THE TENTH PLAGUE OF EGYPT.
Two years have gone by and Mary is still living with Catherine King. She
is taller than she was, and of perfect figure. Her face seems less sad
than before. Her mouth has lost much of its hardness, but perhaps her
eyes have not got all their old pathos, their look that besought
sympathy. There is a strange thoughtfulness in her expression. It is a
face calm and inscrutable--a face more beautiful than ever.
She is not dressed shabbily now, but in a well-fitting though simple
dress. She is delicately shod, and her hair is no longer cut in a
fringe, but the glorious auburn mass is tied up behind in a neat knot
that sets off to advantage the well-shaped head. She forms altogether as
delicious a picture as the eye of man could dwell on.
Her education has been progressing all this time under the tuition of
Catherine King; and never was a girl so curiously educated. Her mind was
fed solely on such food as Logic, Compte's "Religion of Humanity," and
what her teacher was wont to rather sarcastically call "_Our_ Political
Economy," for it was not the orthodox science of Mill and Fawcett, but
the wild revolutionary doctrines of the Socialists, and of such apostles
of Land Nationalization as Mr. George and his crew.
Catherine King had proceeded cautiously with the girl, had gradually
moulded her to her will, and by well-directed conversation had imbued
her with her own enthusiasm on these matters.
Mary was at first much perplexed, and did not know what to make of all
this new light. But the great gratitude and affection she entertained
for her benefactress inclined her to listen to her teaching with
patience and attention, and in time these ideas began to interest her,
and to fill with suggestions her intelligent mind.
She was soon brought to imagine that she clearly perceived the gross
iniquity and injustice of all existing institutions. She began to feel a
hot indignation against those that accumulate wealth, against the
persecuting hypocritical churchmen, against those that make laws, only
to oppress the poor and protect the rich rogues from meeting their
deserts. She became as bitter a little radical as could well be found.
She was rather shocked when Catherine King set to work, to prove to her
that religion was a pack of fables, another instrument in the hands of
the rich to oppress and rob the poor, to keep them ignorant, and
frighten them with its bogies into obedience to authority.
There was a long struggle in her mind before the arguments of the clever
and sincere enthusiast convinced her that mankind knows nothing of a
God, that there is no reason to believe in one.
Her woman's instincts revolted against a good deal of all this at first.
She did not feel comfortable when it was suggested to her that morality
was but another creation of superstition; that marriage was a terrible
evil productive of infinite misery; that were this loathsome institution
abolished, and were the sexes allowed to enter into temporary
arrangements recognised by law, which could be broken off when the
parties wearied of each other, there would be little of that gross vice
which was undermining society, especially at the present time, when the
new conditions of life made the marriage-tie an intolerable burden that
few young men would undertake to bear, and which was quite out of the
reach of the many.
Thus was that one side of sociology, which is for destruction and
radical change, put before the young girl's wondering reason; and though
her common-sense caught glimpses sometimes of the other side also, and
though she would often venture to ask very puzzling questions, and point
out fallacies in the course of a conversation, yet, as was natural, the
intellectual weight of the elder woman told in the long run and Mary was
gradually brought over to agree in theory with Catherine's wildest
views. However, it remained still to be seen whether the convert would
be logical or foolish enough to approve of their being carried into
practice, for that is quite another matter.
Catherine King had acquired a great influence over Mary, not by working
on her gratitude, which was deep, but by the intense strength of her
character. She inspired her pupil with a respect, an awe, an unreasoning
devotion, a sense of inferiority, more like the sentiment which a girl
entertains for the man she loves, than for one of her own sex.
Yet Mary was of a nature the reverse of weak; but it happened that
Catherine, like some others who have lived her life of stern
self-denial, of passionate and maddening thought, through many long
silent hours of concentration on one great object, had developed a sort
of mesmeric power over her fellow-beings.
The will of the girl was paralysed in the presence of that other
mightier will, and became as weak as water. This influence became
stronger daily, as the two women saw more of each other--as their
spirits entered into closer communion.
Sometimes after a long afternoon's earnest discussion on the _one_
topic, in the mystic between-lights, a strange feeling would steal over
Mary. It was as if her soul had gone out of her, as if she was but a
body having sensation only. Hearing the low, monotonous words as they
fell from her mistress's lips, but not understanding them, her soul, her
will, seemed to be away--to be in Catherine, to be for the time _with_
the other's mind, receiving its impressions, echoing its workings--to
return to her again when the spell was over; but different from what it
had been, modified by that strange visit, and having brought with it a
portion of that other's nature, a portion which was to cleave to it for
ever.
