THE SYMPATHY OF EUROPE.
A guard of twelve stalwart Emathians, armed with the European
rifles, escorted the party from Hagiamavra through the hills to
Skandalo the next day. Mr Suter, his eyes again bandaged as a
precaution against his possible return to guide an invading force
through the wilds, was in high spirits over the important part
assigned to him as intermediary between the fleet and the insurgent
stronghold. He rode next to Zoe, and talked unceasingly whenever the
nature of the path allowed it, explaining, among other things, why
Admiral Essiter was called “Point Seven,” an explanation which
involved the further explanation of a recondite question of naval
gunnery. When the riders came abreast of the refugee camp the
midshipman’s eyes were unbound, and he rode proudly into the town,
attended by one of the guards, and big with importance, though
refusing to explain either his night’s absence on shore or his present
errand, obtained a passage back to the fleet in one of the
_Magniloquent’s_ boats, which had come on shore for fresh meat. The
rest followed more slowly, and established themselves in Dr
Terminoff’s office, the house of the chief man of the place, to watch
what would follow. Dr Terminoff was delighted at the prospect of their
visiting the fleet, though for the same perverse reason as Eirene, and
declared exultingly that Nilischeff and his party would find
themselves altogether checkmated.
“A boat putting off from the _Magniloquent_!” announced Wylie, who had
been watching the flagship through his glasses. “A highly superior
boat, too.”
“Oh, it must be the Admiral’s barge!” cried Zoe, drawing upon her
recollections of sea-stories read in her youth. “Do please let me
look. Isn’t it splendid? Doesn’t it make you feel exactly like
Nelson?”
“In a steam-launch? Particularly so,” responded Wylie, surrendering
the glass, which Zoe monopolised until the arrival of Mr Suter,
bearing a cordial invitation from the Admiral to the son of his old
friend to visit him on board the flagship. Going down to the renovated
pier, they were received by an officer whose uniform, as Prince
Romanos expressed it, “exhibited something more of ornamentation” than
that of Lieutenant Cotway, and who at once conciliated the scruples
and rejoiced the hearts of the guards by insisting that the invitation
included them. Welcomed, after the miraculously short voyage, as
honoured guests, the adventurers stood at length on the deck of the
_Magniloquent_, there to be received in state by Admiral Essiter, a
small spruce man with a plum-coloured complexion, and the air of
finding his own inscrutable thoughts faintly amusing. The expression
was probably habitual, not due to the circumstances of the occasion,
and Zoe had the idea that, like the protective colouring of some
animals, it must be assumable at pleasure, for watching her host
keenly at lunch, she saw that a look of anxiety sometimes took its
place, though the mask went on again as soon as the Admiral perceived
that he was observed. When the meal was over, he asked Maurice to give
him a quarter of an hour in his cabin, requesting his officers to
entertain the rest of the party, even as the astonished Emathian
guards were being initiated into the wonders of the great ship by
bands of grinning seamen and marines. To the Admiral’s surprise,
Prince Romanos appeared to consider himself included in the invitation
given to Maurice.
“Your friend doesn’t speak English, perhaps?” said the host,
courteously waving Prince Romanos back. “Will you tell him that
Captain Bryson will show him over the ship?”
“I thank you--Mr Admiral,” Prince Romanos was wavering between “M.
l’Amiral” and Maurice’s “Admiral,” which sounded to him disagreeably
curt; “but I understand perfectly. Only I conceive myself to possess
an interest not inferior to that of Prince Theophanis in the subject
of your discussion.”
“Prince Christodoridi is the rival heir,” explained Maurice, as the
Admiral glanced inquiringly towards him. “I think myself that his
claims have not a shadow of foundation, and he, of course, thinks the
same of mine, but we are pledged not to fight it out until Emathia is
free.”
