THE ORDERING OF EUROPE.
While these events had been in progress three squadrons of air-ships
had been speeding to St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Rome. Three vessels
had been despatched to each city, and the instructions of those in
command of the squadrons were to bring the German Emperor, the
Emperor of Austria, and the King of Italy to London.
The news of the defeat of the League had preceded them by telegraph,
and all three monarchs willingly obeyed the summons which they
carried to attend a Conference for the ordering of affairs of Europe.
The German Emperor was at once released from his captivity, although
only under a threat of the destruction of the city by the air-ships,
for the Grand Duke Vladimir, who ruled at St. Petersburg as deputy of
the Tsar, had first refused to believe the astounding story of the
defeat of his brother and the destruction of his army. The terrible
achievements of the air-ships were, however, too well and too
certainly known to permit of resistance by force, and so the Kaiser
was released, and made his first aërial voyage from St. Petersburg to
London, arriving there at ten o'clock on the evening of the 8th, in
the midst of the jubilations of the rejoicing city.
The King of England had sent a despatch to the Emperor of Austria
inviting him to the Conference, and General Cosensz had sent a
similar one to the King of Italy, and so there had been no difficulty
about their coming. At mid-day on the 9th the Conference was opened
in St. Paul's, which was the only public building left intact in
London capable of containing the vast audience that was present, an
audience composed of men of every race and language in Europe.
Natas was absent, and Tremayne occupied his seat in the centre of the
table; the other members of the Inner Circle, now composing the
Supreme Council of the Federation, were present, with the exception
of Natasha, Radna, and Anna Ornovski, and the other seats at the
table were occupied by the monarchs to whom the purposes of the
Conference had been explained earlier in the day. France was
represented in the person of General le Gallifet.
The body of the Cathedral was filled to overflowing, with the
exception of an open space kept round the table by the Federation
guards.
The proceedings commenced with a brief but impressive religious
service conducted by the Primate of England, who ended it with a
short but earnest appeal, delivered from the altar steps, to those
composing the Conference, calling upon them to conduct their
deliberations with justice and moderation, and reminding them of the
millions who were waiting in other parts of Europe for the blessings
of peace and prosperity which it was now in their power to confer
upon them. As the Archbishop concluded the prayer for the blessing of
Heaven upon their deliberation, with which he ended his address,
Tremayne, after a few moments of silence, rose in his place and,
speaking in clear deliberate tones, began as follows:--
"Your Majesties have been called together to hear the statement of
the practical issues of the conflict which has been decided between
the armies of the Federation of the Anglo-Saxon peoples and those of
the late Franco-Slavonian League.
"Into the motives which led myself and those who have acted with me
to take the part which we have done in this tremendous struggle,
there is now no need for me to enter. It is rather with results than
with motives that we have to deal, and those results may be very
briefly stated.
"We have demonstrated on the field of battle that we hold in our
hands means of destruction against which it is absolutely impossible
for any army fortress or fleet to compete with the slightest hope of
victory; and more than this, we are in command of the only organised
army and fleet now on land or sea. We have been compelled by the
necessities of the case to use our powers unsparingly up to a certain
point. That we have not used them beyond that point, as we might have
done, to enslave the world, is the best proof that I can give of the
honesty of our purposes with regard to the future.
"But it must never be forgotten that these powers remain with us, and
can be evoked afresh should necessity ever arise.
"It is not our purpose to enter upon a war of conquest, or upon a
series of internal revolutions in the different countries of Europe,
the issue of which might be the subversion of all order, and the
necessity for universal conquest on our part in order to restore it.
"With two exceptions the internal affairs of all the nations of
Europe, saving only Russia, which for the present we shall govern
directly, will be left undisturbed. The present tenure of land will
be abolished, and the only rights to the possession of it that will
be recognised will be occupation and cultivation. Experience has
shown that the holding of land for mere purposes of luxury or
speculative profit leads to untold injustices to the general
population of a country. The land on which cities and towns are built
will henceforth belong to the municipalities, and the rents of the
buildings will be paid in lieu of taxation.