Catherine herself was not conscious of this power at first, but when she
discovered it she did not fail to make use of it, and to employ all
methods to increase the fascination.
She herself returned to a great extent the girl's affection; she became,
to her own surprise, greatly attached to her, fonder of her than she had
ever been of any other human creature.
Alas! it was no happy outlook for the ill-fated girl that her will
should become the helpless slave of the will of a dangerous mad woman.
No other woman could have persuaded the child against her instincts that
there was no God, no good--not that she had known much of either in her
short life.
Such was the education for which Mary was indebted to her new friend,
one that, coming after her Brixton bringing-up, well tended to develop a
strange character--unwomanly, unnatural. She had never known a mother's
love, never had a doll when a child, or a dream of a hero when a girl.
Very skilful and cunning was the method employed by the Chief of the
Secret Society in the training of her pupil. She did not too
precipitately disclose to her the more startling doctrines of her creed.
Step by step she prepared her mind.
Thus one day, after Mary had been more than a year with her, the
Malthusian doctrine was the subject of a long conversation between the
woman and the girl.
"Timid--yes of course they are timid!" the teacher was saying, in reply
to some remark of the pupil--"all our English democrats are so. They see
what ought to be, they even hint vaguely at it, but they never dare
speak out.
"No one doubts that over-population is the great curse of the
world--they all allow it. Look at the horrors, the misery it produces in
this very city. And what are the remedies suggested?
"How silly, how weak they are! Read Mill; he saw clearly what we were
coming to, and all he has to recommend as a remedy is prudence in
marriage, and such restrictions. This is nonsense, cheese-paring;
besides, if feasible, it would only lead to ten times the vice there is
now.
"No, the passion of the beast man is a constant factor in the problem
that cannot be disregarded. Bradlaugh had a little more pluck--spoke
out; and how were his words received!
"There is only one way of getting out of the difficulty, but that is one
that our virtuous politicians of to-day would never entertain: make it
an offence for anyone to have more than one child; let it be lawful to
kill a new-born infant, and to employ those other measures for
preventing a woman from becoming a mother which are now felonies in the
eyes of the law."
Mary half understood and shuddered. She said, thoughtfully, "I suppose
that is the only remedy; but it can never be carried out--it is, after
all, too horrible."
"Horrible!" exclaimed the teacher. "Not at all; that is, if you look
fairly at the question. You are biased by old prejudices. Your reason
will gradually shake them off, as mine has long ago. We are
Utilitarians, we look to the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Now by the method _we_ propose of checking population, we inflict no
pain. We prevent a multitude of creatures coming into the world only to
be miserable, so there is left a less crowded, a happier race, not
slaving as now to keep starvation off, and often failing even to do
that, while a few fatten on the product of their labour."
She paused a moment to watch the effects of her words on Mary's face,
then continued: "Man will then know what leisure is, will become a
nobler being; not a slave running a race for bread with machinery. Ah,
Mary! and they call the measures that alone can bring about this happy
consummation cruel, immoral, criminal. It is the religion--the accursed
morality--that tyrannizes over the people, and forces a man and woman to
keep alive their wretched offspring, that is cruel."
With such conversation did the woman prepare Mary's mind, until, after
they had been two years together, the girl was familiarized with all the
perilous fallacies of the Nihilists, and accepted the theory that murder
is no sin when necessary for the enfranchisement of mankind, whether it
be the secret execution of the tyrants by poison, knife, and dynamite,
or the practical exposition of the Malthusian doctrine by the
destruction of babies.
And now the teacher considered that the pupil's mind was ripe, that she
could be intrusted with the _secret of the aim_, and was ready to be an
actor in the terrible drama which the Sisterhood was preparing.
At last the day of initiation came. It was a windy, rainy day of the
spring equinox--a day of tempest and disaster.
Catherine and Mary had been confined to the house all the day.
In the afternoon the hurricane increased in fury, and the wind raved so
loudly without that the two sat in silence for some time in the little
parlour, awed and impressed.
The wild sounds of the storm with its fitful gusts seemed to harmonize
well with the thoughts of Catherine King. She sat by the table with her
brow knit, her eye glittering, and her lips curling occasionally into
strange smiles, as pictures of the work of vengeance that was to be,
thronged to her busy brain.
Then her eyes falling on Mary, she watched the girl furtively for some
minutes, carefully deliberating, till at last she came to a decision,
and spoke.