“Which puts it off for a few hundred years or so? Well, if you don’t
mind his being present, it’s not for me to object. You are your father
all over. There was a story--I don’t guarantee its truth, mind--that
when the square was broken at El Met, he was attacked by an Arab with
a long spear, who gave him all he could do to defend himself. Somehow
or other, he managed to twist the spear out of the fellow’s grip. Did
he finish him off when he had him at his mercy? Not he; he waited till
he got up, and handed him back the spear to go on with.”
“No, Admiral; that’s a little too stiff,” said Maurice.
“Well,” said the Admiral deliberately, “I never believed it myself
till to-day. Now I do. But, pray, what is the meaning of the farce you
are playing in that old rat-hole up yonder, masquerading as a Greek
prince, as if your honest English ancestors were not good enough for
you?”
“Unfortunately they were not English; they were Greek too, descendants
of the last Emperor of the East. I have merely returned to the
original form of our name.”
“Merely? and what about your assumption of sovereignty?”
“It was in response to a repeated appeal that I would place myself at
the head of the Emathian Christians.”
“And who is backing you, if I may be so indiscreet as to ask? Your men
are armed with Mausers, and you have a Maxim or two in position, I
hear.”
“Your officers must have made good use of their eyes while they were
with us. Yes, we are fairly well supplied, but we have no outside
backers. A member of my family left a substantial legacy to be applied
to the restoration of the fortunes of the house, and we are using
that.”
“You mean that you are playing ducks and drakes with it. Why not have
bought up a South American republic, or negotiated with the Emperor of
Scythia for a dukedom, if a sensational way of throwing away good
money for the sake of a shadow was all you wanted?”
“But it was not. What we hope to do is to free Emathia now, and
eventually to turn the Roumis out of Europe.”
“A nice modest programme! Couldn’t you have found some less utterly
hopeless material to work upon than the Emathian Christians? I have no
particular admiration for the Roumi in civil life, though he’s a
first-class fighting man, but he is an intelligent gentleman beside
these fellows, who torture and mutilate and burn each other’s women
and children because one man calls himself a Patriarchist and the
other an Exarchist. Have you ever considered seriously what hope there
can be of ruling, except by martial law, a set of people who all
profess to be Christians, and yet can’t keep their hands off each
other’s throats?”
“We have been considering it for years, and now we are trying an
experiment. The thing can scarcely be harder than to keep the peace
between Mohammedans and Hindus in India. Two things are wanted,--money
to keep us going until we can establish some sort of revenue
system--which we have--and a body of impartial police to keep the
balance between the creeds. There would probably be objections to our
enlisting Englishmen, but Colonel Wylie could work as well with Sikhs,
and he could get as many as he wanted, if permission was once given.”
“Your intentions are as excellent as your plans are ingenious,” said
the Admiral sarcastically, “but you are altogether too idyllic, the
whole lot of you. The coasts of the Egean are not No-man’s-land,
waiting to be colonised. For a private individual to seize upon a
desirable peninsula and settle down to govern it is simply stealing,
though I allow that if it had been done by a sovereign state it would
merely be called annexation.”
“It is an experiment,” repeated Maurice. “If we can show that it is
possible to induce Emathian Christians of different sects to live
peaceably together and to serve under the same flag, surely it is an
object-lesson worth trying on a larger scale? We hear a great deal of
the sympathy of Europe for Emathia, and the absolute impossibility of
showing that sympathy except in words. But you can show it here by
simply saying ‘Hands off!’ to Roum when she tries to turn us out of
Hagiamavra. In return for not being molested we would pay to Czarigrad
a tribute amounting to the present average revenue from the peninsula,
and acknowledge the Roumi suzerainty. If, at the end of the year, the
condition of Hagiamavra compared favourably with that of the rest of
Emathia, a larger area might be entrusted to us--perhaps the vilayet
of Therma.”