"The other exception is even more important than this. We have waged
war in order that it may be waged no more, and we are determined that
it shall now cease for ever. The peoples of the various nations have
no interest in warfare. It has been nothing but an affliction and a
curse to them, and we are convinced that if one generation grows up
without drawing the sword, it will never be drawn again as long as
men remain upon the earth. All existing fortifications will therefore
be at once destroyed, standing armies will be disbanded, and all the
warships in the world, which cannot be used for peaceful purposes,
will be sent to the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean.
"For the maintenance of peace and order each nation will maintain a
body of police, in which all citizens between the ages of twenty and
forty will serve in rotation, and this police will be under the
control, first of the Sovereign and Parliament of the country, and
ultimately of an International Board, which will sit once a year in
each of the capitals of Europe in turn, and from whose decision there
will be no appeal.
"The possession of weapons of warfare, save by the members of this
force, will be forbidden under penalty of death, as we shall
presuppose that no man can possess such weapons save with intent to
kill, and all killing, save execution for murder, will henceforth be
treated as murder. Declaration of war by one country upon another
will be held to be a national crime, and, should such an event ever
occur, the forces of the Anglo-Saxon Federation will be at once armed
by authority of the Supreme Council, and the guilty nation will be
crushed and its territories will be divided among its neighbours.
"Such are the broad outlines of the course which we intend to pursue,
and all I have now to do is to commend them to your earnest
consideration in the name of those over whom you are the constituted
rulers."
As the President of the Federation sat down the German Emperor rose
and said in a tone which showed that he had heard the speech with but
little satisfaction--
"From what we have heard it would seem that the Federation of the
Anglo-Saxon peoples considers itself as having conquered the world,
and as being, therefore, in a position to dictate terms to all the
peoples of the earth. Am I correct in this supposition?"
Tremayne bowed in silence, and he continued--
"But this amounts to the destruction of the liberties of all peoples
who are not of the Anglo-Saxon race. It seems impossible to me to
believe that free-born men who have won their liberty upon the
battlefield will ever consent to submit to a despotism such as this.
What if they refuse to do so?"
Tremayne was on his feet in an instant. He turned half round and
faced the Kaiser, with a frown on his brow and an ominous gleam in
his eyes--
"Your Majesty of Germany may call it a despotism if you choose, but
remember that it is a despotism of peace and not of war, and that it
affects only those who would be peace-breakers and drawers of the
sword upon their fellow-creatures. I regret that you have made it
necessary for me to remind you that we have conquered your
conquerors, and that the despotism from which we have delivered the
nations of Europe would infallibly have been ten thousand times worse
than that which you are pleased to miscall by the name.
"You deplore the loss of the right and the power to draw the sword
one upon another. Well, now, take that right back again for the last
time! Say here, and now, that you will not acknowledge the supremacy
of the Council of the Federation, and take the consequences!
"Our soldiers are still in the field, our aërial fleet is still in
the air, and our sea-navy is under steam. But, remember, if you
appeal to the sword it shall be with you as it was with Alexander
Romanoff and the Russian force which invaded England. We have
annihilated the army to a man, and exiled the Autocrat for life.
Choose now, peace or war, and let those who would choose war with you
take their stand beside you, and we will fight another Armageddon!"
The pregnant and pitiless words brought the Kaiser to his senses in
an instant. He remembered that his army was destroyed, his strongest
fortresses dismantled, his treasury empty, and the manhood of his
country decimated. He turned white to the lips and sank back into his
chair, covered his face with his hands, and sobbed aloud. And so
ended the last and only protest made by the spirit of militarism
against the new despotism of peace.
One by one the monarchs now rose in their places, bowed to the
inevitable, and gave their formal adherence to the new order of
things. General le Gallifet came last. When he had affixed his
signature to the written undertaking of allegiance which they had all
signed, he said, speaking in French--
"I was born and bred a soldier, and my life has been passed either in
warfare or the study of it. I have now drawn the sword for the last
time, save to defend France from invasion. I have seen enough of
modern war, or, as I should rather call it, murder by machinery, for
such it only is now. They spoke truly who prophesied that the
solution of the problem of aërial navigation would make war
impossible. It has made it impossible, because it has made it too
unspeakably horrible for humanity to tolerate it.
