perpetrated there--Alexandria of the sixth century, Rome of the second!
I believe the rumour is widely spread in London--no woman of the world
now lands on the _Mahomet_”.
“It was _you_ whom he assaulted...” Hogarth laughed and was pale at
once.
“Yes, but observe that I must go now, my friend. I have spoken of the
things which I had in my mind: there remains--my father”.
“He shall go with you”.
“I thank you, my Lord King; that must be in an hour: so I say, Richard,
good-bye”.
“I do not suppose you can dream how dark--” he went woefully.
Of which she took no notice, but with rapid speech said: “How fair
this hall is--one supposes that the art of impressions was lost with
Solomon--like some chamber under a lake at set of sun, colour without
substance, suspended, flushed--I cannot express--”
“Sad, say”.
“Ah, Richard”.
“Rebekah!”
“Well, Richard, my poor friend?”
“Have pity!”
“Poor Richard!”
“I can't help it, you are all mixed up with my blood, don't go from me.
If you think it a sin--the Gentile--God will forgive the charity. Come
for ever--”
Now he sobbed once, and, as he sobbed, she was on her knees, in pagan
posture, at his knees. “Do not--” distractedly--“see, I kiss your
hand-do you doubt that I pity my love--as a mother has compassion--?”
Now were heaving breasts, a vehement fight for breaths, wild eyes, and a
live brand in the marrow.
“You will not go! I have you! In God's name, what a mad thing--!”
“My furious king--you kiss--” the short-winded _mélée_ of whispers now
suffocated in a passion of inarticulate breaths; but at that moment one
of Rebekah's chaperons, wandering out of time and place, stood at the
alcove entrance, and they, smitten into two, sprang straight, awaked
from trance, Rebekah with half a sob and half a laugh.
And two hours later Hogarth, from the roof, saw the Jewish yacht
disappear to the East, on board being the four--and Frankl.
As he descended, he threw up his head with: “Ha!--O'Hara”; announced his
immediate departure with only a secretary and two lords-in-waiting, left
a mystical note for Loveday, saying that he had decided to go alone in
quest of Margaret, and went almost secretly, only the salute informing
the _Boodah_ as he steamed away. In reality he was in haste to face
O'Hara, and the yacht's bows turned, not eastward, but southward, under
forced draught, to arrive at the _Mahomet_ in early afternoon. As her
flags indicated the Lord of the Sea absent, there was no salute, and,
landing in a panama and jacket, in the Collector's Office he gave the
sign of mum, and, led only by a blue-jacket, went spying the depths of
the _Mahomet_.
In many parts, noticing a singular odour, “What is it I smell?” he
asked.
“Incense, my Lord King”, the man answered.
On the fourth floor he entered the loveliest _bijou_ chapel, the
coenaculum gold-plated, altar flower-piled, frescoed roof, “stations”
in oils, where a lonesome Moorish youth slothfully swung and swung a
thurible ruby-studded: but in vestments of no _enfant de choeur_--of an
ancient Phrygian.
Another descent and Hogarth reached a region of laugh and harping:
whereupon, dismissing his guide, he tracked the music into a nook so
rare, that he stood amazed--a Court of Love, or Mahommedan Heaven, or
grot of Omar--anything old, lovely, and devil-sacred--the air chokingly
odorous, near a fountain some brazen demon--Moloch or Baal--buried in
roses, over everything roses, bounty of flowers, a very harvest-home of
Chloris, Flora in revel; and smooth youths bearing cups for some twenty
others, all garlanded, besides those on the marble stage; and on the
stage itself a scene of dancing girls, Sevillian, Neapolitan,
Algerian, mixed with masked Satyrs, which made Hogarth pale, while at a
Herod's-table buried under fruits, wines, flowers and gold, reclined Pat
O'Hara, tonsured now, crowned with ivy and violets, gowned in a violet
toga; while under a pendulum whose swings left whiffs of incense behind
lay Harris insensible.
As Hogarth descended into it, harp and dance ceased; some leapt to their
feet: but O'Hara sat still, gazing in a dead silence through glairy
eyes, while Hogarth, looking about, spied an electric button in a couch,
touched it, and soon a man in uniform stood at a door above.
“Who are you?” asked Hogarth.
“John Souttar, head-telegraphist, may it please your Lordship's
Majesty”.
“Make haste: tell the First Lieutenant and the Chief Constable that the
Lord of the Sea is here”.