The Admiral stared at his guest in exasperated consternation. “If you
were only starting with an entirely new world, your plan might work,”
he said slowly, “but you seem to forget entirely the various interests
involved. Europe is quite determined that there shall be no fighting
over Emathia--whether rightly or wrongly it’s not for me to say. Of
course a devastating warfare in the Balkans might wipe out a few
inconvenient nationalities, and sweep the map clean for some such
experiment as yours, but the Powers won’t have it. We shall maintain
the _status quo_ for a year or two, grumbling more and more every
month, no doubt, until Scythia and Pannonia are ready. Then those two
public-spirited Powers will unselfishly offer to divide Emathia
between them and administer it as it should be administered. The
Roumis daren’t protest, Thracia and Dacia and Mœsia daren’t fly at
the throats of their betters, and order will reign in the Balkans.
That’s the plan mapped out, signed and sealed, and when you set up
your personal ambitions as a bar to its realisation, you are simply an
impertinence to be brushed out of the way. The Powers will have none
of you.”
“The Powers have sometimes yielded points on which they had declared
themselves absolutely immovable,” said Maurice. “Think of Minoa.”
“There the claimant had dynastic support of the highest and most
extraordinarily widespread kind. You have not.”
“My wife believes we can count upon the benevolence of Scythia. She
was brought up at that Court, and the Empress has been sending her
kind messages of late.”
“All moonshine. They will fool you to the top of your bent, make use
of you, and then throw you over. No, don’t deceive yourselves. Reforms
in Emathia, short of the partition of the country, won’t succeed,
because they are not meant to succeed. They are intended to lead up to
that partition when the time is ripe, and disgusted Europe is only too
thankful to any one taking an endless problem off her hands. Scythia
and Pannonia can’t afford to let you try your experiment, lest by some
miracle it should be successful, and because we are acting with them
we shall prevent your trying it. Now will you let me give you my frank
advice?”
“I can’t promise to take it, but I shall be grateful.”
“Then look here. You can’t say that I have done anything to injure
your prestige in the sight of your followers. I have received you as
distinguished guests, and I’ll give you a royal salute if it’s a
matter of importance to you. Remain safe on board here, and I’ll send
a landing-party to bring off the rest of your people--Europeans, of
course I mean. You will retire with a good grace, and leave your rival
here in possession. He’s up to the sort of thing--it’s in his
blood--and you are not.”
“Mr Admiral, you flatter me,” said Prince Romanos, deeply gratified,
with an elaborate bow.
“No, sir, I don’t,” retorted the Admiral. “I think a quixotic
conscience is an unlucky possession for a filibuster, and I don’t
imagine you have got one. Moreover, you are a single man, and I
understand that Teffany has a wife and child on that forsaken
mountain-top, besides his sister on board here. Well, Teffany, will
you save your face and retire in a blaze of glory--of course to give
up all this foolishness and retire into private life for the future?”
“No, Admiral; with many thanks to you, I won’t.”
“So I imagined, since you are your father’s son. Understand, then,
that it’s war to the knife. I am here as the representative of the
Powers to maintain the authority of Roum, and I’ll do it. If your
fellows allow Jalal-ud-din’s forces to advance peaceably and recover
the peninsula, that’s all right. Also I shall not land men to take
part in any fighting unless it’s a case of rescue. But if your men
interfere with the landing of troops, or otherwise carry on
hostilities within range of my guns, I shall shell them. And to-night
a strict blockade will be declared of all the coasts of the peninsula,
and any vessel approaching with supplies of any kind, and not turning
back when summoned to do so, will be sunk. What yacht is it that has
been provisioning you so far? My midshipman saw that your cook wore a
yachtsman’s cap.”
“You can hardly expect us to let you into the secret of our ways and
means,” said Maurice lightly. “Well, Admiral, we must thank you for
your patience and your warning. When the warning comes true, I hope we
may fall into no worse hands than yours.”
“God grant it!” cried the Admiral, with startling vehemence. “Good
heavens! Teffany,--Theophanis or whatever you call yourself,--what
possessed you to bring ladies and children into this affair?”
