The Message

A. J. (Alec John) Dawson

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• Publié par: jodec
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 72
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Message, by Alec John Dawson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Message Author: Alec John Dawson Illustrator: Henry Matthew Brock Release Date: January 21, 2009 [EBook #27860] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MESSAGE *** Produced by David Clarke, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) THE MESSAGE "I SAW THAT QUEEN OF ANCIENT BRITONS AT THE HEAD OF HER WILD, SHAGGY LEGIONS" (See page 233) By A. J. DAWSON Author of "Hidden Manna," "African Nights Entertainments," "Daniel Whyte," "God's Foundling," "Ronald Kestrel," etc. Illustrated from Color Sketches By H. M. BROCK DANA ESTES & COMPANY BOSTON , E. GRANT RICHARDS, LONDON Copyright, April 17, 1907 BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY All rights reserved Entered at Stationers' Hall COLONIAL PRESS ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY C. H. SIMONDS & CO. BOSTON, U.S.A. CONTENTS PART I.—THE DESCENT CHAPTER PAGE [v] I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. IN THE MAKING AT THE WATER'S EDGE AN INTERLUDE THE LAUNCHING A JOURNALIST'S EQUIPMENT A JOURNALIST'S SURROUNDINGS A GIRL AND HER FAITH A STIRRING WEEK A STEP DOWN FACILIS DESCENSUS AVERNI MORNING CALLERS SATURDAY NIGHT IN LONDON THE DEMONSTRATION IN HYDE PARK THE NEWS SUNDAY NIGHT IN LONDON A PERSONAL REVELATION ONE STEP FORWARD THE DEAR LOAF THE TRAGIC WEEK BLACK SATURDAY ENGLAND ASLEEP 3 12 17 29 41 53 66 78 90 101 111 121 131 143 153 163 168 177 188 198 208 PART II.—THE AWAKENING I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. THE FIRST DAYS ANCIENT LIGHTS THE RETURN TO LONDON THE CONFERENCE MY OWN PART PREPARATIONS THE SWORD OF THE LORD THE PREACHERS THE CITIZENS SMALL FIGURES ON A GREAT STAGE THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER ONE SUMMER MORNING "FOR GOD, OUR RACE, AND DUTY" "SINGLE HEART AND SINGLE SWORD" HANDS ACROSS THE SEA THE PENALTY THE PEACE THE GREAT ALLIANCE 221 228 237 243 257 262 271 291 301 312 317 330 338 343 352 360 366 374 383 [vi] XX. PEACE HATH HER VICTORIES 389 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE [vii] "I SAW THAT QUEEN OF ANCIENT BRITONS AT THE HEAD OF HER WILD, SHAGGY LEGIONS" THE ROARING CITY "RIVERS USHERED IN MISS CONSTANCE GREY" "I WAS ON MY KNEES AND KISSING THE NERVELESS HAND" Frontispiece 40 114 212 PART I THE DESCENT Non his juventus orta parentibus infecit aequor sanguine Punico.—HORACE. THE MESSAGE I IN THE MAKING "Such as I am, sir—no great subject for a boaster, I admit—you see in me a product of my time, sir, and of very worthy parents, I assure you."—EZEKIEL JOY. [3] A S a very small lad, at home in Tarn Regis, I had but one close chum, George Stairs, and he went off with his father to Canada, while I was away for my first term at Elstree School. Then came Rugby, where I had several friends, but the chief of them was Leslie Wheeler. Just why we should have been close friends I cannot say, but I fancy it was mainly because Leslie was such a handsome fellow, and always seemed to cut a good figure in everything he did; while I, on the other hand, excelled in nothing, and was not brilliant even in the expression of my discontent, which was tolerably comprehensive. Withal, in other matters beside discontent, I was a good deal of an extremist, and by no means lacking in enthusiasm. My father, too, was an enthusiast in his quiet way. His was the enthusiasm of the student, and his work as historian and archæologist absorbed, I must suppose, a great deal more of his interest and energy than was ever given to his cure of souls. He was rector of Tarn Regis, in Dorset, before I was born, and at the time of his death, to be present at which I was called away in the middle of the last term of my third year at Cambridge. I was to have spent four years at the University; but, as the event proved, I never returned there after my hurried departure, three days prior to my father's death. The personal tie between my father and those among whom he lived and worked was not a very close or intimate bond. His contribution to the Cambridge History was greatly appreciated by scholars, and his archæological research won him the respect and esteem of his peers in that branch of study. But I cannot pretend that his loss was keenly felt by his parishioners, with most of whom his relations had been strictly professional rather than personal. A good man and true, without a trace of anything sordid or self-seeking in his nature, my father was yet singularly indifferent to everything connected with the daily lives and welfare of his fellow creatures. In this he was typical of a considerable section of the country clergy of the time. I knew colleagues of his who were more pronounced examples of the type. One in particular I call to mind (whose living was in the gift of a Cambridge college, like my father's), who, though a good fellow and a clean-lived gentleman, was no more a Christian than he was a Buddhist—less, upon the whole. Among scholarly folk he made not the slightest pretence of regarding the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith in the light of anything more serious than interesting historical myths, notable sections in the mosaic of folk-lore, which it was his pride and delight to study and understand. [4] [5] Such men as A—— R—— and my father (and there were many like them, and more who shared their aloofness while lacking half their virtues) lived hard-working, studious lives, in which the common kinds of self-indulgence played but a very small part. Honourable, kindly at heart, gentle, rarely consciously selfish, these worthy men never gave a thought to the current affairs of their country, to their own part as citizens, or to the daily lives of their fellow countrymen. Indeed, they exhibited a kind of gentle intolerance and contempt in all topical concerns; and though they preached religion and drew stipends as expounders of Christianity, they no more thought of "prying" or "interfering," as they would have said, into the actual lives and hearts and minds of those about them, than of thrusting their