THE JUDGMENT OF NATAS.
The myriad-voiced chorus of the Song of the Revolution ended in a
mighty shout of jubilant hurrahs, in the midst of which the _Ariel_
dropped lightly to the earth, and Tremayne, dressed now in the grey
uniform of the Federation, with a small red rosette on the left
breast of his tunic, descended from her deck to the ground with a
drawn sword in his hand.
He was at once recognised by several of the leaders, and as the
words, "The Chief, the Chief," ran from lip to lip, those in the
front ranks brought their rifles to the present, while the captains
saluted with their swords. The British regulars and volunteers
followed suit as if by instinct, and the chorus of cheers broke out
again. Tremayne acknowledged the salute, and raised his hand to
command silence. A hush at once fell upon the assembled multitude,
and in the deep silence of anticipation which followed, he said in
clear, ringing tones--
"Soldiers of the Federation and the Empire! that which I hope will be
the last battle of the Western nations has been fought and won. The
Anglo-Saxon race has rallied to the defence of its motherland, and in
the blood of its invaders has wiped out the stain of conquest. It has
met the conquerors of Europe in arms, and on the field of battle it
has vindicated its right to the empire of the world.
"Henceforth the destinies of the human race are in its keeping, and
it will worthily discharge the responsibility. It may yet be
necessary for you to fight other battles with other races; but the
victory that has attended you here will wait upon your arms
elsewhere, and then the curse and the shame of war will be removed
from the earth, let us hope for ever. European despotism has fought
its last battle and lost, and those who have appealed to the sword
shall be judged by the sword."
As he said this, he pointed with his weapon towards the Tsar and his
Staff, and continued, with an added sternness in his voice--
"In the Master's name, take those men prisoners! Their fate will be
decided to-morrow. Forward a company of the First Division; your
lives will answer for theirs!"
As the Chief ended his brief address to the victorious troops ten
men, armed with revolver and sword, stepped forward, each followed by
ten others armed with rifle and fixed bayonet, and immediately formed
in a hollow square round the Tsar and his Staff. This summary
proceeding proved too much for the outraged dignity of the fallen
Autocrat, and he stepped forward and cried out passionately--
"What is this? Is not my surrender enough? Have we not fought with
civilised enemies, that we are to be treated like felons in the hour
of defeat?"
Tremayne raised his sword and cried sharply, "To the ready!" and
instantly the prisoners were encircled by a hedge of levelled
bayonets and rifle-barrels charged with death. Then he went on, in
stern commanding tones--
"Silence there! We do not recognise what you call the usages of
civilised warfare. You are criminals against humanity, assassins by
wholesale, and as such you shall be treated."
There was nothing for it but to submit to the indignity, and within a
few minutes the Tsar and those who with him had essayed the
enslavement of the world were lodged in separate rooms in the
building under a strong guard to await the fateful issue of the
morrow.
The rest of the night was occupied in digging huge trenches for the
burial of the almost innumerable dead, a task which, gigantic as it
was, was made light by the work of hundreds of thousands of willing
hands. Those of the invaders who had fallen in London itself were
taken down the Thames on the ebb tide in fleets of lighters, towed by
steamers, and were buried at sea. Happily it was midwinter, and the
temperature remained some degrees below freezing point, and so the
great city was saved from what in summer would infallibly have
brought pestilence in the track of war.
At twelve o'clock on the following day the vast interior of St.
Paul's Cathedral was thronged with the anxious spectators of the last
scene in the tremendous tragedy which had commenced with the
destruction of Kronstadt by the _Ariel_, and which had culminated in
the triumph of Anglo-Saxondom over the leagued despotism and
militarism of Europe.
At a long table draped with red cloth, and placed under the dome in
front of the chancel steps, sat Natas, with Tremayne and Natasha on
his right hand, and Arnold and Alexis Mazanoff on his left. Radna,
Anna Ornovski, and the other members of the Inner Circle of the
Terrorists, including the President, Nicholas Roburoff, who had been
pardoned and restored to his office at the intercession of Natasha,
occupied the other seats, and behind them stood a throng of the
leaders of the Federation forces.
Neither the King of England nor any of his Ministers or military
officers were present, as they had no voice in the proceedings which
were about to take place. It had been decided, at a consultation with
them earlier in the day, that it would be better that they should be
absent.
That which was to be done was unparalleled in the history of the
world, and outside the recognised laws of nations; and so their
prejudices were respected, and they were spared what they might have
looked upon as an outrage on international policy, and the ancient
but mistaken traditions of so-called civilised warfare.