Maurice hesitated, and Prince Romanos replied for him. “I think, Mr
Admiral, I shall only be doing justice to my friend’s wife and sister
if I say that these intrepid ladies brought themselves into it.”
“Ah, I daresay! poor ignorant creatures, expecting to find everything
made smooth for them, and every Roumi a plaster saint! But you know
better,” he turned fiercely upon Maurice. “What did you do it
for?--tell me. What possibility is there of your getting them out
unharmed?”
“Simply that if we can hold out long enough, the Liberal Powers may
get tired of doing Scythia and Pannonia’s dirty work, and insist on
giving us a chance.”
“Then Heaven help you, if that’s all you have to hope for!” The
Admiral led the way impetuously out of the cabin and plunged into the
group of officers who had been making the tour of the ship with Zoe
and Wylie. “If I hadn’t invited you on board,” he said in a shaking
voice to his guests, “I’d have put you all under arrest and kept you
here safe. As it is, I beg and beseech you to save me the disgrace of
kidnapping you by staying on board of your own free will. You, sir!”
he turned on Wylie, “how dare you encourage these absurd, illegal,
fantastic proceedings? It strikes me that you will hear from the War
Office before long, and to some purpose.”
“Possibly the War Office has heard from me already, sir,” said Wylie,
and the calmness of the reply restored the Admiral’s composure.
“Well, I wash my hands of it. I have done what I could to save you,
and as you won’t be saved, I warn you that you’ll have to take the
consequences. Wait! call up those Emathians of yours, if you please,”
to Maurice. “I presume that if they leave you in the lurch you will be
able to yield with a good conscience.”
The guards were summoned, and stood ranged before the Admiral, with
obviously agonising efforts to recall Wylie’s instructions as to
attitude.
“I wish you to understand,” said the great man harshly, “that Prince
Theophanis is engaged in an enterprise which the Powers have entirely
forbidden. This rebellion will be put down by force, and no mercy will
be shown to any who take part in it. The warships of the Powers will
co-operate with Jalal-ud-din Pasha and his army in restoring
tranquillity.”
“Yes, lord,” chorused the guards obediently, when Wylie had translated
the speech.
“I don’t believe they understand what I mean. What’s that end man
grinning for? Do you all understand?”
“Oh yes, lord, we understand perfectly!” and as the Admiral turned on
his heel, the furtive grins became broad ones. He made no further
attempt to shake the determination of his guests, but as they were
embarking he put a note into Mr Suter’s hand.
“Give that to Mr Cotway at the monastery, and tell him I will endorse
any arrangement he makes.”
The incident passed without remark, for there was a general depression
pervading the ship. The officers bade the visitors farewell as if they
were predestined victims, and a faint cheer which broke out among the
men was quickly silenced. Zoe, always sensitive to mental atmosphere,
shivered as she sat in the boat, though the sun was only beginning to
decline. These impartial observers, who would have liked to help but
were forced to oppose, were so plainly convinced that nothing but
failure was before Maurice and his cause. And failure, in the
circumstances, meant----? A little frightened sigh broke from Zoe’s
lips, and Wylie turned and looked at her. He asked her if she was
cold, and she did not guess that he had read her thoughts until they
had passed through Skandalo, and were on their way to Hagiamavra. Then
she found him beside her mule.
“I suppose,” he said in a low voice, “there is no hope even now of
your consenting to ease our minds by going on board the fleet--you and
Princess Theophanis and Con, I mean, of course?”
“What! forsake Maurice now?” cried Zoe. “Certainly not.”
“But think what a comfort it would be to him--to all of us--to know
that you were safe. How can a man fight his best when his wife and
sister are in the most frightful danger? And then the necessity of
dividing our forces,--the monastery must always be guarded, you know,
however badly the men may be wanted elsewhere. And after all, what is
to be the end of it?”
“You would really be glad if we left you and took refuge with the
Admiral?” she asked meditatively.
