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
Ver