By now all the revellers were on their feet; no sound: only, the
clicking pendulum voyaged, landed an incense-whiff, and voyaged, like
traders.
Then the Lieutenant appeared, mottled and panting, and immediately the
Constable.
“Ah, Royds”, said Hogarth: “is it practicable to flood this room quickly
with a hose?”
“I--should think so, my Lord King”.
“See to it. First set guards at the exits”.
He turned to the other: “Mr. Chief Constable, I give all present,
except, of course, your Admiral, into custody, on a charge of
misdemeanour on the high seas. The General Prosecutor will, in due
course, forward the indictment to your Summary Court. Have your men here
with handcuffs”.
Again silence, till, in four minutes, two men appeared on the steps,
ball-nozzle in hand; upon which Hogarth said to O'Hara: “Follow me”,
and as the two passed up, O'Hara tottery, care hanging on that ponderous
nether-lip, Hogarth whispered the hose-bearers: “Drown the room
well--man and woman--do not spare”.
To O'Hara he said: “Lead to your suite”, and, descending, they presently
stood in a bed-temple, the bed surrounded with mirrors, and at the
other end of the apartment an altar--pyx, six unflickering candles, and
flowers, with rail and reredos, and maxims of St. Theresa.
Hogarth said: “Sleep two hours”, and went out, turning the key.
But in half an hour O'Hara had started awake, sober, and, clapping his
palms over his face, burst into tears.
That Hogarth might be capable of impeachment before a Court of Admirals,
followed by death on the block, he feared; and he rolled, groaning,
tugging his tonsure-fringe, which, on the forehead, lay a thin grey
forelock, thinking: “Guilty wretch that I am! putrid, unwholesome,
hopeless, I have befouled the holiest: how richly do I deserve to die!”;
and even as he groaned and smote, his secret mind weighed up the chances
of Hogarth's action.
He rose, listened, rushed to the door, found it locked, tossed up
despairing hands, and tottered to the altar, at which he knelt, all
sighs, and dying fish-eyes, and sideward-languishing face, and weary
woe. Ah! how great the mountain of his iniquity: if he might be but once
more spared, his evil remainder of days he would bury in some Carmelite
retreat, with fastings and prayers; but no--he had too much tempted the
Eternal patience, the sword was out against him. Yet he implored, he
implored with groans: with half an eye, meanwhile, on the door; and,
having with regard to Hogarth a piece of secret knowledge which he
guarded deep for some possible emergency and use (the fact of Hogarth's
Jewish birth), as he prayed, his brain with complete detachment worked
out the question whether he might now reveal this with advantage.
Hogarth found him kneeling, said “Get up”, and O'Hara stood, leaning
upon the rail, too faint to stand unpropped, Hogarth contemplating him,
tapping the toes.
“Well, sir! I know all: your whole past”.
“Red as crimson--!” went O'Hara faintly, with tossed hands.
“Red enough, Admiral. You are a bad old man: merit death”.
“Ah, God knows it, my Lord King! I do assure you, I am a leprous wretch:
and I welcome death--I pray you, I pray Heaven, for it--”
“You should have it, if you were a better, or a younger, man: but I will
not stain the Empire of which you were chosen to be a stay, and are the
shame, with the blood of such as you. You are beneath judgment: and that
clemency which is our scutcheon I extend to you. Live, therefore, and
repent, O'Hara. I, however, you understand, now turn from you for ever.
And I discharge you like a menial, sir. See to it that within six months
you have your affairs regulated, and send in your resignation to the
Government”.
He turned and went; and, as he disappeared, O'Hara straightened, coolly
went “H'm!”, and took snuff. He lived, he lived: while there is life
there is fun.
Fumbling about, searching for nothing, all relieved and rescued,
yet stunned, he suddenly exclaimed: “What a noble fellow is my son
Hogarth!”, and knelt again.
Hogarth in the same hour was away for England; and on the fourth evening
thence, the street-lamps just lit, stood before No. 11 Market Street,
Edgware Road, come for Margaret; his carriage waiting at a corner forty
yards away; and though within the last hour he had realized vividly
that his voyage to the _Mahomet_ had given Frankl time to remove her, or
accomplish any devilish device in his power with respect to her, he was
now all prospect and expectancy.
The house was three-storied, mean, unlighted, with an “area”; from a
neighbouring window a woman screaming down to some playing children; and
under her a shop sending out that fishy fume which “drove Asmodeus back
to hell”.
