"THE DEMON OF WAR."
Two hours later, just before the break of day, British bugles sounded,
and the camp on the Braid Hills was immediately astir. That the enemy
were about to test the efficiency of a new gigantic engine of war was
unknown except to the officers and the brave man who had risked his life
in order to obtain the secret of the foeman's plans.
To him the British General was trusting, and as with knit brows and
anxious face the grey-haired officer stood at the door of his tent
gazing across the burn to Blackford Hill, he was wondering whether he
had yet obtained his coign of vantage. From the case slung round his
shoulder he drew his field glasses and turned them upon a clump of trees
near the top of the hill, straining his eyes to discover any movement.
On the crest of the hill two Volunteer artillery batteries were actively
preparing for the coming fray, but as yet it was too dark to discern
anything among the distant clump of trees; so, replacing his glasses,
the commanding officer re-entered his tent and bent for a long time over
the Ordnance Map under the glimmering, uncertain light of a guttering
candle.
Meanwhile the Russians were busily completing their arrangements for
striking an appalling blow.
Concealed by a line of trees and a number of farm buildings, the little
section of the enemy had worked indefatigably for the past two hours,
and now in the grey dawn the contents of the mysterious boxes, a long
dark monster, lay upon the grass, moving restlessly, trying to free
itself from its trammels.
It was a huge and curiously-shaped air-ship, and was to be used for
dropping great charges of melinite and steel bombs filled with picric
acid into the handsome historic city of Edinburgh! Some of the shells
were filled with sulphurous acid, carbon dioxide, and other deadly
compounds, the intent being to cause suffocation over wide areas by the
volatilisation of liquid gases!
This controllable electric balloon, a perfection of M. Gaston
Tissandier's invention a few years before, was, as it lay upon the
grass, nearly inflated and ready to ascend, elongated in form, and
filled with hydrogen.
It was about 140 feet long, 63 feet in diameter through the middle, and
the envelope was of fine cloth coated with an impermeable varnish. On
either side were horizontal shafts of flexible walnut laths, fastened
with silk belts along the centre, and over the balloon a netting of
ribbons was placed, and to this the car was connected. On each of the
four sides was a screw propeller 12 feet in diameter, driven by
bichromate of potassium batteries and a dynamo-electric motor. The
propellers were so arranged that the balloon could keep head to a
hurricane, and when proceeding with the wind would deviate immediately
from its course by the mere pulling of a lever by the aeronaut.
Carefully packed in the car were large numbers of the most powerful
infernal machines, ingeniously designed to effect the most awful
destruction if hurled into a thickly-populated centre. Piled in the
smallest possible compass were square steel boxes, some filled with
melinite, dynamite, and an explosive strongly resembling cordite, only
possessing twice its strength, each with fulminating compounds, while
others contained picric acid fitted with glass detonating tubes. Indeed,
this gigantic engine, which might totally wreck a city and kill every
inhabitant in half an hour while at an altitude of 61/2 miles, had rightly
been named by the Pole who had perfected Tissandier's invention--"The
Demon of War."
While the two officers of the Russian balloon section, both experienced
aeronauts, were finally examining minutely every rope, ascertaining that
all was ready for the ascent, away on Blackford Hill one man, pale and
determined, with coat and vest thrown aside, was preparing a
counterblast to the forthcoming attack. Under cover of the clump of
trees, but with its muzzle pointing towards Bridgend, a long, thin gun
of an altogether strange type had been brought into position. It was
about four times the size of a Maxim, which it resembled somewhat in
shape, only the barrel was much longer, the store of ammunition being
contained in a large steel receptacle at the side, wherein also was some
marvellously-contrived mechanism. The six gunners who were assisting
Mackenzie at length completed their work, and the gun having been
carefully examined by the gallant man in charge and two of the officers
who had been in the tent with the General during the midnight
consultation, Mackenzie, with a glance in the yet hazy distance where
the enemy had bivouaced, pulled over a small lever, which immediately
started a dynamo.
"In three minutes we shall be ready for action," he said, glancing at
his watch; and then, turning a small wheel which raised the muzzle of
the gun so as to point it at a higher angle in the direction of the sky,
he waited until the space of time he had mentioned had elapsed.
