er to instruct
infantry field-officers in their duties. But this was not Gordon's
style. He, at all events, never limited himself to a strict routine of
mere duty, and so he cheerfully volunteered assistance, saying, "Oh!
come down with me to-night after dark, and I will show you over the
trenches." Colonel Staveley says, "He drew me out a very clear sketch
of the lines (which I have now), and down I went accordingly. He
explained every nook and corner, and took me along outside our most
advanced trench, the bouquets and other missiles flying about us in, to
me, a very unpleasant manner; he taking the matter remarkably coolly."
Napoleon somewhere remarked that "the smallest trifles produce the
greatest results," an expression to which Gordon himself once referred.
This Colonel Staveley afterwards became General Sir Charles Staveley,
and he it was who first recommended Gordon, when quite a young captain
in China, to take command of that army for which he did so much, and
with which he acquired such renown. Had it not been for Sir Charles
Staveley, possibly Gordon would never have had the opportunity he
needed to show of what good stuff he was made; and who but the General
himself can tell how much that night adventure in the trenches had to
do with his selection later on?

* * *

As I have taken a later opportunity to enlarge on Gordon's simple
faith, I will only say here that up to this period there are no
indications that he was very decided. It appears that during the year
1854, when stationed at Pembroke, a distinct spiritual change came over
him; and if we may judge from one of his letters to his sister Augusta,
it was she who influenced him for good. But there can be no question
that he did not at this time enter into that full assurance of faith
which afterwards characterised him; still, his faith at this period,
though weak, was real. In a letter home, referring to the death of a
Captain Craigie, who was killed by a splinter from a shell, he says, "I
am glad to say that he was a serious man. The shell burst above him,
and by what is called chance struck him in the back, killing him at
once." It is interesting to note from the words "what is called chance"
that he had already learnt to recognise the hand of God in everything,
and that even at this early stage of his career there existed the germs
of that doctrine on which he spoke and wrote so much later on. It has
been said