He rapped, received no answer, rapped again without reply, then stepped
down and back, looking up: and suddenly, faintly, but distinctly, he
heard her voice, high up--_singing_.
“O what a pretty place,
And what a graceful city,
Where the striplings are so gay,
And the ladies are so pretty “.
It was she! He ran and banged at the door: no reply.
Back again he stepped; and now a window on the top floor went up, and
she, putting out her head, twice beckoned him--listlessly, it seemed,
then drew in; and instantly--again--he heard her sing.
As once more he ran to the door, he discovered now that it was open,
darted into darkness, up uncarpeted stairs, making for that upper room,
vague light through grimy stair-windows guiding his impassioned dash;
and on the third floor entered a room with two doors, beyond one of
which was the room he sought: but that door was locked.
At it he pushed, fumbled, called: “Margaret!” No reply. And suddenly he
heard her singing, not before, but behind him.
“Happy day! Happy day!
When Jesus washed my sins away “...
When he flew to the other door, and now found it, too, locked, gradually
in that gloom all colour faded from his face; and the voice sang on:
“Happy day! happy day”....
XLIII
THE LAND BILL
The Manifesto's “month of grace” was passing, yet nothing had been done,
second-rate Powers awaiting the Great, while the Great, appalled by the
bigness of the demand, fussed and intrigued, consulted, fermented and
proposed: but did nothing.
But at last, on the 3rd of December, the First Lord of the Treasury laid
a Bill on the table of our Commons--at the end of an Autumn-session!
On the 3rd: and on the 1st the Lord of the Sea had been captured near
Edgware Road, the probability being that this Bill was brought forward
with a knowledge of that capture.
It consisted of three clauses and two schedules--called The Land
Purchase Bill; and it had only to be published to produce the stormiest
agitation ever known.
The Opposition was the Jew-Liberal-Labour party; and when the Labour
Congress (met at Manchester) denounced the measure, there occurred a
“split”, a Liberal-Labour cave, the whole body of Jews, numbering 87,
retiring to the Government ranks.
The Bill proposed the “purchase” of Britain from its “owners” by the
British, the price fixed being 27 times the annual value, to be paid in
settled annuities for entailed estates, and in consols for unentailed.
So, then, the Government would buy London alone for 1400 millions and
Britain for 8000 millions--a bad lookout for England.
And the authors of the Bill chose a moment when Hogarth was living on
bread and poisoned water in Market Street.
It rapidly passed to Committee, and then to the Lords.
But on that night a terrifying rumour for the first time pervaded
England: that the Lord of the Sea, having come to London at the
beginning of the month, was missing, and that his person had been
claimed from our Government by the Sea under menaces.
In fact, when a week, two weeks, had passed, and not a whisper from
Hogarth, apprehension had turned into certainty in the breasts of
Quilter-Beckett, Loveday, and all: and at a hurried Council called
in the _Boodah_ on the 19th, when the date of Hogarth's landing
at Southampton was determined, and his small train-in-waiting, his
coachman, re-examined for the twentieth time, one certainty emerged:
Frankl had had time to reach England before him; and the arrest of
Frankl was demanded.
Now England in consternation almost forgot the Land Bill; Scotland
Yard ransacked Market Street: not a trace of Hogarth; it dissected
the country for Frankl: but Frankl was now in the _Mahomet_, safely
conferring with O'Hara.
The popular tempest first directed itself against the League of
Resistance: and at an attack upon its Offices in Victoria Street during
the afternoon of the 21st Viscount Reid (the Secretary), and a girl,
were killed by missiles; petitions signed by the nation raining
meanwhile upon the Prince of Wales: for, apart from the wreck which
threatened, Hogarth's popularity was at present considerable with the
masses, whose instincts suspected those above them of knowing more of
his disappearance than appeared.
On the night of the 22nd, when things had an air of revolution,
fifty-three men met in a house in Adair Street, W. (This runs parallel
to Market Street, the backs of the two house-rows facing.)
These were the warders of Hogarth: and the object of that night's
meeting was to determine whether he should die, and when, and how;
the Land Bill now awaiting the Royal Assent; and on the morrow British
high-sea trade to be ruthlessly stopped, failing news of Hogarth.
