing both
+these distinguished men intimately, I have much pleasure in testifying
+from my own knowledge to the accuracy of the following statement of
+Sir Halliday Macartney to myself that "after this, Gordon and I
+remained firm friends evermore."
+
+Gordon's indignation at this outrage did not soon subside, and three
+weeks after it happened an opportunity presented itself for showing
+and perhaps relieving his mind. A high Chinese officer presented
+himself at his quarters at Quinsan to announce the receipt of an
+Imperial decree and presents from Peking as a reward for his share in
+the capture of Soochow. Gordon at once said that he would not accept
+the presents, and that they were not to be brought to him. The Chinese
+officer replied that they should not be brought, but that the emissary
+of the Emperor ought to be received. To this Gordon assented, and on
+1st January 1864 he went down to receive him at the West Gate. On
+arriving there he met a procession carrying a number of open boxes,
+containing 10,000 taels (then about L3000 of our money) in Sycee
+shoes, laid on red cloth, also four Snake flags taken from the
+Taepings--two sent by Li Hung Chang, and two by another mandarin who
+had had no part in the Soochow affair. Gordon made the procession turn
+about and take the whole lot back again. He wrote his reply stating
+his reason on the back of the Imperial rescript itself; he rejected Li
+Hung Chang's flags, but he accepted the other two as being in no sense
+associated with the disgrace of the Taeping massacre. In this manner
+did Gordon show the Chinese what he thought of their conduct. His
+characteristic reply to the Imperial rescript read as follows:--
+
+     "Major Gordon receives the approbation of His Majesty the Emperor
+     with every gratification, but regrets most sincerely that, owing
+     to the circumstance which occurred since the capture of Soochow,
+     he is unable to receive any mark of H.M. the Emperor's
+     recognition, and therefore respectfully begs His Majesty to
+     receive his thanks for his intended kindness, and to allow him to
+     decline the same."
+
+At this moment it will be recollected that Gordon was, strictly
+speaking, no longer in command. He had resigned, because his very
+reasonable demand for a gratuity to his troops had not been complied
+with. But circumstances were too strong for him, and a number of
+considerations, all highly creditable to his judgment and
+single-mindedness, induced him to sink his private grievances, and to
+resume the command on grounds of public policy and safety. The
+internal condition of the Ever Victorious Army itself, which inaction
+had brought to the verge of mutiny, was the determining fact that
+induced Gordon to resume the command, even at the price of meeting Li
+Hung Chang and sinking his differences with him. There had been much
+intrigue among the officers of the force as to who should succeed
+Gordon in the command, if he persisted in his resolve to give it up,
+and before tranquillity was restored sixteen of the agitating officers
+had to be dismissed. The force itself welcomed the formal resumption
+of the command by Gordon, and not the less because it signified a
+return to active operations after more than two months' inaction. The
+murder of the Wangs took place on 7th December 1863; it was on 18th
+February 1864 that Gordon marched out of Quinsan at the head of the
+bulk of his force.
+
+In a letter written at the time, Sir Robert Hart, whose services to
+the Chinese Government, spread over the long period of forty years,
+have been of the highest order and importance, said:--
+
+     "The destiny of China is at the present moment in the hands of
+     Gordon more than of any other man, and if he be encouraged to act
+     vigorously, the knotty question of Taepingdom _versus_ 'union in
+     the cause of law and order' will be solved before the end of May,
+     and quiet will at length be restored to this unfortunate and
+     sorely-tried country. Personally, Gordon's wish is to leave the
+     force as soon as he can. Now that Soochow has fallen, there is
+     nothing more that he can do, whether to add to his own reputation
+     or to retrieve that of British officers generally, tarnished by
+     Holland's defeat at Taitsan. He has little or nothing personally
+     to gain from future successes, and as he has himself to lead in
+     all critical moments, and is constantly exposed to danger, he has
+     before him the not very improbable contingency of being hit
+     sooner or later. But he lays aside his personal feelings, and
+     seeing well that if he were now to leave the force it would in
+     all probability go at once to the rebels or cause some other
+     disaster, he consents to remain with it for a time."
+
+During that interval some minor successes had been obtained by the
+Imperialists. Several towns surrendered to Li Hung Chang, and Chung
+Wang evacuated Wusieh and retired to Chanchufu, also on the Grand
+Canal. At the same time he hastened himself to Nanking, in the vain
+hope of arousing Tien Wang to the gravity of the situation, and
+inducing him to make some special effort to turn the fortune of the
+war. General Ching succeeded in capturing Pingwang, and with it
+another entrance into the Taiho Lake. San Tajin moved his camp close
+up to Changchufu and engaged the Taepings in almost daily encounters,
+during one of which the _Firefly_ steamer was retaken, and its English
+captain killed. In consequence of this all the Europeans left the
+service of the Taepings, and as their fleet had been almost entirely
+destroyed, they were now hemmed in within a small compass, and Gordon
+himself estimated that they ought to be finally overcome within two
+months. In this hope he resumed the command, and his decision was
+officially approved of and confirmed by the British Minister at
+Peking.
+
+The Taepings still retained possession of Hangchow and some other
+towns in the province of Chekiang, but all communication between them
+and Nanking had been severed by the fall of Soochow, so far at least
+as the routes east of the Taiho Lake were concerned. West of that lake
+they still held Yesing and Liyang, which enabled them to maintain
+communication, although by a roundabout route. Gordon determined to
+begin his campaign by attacking these two places, when the severance
+would be complete.
+
+Yesing, on the north-west corner of the lake, was the first object of
+attack. Liyang is about fifty miles further inland than that town. The
+Taepings at Yesing were not dreaming of an attack when Gordon, at the
+head of his force, suddenly appeared before its walls. He found the
+surrounding villages in a most appalling state of distress, the
+inhabitants living on human food. The town was well surrounded by
+ditches and stockades, and Gordon felt compelled to reconnoitre it
+most carefully before deciding on his plan of attack. While engaged in
+this work his ardour carried him away, and he was nearly captured by
+the enemy. It was one of the narrowest of his many escapes during the
+war, and went far to justify the reputation he had gained of having a
+charmed life. A very striking instance of his narrowly escaping a
+premature end had occurred during the siege of Soochow itself, when
+the marvellous fifty-three-arch bridge at Patachiaou was destroyed.
+One evening Gordon was seated smoking a cigar on one of the damaged
+parapets of the bridge, when two shots fired by his own men struck the
+stone-work close by him. He got down at the second shot, and entered
+his boat. Hardly had he done so when the bridge collapsed with a
+tremendous crash, nearly smashing his boat and killing two men. In all
+the engagements, except when confined to his boat, Gordon always led
+the attack, carrying no weapons, except a revolver which he wore
+concealed in his breast, and never used except once, against one of
+his own mutineers, but only a little rattan cane, which his men called
+his magic wand of Victory. A graphic picture was drawn by one of his
+own officers of this unarmed leader in the breach of an assaulted
+position urging on his men by catching them by the sleeve of their
+coats, and by standing indifferent and unresisting in the midst of the
+thickest fire. Gordon long afterwards admitted that during the whole
+of these scenes he was continuously praying to the Almighty that his
+men should not turn tail. In the varied and voluminous annals of war
+there is no more striking figure than this of human heroism combined
+with spiritual fervour.
+
+The attack on Yesing lasted several days, as, owing to the manner in
+which the country was cut up by canals, all the operations had to be
+conducted with great caution. The capture of the southern stockades
+was followed after a day's interval by the evacuation of the latter
+and the flight of the garrison, who however pillaged the town as far
+as they could before leaving. Gordon would not let his men enter the
+town, as he knew they would pillage, and thus get out of hand. They
+were so disappointed that several cases of insubordination occurred,
+and one mutineer had to be shot. The Imperialists were left to
+garrison Yesing, but under strict injunctions that they were on no
+account to take life; and under the threats of Li Hung Chang, who did
+not wish a repetition of the Soochow affair, these were strictly
+obeyed. All these arrangements having been made, Gordon resumed his
+march towards Liyang on 4th March, the infantry proceeding overland,
+and the artillery in the boats and _Hyson_ steamer.
+
+At Liyang the rebels had collected a large force, and made every
+preparation for a vigorous defence. But Gordon was quite confident of
+success, although he was now operating in the heart of a hostile
+country, and at a distance from his base. The sound flotilla which
+mounted formidable artillery, and which co-operated with him on the
+creek that led to the walls of Liyang, gave him sound reasons for
+confidence, and additional ground of security in the event of any
+accident. But his military skill and careful arrangements were not
+subjected to any severe test, as a mutiny broke out among the Taepings
+themselves, and the half in favour of surrender got possession of the
+city, and closed the gates on those of their comrades who wished to
+hold out. Major Gordon promptly accepted their surrender, and
+guaranteed their personal safety to all, thus obtaining a signal
+success without any loss. This was the more satisfactory because
+Liyang was found to be an admirable position for defence, strongly
+fortified with numerous stockades, well supplied with provisions for
+several months' siege, and garrisoned by 15,000 well-armed and
+well-clothed rebels. These men were disarmed, and allowed to go where
+they liked after they had shaved their heads in token of surrender.
+The provisions they had stored up for their own use were distributed
+among the starving peasants of the surrounding country. Gordon himself
+saved the lives of the female relatives of the Taeping Wang, who had
+wished to hold out, not however, it should in fairness be stated, from
+the official Chinese, but from the Taepings who had surrendered. After
+the capitulation was over, Gordon took 1000 of the Taepings into his
+own force, and he also engaged the services of another 1500 as a new
+contingent, to fight under their own officers. In this unusual manner
+he nearly doubled the effective strength of his own corps, and then
+advanced north to attack the town of Kintang, rather more than forty
+miles north of Liyang. At this point Gordon experienced his first
+serious rebuff at the hands of Fortune, for the earlier reverse at the
+Soochow stockades was so clearly due to a miscarriage in the attack,
+and so ephemeral in its issue, that it can scarcely be counted.
+
+Unlike the other Taeping towns, all of which were stockaded
+positions, Kintang had no outer defences. It presented the appearance
+of a small compact city with a stone wall. No flags were shown; the
+place might have been deserted, but the complete silence seemed
+ominous. Gordon selected his point of attack, and began a bombardment,
+which continued during three hours, and then he ordered the assault.
+As the bugles sounded the advance, the Taepings appeared for the first
+time on the walls, and received the assailants with a heavy fire. At
+this critical moment Gordon received a severe wound below the knee,
+and had to be carried to his boat. His place was taken by Major Brown,
+brother of the General commanding at Shanghai, who advanced waving
+Gordon's own flag, but he too received a severe wound, and was carried
+off the field. The rebels fought with great desperation, and Gordon,
+who remained conscious, sent orders from his boat for the
+discontinuance of the attack. The loss was heavy--two officers killed,
+eleven wounded, and 115 rank and file killed and wounded. Gordon,
+notwithstanding his wound, would have renewed the attack, but for the
+receipt of alarming intelligence from his rear. Li Hung Chang wrote
+that the Taepings had turned the flank of his brother's army, and
+captured Fushan. They were at that moment besieging Chanzu, and had
+carried terror into the very heart of the Imperial position. Gordon's
+wound--the only one of any severity he ever received--excited much
+sympathy among the Chinese, and was made the subject of an Imperial
+edict ordering Li Hung Chang to call on him daily, and "requesting
+Gordon to wait until he shall be perfectly restored to health and
+strength."
+
+In the extremity to which he was reduced, the brilliant idea had
+occurred to Chung Wang to assume the offensive at a point most remote
+from the scene where Gordon was acting in person. Hence the sudden and
+successful attack on Fushan, and his strategy was rewarded by the
+paralysis it produced in the Imperial plans. Gordon at once hastened
+back to Liyang, where he left a strong garrison, and taking only 1000
+men, half of whom were the irregular Taeping contingent raised at
+Liyang itself, proceeded by forced marches to Wusieh. As the late Sir
+George Chesney well said, it is impossible to decide whether the
+temerity or the confidence of the young wounded commander was the more
+calculated to excite wonder. On arriving here, he found that nothing
+worse had happened than what had been already reported, while in the
+south, beyond his sphere of operations, the important city of Hangchow
+had been evacuated by the Taepings; and with this loss another avenue
+for obtaining arms and ammunition was closed to them.
+
+The relief of Kongyin, which was hard pressed, was the first task
+Gordon set himself; and as he could not leave his boat on account of
+his wound, the conduct of operations was attended with much
+difficulty. After obtaining several minor successes, and approaching
+to within a few miles of Kongyin, Gordon found it necessary to
+completely alter his plans, and to attack the Taepings in their
+headquarters at Waisso, before relieving the former place. He
+accordingly proceeded to Waisso with his artillery on board the
+flotilla, and his infantry marching by land. The latter, carried away
+by some trifling successes, attacked the Waisso stockades without his
+orders, and even without his knowledge; and having invited a reverse
+by their rashness and disobedience, rendered it complete by an
+inexcusable panic, during which the Taeping cavalry, not more than 100
+strong, rode through the best regiment of the force; the rebels,
+carrying a sword in each hand, cut down the fugitives right and left.
+The pursuit lasted for three miles, and 7 European officers killed, 1
+wounded, 252 men killed, and 62 wounded, represented the heavy loss in
+this disastrous affair. The survivors, many of whom had thrown away
+their arms, were so panic-stricken that Gordon had to retire, and to
+summon up fresh troops.
+
+For this disaster Gordon held the officers, and not the men, to be
+blameworthy. They led the men into a false position, and then did not
+make the proper movements. If the men had only formed square, Gordon
+wrote, it would have been all right with them. After this Gordon
+waited to allow of his wound being thoroughly cured, and on 6th April
+he again appeared before Waisso. A large Imperial force also enveloped
+the place on all sides but one, which had been left apparently open
+and unguarded in the hope that the garrison would use it as a means of
+reaching a place of safety. The Imperialists had, however, broken all
+the bridges along this route, so that the Taepings would soon
+encounter serious difficulties to their progress, and admit of their
+being taken at a great disadvantage. Gordon approached the place with
+much caution, and he found it so strongly fortified on the south side,
+opposite his line of approach, that he moved round to the north in
+search of a more favourable point of attack. This simple manoeuvre so
+disconcerted the Taepings that they abandoned several of their
+stockades, which Gordon promptly seized; and finding that these in
+turn commanded others, he succeeded in carrying the whole of a most
+formidable position with little or no loss. The Taeping garrison fled
+in confusion and suffered heavily at the hands of the Imperial troops.
+It rallied on the camp before Kongyin, and the day after this success
+Gordon marched from Waisso to attack them. The Taepings were
+thoroughly disorganised, and apparently amazed at the number of their
+opponents, for the whole of the population rose against them in
+revenge for the outrages they had perpetrated. There was only one
+action, and that of an insignificant description, when the whole
+Taeping force before Kongyin broke into a rout. The Imperialist plan
+for retarding their retreat succeeded to admiration, and of more than
+10,000 men not a tenth escaped from the sword of their pursuers.
