There was the same contrast--
enigmatic and attractive--between the sunburnt brick-red
complexion--the hue of the seasoned traveller--and the large blue
eyes, with their look of almost childish sincerity. To the
friendly inquirer, he would explain, in a row, soft, and very
distinct voice, that he was engaged in elucidating four
questions--the site of the Crucifixion, the line of division
between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, the identification of
Gideon, and the position of the Garden of Eden. He was also, he
would add, most anxious to discover the spot where the Ark first
touched ground, after the subsidence of the Flood: he believed,
indeed, that he had solved that problem, as a reference to some
passages in the book which he was carrying would show.
This singular person was General Gordon, and his book was the
Holy Bible.
In such complete retirement from the world and the ways of men,
it might have seemed that a life of inordinate activity had found
at last a longed-for, final peacefulness. For month after
month, for an entire year, the General lingered by the banks of
the Jordan. But then the enchantment was suddenly broken. Once
more adventure claimed him; he plunged into the whirl of high
affairs; his fate was mingled with the frenzies of Empire and the
doom of peoples.
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