, from
the official Chinese, but from the Taepings who had surrendered. After
the capitulation was over, Gordon took 1000 of the Taepings into his
own force, and he also engaged the services of another 1500 as a new
contingent, to fight under their own officers. In this unusual manner
he nearly doubled the effective strength of his own corps, and then
advanced north to attack the town of Kintang, rather more than forty
miles north of Liyang. At this point Gordon experienced his first
serious rebuff at the hands of Fortune, for the earlier reverse at the
Soochow stockades was so clearly due to a miscarriage in the attack,
and so ephemeral in its issue, that it can scarcely be counted.

Unlike the other Taeping towns, all of which were stockaded
positions, Kintang had no outer defences. It presented the appearance
of a small compact city with a stone wall. No flags were shown; the
place might have been deserted, but the complete silence seemed
ominous. Gordon selected his point of attack, and began a bombardment,
which continued during three hours, and then he ordered the assault.
As the bugles sounded the advance, the Taepings appeared for the first
time on the walls, and received the assailants with a heavy fire. At
this critical moment Gordon received a severe wound below the knee,
and had to be carried to his boat. His place was taken by Major Brown,
brother of the General commanding at Shanghai, who advanced waving
Gordon's own flag, but he too received a severe wound, and was carried
off the field. The rebels fought with great desperation, and Gordon,
who remained conscious, sent orders from his boat for the
discontinuance of the attack. The loss was heavy--two officers killed,
eleven wounded, and 115 rank and file killed and wounded. Gordon,
notwithstanding his wound, would have renewed the attack, but for the
receipt of alarming intelligence from his rear. Li Hung Chang wrote
that the Taepings had turned the flank of his brother's army, and
captured Fushan. They were at that moment besieging Chanzu, and had
carried terror into the very heart of the Imperial position. Gordon's
wound--the only one of any severity he ever received--excited much
sympathy among the Chinese, and was made the subject of an Imperial
edict ordering Li Hung Chang to call on him daily, and "requesting
Gordon to wait until he shall be perfectly restored to health and
strength."

In the extremity to which he was reduced, the brilliant idea h