"In token of the honesty of my belief I ask now that France and
Germany shall bury their long blood-feud on their last battlefield,
and in the persons of his German Majesty and myself shake hands in
the presence of this company as a pledge of national forgiveness and
perpetual peace."
As he ceased speaking, he turned and held out his hand to the Kaiser.
All eyes were turned on William II, to see how he would receive this
appeal. For a moment he hesitated, then his manhood and chivalry
conquered his pride and national prejudice, and amidst the cheers of
the great assembly, he grasped the outstretched hand of his
hereditary enemy, saying in a voice broken by emotion--
"So be it. Since the sword is broken for ever, let us forget that we
have been enemies, and remember only that we are neighbours."
This ended the public portion of the Conference. From St. Paul's
those who had composed it went to Buckingham Palace, in the grounds
of which the aërial fleet was reposing on the lawns under a strong
guard of Federation soldiers. Here they embarked, and were borne
swiftly through the air to Windsor Castle, where they dined together
as friends and guests of the King of England, and after dinner
discussed far on into the night the details of the new European
Constitution which was to be drawn up and formally ratified within
the next few days.
Shortly after noon on the following day the _Ithuriel_, with Natas,
Natasha, Arnold, and Tremayne on board, rose into the air from the
grounds of Buckingham Palace and headed away to the northward. The
control of affairs was left for the time being to a committee of the
members of what had once been the Inner Circle of the Terrorists, and
which was now the Supreme Council of the Federation.
This was under the joint presidency of Alexis Mazanoff and Nicholas
Roburoff, who was exerting his great and well-proved administrative
abilities to the utmost in order to atone for the fault which had led
to the desertion of the _Lucifer_, and to amply justify the
intercession of Natasha which had made it possible for him to be
present at the last triumph of the Federation and the accomplishment
of the long and patient work of the Brotherhood. There was an immense
amount of work to be got through in the interval between the
pronouncement of the judgment of Natas on the Tsar and his Ministers
and the execution of the sentence. After twenty-four hours in Newgate
they were transferred to Wormwood Scrubs Prison, and there, under a
guard of Federation soldiers, who never left them for a moment day or
night, they awaited the hour of their departure to Siberia.
Communication with all parts of the Continent and America was rapidly
restored. The garrisons of the League were withdrawn from the
conquered cities, gave up their arms at the depots of their
respective regiments, and returned to their homes. The French and
Italian troops round London were disarmed and taken to France in the
Federation fleet of transports. Meanwhile three air-ships were placed
temporarily at the disposal of the Emperor of Austria, the Kaiser,
and the King of Italy, to convey them to their capitals, and furnish
them with the means of speedy transit about their dominions, and to
and from London during the drawing up of the new European
Constitution.
A fleet of four air-ships and fifteen aerostats was also despatched
to the Russian capital, and compelled the immediate surrender of the
members of the Imperial family and the Ministers of the Government,
and the instant disarmament of all troops on Russian soil, under pain
of immediate destruction of St. Petersburg and Moscow, and invasion
and conquest of the country by the Federation armies. The Council of
State and the Ruling Senate were then dissolved, and the Executive
passed automatically into the hands of the controllers of the
Federation. Resistance was, of course, out of the question, and as
soon as it was once known for certain that the Tsar had been taken
prisoner and his army annihilated, no one thought seriously of it, as
it would have been utterly impossible to have defended even Russia
against the overwhelming forces of the Federation and the British
Empire, assisted by the two aërial fleets.