The officers stood aside conversing in an undertone. This man Mackenzie
had invented this strange-looking weapon, and only one had been made. It
had some months before been submitted to the War Office, but they had
declined to take it up, believing that a patent they already possessed
was superior to it; yet Mackenzie had nevertheless thrown his whole soul
into his work, and meant now to show his superiors its penetrative
powers, and put its capabilities to practical test. Again he glanced at
his watch, and quickly pulled back another lever, which caused the motor
to revolve at twice the speed, and the gun to emit a low hissing sound,
like escaping steam. Then he stepped back to the officers, saying--
"I am now prepared. It will go up as straight and quickly as a rocket,
but we must catch it before it ascends two miles, for the clouds hang
low, and we may lose it more quickly than we imagine."
The gunners stood in readiness, and the two officers looked away over
Craigmillar towards the grey distant sea. Dawn was spreading now, and
the haze was gradually clearing. They all knew the attempt would be made
ere long, before it grew much lighter, so they stood at their posts in
readiness, Mackenzie with his hand upon the lever which would regulate
the discharge.
They were moments of breathless expectancy. Minute after minute went by,
but not a word was spoken, for every eye was turned upon the crest of a
certain ridge nearly three miles away, at a point where the country was
well wooded.
A quarter of an hour had thus elapsed, when Mackenzie suddenly shouted,
"Look, lads! _There she goes!_ Now, let's teach 'em what Scots can do."
As he spoke there rose from behind the ridge a great dark mass, looking
almost spectral in the thin morning mist. For a moment it seemed to
poise and swing as if uncertain in its flight, then quickly it shot
straight up towards the sky.
"Ready?" shouted Mackenzie, his momentary excitement having given place
to great coolness. The men at their posts all answered in the
affirmative. Mackenzie bent and waited for a few seconds sighting the
gun, while the motor hummed with terrific speed. Then shouting "Fire!"
he drew back the lever.
The gun discharged, but there was no report, only a sharp hiss as the
compressed air released commenced to send charge after charge of
dynamite automatically away into space in rapid succession!
None dared to breathe. The excitement was intense. They watched the
effect upon the Russian balloon, but to their dismay saw it still
rapidly ascending and unharmed!
It had altered its course, and instead of drifting away seaward was now
travelling towards Duddingston, and making straight for Edinburgh,
passing above the Russian camp.
"Missed! _missed!_" Mackenzie shrieked, turning back the lever and
arresting the discharge. "It's four miles off now, and we can carry
seven and three-quarters to hit a fixed object. Remember, lads, the fate
of Auld Reekie is now in your hands! Ready?"
Again he bent and sighted the gun, raising the muzzle higher than the
balloon so as to catch it on the ascent. The motor hummed louder and
louder, the escaping air hissed and turned into liquid by the enormous
pressure, then with a glance at the gauge he yelled "Fire!" and pulled
back the lever.
Dynamite shells, ejected at the rate of 50 a minute, rushed from the
muzzle, and sped away.
But the Demon of War, with its whirling propellers, continued on its
swift, silent mission of destruction.
"Missed again!" cried one of the men, in despair. "See! it's gone!
We've--good heavens!--_why, we've lost it--lost it!_"
Mackenzie, who had been glancing that moment at the gauges, gazed
eagerly up, and staggered back as if he had received a blow. "It's
disappeared!" he gasped. "_They've outwitted us, the brutes, and nothing
now can save Edinburgh from destruction!_"
Officers and men stood aghast, with blanched faces, scarce knowing how
to act. The destructive forces in that controllable balloon were more
than sufficient to lay the whole of Edinburgh in ruins; and then, no
doubt, the enemy would attempt by the same means to destroy the British
batteries on the neighbouring hills. Already, along the valleys fighting
had begun, for rapid firing could be heard in the direction of
Gilmerton, and now and then the British guns on the Braid Hills behind
spoke out sharply to the Russians who had occupied Loanhead, and the
distant booming of cannon could be heard incessantly from Corstorphine.
Suddenly a loud, exultant cry from Mackenzie caused his companions to
strain their eyes away to Duddingston, and there they saw high in the
air the monster aerial machine gradually looming through the mist, a
vague and shadowy outline. It had passed through a bank of cloud, and
was gradually reappearing.
"Quick! There's not a moment to lose!" shrieked Mackenzie, springing to
the lever with redoubled enthusiasm, an example followed by the others.
