Occasionally, when the Chinese officers
flinched and fell back before the terrible fusillade, he would quietly
take one by the arm and lead him into the thickest of the enemy's fire,
as calmly as though he were taking him in to dinner. Once, when his men
wavered under a hail of bullets, Gordon coolly lighted his cigar, and
waved his magic wand; his soldiers accepted the omen, came on with a
rush, and stormed the defense. He was wounded once only, by a shot in
the leg, but even then he stood giving his orders till he nearly
fainted, and had to be carried away.
Out of 100 officers he lost almost one-half in his terrible campaign,
besides nearly one-third of his men. But he crushed the rebellion, and
rescued China from the grasp of the most cruel and ruthless of spoilers.
His own estimate was that his victories had saved the lives of 100,000
human beings.
Then he left China without taking one penny of reward. Honors and wealth
were poured at his feet, but he accepted only such as were merely
honorary. He was made a _Ti-Tu_--the highest title to which a subject
can attain--and he received the Orders of the Star, the Yellow Jacket,
and the Peacock's Feather. When, however, the Imperial messengers
brought into his room great boxes containing L10,000 in coin, he drove
them out in anger. The money he divided amongst his troops. And yet he
might well have taken even a larger sum. One who knew how deeply the
empire was indebted to him, wrote, "Can China tell how much she is
indebted to Colonel Gordon? Would 20,000,000 taels repay the actual
service he has rendered to the empire?"
Gordon returned home to England, and, avoiding all the flattering notice
that was continually thrust upon him, he retired to his work at
Gravesend, where, from 1865 to 1871, he labored at the construction of
the Thames Defenses.
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