on. I will
not act rashly, and I trust to be able soon to return to England; at the
same time I will remember your and my father's wishes, and endeavour to
remain as short a time as possible. I can say that if I had not accepted
the command I believe the force would have been broken up and the
rebellion gone on in its misery for years. I trust this will not now be
the case, and that I may soon be able to comfort you on this subject. You
must not fret about me, I think I am doing a good service . . . I keep
your likeness before me, and can assure you and my father that I will not
be rash, and that as soon as I can conveniently, and with due regard to
the object I have in view, I will come home."

Gordon had hardly yet realized the difficulties and dangers which beset
him. His troops were undisciplined and largely composed of all
nationalities. Men bent on plunder, and exceedingly numerous; about
120,000 men. Gordon's appointment as Chief in Command of the "Ever
Victorious Army" proved to be a wise and good one for China.

Colonel Chesney thus writes:--"If General Staveley had made a mistake in
the operations he personally conducted the year before, he more than
redeemed it by the excellence of his choice of Gordon. This strange army
was made up of French, Germans, Americans, Spaniards, some of good and
some of bad character, but in their chief they had one whose courage they
were bound to admire, and whose justice they could not help but admit.
The private plundering of vanquished towns and cities allowed under their
former chief, disappeared under the eye of a leader whose eye was as
keen, as his soul was free from the love of filthy lucre. They, however,
learned to respect and love a general in whose kindness, valour, skill,
and justice they found cause unhesitatingly to confide; who never spared
himself personal exposure when danger was near. In every engagement, and
these numbered more than seventy, he was to the front and led in person.
His somewhat undisciplined army, had in it many brave men; but even such
men were very reluctant at times to face these desperate odds. Whenever
they showed signs of vacillation he would take one of the men by the arm,
and lead him into the very thick of the fight. He always went unarmed
even when foremost in the breach. He never saw danger. A shower of
bullets was no more to him than a shower of hailstones; he carried one
weapon only, and that was a little cane, which