by M. P. Shiel
XXXVII
THE STRAITS
In England, meantime, was nothing but dismay.
The Government, whose defeat was accidental, on being hurriedly patchedup, threw itself passionately into the work of defence, calling up everyenrolled man, while at regimental centres the enlistment of volunteerswent forward, Weedon alone turning out 7,000 rifles a day.
But on the night of the Declaration the Under-secretary announced in theHouse that the Russians were moving down the Baltic, the French towardthe Straits: and the next morning dawned with the dreariness of lastmornings and days. However, soon after 1 P.M., the Lord of the Sealanded at Bristol, his yacht being one of the swiftest things afloat;there heard the known facts; and thence wired to Beech's London house,to the London Foreign Office, to Cadiz and to Frederikshavn, where hehad wireless for the _Mahomet_ at the Straits, and for the _Truth_ inthe Cattegat.
His wire to the Foreign Office was as follows:
"I have come to England hoping to avert European war by fiscal means,not knowing that the passage of ships into open water was of firstimportance. Since this is so, accept my assurance, there will be nowar, except on the part of Britain, which I should much resent. BritishGovernment, I suggest, should forthwith allay national anxiety.
"RICHARD".
But the Foreign Office did not publish this telegram, not knowing whatto make of it--unless Hogarth were vehemently the friend of England,while every British being regarded him not so much as the enemy of man,as the special Anti-Christ of England. And how came he to be in England,when he should be at the bottom of the Atlantic? The telegram was passedthrough the agitated departments, but kept dark....
So the afternoon passed without news: and tension grew to agony.
Hogarth spent the evening in his Berkeley Square house with the Managerof Beech's, examining office-books and specimens of some new Sea-coins,till near eleven, when, being alone, he put on a mackintosh, shadedhis face well with hat and collar-flap, and went out into the drizzlingnight.
Even his Berkeley Square was peopled, and, as he strolled toward PallMall, he found it ever harder to advance, till he became jammed. Neverhad he seen such a crowd, all in the air a sound, vague and general,which was like a steam of thought-made-audible; till presently, whiletrying in vain to get away, he was startled by a tumult that travelled,a rumour of woe that noised and swelled, terrifying, the voice of thepeople, the voice of God: and though he did not know its meaning, itkeenly afflicted him.
The fastest of the survivors from the battle with the _Boodah_ hadwirelessed: on that commonplace bulletin at the War Office the newsstood written...
But the rumour of that despair had not yet attained its culmination,when another rumour roared after and over it, roar upon roar, liketempest poured through the multitudinous forest, joyance now overtakingsorrow, and a noise of roistering overwhelming lamentation. And all atonce a great magnetic hysteria seized them all, and the many became asone, and the bursting bosom burst: men weeping like infants, laughingfoolishly, grasping each other's hand, and one cried "Hurrah!", andanother, catching it, cried "Hurrah!"
For the French, German, and Russian fleets, in attempting to pass thetwo narrows north and south of Europe, had been stopped by the twosea-forts there; and though they had been so eager to pass, that theyhad even offered to pay sea-rent, this, too, had been refused. They hadthen, at five and at five-thirty in the afternoon, offered battle tothe islands: with the result that half their weight had been annihilatedbefore they took to flight. So said the bulletin....
And Hogarth in the midst of the jubilee saw the man who jammed his leftshoulder, a broker in spectacles, grip the hand of the man on his right,a ragamuffin, to cry out: "That scoundrel Hogarth! Isn't there good inthe damned thief, after all?"
And the other: "Aye, he knows how to give it 'em 'ot, don't 'e, afterall! Thank God for that!"
Three weeks later peace was proclaimed by a procession at Temple Barbetween England, Austro-Germany, France, Russia, and the Sea.