e door held to prevent escape. Those were the days of the
Arsenal.'"

Sir Henry continues:

"But what Charles Gordon considered as his greatest achievement
was one that he in after years often alluded to. At this time
(1848) the senior class of Cadets, then called the Practical
Class, were located in the Royal Arsenal, and in front of their
halls of study there were earthworks upon which they were
practised from time to time in profiling and other matters. The
ins and outs of these works were thoroughly well known to Charles
Gordon and his brother, who stole out at night--but we will leave
him to tell his own story. He says: 'I forgot to tell----of how
when Colonel John Travers of the Hill Folk (he lived on Shooter's
Hill) was lecturing to the Arsenal Cadets in the evening, a crash
was heard, and every one thought every pane of glass was broken;
small shot had been thrown. However, it was a very serious
affair, for like the upsetting of a hive, the Cadets came out,
and only darkness, speed, and knowledge of the fieldworks thrown
up near the lecture-room enabled us to escape. That was before I
entered the curriculum. The culprits were known afterwards, and
for some time avoided the vicinity of the Cadets. I remember it
with horror to this day, for no mercy would have been shown by
the Pussies, as the Cadets were called.'"

After he entered the Academy the same love of fun and practical joking
characterised him. Sir Henry writes: "After he had been some time at
the Academy and earned many good-conduct badges, an occasion arose
when it became necessary to restrain the Cadets in leaving the
dining-hall, the approach to which was by a narrow staircase. At the
top of this staircase stood the senior corporal, with outstretched
arms, facing the body of Cadets. This was too much for Charlie Gordon,
who, putting his head down, butted with it, and catching the officer
in the pit of the stomach not only sent him down the stairs, but
through the glass door beyond. The officer jumped up unhurt, and
Gordon was placed in confinement and nearly dismissed.

"Upon another occasion, when he was near his commission, a great deal
of bullying was going on, and in order to repress it a number of the
last comers were questioned, when one of them said that Charlie Gordon
had on one occasion hit him on the head with a clothesbrush. The lad