In front of the table two double lines of Federation soldiers, with
rifles and fixed bayonets, kept a broad clear passage down to the
western doors of the Cathedral. The murmur of thousands of voices
suddenly hushed as the Cathedral clock struck the first stroke of
twelve. It was the knell of an empire and a despotism. At the last
stroke Natas raised his hand and said--
"Bring up the prisoners!"
There was a quick rustling sound, mingled with the clink of steel, as
the two grey lines stiffened up to attention. Twelve commanders of
divisions marched with drawn swords down to the end of the nave, a
few rapid orders were given, and then they returned heading two
double files of Federation guards, between which, handcuffed like
common felons, walked the once mighty Tsar and the ministers of his
now departed tyranny.
The footsteps of the soldiers and their captives rang clearly upon
the stones in the ominous breathless silence which greeted their
appearance. The fallen Autocrat and his servants walked with downcast
heads, like men in a dream, for to them it was a dream, this sudden
and incomprehensible catastrophe which had overwhelmed them in the
very hour of victory and on the threshold of the conquest of the
world. Three days ago they had believed themselves conquerors, with
the world at their feet; now they were being marched, guarded and in
shackles, to a tribunal which acknowledged no law but its own, and
from whose decision there was no appeal. Truly it was a dream, such a
dream of disaster and calamity as no earthly despot had ever dreamt
before.
Four paces from the table they were halted, the Tsar in the centre,
facing his unknown judge, and his servants on either side of him. He
recognised Natasha, Anna Ornovski, Arnold, and Tremayne, but the
recognition only added to his bewilderment.
There was a slight flush on the face of Natas, and an angry gleam in
his dark magnetic eyes, as he watched his captives approach; but when
he spoke his tones were calm and passionless, the tones of the
conqueror and the judge, rather than of the deeply injured man and a
personal enemy. As the prisoners were halted in front of the table,
and the rifle-butts of the guards rang sharply on the stone pavement,
so deep a hush fell upon the vast throng in the Cathedral, that men
seemed to hold their breath rather than break it until the Master of
the Terror began to speak.
"Alexander Romanoff, late Tsar of the Russias, and now prisoner of
the Executive of the Brotherhood of Freedom, otherwise known to you
as the Terrorists--you have been brought here with your advisers and
the ministers of your tyranny that your crimes may be recounted in
the presence of this congregation, and to receive sentence of such
punishment as it is possible for human justice to mete out to you"--
[Illustration: "Two bayonets crossed in front of him with a sharp
clash."
_See page 359._]
"I deny both your justice and your right to judge. It is you who are
the criminals, conspirators, and enemies of Society. I am a crowned
King, and above all earthly laws"--
Before he could say any more two bayonets crossed in front of him
with a sharp clash, and he was instantly thrust back into his place.
"Silence!" said Natas, in a tone of such stern command that even he
instinctively obeyed. "As for our justice, let that be decided
between you and me when we stand before a more awful tribunal than
this. My right to judge even a crowned king who has no longer a
crown, rests, as your own authority and that of all earthly rulers
has ever done, upon the power to enforce my sentence, and I can and
will enforce it upon you, you heir of a usurping murderess, whose
throne was founded in blood and supported by the bayonets of her
hired assassins. You have appealed to the arbitration of battle, and
it has decided against you; you must therefore abide by its decision.
"You have waged a war of merciless conquest at the bidding of
insatiable ambition. You have posed as the peace-keeper of Europe
until the train of war was laid, as you and your allies thought, in
secret, and then you let loose the forces of havoc upon your
fellow-men without ruth or scruple. Your path of victory has been
traced in blood and flames from one end of Europe to the other; you
have sacrificed the lives of millions, and the happiness of millions
more, to a dream of world-wide empire, which, if realised, would have
been a universal despotism.
"The blood of the uncounted slain cries out from earth to heaven
against you for vengeance. The days are past when those who made war
upon their kind could claim the indulgence of their conquerors. You
have been conquered by those who hold that the crime of aggressive
war cannot be atoned for by the transfer of territory or the payment
of money.
"If this were your only crime we would have blood for blood, and life
for life, as far as yours could pay the penalty. But there is more
than this to be laid to our charge, and the swift and easy punishment
of death would be too light an atonement for Justice to accept.
"Since you ascended your throne you have been as the visible shape of
God in the eyes of a hundred million subjects. Your hands have held
the power of life and death, of freedom and slavery, of happiness and
misery. How have you used it, you who have arrogated to yourself the
attributes of a vicegerent of God on earth? As the power is, so too
is the responsibility, and it will not avail you now to shelter
yourself from it behind the false traditions of diplomacy and
statecraft.
