ings they had taken. One of them sold a
string of pearls for 16s. to an officer, who sold it next day for L500.
From one of the plunderers Gordon bought the Royal Throne, a gorgeous
seat, supported by the Imperial Dragon's claws, and with cushions of
Imperial yellow silk. You may see it if you go some day to the
headquarters of the Royal Engineers at Chatham, and you will be told
that it was given to his corps by General Gordon.

After the sack of the Summer Palace Gordon had a very busy time,
providing quarters for the English troops, helping to distribute the
money collected for the Chinese who had suffered from the war, and
doing surveying and exploring work. On horseback he and a comrade
explored many places which no European had visited before, and many
were their adventures.

But it was in work greater than this that "Chinese Gordon" was to win
his title. While Gordon was a little boy of ten, a Chinese village
schoolmaster, Hung-Tsue-Schuen, who came of a low half-gipsy race, had
told the people of China that God had spoken to him, and told him that
he was to overthrow the Emperor and all those who governed China, and
to become the ruler and protector of the Chinese people.

Soon he had many followers, who not only obeyed him as their king, but
who prayed to him as their god. He called himself a "Wang," or king,
and his followers called him their "Heavenly King." He made rulers of
some thousands of his followers--most of them his own relations--and
they also were named Wangs, or kings. They also had their own special
names, "The Yellow Tiger," "The One-Eyed Dog," and "Cock-Eye" were
amongst these. Twenty thousand of his own clansmen, many of them
simple country people, who believed all that he told them, joined him.
There also joined him fierce pirates from the coast, robbers from the
hills, murderous members of secret societies, and almost every man in
China who had, or fancied he had, some wrong to be put right.

His army rapidly grew into hundreds of thousands.

When this host of savage-looking men, with their long lank hair, their
gaudy clothes and many-coloured banners, their cutlasses and long
knives, marched through the land, plundering, burning, and murdering,
the hard-working, harmless little Chinamen, with their smooth faces and
neat pigtails, fled before them in terror.

The Tae-Pings, as they came to be called, robbed them, slew them,
burned their houses and their rice fields, and took th