"Mary!"
"Yes, Mrs. King," replied the girl with a slight start.
"I want to have a long talk with you. In the first place, did you read
that article on land nationalization in the ---- _Review_ which I gave
you yesterday; and if so, what do you think of it?"
"Yes, I have read it carefully," said Mary, "but I am not sure that I
properly understand it. The writer appears to me to hardly know his own
mind. He says he does not advocate confiscation, and yet the hints he
throws out as to the working of his scheme seem to me to really imply
confiscation under another name."
"Of course," said Catherine, "that's just like these cautious
politicians; they don't want straightforward confiscation, and yet they
are dimly conscious that by confiscation only is land nationalization
practical. It requires little thought to come to that conclusion. How on
earth could the state possibly afford to compensate the landlords--where
would the money come from? Capitalists would be shy to lend at three per
cent. to a government that was passing such sweeping measures."
"And supposing they did raise the money," said Mary, "what an oppressive
taxation would be necessary in order to pay the interest!"
Catherine spoke with impatience:
"It's not worth while discussing that matter over again, Mary; it's too
plain. For a state to take possession of the land, and compensate the
landlords for it, is merely taking money out of one pocket to put in the
other, and dropping half of it on the way too."
"I suppose they will see that at last," Mary said; "but do you think,
Mrs. King, that we are near land nationalization? Don't you think that
confiscation of property is unfortunately a long way off yet?"
"I do not think it is far off," replied the chief. "I do not mean that
the State will dispossess the proprietors at once by one violent
measure, though I wish the people were strong enough to do so; but all
is tending the right way at present. You see, Mary, this land
nationalization is a very important step indeed. It will be far the
heaviest blow that democracy has ever struck at aristocracy. It is land
that keeps these great families together. Once we have destroyed the
aristocracy of land we can concentrate our energies on the destruction
of the aristocracy of wealth, we will abolish capital."
Mary thought a little and then said:
"In that pamphlet on the "International" which you gave me to read, Mrs.
King, there is an extract from a speech of Bakounine. Let me see--here
it is," and she took the book from the table and read: "_After the
rights of private property in land have been got rid of, society must be
wound up; that is, we must abolish the political and judicial system,
which is the only sanction and safeguard of present proprietors. We must
take back everything we can seize, just as fast as we can seize it, as
events shall open out a way._"
"Exactly so," went on Catherine. "Ah! it is amusing to observe what
blind fools these capitalists, these manufacturers, these employers of
labour are. For the sake of power they have coquetted with Revolution.
They have called themselves Liberals and Radicals. They have become our
allies in our fight with the landed interests. Little do the idiots
imagine that they are but the tools of the Internationalists and of the
Nihilists, that they have to go to Limbo with the rest. We shall soon be
strong enough to dispense with the aid of these wealthy hypocrites who
prey on the people, swallow the results of their toil, and then delude
them with their windy talk, their sham-Liberalism, their rant about
Political economy. The day is not far off when they will bitterly regret
that they have helped us destroy their only allies, and so left
themselves defenceless, an easy prey for us when the day of vengeance
comes."
After a pause Mary spoke: "How strange it is, Mrs. King, that Political
Economy was once actually looked upon as a Liberal science, was
stigmatized as Revolutionary by the Tories, and now it is clearly seen
to be quite the reverse."
"That is it!" exclaimed Catherine. "Political Economy is the cleverest
snare the capitalists ever set for the unsuspecting people. It professes
to be so Liberal, so philanthropical, and tries to persuade the workers
that capital is their best friend without whose assistance they would
starve. It is one great organized lie invented by the rich to delude the
poor. The Political Economists, though favourable to the rights of
property in all else, questioned the tenure of land and undermined the
old sanction that supported that right. This science has been a useful
weapon against the landed proprietors, but it is useless against the
capitalists. Its arguments are specious enough. It does not appeal to
first principles, to ancient sanction as the landowners do. It does not
try to prove that the manufacturer has a _right_ to his vast gains, so
disproportionate to those of the real workers, but it sets to work to
try and prove that such a system is positively _good_ for the labourers,
_better_ indeed than any other system would be."
"Do you think, Mrs. King, that there will soon be any really Radical
alterations in the tenure of land?" asked the pupil.
"Mary, I know it," replied the teacher with a voice of conviction, "I
know it. The general election that is coming will give us an enormous
majority in the House of Commons. The moderate Liberals are struck with
panic, foreseeing what will happen. The timid leaders of that party feel
that they will be powerless to stem the tide. In a few months a bill
will be driven through Parliament that will astonish the world."
