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[Illustration: IN THE DARK ENTRANCE THERE APPEARED A FLAMING
FIGURE.]
The Napoleon of
Notting Hill
THE NAPOLEON
_of_
NOTTING HILL
_By_
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON
_With Seven Full-Page Illustrations by
W. GRAHAM ROBERTSON
and a Map of the Seat of War_
REV. WILLIAM J. GORMLEY, C. M.
JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD
LONDON & NEW YORK. MDCCCCIV
_Copyright in
U.S.A., 1904_
William Clowes & Sons, Limited, London and Beccles.
_TO HILAIRE BELLOC_
_For every tiny town or place
God made the stars especially;
Babies look up with owlish face
And see them tangled in a tree:
You saw a moon from Sussex Downs,
A Sussex moon, untravelled still,
I saw a moon that was the town's,
The largest lamp on Campden Hill._
_Yea; Heaven is everywhere at home
The big blue cap that always fits,
And so it is (be calm; they come
To goal at last, my wandering wits),
So is it with the heroic thing;
This shall not end for the world's end,
And though the sullen engines swing,
Be you not much afraid, my friend._
_This did not end by Nelson's urn
Where an immortal England sits--
Nor where your tall young men in turn
Drank death like wine at Austerlitz.
And when the pedants bade us mark
What cold mechanic happenings
Must come; our souls said in the dark,
"Belike; but there are likelier things."_
_Likelier across these flats afar
These sulky levels smooth and free
The drums shall crash a waltz of war
And Death shall dance with Liberty;
Likelier the barricades shall blare
Slaughter below and smoke above,
And death and hate and hell declare
That men have found a thing to love._
_Far from your sunny uplands set
I saw the dream; the streets I trod
The lit straight streets shot out and met
The starry streets that point to God.
This legend of an epic hour
A child I dreamed, and dream it still,
Under the great grey water-tower
That strikes the stars on Campden Hill._
G. K. C.
_CONTENTS_
BOOK I
_Chapter_ _Page_
I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE ART OF PROPHECY 13
II. THE MAN IN GREEN 21
III. THE HILL OF HUMOUR 49