ey
a message, asking him to come and see him in his room. Macartney went
upstairs and found Gordon sitting on his bedstead in a badly lighted
room. When Gordon saw him, he stooped down, drew something from under
his bed, and held it up.

"Do you see that? Do you see that?" he asked.

Macartney stared in horror, scarcely able, in the dim light, to see
what it was.

"It is the head of Nar Wang, foully murdered!" said Gordon, and sobbed
most bitterly.

Halliday Macartney found it impossible then to get Gordon to forgive Li
for his treachery. For two months Gordon remained in quarters, while
inquiries, made at his demand, were being made about the death of the
Wangs.

During this time the Chinese Government gave Gordon a medal that only
the bravest soldiers ever received, to show how highly they valued his
services as general. The Emperor also sent him a gift of 10,000 taels
(then about L3000 of our money) and many other costly gifts. When the
treasure-bearers appeared in Gordon's quarters, bearing bowls full of
gold on their heads, as if they had walked straight out of the Arabian
nights, Gordon, believing the Emperor meant to bribe him to say no more
about the murder of the Wangs, was in a white-heat of fury. With his
"magic wand" he fell on the treasure-bearers, and flogged the amazed
and terrified men out of his sight.

Although the Government gave Gordon a medal for the way in which he had
fought, it was Li Hung Chang who took all the credit for the taking of
Soochow.

He published a report telling how the army under him had taken it. But
while Gordon was under a daily fire of bullets, and daily ran a hundred
risks of losing his life, the wily Li, who sounded so brave on paper,
was safely sitting in Shanghai, miles away from the besieged city.

Gordon had much cause for anger. There seemed every reason why he
should not forgive Li, and why he should leave China and its people to
the mercy of the rebels.

But Gordon had learned what it means to say "Forgive us our
trespasses." And not only that, but he had taken the sorrows of the
unhappy people of China into his heart. Whatever their rulers might
do, he felt he could not desert them. He must free them from the
cruelties of their oppressors, the Tae-Pings, before he went home to
his own land.

In February 1864 Gordon again took command. From then until 11th May
he was kept constantly fighting, and steadily winning power for the
Emperor of Chi