+
+In a letter written at this time to his mother, Gordon, who, at the
+end of February had been raised to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in
+the army for distinguished conduct in the field, gave a graphic
+account of the condition of the region in which he was operating:--
+
+     "The rebels are very much pressed, and three months should finish
+     them. During the pursuit from Kongyin the Imperialists and
+     villagers killed in one village 3000. I will say this much--the
+     Imperialists did not kill the coolies and boys. The villagers
+     followed up and stripped the fugitives stark naked, so that all
+     over the country there were naked men lying down in the grass.
+     The cruelties these rebels had committed during their raid were
+     frightful; in every village there were from ten to sixty dead,
+     either women--frightfully mutilated--old men, or small children.
+     I do not regret the fate of these rebels. I have no talent for
+     description, but the scenes I have witnessed of misery are
+     something dreadful, and I must say that your wish for me to
+     return with the work incomplete would not be expressed if you saw
+     the state of these poor people. The horrible furtive looks of the
+     wretched inhabitants hovering around one's boat haunts me, and
+     the knowledge of their want of nourishment would sicken anyone.
+     They are like wolves. The dead lie where they fall, and are in
+     some cases trodden quite flat by the passers-by. I hope to get
+     the Shanghai people to assist, but they do not _see_ these
+     things, and to _read_ that there are human beings eating human
+     flesh produces less effect than if they saw the corpses from
+     which that flesh is cut. There is one thing I promise you, and
+     that is, that as soon as I can leave this service, I will do so;
+     but I will not be led to do what may cause great disasters for
+     the sake of getting out of the dangers, which, in my opinion, are
+     no greater in action than in barracks. My leg is all right; the
+     eleventh day after I received the wound I was up, and by the
+     fifteenth day I could walk well. The ball went through the thick
+     part of the leg, just below the knee."
+
+Having thus cleared the district due north of Wusieh, Gordon proceeded
+against the main Taeping position at Chanchufu, north-west of that
+place, and on the Grand Canal. Here Chung Wang had fortified thirty
+stockades, and commanded in person. On inspecting it, Gordon found it
+so strong that he summoned up his troops from Liyang, and it was not
+until 22nd April, ten days after Waisso, that he had collected all his
+force of 4000 men for the attack. On the very day he accomplished this
+the Imperialists alone attacked some stockades outside the West Gate,
+and carried them by a heavy and unnecessary loss of life. Their
+defenders, instead of retreating into Chanchufu, fled northwards to
+their next possession, at Tayan. The same night part of the garrison
+left behind made a _sortie_, but Gordon was apprised of it, and it was
+easily repulsed. The next day he captured all the stockades on the
+southern, or, more correctly, the western side of the Canal, but the
+Taepings still held a strong stone fort on the opposite side, which
+defied all the efforts of the Imperialists. Two hundred of the Liyang
+corps gallantly crossed the Canal in boats, forced open the back door
+of the fort, and carried it at a rush. With this success all the
+outworks of Chanchufu were taken, and the town itself closely
+besieged. Gordon then proceeded to plant his batteries opposite the
+point he had selected for attack, but a regrettable affair happened in
+the night, when the picket on guard fired into the party working at
+the battery, and killed Colonel Tapp, an excellent officer who
+commanded the artillery of the force. This mishap was quickly followed
+by others. The Imperialists under their own generals wished to get all
+the credit of the capture, and attacked several times on their own
+side, but always without obtaining any advantage. Nor was Gordon
+himself more fortunate. After a severe bombardment, to which the
+Taepings made no reply, Gordon assaulted on 27th April. His men
+succeeded in throwing two pontoons across the ditch, twenty yards
+wide, and some of his officers reached the wall; but the Taepings met
+them boldly with a terrific storm of fire-balls, bags of powder,
+stinkpots, and even showers of bricks. Twice did Gordon lead his men
+to the assault, but he had to admit his repulse with the loss of his
+pontoons, and a great number of his best officers and men. Ten
+officers killed and 19 wounded, 40 men killed and 260 wounded,
+represented the cost of this disastrous failure.
+
+Undaunted by this defeat, Gordon proceeded to lay siege in regular
+form, and Li Hung Chang lent him the services of his own troops in
+order to dig the necessary trenches. Working only at night, and with
+equal celerity and secrecy, a succession of trenches were made right
+up to the edge of the ditch. At the same time, proclamations in large
+characters were exhibited, offering terms to all who came over, except
+the Wang in command; and many desertions took place. At last, on 11th
+May, the place was again assaulted, this time at mid-day; and owing to
+the short distance from the advance trench to the breach, the Chinese
+troops of all kinds were able to come to close fighting with the
+Taepings without any preliminary loss. The Taepings fought with great
+courage, even although their chief Hoo Wang was taken prisoner early
+in the fight, but at last they were overwhelmed by numbers. Hoo Wang
+and all the Canton and Kwangsi men--that is to say, the original
+Taeping band--were executed, and the completeness of the triumph was
+demonstrated by the surrender, two days later, of Tayan, the last of
+the Taeping possessions on the Grand Canal. On the spur of the moment,
+two hours after the successful assault, Gordon wrote a hurried few
+lines to his mother, stating, to relieve her anxiety, that he would
+"not again take the field," and that he was happy to say he had "got
+off safe."
+
+The capture of Chanchufu was the last achievement of the Ever
+Victorious Army, which marched back to Quinsan, its headquarters, in
+preparation for its disbandment, which had been decided on by the
+joint conclusion of the Chinese and European authorities. It had done
+its work, and the Chinese naturally regarded the presence of this
+formidable and somewhat unruly force with no little apprehension. The
+Taepings were now confined to Nanking, and the Viceroy, Tseng Kwofan,
+felt confident that before long he would be able to capture that city.
+The British Government had decided that the service of Major Gordon
+under the Chinese should terminate on 1st June 1864, and some weeks
+before that order was put in force the army was quietly disbanded,
+without any disturbance or display. The troops themselves would have
+given their commander a demonstration, but he evaded them, and escaped
+quietly into Shanghai, passing without regret from the position of the
+arbiter of an Empire's destiny to the routine of an English officer's
+existence. At the same time a considerable part of his force was taken
+into the service of Li Hung Chang.
+
+Gordon's own opinion of his work was given in the following letter:--
+
+     "I have the satisfaction of knowing that the end of this
+     rebellion is at hand, while, had I continued inactive, it might
+     have lingered on for years. I do not care a jot about my
+     promotion or what people may say. I know 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."
+
+Having retired from the active direction of the campaign, Gordon still
+retained sufficient interest in the work he had had in hand so long to
+incline him to accept an invitation to visit the lines of Tseng Kwofan
+before Nanking. On 26th June he visited that Viceroy's camp, and found
+that his position extended over from twenty-four to thirty miles, and
+that he commanded 80,000 troops, who were, however, badly armed. The
+troops were well fed, but ill paid, and at last confident of success.
+While Gordon was there, or only a few hours after he left, Tien Wang,
+the leader of the moribund Taeping cause, seeing no chance of escape,
+swallowed gold leaf in the approved regal fashion, and died. On the
+19th July the Imperialists succeeded in running a gallery under the
+wall of Nanking, and in charging it with 40,000 lbs. of powder. The
+explosion destroyed fifty yards of the wall, and the Imperialists at
+once stormed the breach. Chung Wang made a valiant defence in his own
+palace, and then cut his way out, at the head of 1000 men. Very few of
+these escaped, but Chung Wang and the young Tien Wang, son of the
+defunct leader, were among the fortunate few. Chung Wang was soon
+captured, and beheaded on 7th August, after being allowed a week's
+respite to write the history of the Taeping rebellion. At least it may
+be claimed for him that he was the only true hero of the rebel
+movement. Gordon's own estimation of this leader is given in these
+words:--
+
+     "He was the bravest, most talented, and enterprising leader the
+     rebels had. He had been in more engagements than any other rebel
+     leader, and could always be distinguished. His presence with the
+     Taepings was equal to a reinforcement of 5000 men, and was always
+     felt by the superior way in which the rebels resisted. He was the
+     only rebel chief whose death was to be regretted; the others, his
+     followers, were a ruthless set of bandit chiefs."
+
+The young Tien Wang was eventually captured and executed. Thus
+terminated, in the blood of its authors and leaders, the great
+rebellion, which had inflicted an incalculable amount of misery and
+loss on the Chinese people in a vain attempt to subvert the existing
+dynasty. Six hundred cities were stated to have been destroyed during
+its course, and sixteen out of the eighteen provinces to have
+witnessed the ravages of civil war.
+
+Having thus concluded his work as commander of the Ever Victorious
+Army, it might have been thought that Gordon would be allowed to carry
+out his own wish of returning home as quickly as possible, but the
+English, as well as the Chinese, authorities were desirous of
+organising a purely Chinese force, with the object of supplying the
+Government with the means of asserting its authority over any internal
+enemies. Sir Frederick Bruce came specially from Pekin to Shanghai on
+the subject, and Gordon undertook to give the necessary organisation
+his personal supervision until it was in fair working order. From the
+end of June until the middle of November Colonel Gordon was engaged in
+the Chinese camp, which was formed at a place near Sungkiang, drilling
+recruits, and endeavouring to inspire the officers with the military
+spirit. He describes his work in the following short note, which is
+also interesting as expressing his impressions about the Chinese
+people:--
+
+     "I have the manual, and platoon, and company drill in full swing,
+     also part of the battalion drill, and one or two men know their
+     gun drill very fairly. This is so far satisfactory, and I think,
+     if the whole country was not corrupt, they might go on well and
+     quickly, but really it is most irritating to see the jealousies
+     of the mandarins of one another. The people are first-rate,
+     hard-working, and fairly honest; but it seems as soon as they
+     rise in office they become corrupt. There is lots of vitality in
+     the country, and there are some good men; but these are kept down
+     by the leaden apathy of their equals, who hate to see reform,
+     knowing their own deficiencies."
+
+By the end of November Gordon was able to think of returning home, as
+he had given a start to military reform in China; but before he sailed
+he had to receive a congratulatory address from the most prominent
+citizens and merchants of Shanghai, expressing their "appreciation and
+admiration of his conduct." They had not always been so
+discriminating, and at the beginning their sympathies had been for the
+Taepings, or at least for strict non-intervention. The Chinese
+Government also gave exceptional signs of its gratitude to the
+noble-minded soldier, who had rendered it such invaluable aid. It
+again offered him a large sum of money, which was declined with as
+much firmness, although less emphasis, as on the earlier occasion. But
+he could not reject the promotion offered him to the high rank of
+Ti-Tu, or Field Marshal in the Chinese army, or churlishly refuse to
+receive the rare and high dignity of the Yellow Jacket. The English
+reader has been inclined on occasion to smile and sneer at that
+honour, but its origin was noble, and the very conditions on which it
+was based ensured that the holders should be very few in number.
+
+The story of its origin will admit of being retold. When the Manchus
+conquered China, in the middle of the seventeenth century, they
+received material aid from a Chinese soldier named Wou Sankwei. He was
+rewarded with the Viceroyalty of the whole of south-western China, in
+which region he became supreme. After many years the Manchus thought
+he posed with too great an air of independence, and he was summoned to
+Peking to give an account of his stewardship. But Wou Sankwei was too
+old to be caught by so simple a ruse. He defied the Manchus, and
+established his authority throughout the larger part of the country
+south of the Great River. The young and afterwards illustrious Emperor
+Kanghi threw himself into the struggle with ardour, and it continued
+for many years, and devastated almost as large an area as did the
+Taeping rebellion. Kanghi did not obtain a decisive triumph until
+after the death of Wou Sankwei, when he bestowed a yellow riding
+jacket and an ornament of peacock's feathers for the cap on his
+principal lieutenants. He also decreed that this decoration should be
+made a regular order, to be conferred only on generals who had led
+victorious armies against rebel forces. Gordon was thus perfectly
+qualified to receive the order founded by the famous Manchu
+contemporary of the Grand Monarque.
+
+The Chinese Government also sent him six mandarin dresses in the
+correct fashion for a commanding officer of the rank of Ti-Tu, and a
+book explaining how they should be worn. Gordon said very little about
+it, his only comment being: "Some of the buttons on the mandarin hats
+are worth thirty or forty pounds. I am sorry for it, as they cannot
+afford it over well; it is, at any rate, very civil of them." The two
+Empress Regents also struck a heavy gold medal in his honour, the
+destination of which will be told hereafter, and Li Hung Chang did
+everything possible to demonstrate the respect and regard he
+entertained for his European colleague. That that was no transitory
+feeling was well shown thirty-two years later, when the famous Chinese
+statesman seized the occasion of his visit to London to place wreaths
+on the statue and cenotaph of his old comrade in arms. General Gordon
+valued the Yellow Jacket and the Gold Medal very highly. When he gave
+up the medal for the cause of charity he felt its loss keenly, and it
+became a phrase with him to signify the height of self-sacrifice to
+say, "You must give up your medal." Prince Kung, in a special and
+remarkable despatch to the British Minister, narrated in detail the
+achievements of Gordon, and declared in graceful language that "not
+only has he shown himself throughout both brave and energetic, but his
+thorough appreciation of that important question, a friendly
+understanding between China and foreign nations, is also deserving of
+the highest praise." The Minister was requested to bring these facts
+to the notice of the British Government, and it was even suggested by
+the Chinese Prince that some reward that Gordon would appreciate at
+the hands of his own Sovereign should be conferred on him, and would
+be hailed with satisfaction in China. If I add to this list the sword
+of Chung Wang, captured from one of his lieutenants, and presented
+afterwards by Gordon to the Duke of Cambridge, the rewards of Gordon
+from the Chinese are fully catalogued. At the hands of his own
+Government he received for his magnificent service a brevet
+lieutenant-colonelcy, and somewhat later the Companionship of the
+Bath.
+
+Gordon had kept a journal, which he sent home; but subsequently, on
+finding that it was being circulated, he destroyed it. Of this fact
+there is no doubt, and it is of course impossible to say whether it
+contained more than the manuscript history of the Taeping war, which
+he lent me in 1881 as "a trustworthy narrative" for the purposes of my
+"History of China," and which was published many years later as a
+separate volume. The authorship of that history is a matter of
+speculation, but there seems little or no doubt that it was at least
+compiled under Gordon's own direction, from the reports of his
+lieutenants in China, and completed during his residence at Gravesend.
+
+Of the true personal journal Gordon wrote in 1864: "I do not want the
+same published, as I think, if my proceedings sink into oblivion, it
+would be better for every one; and my reason for this is that it is a
+very contested point whether we ought to have interfered or not, on
+which point I am perfectly satisfied that it was the proper and humane
+course to pursue, but I still do not expect people who do not know
+much about it to concur in the same.... I never want anything
+published. I am sure it does no good, and makes people chary of
+writing."
+
+The same feeling came out in his last letter to his mother from China,
+17th November 1864: "The individual is coming home, but does not wish
+it known, for it would be a signal for the disbanded to come to
+Southampton, and although the waits at Christmas are bad, these others
+are worse." Such a wish as this was impossible of gratification. The
+public press could not be silenced by the modesty of this retiring
+commander whose deeds had been so heroic and devoid of selfish
+purpose. The papers became so filled with accounts of his achievements
+that he gave up reading them, but _The Times_ had at least
+crystallised the opinion of the day into a single sentence: "Never did
+soldier of fortune deport himself with a nicer sense of military
+honour, with more gallantry against the resisting, and with more mercy
+towards the vanquished, with more disinterested neglect of
+opportunities of personal advantage, or with more entire devotion to
+the objects and desires of his own Government, than this officer who,
+after all his victories, has just laid down his sword."