“Glad? I could sing for joy!” he cried.
“Ah,” said Zoe, “if you had talked like this before, we might have
done it, but now it is too late. To escape now would be like rats
leaving a sinking ship.”
“Then it is my fault--my cursed pride? Look here, Princess, have pity
upon me. Do you want me to go to my death knowing that I have brought
you two into all this?”
“Oh, no!” said Zoe quickly; “I ought not to have put it upon you.
Eirene would never have turned back, even at Bashi Konak, and I could
not have let her go on alone. Nothing would have made us stay behind,
so that may comfort you.”
“Pretty comfort!” he growled. “The facts are the same.”
“Oh, but it is not your fault,” responded Zoe, with such evident
conviction of the efficacy of her consolation that he attempted no
further remonstrance. He was miserably uneasy at the prospect of the
future, and hailed even the necessity of a farther journey, when the
monastery had been reached, as a means of banishing thought. Admiral
Essiter had sent strict orders that Lieutenant Cotway and Mr Suter
were to rejoin the _Magniloquent_ that night, and Wylie set out with
an escort to conduct them to the edge of the insurgents’ country.
Shortly before reaching the point at which they were to part company,
Lieutenant Cotway requested Mr Suter to ride a short distance ahead,
much to the disgust of that promising officer, and drew close to
Wylie.
“Old Point Seven is awfully cut up about the Princesses,” he said.
“Can nothing be done to get them away?”
“Nothing. I’ve tried again to-night,” groaned Wylie.
“Well, look here. I presume, when the smash comes, we shall be round
somewhere to pick up the pieces. Afraid we can’t do anything for
you--you see that?” Wylie nodded, “but the admiral will stretch a good
many points to save the ladies. Now can you suggest anything?”
“Nothing short of carrying them off by force would really be
effectual,” said Wylie bitterly.
“No last resort? no way of appealing to their better feelings and
getting rid of them in that way? Bright idea! why not kidnap the
baby?”
“Because you would never get the chance,” said Wylie, laughing in
spite of himself. “His mother doesn’t let him out of her sight night
or day. But I believe there’s something in your notion. Princess
Theophanis has driven her husband to his ruin, but she doesn’t really
want the family wiped out, though you might think it. When things get
very black, I think it will be possible to induce her to escape, so as
to save the child. Yes, and I see how it’s to be done. You know a
place called Ephestilo, on the other coast--not the Skandalo side?
There are two bays close together. One looks like an excellent
harbour, but the cliffs rise sheer from the water’s edge, and there’s
no path up them. Avoid that, and steer for the next bay, where there
are pillars and things, ruins of a temple of some sort, and a fishing
village. There’s a reef of rocks which only leaves room for one boat
to enter at a time, but still there is room, and there’s a path down
from the top of the cliffs. When things get to the worst, we’ll send
away the ladies there by by-paths, and you can take them on board. Of
course this is supposing that we are not surrounded. If we are, it’s
good-bye, unless the monks have any secret passages.”
“Not likely in this part. But I’ll back you for getting the ladies out
of the monastery somehow. You manage that, and we do the rest. We
shall be patrolling both coasts to keep supplies from reaching you. By
the bye, can’t you do anything to show us when we are wanted at
Ephestilo? It would be rather bad not to be on the spot, in case the
Roumis were after them.”
“We might light a beacon-fire, but it would be difficult to
distinguish----”
“It would, with camp-fires all round. No, I know what’s far
better--blue lights. I was going to smuggle a few books and papers on
shore for the ladies,--to the care of your medical friend at Skandalo,
of course,--and I’ll put in half a dozen blue lights in a box
addressed to you. Then you can burn them at half-hour intervals on the
monastery gateway, which has a clear view down to the sea, the night
before your last stand, and we shall be ready the next day.”
“Right; and if we are unfortunately obliged to make our last stand
without warning--why, that’s one of the accidents to which adventures
of this kind are liable, and you will excuse notice.”