"Your subjects have starved, while you and yours have feasted. You
have lavished millions in vain display upon your palaces, while they
have died in their hovels for lack of bread; and when men have asked
you for freedom and justice, you have given them the knout, the
chain, and the prison.
"You have parted the wife from her husband"--
Here for the moment the voice of Natas trembled with irrepressible
passion, which, before he could proceed, broke from his heaving
breast in a deep sob that thrilled the vast assembly like an electric
shock, and made men clench their hands and grit their teeth, and
wrung an answering sob from the breast of many a woman who knew but
too well the meaning of those simple yet terrible words. Then Natas
recovered his outward composure and went on; but now there was an
angrier gleam in his eyes, and a fiercer ring in his voice.
"You have parted the wife from her husband, the maid from her lover,
the child from its parents. You have made desolate countless homes
that once were happy, and broken hearts that had no thought of evil
towards you--and you have done all this, and more, to maintain as
vile a despotism as ever insulted the justice of man, or mocked at
the mercy of God.
"In the inscrutable workings of Eternal Justice it has come to pass
that your sentence shall be uttered by the lips of one of your
victims. For no offence known to the laws of earth or Heaven my flesh
has been galled by your chains and torn by your whips. I have toiled
to win your ill-gotten wealth in your mines, and by the hands of your
brutal servants the iron has entered into my soul. Yet I am but one
of thousands whose undeserved agony cries out against you in this
hour of judgment.
"Can you give us back what you have taken from us--the years of life
and health and happiness, our wives and our children, our lovers and
our kindred? You have ravished, but you cannot restore. You have
smitten, but you cannot heal. You have killed, but you cannot make
alive again. If you had ten thousand lives they could not atone,
though each were dragged out to the bitter end in the misery that you
have meted out to others.
"But so far as you and yours can pay the debt it shall be paid to the
uttermost farthing. Every pang that you have inflicted you shall
endure. You shall drag your chains over Siberian snows, and when you
faint by the wayside the lash shall revive you, as in the hands of
your brutal Cossacks it has goaded on your fainting victims. You
shall sweat in the mine and shiver in the cell, and your wives and
your children shall look upon your misery and be helpless to help
you, even as have been the fond ones who have followed your victims
to exile and death.
"They have seen your crimes without protest, and shared in your
wantonness. They have toyed with the gold and jewels which they knew
were bought with the price of misery and death, and so it is just
that they should see your sufferings and share in your doom.
"To the mines for life! And when the last summons comes to you and
me, may Eternal Justice judge between us, and in its equal scales
weigh your crimes against your punishment! Begone! for you have
looked your last on freedom. You are no longer men; you are outcasts
from the pale of the brotherhood of the humanity you have outraged!
"Alexis Mazanoff, you will hold yourself responsible for the lives of
the prisoners, and the execution of their sentence. You will see them
in safe keeping for the present, and on the thirtieth day from now
you will set out for Siberia."
The sentence of Natas, the most terrible one which human lips could
have uttered under the circumstances, was received with a breathless
silence of awe and horror. Then Mazanoff rose from his seat, drew his
sword, and saluted. As he passed round the end of the table the
guards closed up round the prisoners, who were staring about them in
stupefied bewilderment at the incredible horror of the fate which in
a moment had hurled them from the highest pinnacle of earthly power
and splendour down to the degradation and misery of the most wretched
of their own Siberian convicts. No time was given for protest or
appeal, for Mazanoff instantly gave the word "Forward!" and,
surrounded by a hedge of bayonets, the doomed men were marched
rapidly down between the two grey lines.
As they reached the bottom of the nave the great central doors swung
open, and through them came a mighty roar of execration from the
multitude outside as they appeared on the top of the Cathedral steps.
From St. Paul's Churchyard, down through Ludgate Hill and up the Old
Bailey to the black frowning walls of Newgate, they were led through
triple lines of Federation soldiers amidst a storm of angry cries
from the crowd on either side,--cries which changed to a wild
outburst of savage, pitiless exultation as the news of their dreadful
sentence spread rapidly from lip to lip. They had shed blood like
water, and had known no pity in the hour of their brief triumph, and
so none was shown for them in the hour of their fall and retribution.
The hour following their disappearance from the Cathedral was spent
in a brief and simple service of thanksgiving for the victory which
had wiped the stain of foreign invasion from the soil of Britain in
the blood of the invader, and given the control of the destinies of
the Western world finally into the hands of the dominant race of
earth.