+
+The more calmly and critically the deeds of the Ever Victorious Army
+and Gordon's conduct during the campaign against the Taepings are
+considered, the greater will be the credit awarded to the high-minded,
+brave, and unselfish man who then gained the sobriquet of "Chinese"
+Gordon. Among all the deeds of his varied and remarkable career he
+never succeeded in quite the same degree in winning fame and in
+commanding success. At Khartoum the eyes of the world were on him, but
+the Mahdi was allowed to remain victorious, and the Soudan still
+awaits fresh conquest. But during the two Taeping campaigns he was
+completely successful, and closed his work with an unqualified
+triumph. It was also the only occasion when he led an army in the
+field, and proved his claims to be considered a great commander. Of
+serious warfare it may be said to have been his last experience, for
+his own Government was very careful to give him no active military
+employment--garrison, and even consular duties being deemed more
+suitable for this victorious leader than the conduct of any of those
+little expeditions commencing with the Red River and Ashanti for which
+he was pre-eminently qualified--and under the Khedive he controlled an
+army without finding a real foe. Gordon's title to rank among skilful
+military commanders rests on his conduct at the head of the Ever
+Victorious Army during the Taeping war. It has earned the praise of
+many competent military authorities as well as the general admiration
+of the public, and Lord Wolseley must have had it in his mind when, in
+vindicating his sanity, he exclaimed that he "wished other English
+generals had been bitten with his madness."
+
+Those who have thought that Gordon won his victories in China by sheer
+personal gallantry, and nothing else, have taken a very shallow view
+of the case, and not condescended to study the details. In his general
+conception of the best way to overcome the Taepings he was necessarily
+hampered by the views, wishes, jealousies, and self-seeking purposes
+of his Chinese colleagues. But for them, his strategy would have been
+of a very different character, as he himself often said. He had to
+adjust his means to the best attainable end, and it must be allowed
+that he did this with remarkable tact and patience--the very qualities
+in which he was naturally most deficient. If we consider his strategy
+as being thus fettered by the Chinese officials Li Hung Chang and
+General Ching, whose first object was not so much the overthrow of the
+Taeping Government as the expulsion of the Taepings from the province
+for which they were responsible, it will be admitted that nothing
+could be better than his conception of what had to be done, and how it
+was to be effected. The campaign resolved itself into the cutting off
+of all their sources of supply from the sea and Treaty ports, and the
+shutting up of their principal force within the walls of Soochow. How
+well and successfully that was accomplished has been narrated, but a
+vainglorious commander could not have been held back after the fall of
+Chanchufu from leading his victorious force to achieve a crowning
+triumph at Nanking, which Gordon could easily have carried by assault
+before the order in council withdrawing his services came into effect.
+
+More frequent opportunity was afforded for Gordon to reveal his
+tactical skill than his strategical insight, and in this respect the
+only trammels he experienced were from the military value and
+efficiency of his force, which had its own limitations. But still it
+would be unjust to form too poor an estimate of the fighting
+efficiency and courage of either Gordon's force or his Taeping
+opponents from the miserable exhibition the Chinese recently made of
+themselves during the war with Japan. The heavy losses incurred, the
+several repulses Gordon himself experienced, would alone tell a
+different tale, if there were not the obstinate resistance offered to
+General Staveley and the French by the Taepings to show that they were
+not altogether contemptible adversaries. Gordon himself thought that
+his force could fight very well, and that his officers, if somewhat
+lacking in polish, were not to be surpassed in dash and devilry. For
+the Taepings, especially behind walls, and when it was impossible to
+out-manoeuvre them, he had also the highest opinion, and his first
+object on every occasion was to discover a weak point in their
+position, and his patience and perspicuity were generally rewarded.
+The very first step he took on approaching any place that he had to
+attack was to reconnoitre it himself, either on foot or in one of his
+steamers, and he wrote a powerful despatch pointing out the general
+neglect of this precaution in the conduct of our Eastern campaigns,
+with its inevitable heavy attendant loss of precious lives. As he
+truly said, a careful reconnaissance generally revealed points of
+weakness in the enemy's position, and the Taepings, like all Asiatics,
+were easily demoralised when their line of retreat was threatened, or
+when attacked at some point where their preparations had not been
+perfected. Among his own personal qualifications, his untiring energy
+and his exceptional promptitude in coming to a decision were the most
+remarkable. No exertion relaxed his effort or diminished his ardour,
+and in face of fresh perils and disappointments he was always ready
+with a new plan, or prepared with some scheme for converting defeat
+into victory. One of his chief characteristics was his quickness in
+seeing an alternative course of action when his original plan had
+either failed or been thwarted by others. Of his personal courage and
+daring sufficient instances have been given to justify the assertion
+that in those qualities he was unsurpassable; and if he had never done
+anything else than lead the Ever Victorious Army, it would be
+sufficient to secure him a place among the most remarkable of English
+soldiers. In China he will be remembered for his rare self-abnegation,
+for his noble disdain of money, and for the spirit of tolerance with
+which he reconciled the incompatible parts of "a British officer and a
+Chinese mandarin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+GRAVESEND AND GALATZ.
+
+
+After the exciting and eventful ten years which began in the Crimea
+and ended in China, the most tranquil period in Gordon's career
+follows, until he was once again launched on the stormy sea of public
+affairs in Africa. He used to speak of the six years following his
+return from the Far East as the happiest of his life, and by a
+fortunate although unusual coincidence the details of his existence
+during the tranquil and uneventful period have been preserved with
+great amplitude and fidelity by several witnesses associated with him
+in his beneficent as well as his official work. It would be easy to
+fill a small volume with these particulars, which have been already
+given to the world, but here it will suffice to furnish a summary
+sufficient to bring out the philanthropic side of his character, and
+to explain how and why it came to be thought that Gordon was the man
+to solve that ever-pressing but ever-put-off problem of diminishing
+the pressure of excessive population and poverty in the eastern
+districts of London.
+
+General Gordon arrived in England early in 1865, and proceeded to join
+his family at Rockstone Place, Southampton, where he was then doubly
+welcomed, as his father was in declining health, and died soon
+afterwards. Here Gordon passed a quiet six months, refusing all
+invitations with extreme modesty, and in every way baffling the
+attempts of relations, friends, and admirers to make a lion of him. He
+would not permit anyone to say that his suppression of the Taeping
+rebellion was a marvellous feat, and he evaded and resented all the
+attempts made by those in power to bring him into prominence as a
+national hero. Modesty is becoming as an abstract principle of human
+conduct, but Gordon carried it to an excess that made it difficult not
+so much for his fellow-men to understand him, as for them to hold
+ordinary workaday relations with him. This was due mainly to two
+causes--a habitual shyness, and his own perception that he could not
+restrain his tongue from uttering unpalatable and unconventional
+truths. He was so unworldly and self-sacrificing in his own actions
+that he could not let himself become even in a passive sense
+subservient to the very worldly means by which all men more or less
+advance in public and private life. The desire of Ministers and War
+Office authorities to bring him forward, to eulogise his Chinese
+exploits, and in the end to give him worthy employment, was regarded
+by him as that secret favouritism that he abhorred. He retired into
+his shell at every effort made to bring him into prominence. He tore
+up his diary sooner than that it should be the means of giving him
+notoriety. He even refused special employment and promotion, because
+it would put him over the heads of his old comrades at the Woolwich
+Academy. The inevitable result followed. Those in power came to regard
+him as eccentric, and when occasions arose that would have provided
+him with congenial and much-desired employment on active service for
+his own country, his name was passed over, and the best soldier in
+England was left in inglorious and uncongenial inactivity. This was
+regrettable, but natural. The most heroic cannot pose as being too
+elevated above their fellows, or they will be left like Achilles
+sulking in his tent.
+
+There were moments, we have been told, when in the bosom of the family
+circle he threw off the reserve in which he habitually wrapped
+himself, and narrated in stirring if simple language the course of his
+campaigns in China. These outbursts were few and far between. They
+became still less frequent when he found that the effect of his
+description was to increase the admiration his relatives never
+concealed from him. His mother, whose feelings towards him were of a
+specially tender nature, and whose solicitude for his personal safety
+had been more than once evinced, took the greatest pride in his
+achievements, and a special pleasure at their recital. But even her
+admiration caused Charles Gordon as much pain as pleasure, and it is
+recorded that while she was exhibiting to a circle of friends a map
+drawn by him during his old term days at the Academy, he came into the
+room, and seeing that it was being made a subject of admiration, took
+it from his mother, tore it in half, and threw it into the fire grate.
+Some little time after he repented of this act of rudeness, collected
+the fragments, pasted them together, and begged his mother's
+forgiveness. This damaged plan or map is still in existence. His
+extraordinary diffidence and shrinking from all forms of praise or
+exaltation was thus revealed at a comparatively early stage of his
+career, and in connection with the first deeds that made him famous.
+The incident just described shows that his way of asserting his
+individuality was not always unattended with unkindness to those who
+were nearest and dearest to him. His distrust of his own temper, and
+of his capacity to speak and act conventionally, urged him towards a
+solitary life; and when his fate took him into places and forms of
+employment where solitude was the essential condition of the service,
+it is not surprising that his natural shyness and humility, as well as
+that habit of speaking his own mind, not only without fear or favour,
+but also, it must be admitted, with considerable disregard for the
+feelings of others, became intensified, and the most noticeable of his
+superficial characteristics.
+
+But although Gordon was averse to praise and any special promotion, he
+was most anxious to resume the work of his profession, in which he
+took a peculiar pride, and for which he felt himself so thoroughly
+well suited. His temperament was naturally energetic and impulsive.
+The independent command he had exercised in China had strengthened
+these tendencies, and made a dull routine doubly irksome to one whose
+eager spirit sought action in any form that offered. The quiet
+domestic life of the family circle at Southampton soon became
+intolerable to his restless spirit, and although he was entitled to
+two years' leave after his long foreign service, he took steps to
+return to active service as an engineer officer within a very few
+months of his return to England.
+
+On 1st September 1865 he was appointed Commanding Royal Engineer
+officer at Gravesend, to superintend the erection of the new forts to
+be constructed in that locality for the defence of the Thames. For
+such a post his active military service, as well as his technical
+training, eminently suited him; and although there was little promise
+of excitement about it, the work was distinctly congenial, and offered
+him a field for showing practical judgment and skill as an engineer.
+He threw himself into his task with his characteristic energy and
+enthusiasm. But how far the latter was damped by his prompt discovery
+that the whole project of the Thames defences was faulty and unsound
+it is impossible to say, but his attention to his work in all its
+details certainly showed no diminution or falling off. There were five
+forts in all to be constructed--three on the south or Kent side of the
+river, viz., New Tavern, Shornmead, and Cliffe; and two, Coalhouse and
+Tilbury, on the north or Essex side. An immense sum had been voted by
+Parliament for their construction, and Gordon was as loud as an
+officer dare be in his denunciation of this extravagant waste of money
+as soon as he discovered by personal examination that the three
+southern forts could be turned into islands, and severed from all
+communication by an enemy cutting the river bank at Cooling; and also
+that the northern forts were not merely unprotected in the rear, like
+those of the Chinese, but completely commanded from the Essex range of
+hills. Notwithstanding this important discovery, made at the very
+beginning, the original scheme was prosecuted to the end, with
+enormous outlay and useless result, for an entirely new system of
+river defences had to be formed and carried out at a later period.
+But for these errors Gordon was in no sense responsible, and they
+would not have been committed if his advice and representations had
+been heeded.
+
+Mr Arthur Stannard, who was assistant to the manager of the firm which
+had been intrusted with the contract for the building of these forts,
+gave in the _Nineteenth Century_ for April 1885 the best account we
+possess of the manner in which Colonel Gordon discharged his official
+duties at Gravesend.
+
+Colonel Gordon's headquarters were at a quaint-looking, old-fashioned
+house with a good-sized garden, close to the site on which the New
+Tavern fort was to be erected. He considered himself to be on official
+duty from eight o'clock in the morning until two o'clock in the
+afternoon; and during these six hours he not only worked himself
+without intermission, but expected all those under him to work in the
+same untiring spirit. He was a severe and unsparing taskmaster, and
+allowed no shirking. No other officer could have got half the work out
+of his 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."
+
+Another instance of his unflagging energy and extreme activity was
+furnished in connection with the boat in which he had to visit the
+different parts of the defences. A two-oared, slow-moving boat was
+provided for the purpose, but Gordon soon grew tired of this slow
+means of locomotion, and he started a four-oared gig. He trained these
+men according to his own ideas, and expected them to row with all
+their might and main, and to lose not a minute in casting off their
+boat on his arrival. So fond was he of rapid motion, or so impressed
+with the value of time, that he would continue to urge them on,
+whenever any signs of slackening appeared, with exclamations: "A
+little faster, boys, a little faster!" and Mr Stannard states that he
+has seen the boatmen land after such a row as this in as limp a
+condition as four strong men could be. All his own movements were
+carried on at the run, and his activity was such that few younger and
+taller men were able to keep up with him. I well recollect myself my
+first interview with General Gordon in 1881, when he roused me up by a
+surprise morning visit at eight o'clock--I had not returned from a
+newspaper office till four o'clock--and carried me off, walking in a
+light, springy way which was half a run up to the top of Campden Hill,
+to interview the late Sir Harry Parkes.
+
+While many incidents and the general tenor of his conduct show the
+natural gentleness of Gordon and his softness of heart, he was a
+strict disciplinarian, and even a martinet in some of his ways. As has
+been said, he came on duty at eight every morning punctually, but he
+would not allow himself to be intruded upon before that hour. Mr
+Stannard tells one story that furnishes striking evidence to this
+effect. Early in the morning the men were brought to a standstill in
+their work until Colonel Gordon arrived to decide some doubtful or
+disputed matter. It was noticed that his bedroom window was wide open,
+and the contractor's manager was induced to go up and knock at his
+door for instructions. Gordon opened his door a little way, and
+exclaimed in a testy and irritable tone, "Presently, presently." He
+made his regular appearance at eight o'clock, and no one ventured to
+again disturb him before the regulation hour.
+
+With regard to his meals he was most abstemious, and at the same time
+irregular. His brother describes an arrangement by which he was able
+to take, at all events, his midday meal, and at the same time to carry
+on his official work, especially in the matter of receiving visitors.
+He had a deep drawer in his table, in which the food was deposited.
+When anyone came to see him, the drawer was closed, and all signs of a
+meal were concealed. At all periods of his career he was a small and
+frugal eater, partly because he deprecated extravagance in living, and
+partly because he considered that the _angina pectoris_ from which he
+thought he suffered could be best coped with by abstention from a
+sumptuous or heavy diet. Some days he would almost starve himself, and
+then in the night Nature would assert herself, and he would have to
+come downstairs and take whatever he found in the larder. It is
+recorded that on one occasion he sucked ten or a dozen raw eggs. But
+if he denied himself the luxuries and even the necessaries of a decent
+table, he possessed the true spirit of hospitality, and never expected
+his guests to follow any different practice than their own. For them
+he was always at pains to provide dainty fare and good wine. Nor must
+undue stress be laid on the isolated cases cited of his indifference
+to his personal comfort. Gordon was always attentive to his dress and
+appearance, never forgetting that he was a gentleman and an English
+officer.