The _Ithuriel_, after a flight of a little more than an hour, stopped
and descended to the earth on the broad, sloping, and now
snow-covered lawn in front of Alanmere Castle. Lord Marazion and his
daughter, who, as it is almost needless to say, had been kept well
informed of the course of events since the Federation forces landed
in England, had also been warned by telegraph of the coming of their
aërial visitors, and before the _Ithuriel_ had touched the earth, the
new mistress of Alanmere had descended the steps of the terrace that
ran the whole length of the Castle front to welcome its lord and hers
back to his own again.
Then there were greetings of lovers and friends, well known to each
other by public report and familiar description, yet never seen in
the flesh till now, and of others long parted by distance and by
misconception of aims and motives. But however pleasing it might be
to dwell at length upon the details of such a meeting, and its
delightful contrast to the horrors of unsparing war and merciless
destruction, there is now no space to do so, for the original limits
of this history of the near future have already been reached and
overpassed, and it is time to make ready for the curtain to descend
upon the last scenes of the world-drama of the Year of Wonders--1904.
Tremayne was the first to alight, and he was followed by Natasha and
Arnold at a respectful distance, which they kept until the first
greeting between the two long and strangely-parted lovers was over.
When at length Lady Muriel got out of the arms of her future lord,
she at once ran to Natasha with both her hands outstretched, a very
picture of grace and health and blushing loveliness.
She was Natasha's other self, saving only for the incomparable
brilliance of colouring and contrast which the daughter of Natas
derived from her union of Eastern and Western blood. Yet no fairer
type of purely English beauty than Muriel Penarth could have been
found between the Border and the Land's End, and what she lacked of
Natasha's half Oriental brilliance and fire she atoned for by an
added measure of that indescribable blend of dignity and gentleness
which makes the English gentlewoman perhaps the most truly lovable of
all women on earth.
"I could not have believed that the world held two such lovely
women," said Arnold to Tremayne, as the two girls met and embraced.
"How marvellously alike they are, too! They might be sisters. Surely
they must be some relation."
"Yes, I am sure they are," replied Tremayne; "such a resemblance
cannot be accidental. I remember in that queer double life of mine,
when I was your unconscious rival, I used to interchange them until
they almost seemed to be the same identity to me. There is some
little mystery behind the likeness which we shall have cleared up
before very long now. Natas told me to take Lord Marazion to him in
the saloon, and said he would not enter the Castle till he had spoken
with him alone. There he is at the door! You go and make Muriel's
acquaintance, and I will take him on board at once."
So saying, Tremayne ran up the terrace steps, shook hands heartily
with the old nobleman, and then came down with him towards the
air-ship. As they met Lady Muriel coming up with Arnold on one side
of her and Natasha on the other, Lord Marazion stopped suddenly with
an exclamation of wonder. He took his arm out of Tremayne's, strode
rapidly to Natasha, and, before his daughter could say a word of
introduction, put his hands on her shoulders, and looked into her
lovely upturned face through a sudden mist of tears that rose
unbidden to his eyes.
"It is a miracle!" he said, in a low voice that trembled with
emotion. "If you are the daughter of Natas, there is no need to tell
me who he is, for you are Sylvia Penarth's daughter too. Is not that
so, Sylvia di Murska--for I know you bear your mother's name?"
"Yes, I bear her name--and my father's. He is waiting for you in the
air-ship, and he has much to say to you. You will bring him back to
the Castle with you, will you not?"
Natasha spoke with a seriousness that had more weight than her words,
but Lord Marazion understood her meaning. He stooped down and kissed
her on the brow, saying--
"Yes, yes; the past is the past. I will go to him, and you shall see
us come back together."
"And so we are cousins!" exclaimed Lady Muriel, slipping her arm
round Natasha's waist as she spoke. "I was sure we must be some
relation to each other; for, though I am not so beautiful"--
"Don't talk nonsense, or I shall call you 'Your Ladyship' for the
rest of the day. Yes, of course we are alike, since our mothers were
twin-sisters, and the very image of each other, according to their
portraits."
While the girls were talking of their new-found relationship, Arnold
had dropped behind to wait for Tremayne, who, after he had taken Lord
Marazion into the saloon of the _Ithuriel_, had left him with Natas
and returned to the Castle alone.