The service began with a short but eloquent address from Natas, in
which he pointed out the consequences of the victory and the
tremendous responsibilities to the generations of men in the present
and the future which it entailed upon the victors. He concluded with
the following words--
"My own part in this world-revolution is played out. For more than
twenty years I have lived solely for the attainment of one object,
the removal of the blot of Russian tyranny upon European
civilisation, and the necessary punishment of those who were guilty
of the unspeakable crime of maintaining it at such a fearful expense
of human life and suffering.
"That object has now been accomplished; the soldiers of freedom have
met the hirelings of despotism on the field of the world's
Armageddon, and the God of Battles has decided between them. Our
motives may have been mistaken by those who only saw the bare outward
appearance without knowing their inward intention, and our ends have
naturally been misjudged by those who fancied that their
accomplishment meant their own ruin.
"Yet, as the events have proved, and will prove in the ages to come,
we have been but as intelligent instruments in the hands of that
eternal wisdom and justice which, though it may seem to sleep for a
season, and permit the evildoer to pursue his wickedness for a space,
never closes the eye of watchfulness or sheathes the sword of
judgment. The empire of the earth has been given into the hands of
the Anglo-Saxon race, and therefore it is fitting that the supreme
control of affairs should rest in the hands of one of Anglo-Saxon
blood and lineage.
"For that reason I now surrender the power which I have so far
exercised as the Master of the Brotherhood of Freedom into the hands
of Alan Tremayne, known in Britain as Earl of Alanmere and Baron
Tremayne, and from this moment the Brotherhood of Freedom ceases to
exist as such, for its ends are attained, and the objects for which
it was founded have been accomplished.
"With the confidence born of intimate knowledge, I give this power
into his keeping, and those who have shared his counsels and executed
his commands in the past will in the future assist him as the Supreme
Council, which will form the ultimate tribunal to which the disputes
of nations will henceforth be submitted, instead of to the barbarous
and bloody arbitration of battle.
"No such power has ever been delivered into the hands of a single
body of men before; but those who will hold it have been well tried,
and they may be trusted to wield it without pride and without
selfishness, the twin curses that have hitherto afflicted the divided
nations of the earth, because, with the fate of humanity in their
hands and the wealth of earth at their disposal, it will be
impossible to tempt them with bribes, either of riches or of power,
from the plain course of duty which will lie before them."
As Natas finished speaking, he signed with his hand to Tremayne, who
rose in his place and briefly addressed the assembly--
"I and those who will share it with me accept alike the power and the
responsibility--not of choice, but rather because we are convinced
that the interests of humanity demand that we should do so. Those
interests have too long been the sport of kings and their courtiers,
and of those who have seen in selfish profit and aggrandisement the
only ends of life worth living for.
"Under the pretences of furthering civilisation and progress, and
maintaining what they have been pleased to call law and order, they
have perpetrated countless crimes of oppression, cruelty, and
extortion, and we are determined that this shall have an end.
"Henceforth, so far as we can insure it, the world shall be ruled,
not by the selfishness of individuals, or the ambitions of nations,
but in accordance with the everlasting and immutable principles of
truth and justice, which have hitherto been burlesqued alike by
despots on their thrones and by political partisans in the senates of
so-called democratic countries.
"To-morrow, at mid-day in this place, the chief rulers of Europe will
meet us, and our intentions will be further explained. And now before
we separate to go about the rest of the business of the day let us,
as is fitting, give due thanks to Him who has given us the victory."
He ceased speaking, but remained standing; the same instant the organ
of the Cathedral pealed out the opening notes of the familiar
Normanton Chant, and all those at the table, saving Natas, rose to
their feet. Then Natasha's voice soared up clear and strong above the
organ notes, singing the first line of the old well-known chant--
The strain upraise of joy and praise.
And as she ceased the swell of the organ rolled out, and a mighty
chorus of hallelujahs burst by one consent from the lips of the vast
congregation, filling the huge Cathedral, and flowing out from its
now wide-open doors until it was caught up and echoed by the
thousands who thronged the churchyard and the streets leading into
it.
As this died away Radna sang the second line, and so the Psalm of
Praise was sung through, as it were in strophe and anti-strophe,
interspersed with the jubilant hallelujahs of the multitude who were
celebrating the greatest victory that had ever been won on earth.
That night the inhabitants of the delivered city gave themselves up
to such revelry and rejoicing as had never been seen or heard in
London since its foundation. The streets and squares blazed with
lights and resounded with the songs and cheerings of a people
delivered from an impending catastrophe which had bidden fair to
overwhelm it in ruin, and bring upon it calamities which would have
been felt for generations.