+
+While quartered at Gravesend he received a visit from Sir William
+Gordon, who had just been appointed to the command of the troops in
+Scotland. Sir William was no relation, only a member of the same great
+clan, and he had served with Gordon in the trenches of the Crimea. He
+had a great admiration and affection for the younger officer, and
+begged him to accept the post of his _aide-de-camp_ in the North. The
+idea was not a pleasant one to our Gordon, but his good-nature led him
+to yield to the pressing invitations of his friend; and after he had
+given his assent, he was ill with nervousness and regret at having
+tied himself down to an uncongenial post. In some way or other Sir
+William heard of his distress, and promptly released him from his
+promise, only exacting from him the condition that he should pay him a
+visit at his home in Scotland. Soon afterwards Sir William Gordon
+became seriously ill, and Charles Gordon hastened to the North, where
+he remained some time employed in cheering up his friend, who was
+suffering from hypochondria. Some time afterwards Sir William died
+under sad circumstances. He had wished to benefit General Gordon by
+his will, but the latter absolutely refused to have anything except a
+silver tea service, which he had promised Sir William, while alive, to
+accept, because "it would pay for his funeral," and save any one being
+put to expense over that inevitable ceremony. The fate of this tea
+service, valued at L70, cannot be traced. It had disappeared long
+before Gordon's departure for Khartoum, and was probably sold for some
+beneficent work.
+
+The Sir William Gordon incident was not the only external affair that
+distracted his attention from the monotonous routine work of building
+forts on a set, but faulty and mistaken, plan. Glad as he was of any
+work, in preference to the dull existence of a prolonged holiday in
+the domestic circle, Gravesend was not, after all, the ideal of active
+service to a man who had found the excitement of warfare so very
+congenial to his own temperament. When, in the course of 1867 it
+became evident that an expedition would have to be sent to Abyssinia
+to release the prisoners, and to bring the Negus Theodore to his
+senses, Gordon solicited the Horse Guards to include him in any force
+despatched with this object. There is no reason to think that his wish
+would not have been complied with if the expedition had been fitted
+out from England, but it was very wisely decided that the task should
+be entrusted to the Anglo-Indian Army. The late Lord Napier of
+Magdala, then Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, was appointed to
+the command. The officers of his staff, as well as the troops under
+him, were all drawn from the Bombay Army, and although his connection
+by marriage, Sir Charles Staveley, held a command under Napier, and
+would willingly have assisted towards the gratification of his wish,
+an exception in Gordon's case could not be made without that
+favouritism which he most deprecated. Still, it was a great
+disappointment to him, and he shut himself up for a whole day, and
+would see no one.
+
+If the six years at Gravesend, "the most peaceful and happy of any
+portion of my life," as he truly said, had left no other trace than
+his official work, of which the details must necessarily be meagre,
+there would have been a great blank in his life, and the reader would
+necessarily possess no clue to the marked change between the Gordon
+of China and the Gordon of the Soudan. Not that there was any loss of
+power or activity, but in the transition period philanthropy had come
+to occupy the foremost place in Gordon's brain, where formerly had
+reigned supreme professional zeal and a keen appreciation--I will not
+say love--of warlike glory. His private life and work at Gravesend
+explain and justify what was said of him at that time by one of his
+brother officers: "He is the nearest approach to Jesus Christ of any
+man who ever lived."
+
+It has been written of him that his house at Gravesend bore more
+resemblance to the home of a missionary than the quarters of an
+English officer. His efforts to improve and soften the hard lot of the
+poor in a place like Gravesend began in a small way, and developed
+gradually into an extensive system of beneficence, which was only
+limited by his small resources and the leisure left him by official
+duty. At first he took into his house two or three boys who attracted
+his attention in a more or less accidental manner. He taught them in
+the evening, fed and clothed them, and in due course procured for them
+employment, principally as sailors or in the colonies. For a naturally
+bad sailor, he was very fond of the sea; and perhaps in his heart of
+hearts he cherished the thought that he was performing a national work
+in directing promising recruits to the first line of our defence, and
+the main prop of this Empire. Soon his few special pupils swelled into
+a class, not all boarders, but of outsiders who came in to learn
+geography and hear the Colonel explain the Bible; and not only that,
+but to be told of stirring deeds beyond the sea by one who had himself
+contributed to the making of history. We can well believe that before
+this uncritical but appreciative audience, from whose favour he had
+nothing to hope, or, as he would say, to fear, Gordon threw off the
+restraint and shyness habitual to him. It was very typical of the man
+that, where others thought only of instructing the poor and the
+ignorant, his chief wish was to amuse them and make them laugh.
+
+By this simple means his class increased, and grew too large for his
+room. Sooner than break it up or discourage new-comers, he consented
+to teach in the ragged schools, where he held evening classes almost
+every night. Where he had clothed two or three boys, he now
+distributed several hundred suits in the year; and it is said that his
+pupils became so numerous that he had to buy pairs of boots by the
+gross. All this was done out of his pay. His personal expenses were
+reduced to the lowest point, so that the surplus might suffice to
+carry on the good work. It very often left him nearly penniless until
+his next pay became due--and this was not very surprising, as he could
+never turn a deaf ear to any tale of distress, and often emptied his
+pockets at the recital of any specially touching misfortune. When any
+outside subject of national suffering appealed to his heart or touched
+his fancy, he would consequently have no means available of sending
+any help, and this was specially the case during the suffering of the
+Lancashire operatives after the close of the American Civil War. On
+that occasion he defaced the gold medal given him by the Chinese
+Empresses, and sent it anonymously to the fund, which benefited from
+it to the extent of L10; but, as has been already stated, he made this
+sacrifice with the greatest pain and reluctance.
+
+Gordon's love of children, and especially of boys, was quite
+remarkable. He could enter into their feelings far better than he
+could into those of grown men, and the irritability which he could
+scarcely suppress even among his friends was never displayed towards
+them. He was always at their service, anxious to amuse them, and to
+minister to their rather selfish whims. Some accidental remark led his
+class to express a wish to visit the Zoo. Gordon at once seized the
+idea, and said they should do so. He made all the arrangements as
+carefully as if he were organising a campaign. His duties prevented
+his going himself, but he saw them off at the station, under the
+charge of his assistant, and well provided with baskets of food for
+their dinner and refreshment on their journey. Of course he defrayed
+the whole expense, and on their return he gave them a treat of tea and
+strawberries. He also thought of their future, being most energetic in
+procuring them employment, and anxious in watching their after-career.
+
+For some reason that is not clear he called these boys his "kings." He
+probably used it in the sense that they were his lieutenants, and he
+borrowed his imagery from the "Wangs," or kings of the Taeping ruler.
+I am told, however, that he really used the word in a spiritual sense,
+testifying that these boys were as kings in the sight of God. He
+followed the course of the first voyage of those who went to sea,
+sticking pins in a map to show the whereabouts of their respective
+vessels. It is not astonishing that his pupils should have felt for
+him a special admiration and affection. He not merely supplied all
+their wants, but he endeavoured to make them self-reliant, and to
+raise them above the sordid and narrow conditions of the life to which
+they were either born or reduced by the improvidence or misfortune of
+their parents. Of course Gordon was often deceived, and his confidence
+and charity abused; but these cases were, after all, the smaller
+proportion of the great number that passed through his hands. He
+sometimes met with gross ingratitude, like that of the boy whom he
+found starving, in rags, and ill with disease, and whom he restored to
+health, and perhaps to self-respect, and then sent back to his parents
+in Norfolk. But neither from him nor from them did he ever receive
+the briefest line of acknowledgment. Such experiences would have
+disheartened or deterred other philanthropists, but they failed to
+ruffle Gordon's serenity, or to discourage him in his work.
+
+Perhaps the following incident is as characteristic as anything that
+took place between Gordon and his "kings." A boy whom he had twice
+fitted out for the world, but who always came to grief after a few
+months' trial, returned for a third time in the evening. Gordon met
+him at the gate, a mass of rags, in a deplorable condition, and
+covered with vermin. Gordon could not turn him away, neither could he
+admit him into his house, where there were several boys being brought
+up for a respectable existence. After a moment's hesitation, he led
+him in silence to the stable, where, after giving him some bread and a
+mug of milk, he told him to sleep on a heap of clean straw, and that
+he would come for him at six in the morning. At that hour Gordon
+appeared with a piece of soap, some towels, and a fresh suit of
+clothes, and, ordering the boy to strip, gave him a thorough washing
+with his own hands from head to foot at the horse-trough. It is to be
+regretted that there is no record of the after-fate of this young
+prodigal, although it would be pleasant to think that he was the
+unknown man who called at Sir Henry Gordon's house in 1885, after the
+news of Gordon's death, and wished to contribute L25 towards a
+memorial, because he was one of the youths saved by General Gordon, to
+whom all his success and prosperity in life were due.
+
+But it must not be supposed that Gordon's acts of benevolence were
+restricted to boys. He was not less solicitous of the welfare of the
+sick and the aged. His garden was a rather pretty and shaded one. He
+had a certain number of keys made for the entrance, and distributed
+them among deserving persons, chiefly elderly. They were allowed to
+walk about, in the evening especially, and see the flowers,
+vegetables, and fruit which Gordon's gardener carefully cultivated.
+Gordon himself declared that he derived no special pleasure from the
+sight of flowers, for the simple reason that he preferred to look at
+the human face; and the same reason is the only one I can find he ever
+gave for his somewhat remarkable reticence about dogs and other
+domestic animals. It was said of him that he always had handy "a bit
+o' baccy for the old men, and a screw o' tea for the old women." He
+would hurry off at a moment's notice to attend to a dying person or to
+read the Bible by a sick-bed. In the hospital or the workhouse he was
+as well known as the visiting chaplain, and often he was requested by
+the parish clergyman to take his place in visiting the sick. His
+special invention for the benefit of his large number of clients was
+a system of pensions, which varied from a shilling to as much as a
+pound a week. Many of these payments he continued long after he left
+Gravesend, and a few were even paid until the day of his death. It is
+not surprising, in view of these facts, that Gordon remained a poor
+man, and generally had no money at all. As he wrote very truly of
+himself to his assistant Mr Lilley, "You and I will never learn wisdom
+in money matters."
+
+Many stories have been told of his tenderness of heart, and of his
+reluctance to see punishment inflicted, but perhaps the following is
+the most typical. A woman called on him one day with a piteous tale.
+Gordon went to his bedroom to get half a sovereign for her, and while
+he was away she took a fancy to a brown overcoat, which she hastened
+to conceal under her skirt. Gordon returned, gave her the money, and
+she left with a profusion of thanks. While on her road home the coat
+slipped down, and attracted the notice of a policeman, who demanded an
+explanation. She said, "I took it from the Colonel," and was marched
+back for him to identify his property, and charge her with the theft.
+When Gordon heard the story, he was far more distressed than the
+culprit, and refused to comply with the constable's repeated requests
+to charge her. At last a happy thought came to his relief. Turning to
+the woman, he said, with a twinkle in his eye, "You wanted it, I
+suppose?" "Yes," replied the astonished woman. Then turning to the
+equally astonished policeman he said, "There, there, take her away,
+and send her about her business."
+
+Among the various economies he practised in order to indulge his
+philanthropy was that of not keeping a horse, and he consequently took
+a great deal of walking exercise. During his walks along the Kentish
+lanes and foot-paths he distributed tracts, and at every stile he
+crossed he would leave one having such an exhortation as "Take heed
+that thou stumbleth not." Yet all this was done in an honest, and, as
+I believe, a secretly humorous spirit of a serious nature, for Gordon
+was as opposed to cant and idle protestations as any man. There is a
+strikingly characteristic story preserved somewhere of what he did
+when a hypocritical, canting humbug of a local religious secretary of
+some Society Fund or other paid a visit to a house while he was
+present. Gordon remained silent during the whole of the interview. But
+when he was gone, and Gordon was asked what he thought of him, he
+replied by waving his hand and drawing it across his throat, which he
+explained signified in China that his head ought to be cut off as a
+humbugging impostor.
+
+Although buried, as it were, at Gravesend, Gordon could not be
+altogether forgotten. The authorities at the Horse Guards could not
+comply with his request to be attached to the Abyssinian expedition,
+but they were willing enough to do him what in official circles was
+thought to be a very good turn when they could. The English membership
+of the Danubian Commission became vacant, and it was remembered that
+in his early days Gordon had taken part in the delimitation
+negotiations which had resulted in the formation of that body. The
+post carried with it the good pay of L2000 a year, as some
+compensation for the social and sanitary drawbacks and disadvantages
+of life in that region, and it was offered to Gordon, who accepted it.
+It cut short his philanthropical labours, but it drew him back into
+that current of active work for which he was already pining. He
+therefore accepted it, and having presented some of the Snake flags of
+the old Taeping Wangs to the local school in which he had toiled as a
+simple teacher, he left Gravesend quietly, and without any
+manifestation that it had lost its principal resident. Having
+mentioned the Snake flags, it is proper to add that the principal of
+these, including some of his own which were shot to ribbons, were left
+by General Gordon to his sister, the late Miss Gordon, who in her turn
+presented them, with the Yellow Jacket and its appendages, the chief
+mandarin dress, etc., to the Royal Engineers at Chatham. The Gravesend
+life closed with a notice in the local journal, from which the
+following extract may be made; but once a year the old flags that led
+the advance or retreat of the Chinese rebels are brought out from
+their cases and flaunted before the Gravesend scholars as the memorial
+of a brave and unselfish leader and teacher.
+
+The farewell article in the local paper read as follows:--
+
+     "Our readers, without exception, will learn with regret of the
+     departure of Lieut.-Colonel Gordon, R.E., C.B., from the town in
+     which he has resided for six years, gaining a name by the most
+     exquisite charity that will long be remembered. Nor will he be
+     less missed than remembered in the lowly walks of life, by the
+     bestowal of gifts, by attendance and administration on the sick
+     and dying, by the kindly giving of advice, by attendance at the
+     Ragged School, Workhouse, and Infirmary--in fact, by general and
+     continued beneficence to the poor, he has been so unwearied in
+     well-doing that his departure will be felt by many as a personal
+     calamity. There are those who even now are reaping the rewards of
+     his kindness. His charity was essentially charity, and had its
+     root in deep philanthropic feeling and goodness of heart,
+     shunning the light of publicity, but coming even as the rain in
+     the night-time, that in the morning is noted not, but only the
+     flowers bloom, and give a greater fragrance.... All will wish him
+     well in his new sphere, and we have less hesitation in penning
+     these lines from the fact that laudatory notice will confer but
+     little pleasure upon him who gave with the heart and cared not
+     for commendation."
