With A Considerable Number Of European Followers At His Beck
And Call, And With A Profound And Ineradicable Contempt For The Whole
Chinese Official World, He Was Both To Lose Or Surrender The Position
Which Gave Him A Certain Importance.
He vacillated between a number of
suggestions, and the last he came to was the most remarkable, at the same
time that it revealed more clearly than any other the vain and
meretricious character of the man.
In his second interview with Major
Gordon he proposed that that officer should join him, and combining the
whole force of the Europeans and the disciplined Chinese, seize Soochow,
and establish an independent authority of their own. It was the old
filibustering idea, revived under the most unfavorable circumstances, of
fighting for their own hand, dragging the European name in the dirt, and
founding an independent authority of some vague, undefinable and
transitory character. Major Gordon listened to the unfolding of this
scheme of miserable treachery, and only his strong sense of the utter
impossibility, and indeed the ridiculousness of the project, prevented his
contempt and indignation finding forcible expression. Burgevine, the
traitor to the imperial cause, the man whose health would not allow him to
do his duty to his new masters in Soochow, thus revealed his plan for
defying all parties, and for deciding the fate of the Dragon Throne. The
only reply he received was the cold one that it would be better and wiser
to confine his attention to the question of whether he intended to yield
or not, instead of discussing idle schemes of "vaulting ambition."
Meantime, Chung Wang had come down from Nankin to superintend the defense
of Soochow; and in face of a more capable opponent he still did not
despair of success, or at the least of making a good fight of it. He
formed the plan of assuming the offensive against Chanzu while General
Ching was employed in erecting his stockades step by step nearer to the
eastern wall of Soochow. In order to prevent the realization of this
project Major Gordon made several demonstrations on the western side of
Soochow, which had the effect of inducing Chung Wang to defer his
departure. At this conjuncture serious news arrived from the south. A
large rebel force, assembled from Chekiang and the silk districts south of
the Taho Lake, had moved up the Grand Canal and held the garrison of
Wokong in close leaguer. On October 10 the imperialists stationed there
made a sortie, but were driven back with the loss of several hundred men
killed and wounded. Their provisions were almost exhausted, and it was
evident that unless relieved they could not hold out many days longer. On
October 12 Major Gordon therefore hastened to their succor. The rebels
held a position south of Wokong, and, as they felt sure of a safe retreat,
they fought with great determination. The battle lasted three hours; the
guns had to be brought up to within fifty yards of the stockade, and the
whole affair is described as one of the hardest fought actions of the war.
On the return of the contingent to Patachiaou, about thirty Europeans
deserted the rebels, but Burgevine and one or two others were not with
them.
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Words from 145586 to 146130
of 191255
