A NEW PROSPECT, 37 to care much what man could do to him, and he had very little regard for the opinions of the Cape high officials, who had received his resignation with a certain pompous alacrity, which vainly attempted to imply a snub, as it was defeated by the calm imperturbable brevity of Gordon's last note. Now he wanted to be alone, or, at all events, to seize, while he could, the opportunity for a time of seclusion; and soon after his return to England he went to Palestine and settled outside Jerusalem. There he lived chiefly on bread and fruits, reserving tobacco, in the form of cigarettes, for special occasions, and devoted the greater part of his pay to the relief of the poor and distressed. Most of his time was devoted to research in subjects which interested him deeply. It was with an eagerness that was almost a passion that he pursued the survey of the Holy Sepulchre, the Tabernacle, and the walls of Jerusalem.

He had taken the holy sites in hand, to prove them not the holy sites at all, greatly to the horror and scandal of clerical tourists.

But he was no mere iconoclast; he worked as one seeing sermons in stones and good in everything — with the faith of a Christian, but the eye and brain of an engineer. The Bible was his guide, and he did not care for sites if he had a map. " In reality," he said, " no man, in writing on these sites, ought to draw on his imagination; he ought to keep to the simple facts, and not prophesy or fill up gaps." Among the subjects in which he took the deepest interest was the proposed Jordan Canal, and he went thoroughly into the details of that great scheme.1 He was resting, and at peace, but his was not a nature to remain long satisfied with occupations which may be said to have been chosen for his own gratification. His activity would soon seek a wider scope.

He had continued to keep up his acquaintance with public affairs, and was noting1 events with an interest as keen as ever. It was scarcely likely that he would remain long without some application being made to him to undertake important work, and the scheme for a mission with Stanley on the Congo was in the future — in the immediate future, as it turned out; for, while he was planning how he would return and resume, at the east end of London, the 1 A. Egmont Hake: Story of Chinese Gordon.