+
+Gordon left for Galatz on 1st October 1871. He had visited and
+described it fourteen or fifteen years before, and he found little or
+no change there. The special task intrusted to the Commission of which
+he was a member was to keep open by constant and vigilant dredging the
+mouth of the Sulina branch of the Danube. He discovered very soon that
+the duties were light and monotonous, and in the depressing
+atmosphere--social and political as well as climatic--of the Lower
+Danube, he pined more than ever for bracing work, and for some task
+about which he could feel in earnest. The same conclusion seems to
+have forced itself upon his mind at the beginning and at the end of
+his stay at Galatz. In one of his first letters he exclaims: "How I
+like England when I am out of it! There is no place in the world like
+it!" In another letter, written on the very day of his departure home,
+he wrote: "Tell S. to thank God that he was born an Englishman."
+Gordon was always intensely patriotic. His patriotism partook of the
+same deep and fervid character as his religion, and these and many
+other little messages in his private correspondence furnish striking
+evidence to the fact.
+
+The mention of Galatz recalls an incident, showing how long was his
+memory, and how much he clung to old friendships. During the
+Commune--that is to say, when he was still at Gravesend--the papers
+stated that a General Bisson had been killed at the Bridge of Neuilly
+on 9th April 1871. He wrote to Marshal Macmahon to inquire if he was
+the same officer as his old colleague on the Danube, and received, to
+his regret, an affirmative answer. General Bisson and Gordon had kept
+up a correspondence, in which the former always signed himself Bisson,
+C.B., being very proud of that honour, which was conferred on him for
+the Crimea. He was taken prisoner early in the Franco-Prussian war,
+and was shot by the Communists almost immediately on his return from
+the Prussian prison. Gordon's stay at Galatz was varied by an
+agreeable trip in 1872 to the Crimea, where he was sent to inspect the
+cemeteries with Sir John Adye. They travelled in an English gunboat,
+which proved a comfortable sea-boat, and Gordon wrote, "General Adye
+is a very agreeable companion." The cemeteries were found much
+neglected, and in a sad state of disrepair. The Russian officers were
+pronounced civil, but nothing more. But Gordon saw clearly that,
+having torn up the Black Sea Treaty, they were ready to recover
+Bessarabia, and to restore Sebastopol to the rank of a first-class
+naval fortress. After the Crimean tour he came to England on leave.
+His time was short, but he managed to pay a flying visit to
+Gravesend. He also could not resist the temptation of attending the
+funeral of the Emperor Napoleon in January 1873, and he expressed his
+opinion of that ill-starred ruler in his usual terse manner--"a
+kind-hearted, unprincipled man." His youngest brother, to whom he was
+much attached, and who had shared in the Woolwich frolics, died about
+this time, and his mother was seized with paralysis, and no longer
+recognised him. He felt this change most acutely, for between him and
+his mother there had been a peculiar attachment, and when he was at
+home she would hardly ever let him out of her sight. He used to call
+his home visits doing duty as his mother's _aide-de-camp_. When he
+left England for Galatz she was unconscious, and passed away some
+months later while he was abroad.
+
+It was while General Gordon was on the Danube that preparations were
+made for the expedition against the Ashantees, and many persons
+suggested General Gordon for the command. It would have been an
+excellent occasion for intrusting him with an independent command in
+his country's service; but Sir Garnet, now Lord, Wolseley had recently
+gained much credit by his conduct of the Red River Expedition, and was
+appointed to the command of this force. General Gordon was no doubt
+disappointed at the result, but not so much as he had been in the case
+of Abyssinia, and loyalty to an old Crimean colleague tempered his own
+loss with satisfaction at another's success. Still, on public grounds,
+it must be pronounced unfortunate that the last occasion which was
+offered of employing for a national cause the services of a soldier
+who added the fervour and modesty of Wolfe to the genius of Clive
+should have been allowed to pass by unutilised.
+
+A casual meeting with Nubar Pasha at Constantinople, on his way back
+from the Crimea in 1872, was destined to exercise what may be styled a
+determining influence on the rest of Gordon's life. At that meeting
+Nubar Pasha sounded him as to his willingness to take service under
+the Khedive, and Gordon, attracted by the prospect of doing good work
+on a larger sphere, expressed his own readiness to take up the task of
+establishing authority, and suppressing slavery in the Soudan,
+provided that the permission of his own Government were granted. He
+heard nothing more of the matter for twelve months, but at the end of
+September 1873 he received a communication to the effect that the
+Khedive wished to appoint him to succeed Sir Samuel Baker, and that
+the British Government were quite willing to grant him the necessary
+permission. In a letter of 8th November 1873 to the Adjutant-General
+he said:--
+
+     "I have written an account of what I know of the Khedive's having
+     asked me to take Baker's place. It came about from a
+     conversation I had with Nubar Pasha at our Embassy at
+     Constantinople. This was twelve months ago. The next thing was a
+     telegram a month ago. I have not determined what to do, but the
+     Government have no objection."
+
+He was not long, however, in making up his mind, and early in 1874 he
+was _en route_ for Alexandria. One characteristic act in connection
+with his appointment deserves mention. The Khedive fixed his salary at
+L10,000 a year, but Gordon absolutely refused to accept more than
+L2000 a year--the same sum as he received for his post on the Danube.
+Various reasons have been given for this decision, but there is no
+ground for supposing that it was due to such a very narrow-minded
+prejudice as "that he would take nothing from a heathen." If he ever
+used these words, they must have been intended as a joke, and are not
+to be accepted seriously. A sufficient explanation of his decision is,
+that he had a supreme disdain for money, and the sum offered seemed
+far in excess of the post and work he had to perform. To have received
+L10,000 a year would have added immensely to his worries. He would not
+have known what to do with it, and the voluntary cutting of his salary
+relieved him of a weight of responsibility. Perhaps also he was
+far-seeing enough to realise that he would be less the mere creature
+of the Egyptian ruler with the smaller than with the larger salary,
+while he could gratify his own inner pride that no one should say that
+any sordid motive had a part in his working for semi-civilized
+potentates, whether Chinese or Mussulmen.
+
+I am able to describe Gordon's exact feelings on this point in his own
+words. "My object is to show the Khedive and his people that gold and
+silver idols are not worshipped by all the world. They are very
+powerful gods, but not so powerful as _our_ God. From whom does all
+this money come? from poor miserable creatures who are ground down to
+produce it. Of course these ideas are outrageous. Pillage the
+Egyptians is still the cry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE FIRST NILE MISSION.
+
+
+A brief description of the conquest by Mehemet Ali and his successors
+of the Soudan--a name signifying nothing more than "the land of the
+blacks"--and of the events which immediately preceded the appointment
+of Gordon, is necessary to show the extent of the work intrusted to
+him, and the special difficulties with which he had to contend.
+
+It was in 1819 that the great Pasha or Viceroy Mehemet Ali, still in
+name the lieutenant of the Sultan, ordered his sons Ismail and the
+more famous Ibrahim to extend his authority up the Nile, and conquer
+the Soudan. They do not seem to have experienced any difficulty in
+carrying out their instructions. Nobody was interested in defending
+the arid wastes of that region. The Egyptian yoke promised to be as
+light as any other, and a few whiffs of grape-shot dispersed the only
+adversaries who showed themselves. Ibrahim, who soon took the lead,
+selected Khartoum as the capital of the new province, in preference to
+Shendy, which had formerly been regarded as the principal place in the
+country. In this he showed excellent judgment, for Khartoum occupies
+an admirable position in the fork of the two branches of the Nile; and
+whatever fate may yet befall the region in which the Mahdi and his
+successor the Khalifa have set up their ephemeral authority, it is
+destined by Nature to be the central point and capital of the vast
+region between the Delta and the Equatorial Lakes.
+
+Khartoum lies on the left bank of the Blue Nile--Bahr-el-Azrak--rather
+more than three miles south of its confluence with the White
+Nile--Bahr-el-Abiad--at the northern point of the Isle of Tuti. The
+channel south of that island affords a slightly nearer approach to the
+White Nile, coming out immediately opposite the fortified camp of
+Omdurman, which the Mahdi made his headquarters and capital after the
+famous siege of 1884. There was nothing attractive or imposing about
+Khartoum. It contained 3000 mud houses, and one more pretentious
+building in the Governor's official residence or palace, known as the
+Hukumdariaha. It is surrounded by a wall and ditch, except where the
+Blue Nile supplies the need; and its western wall is not more than
+half a mile from the banks of the White Nile, so that with proper
+artillery it commands both rivers. The Nilometer at this place used to
+give the first and early intimation to the cultivators in Lower Egypt
+of the quantity of water being brought down from the rivers of
+Abyssinia. There seems no other conclusion possible than that sooner
+or later this practical service will compel Egypt, whenever she feels
+strong enough, to re-establish her power at Khartoum; already there is
+evidence that the time has arrived.
+
+Having conquered the Soudan easily, the rulers of Egypt experienced no
+difficulty in retaining it for sixty years; and if other forces,
+partly created by the moral pressure of England and civilized opinion
+generally, had not come into action, there is every reason to suppose
+that their authority would never have been assailed. Nor did the
+Egyptians stand still. By the year 1853 they had conquered Darfur on
+the one side, and pushed their outposts on the other 120 miles south
+of Khartoum. In the rear of the Egyptian garrison came the European
+trader, who took into his service bands of Arab mercenaries, so that
+he pushed his way beyond the Egyptian stations into the region of the
+Bahr Gazelle, where the writ of the Cairo ruler did not run. These
+traders came to deal in ivory, but they soon found that, profitable as
+it was, there was a greater profit in, and a far greater supply of,
+"black ivory." Thus an iniquitous trade in human beings sprang up, and
+the real originators of it were not black men and Mahommedans, but
+white men, and in many instances Englishmen. From slave buying they
+took to slave hunting, and in this way there is no exaggeration in
+declaring that villages and districts were depopulated. Such
+scandalous proceedings could not be carried on in the dark, and at
+last the Europeans involved felt compelled, by the weight of adverse
+opinion, or more probably from a sense of their own peril, to withdraw
+from the business. This touch of conscience or alarm did not improve
+the situation. They sold their stations to their Arab agents, who in
+turn purchased immunity from the Egyptian officers. The slave trade,
+by the pursuit and capture of any tribe rash enough to come within the
+spring of the Arab raiders, flourished as much as ever. The only
+change was that after 1860 Europeans were clear of the stigma that
+attached to any direct participation in it.
+
+The condition of the Soudan during this period has been graphically
+described by Captain Speke, Dr Schweinfurth, and Sir Samuel Baker.
+They all agree in their facts and their conclusions. The people were
+miserably unhappy, because the dread and the reality of compulsory
+slavery hung over their daily life. Those who were not already slaves
+realised their impending fate. Villages were abandoned, districts
+passed out of cultivation, and a large part of the population
+literally vanished. Sir Samuel Baker, speaking of the difference
+between a region he knew well in 1864 and in 1872, wrote in the latter
+year: "It is impossible to describe the change that has taken place
+since I last visited this country. It was then a perfect garden,
+thickly populated, and producing all that man could desire. The
+villages were numerous, groves of plantains fringed the steep cliffs
+on the river's bank, and the natives were neatly dressed in the bark
+cloth of the country. The scene has changed! All is wilderness. The
+population has fled! Not a village is to be seen! This is the certain
+result of the settlement of Khartoum traders. They kidnap the women
+and children for slaves, and plunder and destroy wherever they set
+their foot." How true all this was will be seen in the course of
+Gordon's own experiences.
+
+It has been stated that the Arab slave-dealers made terms with the
+Egyptian officials, and they were even not without influence and the
+means of gaining favourable consideration at Cairo itself. But as they
+increased in numbers, wealth, and confidence in themselves and their
+organisation, the Khedive began to see in them a possible danger to
+his own authority. This feeling was strengthened when the slavers,
+under the leadership of the since notorious Zebehr Rahama, the most
+ambitious and capable of them all, refused to pay their usual tribute.
+Dr Schweinfurth has given a vivid picture of this man in the heyday of
+his power. Chained lions formed part of his escort, and it is recorded
+that he had 25,000 dollars' worth of silver cast into bullets in order
+to foil the magic of any enemy who was said to be proof against lead.
+Strong as this truculent leader was in men and money, the Khedive
+Ismail did not believe that he would dare to resist his power. He
+therefore decided to have recourse to force, and in 1869 he sent a
+small military expedition, under the command of Bellal Bey, to bring
+the Bahr Gazelle into submission. Zebehr had made all his arrangements
+for defence, and on the Egyptian army making its appearance he
+promptly attacked and annihilated it. This success fully established
+the power and reputation of Zebehr, who became the real dictator of
+the Soudan south of Khartoum. The Khedive, having no available means
+of bringing his rebellious dependent to reason, had to acquiesce in
+the defeat of his army. Zebehr offered some lame excuse for his
+boldness and success, and Ismail had to accept it, and bide the hour
+of revenge.
+
+Zebehr, encouraged by this military triumph, turned his arms against
+the Sultans of Darfour, who had incurred his resentment by placing an
+embargo on wheat during the course of his brief campaign with Bellal.
+This offensive action still further alarmed the Khedive Ismail, who
+was fully alive to the danger that might arise to his own position if
+a powerful military confederacy, under a capable chief, were ever
+organised in the Soudan. Instead of allying himself with the
+Darfourians, as would probably have been the more politic course,
+Ismail decided to invade their territory simultaneously with Zebehr.
+Several battles were fought, and one after another the Sultans of
+Darfour, whose dynasty had reigned for 400 years, were overthrown and
+slain. Zebehr received in succession the Turkish titles of Bey and
+Pasha, but he was not satisfied, for he said that as he had done all
+the fighting, he ought to receive the Governor-Generalship of Darfour.
+If he failed to win that title from the Khedive, he succeeded in
+gratifying a more profitable desire, by leading off into slavery the
+larger half of the population of Darfour. He was still engaged in this
+pursuit at the time of Gordon's appearance on the scene, and the force
+at his disposal was thus described by that officer: "Smart,
+dapper-looking fellows, like antelopes, fierce, unsparing, the terror
+of Central Africa, having a prestige far beyond that of the
+Government--these are the slave-dealers' tools," and afterwards they
+no doubt became the main phalanx of the Mahdi's military system.
+
+The financial position of the Egyptian Government in the Soudan was as
+bad as the military and political. The Khedive's Governor-General at
+Khartoum, Ismail Yakoob Pasha, was nominally responsible for the
+administration of Darfour, although Zebehr reaped all the gain. This
+arrangement resulted in a drain on the Khedive's exchequer of L50,000
+a year. The revenue failed to meet the expenditure in the other
+departments, and this was mainly due to the fact that the slavers no
+longer paid toll or tithe in the only trade that they had allowed to
+exist in the Soudan. What share of the human traffic they parted with
+was given in the way of bribes, and found no place in the official
+returns. All the time that this drain continued the Khedive was in a
+constant state of apprehension as to the danger which might arise to
+him in the south. He was also in receipt of frequent remonstrances
+from the English and other Governments as to the iniquities of the
+slave-trade, for which he was primarily in no sense to blame. On the
+other hand, he derived no benefit from the Soudan; and if he thought
+he could have obtained a secure frontier at Abou Hamid, or even at
+Wadi Halfa, he would have resigned all the rest without a sigh. But it
+was his strong conviction that no such frontier was attainable, and
+Ismail clung to his nominal and costly authority over the Soudan in
+the hope that some improvement might be effected, or that, in the
+chapter of accidents, the unexpected might come to his aid.
