the grave
of Gordon. The desert wind may mingle his dust with the sand, the Nile
may sweep it to the sea, as the Seine bore the ashes of that martyr of
honour, the Maid of France. 'The whole earth is brave men's common
sepulchre,' says the Greek, their tombs may be without mark or monument,
but 'honour comes a pilgrim grey' to the sacred places where men cannot
go in pilgrimage.

We see what honour they had of men; the head of Sir Thomas More, the
head of Montrose, were exposed to mockery in public places, the ashes of
Jeanne d'Arc were thrown into the river, Gordon's body lies unknown; but
their honour is eternal in human memory. It was really for honour that
Sir Thomas More suffered; it was not possible for him to live without
the knowledge that his shield was stainless. It was for honour rather
than for religion that the child Angelique Arnauld gave up amusement and
pleasure, and everything that is dear to a girl, young, witty,
beautiful, and gay, and put on the dress of a nun. Later she worked for
the sake of duty and religion, but honour was her first mistress, and
she could not go back from her plighted word.

These people were born to be what they were, to be examples to all of us
that are less nobly born and like a quiet, easy, merry life. We cannot
all be Gordons, Montroses, Angeliques, but if we read about them and
think about them, a touch of their nobility may come to us, and surely
our honour is in our own keeping. We may try never to do a mean thing,
or a doubtful thing, a thing that Gordon would not have been tempted to
do, though we are tempted, more tempted as we grow older and see what
the world does than are the young. I think honour is the dearest and the
most natural of virtues; in their own ways none are more loyal than boys
and girls. Later we may forget that no pleasure, no happiness, not even
the love that seems the strongest force in our natures, is worth having
at the expense of a stain on the white rose of honour. Had she been a
few years older, Angelique might have failed to keep the word which was
extorted from her as a child, but, being young, she kept it the more
easily. What we have to do is to try to be young always in this matter,
to be our natural selves and unspotted from the world. Certainly some
people are a little better, and so far a little happier, because they
have seen the light from Charles Gordon's yet living head, and been half
heart-broken by his end, so glorious to himse