The motor revolved so rapidly that it roared, the gauges ran high, the
escaping air hissed so loudly that Mackenzie was compelled to shout at
the top of his voice "Ready?" as for a third time he took careful aim at
the misty object now six miles distant.
The War Demon was still over the Russian camp, and in a few moments,
travelling at that high rate of speed, it would pass over Arthur's Seat,
and be enabled to drop its deadly compounds in Princes Street. But
Mackenzie set his teeth, and muttered something under his breath.
"_Now!_" he ejaculated, as he suddenly pulled the lever, and for the
last time sent forth the automatic shower of destructive shells.
A second later there was a bright flash from above as if the sun itself
had burst, and then came a most terrific explosion, which caused the
earth to tremble where they stood. The clouds were rent asunder by the
frightful detonation, and down upon the Russian camp the debris of their
ingenious invention fell in a terrible death-dealing shower. The
annihilation of the dastardly plot to wreck the city was complete. Small
dynamite shells from Mackenzie's pneumatic gun had struck the car of the
balloon, and by the firing of half a ton of explosives the enemy was in
an instant hoist with his own petard.
As the debris fell within the Russian lines, some fifty or sixty
picric-acid bombs--awful engines of destruction--which had not been
exploded in mid-air, crashed into the Muscovite ranks, and, bursting,
killed and wounded hundreds of infantrymen and half a regiment of
Cossacks. One, bursting in the enemy's headquarters, seriously injured
several members of the staff; while another, falling among the
Engineers' transport, exploded a great quantity of gun-cotton, which in
its turn killed a number of men and horses.
The disaster was awful in its suddenness, appalling in its completeness.
The aeronauts, totally unprepared for such an attack, had been blown to
atoms just when within an ace of success.
Fortune had favoured Britain, and, thanks to Mackenzie's vigilance and
his pneumatic dynamite gun, which the Government had rejected as a
worthless weapon, the grey old city of Edinburgh was still safe.
But both Russians and Britons had now mustered their forces, and this,
the first note sounded of a second terrific and desperately-fought
battle, portended success for Britain's gallant army.
Yet notwithstanding the disaster the enemy sustained by the blowing up
of their balloon, their 2nd Army Corps, together with the portion of the
3rd Army Corps operating from their base at Leith, succeeded, after
terribly hard fighting and heavy losses, in at length forcing back the
defenders from the Braid and Blackford Hills, and the Corstorphine
position having already been occupied, they were then enabled to invest
Edinburgh. That evening fierce sanguinary fights took place in the
streets, for the people held the barricades until the last moment, and
the batteries on Calton Hill, in St. Andrew's Square, and at the Castle
effected terrible execution in conjunction with those on Arthur's Seat.
Still the enemy by their overwhelming numbers gradually broke down these
defences, and, after appalling slaughter on both sides, occupied the
city. The fighting was fiercest along Princes Street, Lothian Road, and
in the neighbourhood of Scotland Street Station, while along Cumberland
and Great King Streets the enemy were swept away in hundreds by British
Maxims brought to bear from Drummond Place. Along Canongate from
Holyrood to Moray House, and in Lauriston Place and the Grassmarket,
hand-to-hand struggles took place between the patriotic civilians and
the foe. From behind their barricades men of Edinburgh fought valiantly,
and everywhere inflicted heavy loss; still the enemy, pressing onward,
set fire to a number of public buildings, including the Register Office,
the Royal Exchange, the University, the Liberal and New Clubs, and
Palace Hotel, with many other buildings in Princes Street. The fires,
which broke out rapidly in succession, were caused for the purpose of
producing a panic, and in this the enemy were successful, for the city
was quickly looted, and the scenes of ruin, death, and desolation that
occurred in its streets that night were awful.
[Illustration: "IN EDINBURGH THE FIGHTING WAS FIERCEST ALONG PRINCES
STREET."]
In every quarter the homes of loyal Scotsmen were entered by the
ruthless invader, who wrecked the cherished household gods, and carried
away all the valuables that were portable. Outrage and murder were rife
everywhere, and no quarter was shown the weak or unprotected. Through
the streets the invader rushed with sword and firebrand, causing
destruction, suffering, and death.
The defenders, though straining every nerve to stem the advancing tide,
had, alas! been unsuccessful, and ere midnight Edinburgh, one of the
proudest and most historic cities in the world, had fallen, and the
British standard floating over the Castle was, alas! replaced by the
Eagle of the Russian Autocrat.