+
+Alarmed as to his own position, in view of the ambition of Zebehr, and
+harassed by the importunities of England, Ismail, acting on the
+advice of his able and dexterous Minister, Nubar Pasha, one of the
+most skilful diplomatists the East has ever produced, came to the
+decision to relieve himself from at least the latter annoyance, by the
+appointment of Gordon. This was the main object the Khedive and his
+advisers had in view when they invited Gordon to accept the post of
+Governor of the Equatorial Provinces in succession to Sir Samuel
+Baker, who resigned what he found after many years' experience was a
+hopeless and thankless task. The post was in one sense peculiar. It
+was quite distinct from that of the Egyptian Governor-General at
+Khartoum, who retained his separate and really superior position in
+the administration of the Upper Nile region. Moreover, the finances of
+the Equatorial districts were included in the general Soudan Budget,
+which always showed an alarming deficit. These arrangements imparted a
+special difficulty into the situation with which Gordon had to deal,
+and his manner of coping with it will reveal how shrewd he was in
+detecting the root-cause of any trouble, and how prompt were his
+measures to eradicate the mischief. From the first he fully realised
+why he was appointed, viz. "to catch the attention of the English
+people"; but he also appreciated the Khedive's "terrible anxiety to
+put down the slave-trade, which threatens his supremacy." With these
+introductory remarks, the main thread of Gordon's career may be
+resumed.
+
+After the brief hesitation referred to in the last chapter, and the
+reduction of his salary to what he deemed reasonable dimensions,
+Gordon proceeded to Cairo, where he arrived early in the year 1874. As
+in everything else he undertook, Gordon was in earnest about the work
+he had to attempt, and no doubt he had already formed in his mind a
+general plan of action, which would enable him to suppress the
+slave-trade. Here it will suffice to say that his project was based on
+the holding of the White Nile by a line of fortified posts, and with
+the river steamers, which would result in cutting off the slave
+hunters from their best source of supply. The expression of his plans
+in his earnest manner showed up by contrast the hollowness of the
+views and policy of those who had obtained his services. In his own
+graphic and emphatic way he wrote: "I thought the thing real and found
+it a sham, and felt like a Gordon who has been humbugged." He found
+Cairo "a regular hot-bed of intrigues," and among not only the
+Egyptian, but also the European officials. With a prophetic grasp of
+the situation he wrote, "Things cannot last long like this." Had
+Gordon been long detained at Cairo, where the etiquette and the advice
+offered him by every one in an official position exasperated him
+beyond endurance, there is no doubt that he would have thrown up his
+task in disgust. He was animated by the desire to make the sham a
+reality, and to convert the project with which he had been intrusted
+into a beneficial scheme for the suffering population of the Soudan.
+There, at least, he would be removed from the intrigues of the
+capital, and at liberty to speak his own thoughts without giving
+umbrage to one person and receiving worldly counsel from another.
+
+One of the chief bones of contention during the few weeks he passed at
+Cairo was the dispute as to how he should travel to the scene of his
+government. He wished to go by ordinary steamer, with one servant. The
+Minister insisted that he should travel by a special steamer, and
+accompanied by a retinue. Gordon's plan would have saved the Khedive's
+Government L400, but he had to give way to the proprieties. The affair
+had an amusing issue. His special train to Suez met with an accident,
+and he and the Egyptian officials sent to see him off were compelled,
+after two hours' delay, to change into another train, and continue
+their journey in an ordinary passenger carriage, much to the amusement
+of Gordon, who wrote: "We began in glory and ended in shame!" On
+arrival at Souakim, Gordon was put into quarantine for a night, in
+order, as he said, that the Governor might have time to put on his
+official clothes.
+
+Soon his attention was drawn from such frivolities as these to more
+serious matters. He left Cairo on 21st February, reached Souakim on
+26th, left Souakim on 1st March, Berber on 9th March, and entered
+Khartoum 13th March. He brought with him 200 fresh troops, and was
+welcomed with considerable display and many hollow protestations of
+friendship by the Governor-General, Ismail Yakoob.
+
+A few weeks before his arrival at Khartoum an important event had
+taken place, which greatly simplified his ulterior operations. The
+"sudd," an accumulation of mould and aquatic plants which had formed
+into a solid mass and obstructed all navigation, had suddenly given
+way, and restored communication with Gondokoro and the lakes. The
+importance of this event may be measured by the fact that whereas the
+journey to Gondokoro, with the "sudd" in existence, took twenty months
+and even two years to perform, it was reduced by its dispersal to
+twenty-one days. General Gordon wrote the following very pretty
+description of this grassy barrier and its origin:
+
+     "A curious little cabbage-like aquatic plant comes floating down,
+     having a little root ready to attach itself to anything; he meets
+     a friend, and they go together, and soon join roots and so on.
+     When they get to a lake, the current is too strong, and so, no
+     longer constrained to move on, they go off to the sides; others
+     do the same--idle and loitering, like everything up here. After a
+     time winds drive a whole fleet of them against the narrow outlet
+     of the lake and stop it up. Then no more passenger plants can
+     pass through the outlet, while plenty come in at the upper end of
+     the lake; these eventually fill up all the passages which may
+     have been made."
+
+Gordon had the control of seven steamers, and in one of these he left
+Khartoum on 22nd March for the Upper Nile. He had already issued his
+first decree as Governor of the Equator, in which he declared the sale
+of ivory to be a Government monopoly, and forbade the importation of
+firearms and ammunition. It was while he was on this journey that he
+heard some birds--a kind of stork--laughing on the banks of the river.
+In his letters to his sister, which were to stand in the place of a
+diary, he facetiously remarks that he supposes they were amused at the
+idea of anyone being so foolish as to go up the Nile in "the hope of
+doing anything." But Gordon was not to be discouraged. Already he
+liked his work, amid the heat and mosquitoes day and night all the
+year round, and already he was convinced that he could do a good deal
+to ameliorate the lot of the unfortunate people. He reached Gondokoro
+on 16th April, where not only was he not expected, but he found them
+ignorant even of his appointment. He remained there only a few days,
+as he perceived he could do nothing without his stores, still _en
+route_ from Cairo, and returned to Khartoum, which he reached in
+eleven days.
+
+This brief trip satisfied him of several simple facts bearing on the
+situation in the Equatorial Province which the Khedive had sent him
+with such a flourish of trumpets to govern. He found very easily that
+the Egyptian Government possessed no practical authority in that
+region. Beyond the two forts at Gondokoro--garrison 300 men--and
+Fatiko--garrison 200 men--the Khedive had no possessions, and there
+was not even safety for his representatives half a mile from
+their guns. As Gordon said: "The Khedive gave me a Firman as
+Governor-General of the Equator, and left me to work out the rest." He
+began the practical part of his task on the occasion of this return to
+Khartoum by insisting that the accounts of the Equatorial Province
+should be kept distinct from those of the Soudan, and also that Ragouf
+Pasha, sent nominally to assist but really to hinder him, should be
+withdrawn.
+
+Having asserted his individuality after several rows with Ismail
+Yakoob, he became impatient at the delayed arrival of his stores and
+staff, and hastened off to Berber to hurry their progress. As he was
+fond of saying, "Self is the best officer," and his visit to Berber
+hastened the arrival of the supplies which were necessary for his
+subsequent operations. His staff consisted of Colonel Long, of the
+United States Army, who had accompanied him to Gondokoro and been left
+there; Major Campbell, Egyptian Staff; Mr Kemp, an engineer; M.
+Linant, a Frenchman; Mr Anson, Mr Russell, and the Italian Romulus
+Gessi. Two Royal Engineer officers, Lieutenants Chippendall and
+Charles Watson, joined him before the end of the year. He worked very
+hard himself, and he expected those under him to do the same. The
+astonished Egyptian officials looked on in amazement at one in high
+rank, who examined into every detail himself, and who took his turn of
+the hard work. One of Gordon's forms of recreation was to get out and
+help to pull his _dahabeah_. Tucking up his trousers, he would wade
+through the river fearlessly, having learnt from the natives that
+crocodiles never attack a person moving.
+
+At first Ismail Yakoob and his colleagues were filled with curiosity
+and amusement at this phenomenal Englishman--so different, not merely
+from themselves, but from other Europeans--then apprehension seized
+them as to what he would do next in the way of exposing their neglect
+of duty, and finally only the capacity for one sentiment was
+left--relief whenever he turned his back on Khartoum.
+
+Having collected his staff and supplies, he started up the Nile once
+more, to begin the establishment of the line of fortified posts, which
+he had resolved on as the best means of maintaining and extending his
+own authority, and at the same time of curtailing the raids of the
+slave-dealers. The first of these forts or stations he established at
+the entrance of the Saubat river, and while there he made a discovery
+which showed how the slave-trade flourished with such impunity. He
+seized some letters from a slave-dealer to the Egyptian commander at
+Fashoda, stating that he was bringing him the slaves he wanted for
+himself and many others, besides 2000 cows. By several skilful
+manoeuvres Gordon succeeded in rescuing all of them, restoring the
+cows to their owners, and compelling the soldiers of the slavehunters
+to return to their homes, generally in or near Khartoum. Nor was this
+his only success during the first two months of his government, for he
+detected one of his lieutenants in the act of letting a slave convoy
+pass in return for a bribe of L70. On this occasion he had the
+satisfaction of delivering 1600 human beings from slavery. This will
+show that one of his principal difficulties was caused by his own
+subordinates, who were hand-in-glove with the leading slavehunters.
+Another of Gordon's troubles arose from the collapse of his staff
+under the terrible heat. Of those enumerated as having gone up with or
+to him in May, all were dead or invalided in September; and the duties
+of sick-nurse at last became so excessive that Gordon had to order, in
+his own quaint manner, that no one who was sick should be allowed to
+come to headquarters. Only in this way was he able to obtain the time
+necessary for the accomplishment, single handed, of his various
+duties. Such was the strain on him that he gave positive injunctions
+that no more Europeans, and especially young English officers, were to
+be sent up to him.
+
+As soon as it was realised that the new Governor was in earnest, that
+he was bent on crushing the slave-trade, and that he would not permit
+corruption or extortion in any form, he became the mark of general
+hostility. The intrigues to mislead and discredit him were incessant.
+Abou Saoud, who had been formerly banished by Sir Samuel Baker from
+the Soudan, and then taken into high favour by Gordon, turned out a
+fraud and a failure, while Raouf Bey, the nominee of the Khartoum
+Governor-General, was sent back in disgrace. With regard to Abou Saoud
+it may be said that Gordon never really trusted him, that is to say he
+was not taken in by him, but believed he would be less able to do
+injury in his service than at a distance. It was precisely the same
+principle as led him to solicit the co-operation of Zebehr in 1884.
+
+Gordon's method of dealing with those who caused him trouble was short
+and simple. It consisted in a brief but unchallengeable order to go
+back to the base. As the officials would have been murdered by the
+people they had so long and so often injured if they attempted to seek
+shelter among them, they had no alternative save to obey; and thus,
+one after another, Gordon brushed the chief obstructionists from his
+path. He served the old troublesome soldiers who would not work or
+change their ways after the same fashion, by sending them to his
+Botany Bay at Khartoum. In the midst of all these troubles he kept
+well, although "a mere shadow," and he still retained the conviction
+that he would be able to do much good work in this unpromising region.
+
+In dealing with the natives, he endeavoured first to induce them to
+cultivate the ground, providing them with seed and dhoora (_sorghum_),
+and then to accustom them to the use of money. He bought their ivory
+and paid for it in coin, so that in a little time he found that the
+inhabitants, who had held aloof from all previous Egyptian officials,
+freely brought him their ivory and produce for sale. At the same time,
+he made it a point to pay scrupulously for any service the natives
+rendered, and he even endeavoured, as far as he could, to put
+employment in their way. The practice of the Egyptian officials had
+been to lay hands on any natives that came across their path, and
+compel them by force to perform any work they might deem necessary,
+and then to dismiss them without reward or thanks. The result was a
+deep-rooted execration of the whole Egyptian system, which found voice
+in the most popular war-cry of the region: "We want no Turks here! Let
+us drive them away!" But Gordon's mode was widely different. It was
+based on justice and reason, and in the long-run constituted sound
+policy. He paid for what he took, and when he used the natives to drag
+his boats, or to clear tracks through the grassy zone fringing the
+Nile, he always carefully handed over to them cows, dhoora, or money,
+as an equivalent for their work. On the other hand, he was not less
+prompt to punish hostile tribes by imposing taxes on them, and, when
+unavoidable, inflicting punishment as well. But the system averted, as
+far as possible, the necessity of extreme measures, and in this the
+first period of his rule in the Soudan he had few hostile collisions
+with the natives of the country. Indeed, with the exception of the
+Bari tribe, who entrapped Linant, Gordon's best lieutenant after
+Gessi, and slew him with a small detachment, Gordon's enemies in the
+field proved few and insignificant. Even the Baris would not have
+ventured to attack him but for the acquaintance with, and contempt of,
+firearms they had obtained during an earlier success over an Egyptian
+corps.
+
+There is no doubt that this absence of any organised opposition was
+fortunate, for the so-called troops at the disposal of the Governor of
+the Equator were as miserably inefficient and contemptible, from a
+fighting point of view, as any General Gordon ever commanded; and at a
+later stage of his career he plaintively remarked that it had fallen
+to his lot to lead a greater number of cowardly and unwarlike races
+than anyone else. But it was not merely that they were such poor
+fighters that Gordon declared that three natives would put a company
+to flight, but they were so disinclined for any work, and so
+encumbered by their women and children, that their ability to make any
+military show might be as safely challenged as their combative spirit.
+Well might Gordon write: "I never had less confidence in any troops in
+my life." But even these shortcomings were not the worst. The Arab
+soldiers provided by the Egyptian Government, and sent up over and
+over again, in spite of Gordon's protests and entreaties, could not
+stand the climate. They died like flies. Of one detachment of 250,
+half were dead in three months, 100 of the others were invalided, and
+only 25 remained fit for duty. From a further body of 150 men sent as
+a reinforcement, half were reported on the sick list the day after
+their arrival. The main buttress of the Khedive's authority in this
+region was therefore hollow and erected on an insecure foundation. The
+Egyptian soldiers possessed firearms, and the natives, in their
+ignorance that they could not shoot straight, were afraid of them; but
+the natural progress of knowledge would inevitably prove fatal to that
+unreal supremacy, and eventually entail the collapse of the Cairo
+administration in the Soudan and the remoter districts on the
+Equator.
+
+Realising the inefficiency of the Egyptian force, General Gordon set
+himself to the task of providing a better; and mindful of the
+contingent danger of creating a corps that might in the end prove a
+peril to the system it was meant to protect, he resolved that, if
+individually brave and efficient, it should be exceedingly limited in
+numbers, and incapable of casting aside its allegiance to the Khedive.
