'
Disagreements of this kind might perhaps have been tided over
until the end of the campaign; but an unfortunate incident
suddenly led to a more serious quarrel. Gordon's advance had been
fiercely contested, but it had been constant; he had captured
several important towns; and in October lice laid siege to the
city of Soo-chow, once one of the most famous and splendid in
China. In December, its fall being obviously imminent, the
Taiping leaders agreed to surrender it on condition that their
lives were spared. Gordon was a party to the agreement, and laid
special stress upon his presence with the Imperial forces as a
pledge of its fulfilment. No sooner, however, was the city
surrendered than the rebel 'Wangs' were assassinated. In his
fury, it is said that Gordon searched everywhere for Li Hung
Chang with a loaded pistol in his hand. He was convinced of the
complicity of the Governor, who, on his side, denied that he was
responsible for what had happened. 'I asked him why I should
plot, and go around a mountain, when a mere order, written with
five strokes of the quill, would have accomplished the same
thing. He did not answer, but he insulted me, and said he would
report my treachery, as he called it, to Shanghai and England.
Let him do so; he cannot bring the crazy Wangs back.
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