y 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