+He began in a small way by engaging the services of any stalwart
+Soudanese native whom chance placed in his path, and thus he organised
+in the first year of his rule a corps of about forty men as a sort of
+bodyguard. An accident brought him into contact with a party of the
+Niam Niam, a tribe of cannibals from the interior of Africa, but
+possessing a martial spirit and athletic frames. Gordon looked at them
+with the eye of a soldier, and on the spot enrolled fifty of them into
+the small force he was organising. He armed them with spears as well
+as guns, and as these spears were cutting ones, with a blade two feet
+long, they were the more formidable weapon of the two. Gordon
+describes the Niam Niam warriors as looking very fierce, and brave,
+and fearless. They were also thick-set and sturdy, and, above all, so
+indifferent to the tropical heat that they might be relied on not to
+break down from the climate like the Egyptian soldiers. Before the end
+of the year 1876 he had increased the numbers of these two contingents
+to 500 men. It was with these black troops that Gordon humbled the
+pride of the Baris, elated by their two successes, and provided for
+the security of the long Nile route to the lakes.
+
+There was another advantage besides the military in this practical
+measure, one of those numerous administrative acts, in every clime and
+under innumerable conditions, that established the fame and the sound
+sense and judgment of General Gordon. It promoted economy, and
+contributed to the sound finance which Gordon always set himself to
+establish wherever he was responsible. One of Gordon's first
+resolutions had been that his part of the Soudan should cease to be a
+drain, like the rest, on the Cairo Exchequer. He determined that he at
+least would pay his way, and on the threshold of his undertaking he
+had insisted, and carried in the teeth of powerful opposition his
+resolution, that the accounts of the Equatorial Province should be
+kept distinct from those of the Soudan. The employment of black
+soldiers was very economical as well as efficient, and contributed to
+the satisfactory result which was shown in the balance-sheet of the
+Equatorial Province as described by General Gordon for the year 1875.
+In that year the Khedive received L48,000 from the Province which
+Gordon ruled at a total cost of only L20,000, while he had also formed
+a surplus or reserve fund of L60,000 more.
+
+Having thus accomplished as much as possible towards the
+strengthening of the administration and tranquillisation of the
+people, some further particulars may be recorded of his measures and
+success in dealing with that slave-trade, the existence of which was
+the primary cause of his own appearance in the Soudan. Allusion has
+already been made to the considerable number of slaves rescued by a
+few grand _coups_ at the expense of his own subordinates, but during
+the whole of these three years Gordon was in close contact with
+slaves, and the rescue of individuals was of frequent occurrence.
+Several touching incidents are recorded in the letters published from
+Central Africa as to his kindness towards women and infants, to some
+of whom he even gave the shelter of his own tent; and nothing could be
+more effective in the way of illustration than his simple description
+of the following passage with the child-wife of one of his own
+soldiers:
+
+     "The night before I left this place a girl of twelve years, in
+     one of those leather strap girdles, came up to the fire where I
+     was sitting, and warmed herself. I sent for the interpreter, and
+     asked what she wanted. She said the soldier who owned her beat
+     her, and she would not stay with him; so I put her on board the
+     steamer. The soldier was very angry, so I said: 'If the girl
+     likes to stay with you, she may; if she does not, she is free.'
+     The girl would not go back, so she stays on the steamer."
+
+Nor was this the only incident of the kind to show not merely the
+tenderness of his heart, but the extraordinary reputation Gordon had
+acquired by his high-minded action among these primitive and
+down-trodden races. Here are some others that have been selected
+almost at random out of his daily acts of gentleness and true
+charity:--
+
+     "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, and died quite quietly.... A wretched _sister_ of yours
+     [addressed to the late Miss Gordon] is struggling up the road,
+     but she is such a wisp of bones that the wind threatens to
+     overthrow her; so she has halted, preferring the rain to being
+     cast down. I have sent her some dhoora, which will produce a
+     spark of joy in her black and withered carcass. I told my man to
+     see her into one of the huts, and thought he had done so. The
+     night was stormy and rainy, and when I awoke I heard often a
+     crying of a child near my hut within the enclosure. When I got up
+     I went out to see what it was, and passing through the gateway, I
+     saw your and my sister lying dead in a pool of mud--her black
+     brothers had been passing and passing, and had taken no notice of
+     her--so I ordered her to be buried, and went on. In the midst of
+     the high grass was a baby, about a year or so old, left by
+     itself. It had been out all night in the rain, and had been left
+     by its mother. I carried it in, and seeing the corpse was not
+     moved, I sent again about it, and went with the men to have it
+     buried. To my surprise and astonishment, she was alive. After
+     considerable trouble I got the black brothers to lift her out of
+     the mud, poured some brandy down her throat, and got her into a
+     hut with a fire, having the mud washed out of her eyes. She was
+     not more than sixteen years of age. There she now lies. I cannot
+     help hoping she is floating down with the tide to the haven of
+     rest. The next day she was still alive, and the babe, not a year
+     old, seized a gourd of milk, and drank it off like a man, and is
+     apparently in for the pilgrimage of life. It does not seem the
+     worse for its night out, depraved little wretch!... The black
+     sister departed this life at 4 P.M., deeply lamented by me, not
+     so by her black brothers, who thought her a nuisance. When I went
+     to see her this morning I heard the 'lamentations' of something
+     on the other side of the hut. I went round, and found another of
+     our species, a visitor of ten or twelve months to this globe,
+     lying in a pool of mud. I said, 'Here is another foundling!' and
+     had it taken up. Its mother came up afterwards, and I mildly
+     expostulated with her, remarking, however good it might be for
+     the spawn of frogs, it was not good for our species. The creature
+     drank milk after this with avidity."
+
+Such incidents explain the hold Gordon obtained over the indigenous
+population of the Upper Nile. He made friends right and left, as he
+said, and the trust of the poor people, who had never received
+kindness, and whose ignorance of the first principles of justice was
+so complete that he said it would take three generations of sound and
+paternal government to accustom them to it, in General Gordon was
+complete and touching. A chapter might be filled with evidence to this
+effect, but it is unnecessary, as the facts are fully set forth in the
+"Letters" from Central Africa. The result alone need be dwelt on here.
+For only too brief a period, and as the outcome of his personal
+effort, these primitive races saw and experienced the beneficial
+results of a sound and well-balanced administration. The light was all
+too quickly withdrawn; but while it lasted, General Gordon stood out
+as a kind of redeemer for the Soudanese. The poor slaves, from whose
+limbs the chains of their oppressors had only just been struck, would
+come round him when anxious about his health, and gently touch him
+with their fingers. The hostile chiefs, hearing, as Bedden did, that
+he restored his cattle to and recompensed in other ways a friendly
+chief who had been attacked in mistake, would lie in wait for him, and
+lay their views and grievances before him. He could walk fearlessly
+and unarmed through their midst, and along the river banks for miles,
+when an Egyptian official would have required a regiment to guard
+him, and detached soldiers would have been enticed into the long grass
+and murdered. Even the hostile tribes like the Bari, who, from a
+mistaken view of their own military power, would not come to terms,
+showed their recognition of his merit by avoiding in their attacks the
+posts in which he happened to be. Thus there grew up round Gordon in
+the Soudan a sublime reputation for nobleness and goodness that will
+linger on as a tradition, and that, when these remote regions along
+the Equator fall under civilized authority, will simplify the task of
+government, provided it be of the same pattern as that dispensed by
+General Gordon.
+
+As the subject has a permanent practical value, the following passage
+embodying General Gordon's views is well worth repetition:--
+
+     "I feel sure that a series of bad governments have ruined the
+     people. Three generations of good government would scarcely
+     regenerate them. Their secretiveness is the result of the fear
+     that if they give, it may chance that they may want. Their
+     indolence is the result of experience that if they do well, or if
+     they do badly, the result will be _nil_ to them, therefore why
+     should they exert themselves? Their cowardice is the result of
+     the fear of responsibility. They are fallen on so heavily if
+     anything goes wrong. Their deceit is the result of fear and want
+     of moral courage, as they have no independence in their
+     characters. For a foreign power to take this country would be
+     most easy. The mass are far from fanatical. They would rejoice in
+     a good government, let its religion be what it might. A just
+     administration of law, and security of person against arbitrary
+     conduct, would do a great deal. It is the Government that needs
+     civilizing far more than the people. Mehemet Ali and his
+     descendants have always gone on the principle of enriching
+     themselves by monopolies of all sorts. None, not even the present
+     Khedive (Ismail), have brought in civilizing habits or customs
+     with any desire to benefit the country, or, at any rate, they
+     have subordinated this desire to that of obtaining an increased
+     revenue."
+
+But while Gordon brought kindness and conciliation into play, the
+settlement of the region entrusted to his care called for sterner
+measures, and he was not the man, with all his nobility of character
+and overflowing supply of the milk of human kindness, to refrain from
+those vigorous and decisive measures that keep turbulent races in
+subjection, and advance the cause of civilization, which in so many
+quarters of the world must be synonymous with British supremacy. The
+student of his voluminous writings will find many passages that
+express philosophical doubts as to our right to coerce black races,
+and to bind peoples who in their rude and primitive fashion are free
+to the car of our wide-world Empire. But I am under no obligation to
+save them the trouble of discovery by citing them, more especially
+because I believe that they give a false impression of the man. I have
+affirmed, and shall adduce copious and, as I think, convincing
+evidence, at every turn of his varied experiences, that the true
+Gordon was not the meek, colourless, milk-and-water, text-expounding,
+theological disputant many would have us accept as a kind of Bunyan's
+hero, but in action an uncompromising and resistless leader, who, when
+he smote, at once struck his hardest. Gordon has supplied the answer
+to his own misgivings as to our moral right to coerce and subject
+tribes who advanced their natural claims to be left undisturbed: "We
+cannot have them on our flank, and it is indispensable that they shall
+be subjected."
+
+Having organised his new forces, equipped all his steamers--one of
+which was fitted out with machinery that had been left in Baker's time
+to rust in the Korosko Desert--General Gordon set himself to the task
+of systematically organising the line of posts which he had conceived
+and begun to construct in the first stages of his administration. The
+object of these posts was twofold. By them he would cut the slave
+routes in two, and also open a road to the great Lakes of the Equator.
+In the first few months of his residence he had transferred the
+principal station from Gondokoro to Lardo, twelve miles lower down the
+stream, and on the left instead of the right bank of the river. These
+places lie a little on each side of the fifth degree of north
+latitude, and Gordon fixed upon Lardo as his capital, because it was
+far the healthier. Above Lardo he established at comparatively short
+stages further posts at, in their order, Rageef, Beddem, Kerri,
+Moogie, and Labore, immediately beyond the last of which occur the
+Fola Falls, the only obstruction to navigation between Khartoum and
+the Lakes. Above those Falls Gordon established a strong post at
+Duffli, and dragged some of his steamers overland, and floated them on
+the short link of the Nile between that place and Lake Albert,
+establishing a final post north of that lake, at Wadelai. When his
+fleet commanded that lake, he despatched his lieutenant, Gessi, across
+it up the Victoria Nile, connecting the two great lakes, and continued
+his chain of posts along it by Magungo, Anfina, Foweira, and Mrooli,
+to the very borders of Mtesa's dominion in Uganda. By means of these
+twelve posts General Gordon established the security of his
+communications, and he also inspired his men with fresh confidence,
+for, owing to the short distances between them, they always felt sure
+of a near place of refuge in the event of any sudden attack. Thus it
+came to pass that whereas formerly Egyptian troops could only move
+about in bodies of 100 strong, General Gordon was able to send his
+boats and despatches with only two soldiers in charge of them; and
+having entirely suppressed the slave-trade within his own
+jurisdiction, he was left free to accomplish the two ulterior objects
+of his mission, viz. the installation of the Khedive's flag on the
+Lakes, and the establishment of definite relations with Mtesa, whose
+truculent vassal, Kaba Rega, of Unyoro, showed open hostility and
+resentment at the threatened encroachment on his preserves.
+
+It was neither a reprehensible nor an unintelligible vanity for the
+Egyptian ruler to desire the control of the whole of the great river,
+whose source had been traced south of the Equator, and 2000 miles
+beyond the limits of the Pharaohs' dominions. Nor was the desire
+diminished when, without sharing the gratification of the Prince in
+whose name he acted, General Gordon advanced cogent reasons for
+establishing a line of communication from Gondokoro, across the
+territory of Mtesa, with the port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. As
+Gordon pointed out, that place was nearly 1,100 miles from Khartoum,
+and only 900 from Mombasa, while the advance to the Lakes increased
+the distance from the one place by nearly 300 miles, and reduced that
+to the other in the same measure. This short and advantageous line of
+communication with the Equatorial Province and Upper Nile was beyond
+both the power and the sphere of the Khedive; but in the task of
+winning one of the most important of African zones formally recognised
+as lying within the British sphere of influence, the route advocated
+by General Gordon in 1875 has now become of the most undoubted value
+and importance.
+
+The aversion to all forms of notoriety except that which was
+inseparable from his duty led Gordon to shrink from the publicity and
+congratulations sure to follow if he were the first to navigate those
+inland seas on the Equator. Having made all the arrangements, and
+provided for the complete security of the task, he decided to baffle
+the plans in his honour of the Royal Geographical Society, by
+delegating the duty of first unfurling the Khedive's flag on their
+waters to his able and much-trusted lieutenant, Gessi. Although he
+sometimes took hasty resolutions, in flat opposition to his declared
+intentions, he would probably have adhered to this determination but
+for reading in one of Dr Schweinfurth's published lectures that "it
+may be that Lake Albert belongs to the Nile basin, but it is not a
+settled fact, for there are seventy miles between Foweira and Lake
+Albert never explored, and one is not authorised in making the Nile
+leave Lake Albert. The question is very doubtful." The accidental
+perusal of this passage changed General Gordon's views. He felt that
+this task devolved on him as the responsible administrator of the
+whole region, and that his natural shrinking from trumpery and too
+often easily-earned geographical honours, which he has bluntly
+asserted should only be granted by the Sovereign, did not justify his
+evading a piece of work that came within his day's duty. Therefore he
+resolved to ascertain the fact by personal examination, and to set at
+rest the doubts expressed by the German traveller.
+
+Expanding Dr Schweinfurth's remarks, he explained that "it was
+contended that the Nile did not flow out of Lake Victoria, and thence
+through Lake Albert, and so northward, but that one river flowed out
+of Lake Victoria and another out of Lake Albert, and that these two
+rivers united and formed the Nile. This statement could not be
+positively denied, inasmuch as no one had actually gone along the
+river from Foweira to Magungo. So I went along it with much suffering,
+and settled the question. I also found that from Foweira or Karuma
+Falls there was a series of rapids to Murchison Falls, thus _by
+degrees_ getting rid of the 1000-feet difference of level between
+Foweira and Magungo." While mapping this region, Gordon one day
+marched eighteen miles through jungle and in pouring rain, and on each
+of the four following days he also walked fifteen miles--and the month
+was August, only a few miles north of the Equator, or, in other words,
+the very hottest period of the year. Having established the course of
+the Nile and its navigability to the Murchison Falls close to the
+Victoria Nyanza, General Gordon gave what he thought was a finishing
+touch to this exploring expedition by effecting an arrangement with
+King Mtesa.
+
+But in order to explain the exact significance of this step, and the
+consequent disappointment when it was found that the arrangement was
+illusory and destitute of practical value, it is necessary to go back
+a little, and trace the course of events in the Uganda region.
+
+The Egyptian advance towards the south brought in its train two
+questions of external policy. One was with Abyssinia, of which we
+shall hear much in the next chapter; and the other was with the
+kingdom of Uganda and the kinglets who regarded Mtesa as their chief.