"But then there is the House of Peers," suggested Mary. "Will the Lords
let the bill through?"
"The Lords!" exclaimed Catherine with a contemptuous laugh. "Don't talk
to me about the Lords, they will be too frightened about their skins to
dare to offer a long resistance to the will of the people. Now, Mary,
the most important clauses of this great measure will be to the
following effect: any alienation of real property by sale, gift,
testament, or otherwise shall be void unless it be to an immediate
descendant of the holder, except when under certain circumstances the
land courts shall sanction or command a sale for the public good. In
failure of any descendant or of such sanction of the land court, the
land will become the property of the State on the holder's decease--you
understand?"
"I understand," said Mary rather disappointed, for she expected to hear
something far more startling than this. "But it is not much, even a
moderate like Mill proposed nearly as much as that."
"Mary," continued Catherine King looking steadfastly at the girl, "it
does not sound much, but nevertheless it is the death-blow to property.
I too would like to see all the old tyrannies swept away at once, but
that cannot be, the country is not ripe enough for that. Now, Mary, you
must remember that there are two methods by which politicians bring
about their ends.
"The first method is that which all the world sees and hears--the open
action--agitation--the press--debate--culminating in an Act of
Parliament.
"The second method is secret--this is the work in the dark that, going
far beyond the timid public opinion as represented by Parliament, dares
great things.
"So we of this Sisterhood, and hundreds of similar associations all over
Europe, are ever on the watch.
"Our allies--the politicians that work openly, that employ the _first_
method--prepare the way for us, loosen the foundations of tyranny in
Parliament. Then we come--we that employ the _second_ method, and
complete their work.... Now follow me. This will be the result of this
new Bill. Unless a landed proprietor have children, his estate will
lapse to the State on his death."
She paused, and the eyes of the two women met.
Mary had never before seen such an expression in the bright black eyes
of Catherine King. Their pupils were dilated. They blazed with a fierce
intensity of purpose, of passionate thought. They were the eyes of a
madwoman, but a madwoman with a terrible method in her madness.
She continued in slow, deliberate tones: "Now, after this Act is passed,
supposing that the Secret Societies such as ours come in and _prevent
the landed proprietors from leaving children_, what will happen? In a
generation or two all the land will be in the hands of the people. Do
you follow me?"
"I think so," replied Mary, in a low voice.
Catherine proceeded: "Such a scheme may sound impracticable to you at
first, but it is anything but that. We have gone thoroughly into it. It
does not, to begin with, necessitate nearly so many _removals_ of heirs
as you would imagine. You would be surprised to find what a very large
proportion of the land would be recovered by the people in the space of
a few years by no more than say thirty well-selected _removals_. A
little study of the pages of Debrett would soon convince you of this.
The object of our Society is to assist the working of the coming Act of
Parliament by effecting these removals, do you know _how_?"
Mary had anticipated for many months a revelation of this kind. She was
not taken by surprise, but she turned very pale and said: "How, Mrs.
King?"
The dreaded moment had come at last, and she felt even as if she was
going to die as she listened to her mistress, who spoke again in calm
but thrilling tones.
"Mary, I know you well enough to trust you now. When you were enrolled
some months ago as a member of our Sisterhood, you were informed what
would be the penalty of disclosing what was told to you."
"Death," said Mary, looking up with a brave smile. "It is death, I know
that."
"I do not mention this because I in any way doubt you. I believe in you
as in my own self. If you are not true, no one in the whole world is.
But it is my duty to remind you of your promise and the consequences of
treason before I reveal to you the secrets of the Inner Circle. Now the
time has come, and you shall know our immediate plan. You already know
how far-spreading our organization is. You know that we have been
training nurses--nurses for the sick and nurses for children--and
domestic servants of all classes. You know how we have scattered these
over the country, and how many there are now at our disposition,
provided with excellent characters and entirely devoted to our cause.
Have you ever wondered--have you ever guessed what all this was for?...
I can see by your face that you have done so.... At the proper time the
secret is revealed to each of these, even as I now reveal it to you. We
seek to find places for these sisters in different capacities, but
chiefly as nurses in the houses of the wealthy landowners--_especially
those houses in which the heirs are yet to be born, or are children_. Do
you understand?"
"I think so."
"For the means, we have to thank Sister Jane--a method safe, impossible
of detection, by which the life that is in the way of social good can be
extinguished, painlessly too.... Yes, it is more like sleep than death;"
and when she spoke of death the woman's voice became tender, the fire of
her eyes was dimmed, as a far-away look came into them, and she sighed.
