n. His earnestness saved him from the
frivolity into which a light heart and good health might have led him,
and compensated for his disinclination to devote all his spare time to
the severer studies of his college.

On June 23rd, 1852, nearly four years after he entered the Royal
Military Academy, Charles Gordon passed out with the rank of second
lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. Notwithstanding some remissness in
his work, he had passed through all his examinations--"Those terrible
examinations," as he said long years afterwards--"how I remember them!
Sometimes I dream of them,"--and in accordance with the regulations in
force he was sent to Chatham for the purpose of completing there his
technical training as an engineer officer. Chatham, as is well known,
is the Headquarters of the Royal Engineer Corps, to which it stands in
the same relation as Woolwich to the Artillery. There Gordon remained
until February 1854, constantly engaged on field work and in making
plans and surveys, at which his old skill as a draughtsman soon made
him exceptionally competent. This kind of work was also far more
congenial to him than the cramming at the Academy, and he soon gained
the reputation of being an intelligent and hard-working subaltern. In
the month named he attained the grade of full lieutenant, and on
taking his step he was at once ordered to Pembroke Dock, then one of
the busiest naval depots and most important military arsenals in the
country. The war clouds were already lowering over Eastern Europe, and
although all hope of maintaining peace had not been abandoned,
arrangements were in progress for the despatch, if necessary, of a
strong naval and military expedition to the Black Sea.

At Pembroke, Gordon was at once employed on the construction of the
new fortifications and batteries considered necessary for the defence
of so important a position, and in one of his letters home he wrote:
"I have been very busy in doing plans for another fort, to be built at
the entrance of the haven. I pity the officers and men who will have
to live in these forts, as they are in the most desolate places, seven
miles from any town, and fifteen from any conveyance." Seclusion and
solitude had evidently no charms for him at that period. In another
letter about this time he wrote expressing his relief at being "free
from the temptations of a line regiment," and concluded with the
self-depreciatory remark that he was "such a miserable wret