igin will admit of being retold. When the Manchus
conquered China, in the middle of the seventeenth century, they
received material aid from a Chinese soldier named Wou Sankwei. He was
rewarded with the Viceroyalty of the whole of south-western China, in
which region he became supreme. After many years the Manchus thought
he posed with too great an air of independence, and he was summoned to
Peking to give an account of his stewardship. But Wou Sankwei was too
old to be caught by so simple a ruse. He defied the Manchus, and
established his authority throughout the larger part of the country
south of the Great River. The young and afterwards illustrious Emperor
Kanghi threw himself into the struggle with ardour, and it continued
for many years, and devastated almost as large an area as did the
Taeping rebellion. Kanghi did not obtain a decisive triumph until
after the death of Wou Sankwei, when he bestowed a yellow riding
jacket and an ornament of peacock's feathers for the cap on his
principal lieutenants. He also decreed that this decoration should be
made a regular order, to be conferred only on generals who had led
victorious armies against rebel forces. Gordon was thus perfectly
qualified to receive the order founded by the famous Manchu
contemporary of the Grand Monarque.

The Chinese Government also sent him six mandarin dresses in the
correct fashion for a commanding officer of the rank of Ti-Tu, and a
book explaining how they should be worn. Gordon said very little about
it, his only comment being: "Some of the buttons on the mandarin hats
are worth thirty or forty pounds. I am sorry for it, as they cannot
afford it over well; it is, at any rate, very civil of them." The two
Empress Regents also struck a heavy gold medal in his honour, the
destination of which will be told hereafter, and Li Hung Chang did
everything possible to demonstrate the respect and regard he
entertained for his European colleague. That that was no transitory
feeling was well shown thirty-two years later, when the famous Chinese
statesman seized the occasion of his visit to London to place wreaths
on the statue and cenotaph of his old comrade in arms. General Gordon
valued the Yellow Jacket and the Gold Medal very highly. When he gave
up the medal for the cause of charity he felt its loss keenly, and it
became a phrase with him to signify the height of self-sacrifice to
say, "You must give up your medal." Prince Kung, in a special and
rem