It seemed as if she was envying the peaceful fate of the babies she was
devoting to an early grave. No wonder that she felt weary at times
beneath all that weight of fierce thought, of subtle plot, of
disappointment. Death was no gloomy shadow to this poor distracted mind.
Then she pulled herself together again, and said, in a dreamy voice:
"Mary, these Christians believe that their merciful God killed all the
first-born of the Egyptians in one night because they had enslaved his
people and would not let them go. But that slavery was as nothing to
that of the down-trodden millions of Europe."
The young girl felt as if her heart was becoming cold and dead within
her, but her will was not hers, and she believed altogether in the
righteousness of the cause. She _knew_ that it was her _duty_ to become
one of the assassins--to save humanity by being a baby-killer.
So, Mary--Mary! Heavens! what a name for a child-murderer!--bowed her
head meekly, and said in a low, passionless voice--a voice that was
without modulation, sounding automatic, as if from one in a trance, one
not knowing the sense of what she said:
"I will do all you say ... you have me ... body and soul."
Catherine looked at the white fixed features, and felt a keen pang of
compunction. She came to her senses for a moment.... What was this thing
she was doing? ... sacrificing this poor girl--this one creature that
she loved.... But then she loved her creed still better; and there was
none who could be so useful to the cause as this her pupil; so she
stifled her emotion, and said in a voice grave and collected as ever,
while she rose from her chair:
"To-morrow, Mary, you shall receive full instructions from the Inner
Circle. Sister Eliza will explain to you what you have to do."
"I will do all that I am ordered," replied the girl in the same strange
absent tone as before. "Yes, all ... anything...."
Then suddenly the nature of her duties rose to her mind with such
appalling distinctness that for the moment she was overwhelmed by the
horror of the vision.
She rose quickly from her chair and paced up and down the room, her face
quite colourless, one hand pressed to her painfully working heart....
Then, with a cry which seemed full of all the anguish that humanity is
capable of, she threw herself at the feet of her mistress, who stood
looking at her with a stern sadness. She lay there on the ground, her
head hidden in her hands, and the piteous words came out between her
choking sobs.
"Oh, why was I ever born?... Why were any men or women ever born? Let me
die at once; life is too horrible.... Oh, mistress! Oh, mother! you say
you love me; kill me now then; kill me at once, and spare me this
life--this terrible life."
But Catherine had now steeled her heart. She hardly heard the pitiful
pleading. Her soul was filled with a wild enthusiasm as she thought of
her long-matured schemes, now so soon to bear fruit. She was possessed
with the _idea_ ... she stood there at her full height; a stately
figure, with her face illumined by the inspiration, having a nobility, a
glory in it, such as even saints and martyrs have worn. Her thoughts
were too exalted just then for her to pay heed to the victim at her
feet, and she said nothing, offered no consolation.
After this wild first burst of anguish had partly passed, another mood
seized the girl. She leaped to her feet, and with eyes aflame with hate,
and teeth set, exclaimed:
"Oh! oh! if there is a God how I hate him--no man, no devil could be as
cruel as He is! Why has He made all this misery? Why has He created us
at all? He has arranged things so that in order to save mankind from
still worse suffering we have to kill innocent children. Oh, mother! we
had better all die at once and leave the world to wild beasts."
Then her former mood returned again, and she threw herself upon the
sofa, weeping bitterly, and her whole body was convulsed with grief and
despair.
Catherine King had foreseen that such a mental struggle would come to
Mary when the "secret of the aim" was put before her clearly for the
first time. Her experience in other cases led her to hail this paroxysm
as a favourable symptom.
All the initiated had to go through this agony when the supreme moment
came. This was usually the last, shortest, but fiercest struggle between
the old nature and the new--the old nature of religious instincts,
Christian sympathies and pities, and the new nature that sought to break
through all the tyrannies, to be free of God, of evil and remorse.
It was an unnatural contest that would rend the poor spirit that engaged
in it until the new nature had gained the victory, then the angel that
is with every soul that is born on earth would go away from it and for
ever, leaving it alone, without _conscience_, free to carry out without
scruple whatsoever _Reason_ should order.
So Catherine, familiar with the great crisis through which the girl was
passing, said nothing, but quietly left the room, as she knew was the
wisest thing to be done, leaving the victim to fight with her agony by
herself, and little doubting what the result would be.