The room was double, with an arch in the partition, through which ran
a rough-board table surrounded with velvet arm-chairs; the floor
richly carpeted, though paper peeled from the walls; down the table
a procession of silver candlesticks and typewritten notice-papers
and agenda; the windows boarded--a second floor; and in a room near,
Hogarth, shackled hand and foot, he having been borne through a
subterranean way, made for the purpose, from the cellar in Market Street
to this Adair Street.
From eight o'clock men began to let themselves in at the two doors in
both streets, and continued to arrive till nine, when a marquis at the
table-head rose to speak, the others leaning back with downcast eyes,
nearly all pale.
The point before them was plainly put by the speaker on the Question:
viz., whether they had more to fear from the life, or from the death, of
the Lord of the Sea.
“By a strange Providence”, he said, “this man is in our hands: and we
have the right to become his executioners. My Lords and Gentlemen, the
awful decision rests with you to-night”.
Then, one after another, they rose, they spoke: no two views identical;
till at ten it was voted that the question be put, voting papers went
round, and presently the ballot-result was announced amid a momentous
stillness.
Twenty-eight had voted for the death, twenty-five against.
But in that minute a key was heard in the room door, and in rushed two
flushed men: Frankl and O'Hara, just arrived in London from the sea; and
Frankl burst into speech:
“I hope this is all right, my lords, my coming like this, and bringing
into your very midst a gentleman who is not one of us. When I tell you
that he is Admiral Donald of the _Mahomet_, turned away like a servant,
how does that make your lordships feel? A house divided against itself
can't stand; and this gentleman has a scheme in his pocket--he will read
it to your lordships--which will crack up the Empire of the Sea like an
egg-shell! So I do hope, my lords, that you have not decided anything
hasty about putting away Richard Hogarth: for unless he is liberated
this night, it means sure and certain stoppage of everything tomorrow:
and _that_ means my ruin, and many another's beside--”
Now the Master called him to order, and addressed himself to O'Hara,
who, in admiral's uniform and stars, all stately bows, grave smiles, in
ten minutes had given guarantees, was a member, and in thirty had read a
memorandum of a scheme of betrayal which everyone saw to be feasible.
Then the vote of death was annulled; and when the meeting broke up
Hogarth was being lifted with bandaged eyes through the subterranean
way to Market Street, where four men deposited him near the house-door,
undid his ropes, said to him “You are free”, and there he remained
twenty minutes without motion, deadly sick, then rose, and, on finding
the door, went wildly with dragged feet, tottered into a cab, and leant
brow on hand.
As he entered the porch of his Berkeley Square house, Loveday rushed out
to his knees with adoring eyes, having hardly hoped to see again that
face of Hogarth, while Hogarth patted the bowed head, saying: “Do get me
a meal, and let me hear what has been going on....Oh, I am weary “.
And during the meal he heard all: of the Land Bill, the turmoil.
“Well, my God!” he exclaimed, “is there no drop of generous blood at
all among those people? Never again do I trust them to make their own
arrangements I When does this precious Bill have the Royal Assent?”
“To-morrow, it is supposed”.
“Really!”--he started: “and whereabouts is the Prince of Wales?”
“At Windsor to-night”.
“Order the motor quick. I'll go”.
He was soon off, and Loveday, listening to the dark story of Margaret's
appearing and singing, and vanishing, accompanied him under a frosty
moon, snow lying on village-street and hedge; but, travelling hard, they
arrived shortly after one upon a Prince who, a wakeful man that night,
sat conferring with Private Secretary and Attorney-General, he having
assented to the introduction of the Land Bill, then been alarmed by the
storm, and now was confronted with the responsibility of either giving
His Majesty's assent, and earning execration, or refusing it, and taking
a step unheard-of since William III.
In that state of embarrassment he was, when the Lord of the Sea was
announced, and “It is with heartiest pleasure that I offer to your
Lordship's Majesty my congratulations on this re-appearance”, he said,
greatly and gladly surprised, without at all seeming so.
And the two conferred till three, when a secretary, at Hogarth's
dictation, wrote a document and its duplicate: a contract between Prince
and King, giving pledges on each side, private, yet most momentous; and
each, having signed both copies, retained one.
The next evening the Clerk in the Lords uttered those unusual words:
“_Le Roy s'avisera_,” and the country was thrown into transport by the
news of the Royal rejection of the Land Bill, processions singing the
National Anthem, bells ringing: and for a month the mention of a Royal
name in any assembly brought the people to their feet.
Ministers, of course, resigned; and, as the Liberals refused office,
writs for a new House were made returnable for the end of January.
