buried, as it were, at Gravesend, Gordon could not be
altogether forgotten. The authorities at the Horse Guards could not
comply with his request to be attached to the Abyssinian expedition,
but they were willing enough to do him what in official circles was
thought to be a very good turn when they could. The English membership
of the Danubian Commission became vacant, and it was remembered that
in his early days Gordon had taken part in the delimitation
negotiations which had resulted in the formation of that body. The
post carried with it the good pay of L2000 a year, as some
compensation for the social and sanitary drawbacks and disadvantages
of life in that region, and it was offered to Gordon, who accepted it.
It cut short his philanthropical labours, but it drew him back into
that current of active work for which he was already pining. He
therefore accepted it, and having presented some of the Snake flags of
the old Taeping Wangs to the local school in which he had toiled as a
simple teacher, he left Gravesend quietly, and without any
manifestation that it had lost its principal resident. Having
mentioned the Snake flags, it is proper to add that the principal of
these, including some of his own which were shot to ribbons, were left
by General Gordon to his sister, the late Miss Gordon, who in her turn
presented them, with the Yellow Jacket and its appendages, the chief
mandarin dress, etc., to the Royal Engineers at Chatham. The Gravesend
life closed with a notice in the local journal, from which the
following extract may be made; but once a year the old flags that led
the advance or retreat of the Chinese rebels are brought out from
their cases and flaunted before the Gravesend scholars as the memorial
of a brave and unselfish leader and teacher.

The farewell article in the local paper read as follows:--

"Our readers, without exception, will learn with regret of the
departure of Lieut.-Colonel Gordon, R.E., C.B., from the town in
which he has resided for six years, gaining a name by the most
exquisite charity that will long be remembered. Nor will he be
less missed than remembered in the lowly walks of life, by the
bestowal of gifts, by attendance and administration on the sick
and dying, by the kindly giving of advice, by attendance at the
Ragged School, Workhouse, and Infirmary--in fact, by general and
continued beneficence to the poor, he has been so unwearied i