+Of these the principal was Kaba Rega, chief of Unyoro, and the
+recognised ruler of the territory lying between the two Lakes. He was
+a man of capacity and spirit, and had raised himself to the position
+he occupied by ousting kinsmen who had superior claims to the
+privileges of supreme authority. In the time of Gordon's predecessor,
+Sir Samuel Baker, Kaba Rega had come to the front as a native
+champion, resolved to defy the Egyptians and their white leaders to do
+their worst. In a spirited attack on Baker's camp at Masindi, he
+endeavoured to settle the pretensions of his invaders at a blow, but
+he found that numbers were no match for the superior arms of his
+opponent. But defeat did not diminish his spirit. Baker decreed his
+deposition as King of Unyoro, proclaiming in his stead a cousin named
+Rionga, but the order had no practical effect. Kaba Rega retired a
+little from the vicinity of the Egyptian forces; he retained "the
+magic stool" of authority over the lands and peoples of Unyoro, and
+his cousin Rionga possessed nothing beyond the empty title contained
+in an Egyptian official decree. This was the position when Gordon
+appeared on the scene, and his first obligation was to give something
+like force and reality to the pretensions of Rionga.
+
+If Kaba Rega had been satisfied to retain the practical marks of
+authority, it is probable that Gordon would have been well content to
+leave him alone, but irritated by the slight placed upon him by Sir
+Samuel Baker, he assumed the offensive on every possible occasion. He
+attacked Colonel Long, one of Gordon's lieutenants, on his way back
+from Mtesa, just as he had Baker; he threatened the Egyptian station
+at Foweira; and above all, he welcomed the thwarted slave-dealers, who
+were not averse to taking their revenge in any form at Gordon's
+expense. In these circumstances an active policy was forced on General
+Gordon, who promptly decided that Kaba Rega was "too treacherous" to
+be allowed to retain his kingdom, and that measures must be taken to
+set up Rionga in his place. It was at this moment, unfortunately, that
+General Gordon discovered the worthlessness of his troops, and when,
+in 1876, he had organised his new force, and was ready to carry out
+the policy he had decided on in 1874, he was thinking mostly of his
+departure from the Soudan, and had no time to proceed to extremities
+against these southern adversaries, for behind Kaba Rega stood Mtesa.
+
+When Gordon, in January 1876, entered the territory of Unyoro,
+belonging to Kaba Rega, he found it desirable to take up the cause of
+Anfina, in preference to that of Rionga, as the more influential
+chief; but neither proved in popularity or expertness a match for Kaba
+Rega. The possession of "the magic stool," the ancestral throne or
+copper seat of the family of Unyoro, believed to be identified with
+the fortunes of the little kingdom, alone compensated for the few
+losses in the open field, as Kaba Rega was always careful to retreat
+on the approach of his most dangerous adversary. Neither of his
+kinsmen was likely to prove a formidable foe. Rionga passed his hours
+in native excesses, in the joy of receiving the titular rank of Vakil
+to the Khedive. Anfina alienated Gordon's friendly feeling by
+suggesting the wholesale assassination of Kaba Rega's officers and
+followers when they came on a mission to his camp. Kaba Rega carried
+off the stool to the south, or rather the west, of Victoria Nyanza,
+and bided his time, while Mtesa wrote a half-defiant and
+half-entreating letter to Gordon, asking him to spare Unyoro. Mtesa
+had his own views of gain, and when Gordon proposed to establish a
+fortified post with a garrison of 160 men at Urundogani, the Uganda
+ruler begged that it might be stationed at his own capital, Dubaga,
+with the view of either winning over the troops to his service or
+employing them against his own enemies. Gordon saw through this
+proposal and withheld his consent, but his lieutenant, Nuehr Agha,
+acted on his own responsibility, and moved with his force to Dubaga.
+In a few weeks Gordon learnt that they were all, practically speaking,
+prisoners, and that his already heavy enough task had been increased
+by the necessity of rescuing them.
+
+Gordon accordingly advanced in person to Mrooli, the nearest point to
+Mtesa's capital without actually crossing his frontier, and as he had
+with him a strong force of his newly-raised black contingent, he felt
+confident of his capacity to punish Mtesa for any act of treachery,
+and to annex, if necessary, his kingdom. But Gordon did not wish to
+force a war on Mtesa, or to increase the burdens of the Nile dominion.
+All he wanted was the restoration of the men detained at Dubaga, and
+he soon received assurances that his presence, and the moral effect of
+the force he had brought with him, would attain this result without
+any necessity for fighting. As Gordon worded his complaint, it was a
+case not of his wishing to annex Mtesa, but of Mtesa annexing his
+soldiers.
+
+Having satisfied himself that Mtesa was not willing to risk a quarrel,
+General Gordon sent Nuehr Agha with ninety men to bring back the 140
+men detained at Dubaga, and the task was accomplished without any
+hitch or delay. This was due partly to the military demonstrations,
+and partly also to a clever diplomatic move by Gordon, who wrote to
+Mtesa expressing his readiness to recognise by treaty the independence
+of Uganda, and to provide a safe-conduct for the King's ambassadors to
+Cairo. At this time the late Dr Emin, who claimed to be an Arab and a
+Mahommedan, was at Dubaga, but his influence on the course of events
+was _nil_, and he and Gordon never met. After the return of the troops
+Gordon commenced his retirement to the Nile, and after an arduous and
+dangerous march of eighty miles through a swampy jungle beset by Kaba
+Rega's tribesmen, who were able to throw their spears with accurate
+aim for fifty yards, he succeeded in reaching Masindi without loss.
+Then Gordon drew up a plan of campaign for the effectual subjugation
+of Kaba Rega, but he did not wait to see it carried out, as the first
+move could not be made until the grass was dry enough to burn. As soon
+as that season arrived three columns were to march against the chief
+of Unyoro in the following order--one consisting of 150 black
+soldiers, and 3000 of the Lango tribe, under Rionga, moving from
+Mrooli to Kisoga; another of about the same strength from Keroto to
+Masindi; and the third operating from the Albert Lake with the
+steamer. The plan was a good one, but Kaba Rega, by having recourse to
+his old Fabian tactics, again baffled it.
+
+Although these events happened when Gordon had reached Cairo, it will
+be appropriate to give here the result of this campaign. The Unyoro
+chieftain retired before the Egyptians, who carried off much cattle,
+and when they in turn retired, he advanced and reoccupied his country.
+After a brief period the Egyptians definitely gave up their stations
+at Mrooli, Foweira, and Masindi, on the left bank of the Victoria
+Nile, and confined themselves to those on its right bank, and thus
+finally were Mtesa and Kaba Rega left to enjoy their own rude ideas of
+independence and regal power.
+
+So far as General Gordon was concerned, the Uganda question was then,
+both for this period and for his subsequent and more important
+command, definitely closed. But one personal incident remains to be
+chronicled. When Gordon received Mtesa's request to garrison Dubaga,
+and had actually planted a station on the Victoria Lake, he
+telegraphed the facts to the Khedive, who promptly replied by
+conferring on him the Medjidieh Order. At the moment that Gordon
+received this intimation he had decided that it would not be politic
+to comply with Mtesa's request to garrison Dubaga, and he had only
+just succeeded in rescuing an Egyptian force from a position of danger
+in the manner described. He felt that he had obtained this decoration
+"under false pretences," but the recollection of the hard and
+honourable work he had performed must have soon salved his conscience.
+
+At an early stage of his work Gordon felt disposed to throw it up, and
+during the whole three years a constant struggle went on within
+himself as to whether he should stay or return to England. Many causes
+produced this feeling. There was, in the first place, disillusionment
+on discovering that the whole thing, from the Egyptian Government
+point of view, was a sham, and that his name was being made use of to
+impose on Europe. But then he thought he saw an opportunity of doing
+some useful and beneficial work, and, stifling his disappointment, he
+went on. Arrived on the scene, he found himself thwarted by his
+Egyptian colleagues, and treated with indifference by the Cairene
+Government. He also discovered that his troops were worthless, and
+that not one of his officers, civil and military, cared a fig for the
+task in hand. Their one thought was how to do nothing at all, and
+Gordon's patience and energy were monopolised, and in the end
+exhausted, by attempts to extract work from his unwilling
+subordinates. Even the effort to educate them up to the simple
+recognition that a certain amount of work had to be done, and that
+unless it were well done, it had to be done over again, resulted in
+failure. To the plain instructions he gave, they would give an
+interpretation of their own; and while fully admitting on explanation
+that this was not the proper way of executing any task, they would
+invariably repeat it after their own fashion, until at length Gordon
+could see no alternative to performing the task himself. Thus were his
+labours indefinitely multiplied, and only his exceptional health and
+energy enabled him to cope with them at all. How much they affected
+him in his own despite may be judged from the exclamation which
+escaped him, after he had obtained a considerable success that would
+have elated any other leader--"But the worry and trouble have taken
+all the syrup out of the affair!"
+
+The personal glimpses obtainable of Gordon during these depressing
+years, while engaged on a task he foresaw would be undone by the
+weakness and indifference of the Egyptian authorities as soon as he
+gave it up, are very illustrative of his energy and inherent capacity
+for command. The world at large was quite indifferent to the heroism
+and the self-denial, amounting to self-sacrifice, which alone enabled
+him to carry on his own shoulders, like a modern Atlas, the whole
+administration of a scarcely conquered region, which covered ten
+degrees of latitude. But we who have to consider his career in all its
+bearings, and to discover, as it were, behind his public and private
+acts, the true man, cannot afford to pass over so lightly passages
+that are in a very special degree indicative of the man's character
+and temperament. In no other period of his career did he devote
+himself more strenuously to the details, in themselves monotonous and
+uninteresting, of a task that brought him neither present nor
+prospective satisfaction. When the tools with which he was supplied
+failed him, as they did at every turn, he threw himself into the
+struggle, and supplied the shortcomings of all the rest. When it was a
+matter of pulling the boats up the river, he was the first at the
+ropes, and the last to leave them, wading through the water with his
+trousers up. If it was his steamer that had run aground, all the
+active labour, as well as the organisation, fell on him. Sooner than
+add to the work of those in attendance on him, he would be seen
+preparing and cooking his own food; and because he could do it better
+than his native servant, he would clean his duck-gun, with the whole
+camp agape, until his ways were realised, at an Excellency doing his
+own work. Nor did he spare himself physically. His average day's walk,
+which satisfied him that he was in good health, was fourteen miles;
+but he often exceeded twenty miles, and on one occasion he even walked
+thirty-five miles under a tropical sun. Of the conduct of his soldiers
+against an enemy, or in coping with the difficulties of river
+navigation, he was always nervous, and whether for work or for
+fighting he used, he said, "to pray them up as he did his men in
+China"; but without his knowledge, one of his own soldiers was
+vigilantly observant of his conduct, and has recorded, through the
+instrumentality of Slatin Pasha, his recollections of Gordon as a
+fighter and leader of soldiers:--
+
+     "Gordon was indeed a brave man. I was one of his chiefs in the
+     fight against the Mima and Khawabir Arabs; it was in the plain of
+     Fafa, and a very hot day. The enemy had charged us, and had
+     forced back the first line, and their spears were falling thick
+     around us; one came within a hair's-breadth of Gordon, but he did
+     not seem to mind it at all, and the victory we won was entirely
+     due to him and his reserve of 100 men. When the fight was at its
+     worst he found time to light a cigarette. Never in my life did I
+     see such a thing; and then the following day, when he divided the
+     spoil, no one was forgotten, and he kept nothing for himself. He
+     was very tender-hearted about women and children, and never
+     allowed them to be distributed, as is our custom in war, but he
+     fed and clothed them at his own expense, and had them sent to
+     their homes as soon as the war was over."
+
+This picture of Gordon lighting a cigarette in the press of a doubtful
+battle may well be coupled with that already given during the Taeping
+rebellion, of his standing unarmed in the breach of an assaulted
+stockade, while around him pressed on or wavered the individuals of a
+forlorn hope. It will be difficult for anyone to find in all the
+annals of war another instance of human courage more nearly
+approaching the sublime.
+
+In November 1875 General Gordon had fully made up his mind to resign
+and return to Cairo, in consequence of the indifference with which he
+was treated by the Khedive's Government, and he had actually written
+the telegrams announcing this intention, and given orders to pack up
+the stores for the passage down the Nile, when the receipt of a long
+letter full of praise and encouragement from the Khedive Ismail
+induced him to alter his plans, to tear up the telegrams, and to
+continue his work. General Gordon gives his reason for changing his
+mind very briefly: "The man had gone to all this expense under the
+belief that I would stick to him; I could not therefore leave him." So
+he stayed on for another year. In July 1876 he formally and more
+deliberately resigned, but the execution of this decision had to be
+postponed by the necessity he felt under, as already explained, of
+solving the geographical questions connected with the Nile and the
+Lakes, and also of securing the southern frontier against Kaba Rega
+and Mtesa.
+
+These tasks accomplished, or placed in the way of accomplishment,
+there remained no let or hindrance to his departure; and by the end of
+October he was in Khartoum. But even then he felt uncertain as to his
+ultimate plans, and merely telegraphed to the Cairo authorities that
+he intended to come down for a time. With his back turned on the scene
+of his labours, the old desire not to leave his work half done came
+over him, and all the personal inconvenience and incessant hardship
+and worry of the task were forgotten in the belief that he was called
+on by God "to open the country thoroughly to both Lakes." He saw very
+clearly that what he had accomplished in the three years of his stay
+did not provide a permanent or complete cure of the evils arising out
+of the slave-trade and the other accompaniments of misgovernment, and
+he did not like to be beaten, which he admitted he was if he retired
+without remedying anything. These reflections explain why, even when
+leaving, his thoughts were still of returning and resuming the work,
+little more than commenced, in those Mussulman countries, where he
+foresaw a crisis that must come about soon.
+
+But these thoughts and considerations did not affect his desire for a
+change to Lower Egypt, or even to visit home; and leaving Khartoum on
+12th November he reached Cairo on 2nd December. He then formally
+placed his resignation in the Khedive's hands, but it was neither
+accepted nor declined; and the Khedive, in some mysterious manner,
+seems to have arrived at the sound conclusion that after a brief rest
+General Gordon would sicken of inaction, and that it would be no
+difficult manner to lure him back to that work in the Soudan which had
+already established its spell over him. Of that work, considerable as
+it was as the feat of a single man, it need only be said that it would
+have remained transitory in its effect and inconclusive in its results
+if General Gordon had finally turned his back on it at the close of
+his tenure of the post of Governor of the Equatorial Province at the
+end of the year 1876. When he left Cairo in the middle of December for
+England there was really very little reason to doubt that at the right
+moment he would be ready to take up the work again.
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+The transcriber made the following changes to the text to
+correct obvious errors:
+
+ 1. p.  34, charactistic --> characteristic
+ 2. p.  84, while sails --> white sails
+ 3. p. 162, lieutenaut --> lieutenant
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GORDON, VOLUME I***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 26419.txt or 26419.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/4/1/26419
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/26419.zip b/26419.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e15642
--- /dev/null
+++ b/26419.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..64f1ecd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #26419 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26419)