XLIV
THE REGENCY
During the next month England was in a general-election turmoil; at the
same time a Land Bill in the French Chamber, and one in the Reichstag,
was thrown out: whereupon a _ukase_ from the _Boodah_ announced the
raising of sea-rent to 5s. on all ships over 2000 tons after the 1st
February, the month of grace over, the “screw tightening”.
Already distress in England was great, coal being at three-and-sixpence,
bread at nine pence; a cry had arisen for the Union of Britain with
the Sea; and on the 27th of January a plebiscite among the Trade Unions
resulted in an affirmative vote of five millions out of an electorate of
nine.
Now, at this time the bulletins respecting His Majesty were of a settled
depression: he lived, but languished; and it was understood that the new
Ministry's first act would be the appointment of a Regency.
Then appeared a rumour: alterations were going forward at Buckingham
Palace on a scale of splendour new to Western mansions; the Prince of
Wales had passed three days, from the 17th to the 19th, in the _Boodah_:
and the saying went that, on the night of the rejection of the Land
Bill, a compact had taken place between the Prince and the Sea for a
three years' Regency of the latter.
Excitement ensued, the matter becoming an election test: and 180 Labour
Members, with 70 Liberals were returned pledged to support a Regency of
the Sea.
A definite coalition, meantime, had been announced between the Jews and
the Conservatives.
Never was election so rolled in dust and noise, in the result the Jews
having the casting vote: and if ever race was looked at askance, it was
they now by the British.
The session having been opened by Commission, a resolution passed Lords
and Commons that the Prince of Wales be empowered to exercise the Royal
Authority; whereupon the Prince at the palace, having heard the Address,
read a reply, sufficiently startling to the country, though well
foreknown to those present: he laid stress upon the new conditions of
the world--that phlegmatic eye, which had seen so much, lifting a moment
in punctuation to dwell coldly upon his hearers, then coldly reading
again; the difficulties, he said, which he was called upon to face on
behalf of His Majesty were not lightly to be undertaken, and his fuller
answer would be contained in a proposal which he would make in the Lords
as a peer of the realm.
The next night in a crowded House he read a speech distinguished by
extraordinary dignity and severity: “My lords”, he said at one point,
slapping the table, though those eyes remained royally null: “when
will your lordships learn to recognize the facts of life?” and, having
proposed His Lordship's Majesty, the Lord of the Sea, to be Regent
during His Majesty's illness, such Regency not to exceed a period of
three years, he recommended a plebiscite.
No plebiscite was taken: for within some days the sense of the
constituencies was revealed, and the Leader in the Lords received stern
hints from the Liberal Leader, which damped pride: so their lordships
abstained from Westminster, their Resolution being passed by just a
quorum.
The country wondered at the ease with which the whole went off--not
knowing that those who might have led resistance had a thought, and a
prospect, inspired by one Pat O'Hara, which comforted them.
And now a Deputation of Five took boat in the _Prince George_, to wait
upon the Lord of the Sea in the _Boodah_ Throne Room, where the Lord
President read the information that they were a Committee appointed to
attend His Lordship's Majesty with the Resolutions of the Houses.
“We are instructed”, he read, “to express the hope which the Lords
Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, entertain, that His Lordship's
Majesty, from his regard to the interests of His Majesty the King, will
be ready to undertake the weighty and important trust proposed to be
invested in His Lordship's Majesty, as soon as an Act of Parliament
shall have been passed for carrying the same into effect”.
He then read, and delivered, the Resolutions.
Hogarth replied, reading: “My Lords and Gentlemen, I receive the
communication which your two Houses have instructed you to make to me
with those sentiments of regard which I ever entertain for your two
Houses. Deeply impressed with the necessity of tranquillizing the public
mind throughout the world, I do not hesitate to accept the office and
situation proposed to me”.
So the Deputation departs; five days later twelve British battleships
surround the _Boodah_, come to accompany the Lord of the Sea to England;
and at eleven on the morning of the 9th, his yacht, borne in on the
strong thunders of a royal salute, drops anchor in Southampton Water.
He had set so gorgeous a standard of luxury to Europe, that no one
dreamed of making his entry into London an ordinary _fête_; and, as the
procession traversed the triumphal arches of Piccadilly, he, swept to
the gods in the lap of gallant sublimities, plumes, sabres, showering
hoofs, squad-troops, outriders, showed to the Prince beside him and to
the Czarowitz before him a miniature of Rebecca Frankl.