LONDON IN REVOLUTION.
Because the Rising had seemingly broken out in one day, because on the
Saturday night London had gone to bed in peace and quietness, on the
Sunday night London was aflame, and, on the Monday morning, London
was apparently at peace again--because of all this, some hope was
entertained in certain high official quarters that the trouble would
subside as suddenly as it had arisen.
So, at least--possibly for the prevention of panic--it was pretended,
and when, at mid-day, there was no sign of a reassembling of the forces
under the Dumpling's command the belief was expressed in certain early
afternoon papers that the threatened safety of the Empire was assured.
But the police were wiser. They knew that though the firing of the fuse
had been but a night's, or even a moment's, work, the laying of the
mine had been going on for years; and though the suddenness of the
rising, coming as it did on a Sunday, had taken them unawares, it had
not found them altogether unprepared, as after-events proved.
But on Monday, at mid-day, a sudden reaction set in. The wildest
rumours were afloat of some awful danger that assailed not only London,
but the very Empire.
The fact of the Dumpling's extraordinary resemblance to Napoleon,
and of his claim to be the great Napoleon himself, had got abroad,
and religious fanatics proclaimed him to be the Beast of the Book of
Revelation, the anti-Christ who was to come. Them and their diatribes
no sane man heeded; but that something was afoot which directly
menaced our very existence as a nation, was believed by all. It was
openly stated that the Dumpling and the German Emperor were acting in
concert, and that it was from Germany that the arms and the funds which
furnished the rioters with the sinews of war had come.
The Kaiser was depicted as not only jealous of the popularity of King
Edward, but as hating the form of Limited Monarchy which exists in
England, and as anxious to establish, first in Europe, and finally all
over the world, the autocratic rule which prevails in his own country
and in Russia. The Dumpling--so it was openly stated--had succeeded
in convincing the Kaiser of the genuineness of his claim to be the
re-incarnation of Napoleon. An agreement had been come to between the
two men by which it was arranged that, if the Kaiser would assist
the Dumpling to obtain supreme power in England, this country should
be put under the rule of an Absolute Monarchy even more despotic and
more autocratic than that of Russia and Germany. That once achieved,
the German Emperor and the Dumpling would combine against France, and
re-establish the Monarchy there.
Already, so it was stated, the German war squadron was on its way
to England, and German vessels of every sort were conveying an army
of half a million of men to this country, nominally to assist King
Edward's troops in crushing the rebellion. Once, however, they had
succeeded in effecting a landing, the real purpose for which they
had come here would be revealed, and they would co-operate with the
Dumpling's forces, and officially recognise his claim to be Emperor
of England and of France. The fact that a German squadron had sailed
with sealed orders the day before the outbreak, lent some colour
to this preposterous theory, and the fact, also, that undoubtedly
something in the nature of a panic prevailed at Court, went far to
support it. What was wrong there nobody knew. The Prince of Wales and
the Prime Minister, it was known, had been hastily summoned, and had
driven to Buckingham Palace in hot haste, surrounded on every side by
escorts large enough to be spoken of as small armies. An hour after
their arrival, the King, so it was stated, had, in response to a loyal
demonstration outside the Palace, appeared for a moment at a window,
hurriedly bowed, and as hurriedly retired.
Clearly something was wrong at Court, and what that something was, and
how intimately concerned in it I was to be, I could not in my wildest
dreams have conceived.