Gravesend--Amongst his "Kings"--His call to foreign service, and leave
taking--The public regret.

_Chapter_ V.--His first appointment as Governor General of the Soudan--His
journey to, and his arrival at Khartoum--His many difficulties--His visit
to King John of Abyssinia, and resignation.

_Chapter_ VI.--Gordon's return to Egypt and welcome by the Khedive--Home
again--A second visit to China--Soudan very unsettled--The Madhi winning
battles--Hicks Pasha's army annihilated--Gordon sent for; agrees again to
go to Khartoum.

_Chapter_ VII.--Gordon's starting for Khartoum (2nd appointment)--His
arrival and reception--Khartoum surrounded--Letter from the Madhi to
Gordon--Gordon's reply--His many and severe trials in Khartoum.

_Chapter_ VIII.--Expedition of Lord Wolseley's to relieve Gordon--Terrible
marches in the desert--Battle of Abu-Klea--Colonel Burnaby killed--Awful
scenes--The Arabs break the British Square--Victory and march to
Mettemmeh.

_Chapter_ IX.--Gordon's Boats, manned by Sir Charles Wilson, fighting up
to Khartoum--Khartoum fallen--Gordon a martyr--Mourning in all lands--Our
Queen's letter of complaint to Gladstone--Gladstone's reply and
vindication--Queen's letters to Gordon's sister--Account of the fall of
Khartoum--Acceptance by the Queen of Gordon's Bible.

CHAPTER I.

"There is nothing purer than honesty; nothing sweeter than charity;
nothing warmer than love; nothing richer than wisdom; nothing brighter
than virtue; nothing more steadfast than faith."--_Bacon_.

It has been said that the most interesting study for mankind is man; and
surely one of the grandest objects for human contemplation, is a noble
character; a lofty type of a truly great and good man is humanity's
richest heritage.

The following lines by one of our greatest poets are true--

"Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing leave behind us,
Footprints on the sands of time."

While places and things may have a special or peculiar charm, and indeed
may become very interesting, nothing stirs our hearts, or rouses our
enthusiasm so much as the study of a noble heroic life, such as that of
the uncrowned king, who is the subject of our story, and whose career of
unsullied splendour closed in the year 1885 in the beleaguered capital of
that dark sad land, where the White and Blue Nile blend their waters.

"Noble he was contemning all things mean,