(II)
Slowly then he had come to see that, as had been told him longbefore, the kingdoms of this world were already passing into thehands of a higher dominion--and this was the significance of thismicrocosm of those kingdoms that now lay before his bodily eyes.
There, opposite to him, in the blaze of sunlight, stood thethrone that for a thousand years had faced the throne of theFisherman, now as a dependant, now as a rebel--stable and fixedat last in its allegiance. Here beneath him lay London, thefinest city in the world, where, if ever anywhere, had been triedthe experiment of a religion resting on the strength of anational isolation instead of an universal supernationalism;--ithad been tried, and found wanting. Beneath him lay his owncathedral, already blazing within like a treasure-cave, ready forits consummation, without, tranquil and strong; behind him theancient Abbey once again in the hands of its children; far awayto the right, seeming strangely near in this lucid atmosphere,hung, like a bubble, the great dome below which, as he knew,stood the first basilican altar in London, newly consecrated as asign of its papal dignities and privileges. And beyond that againLondon; and yet again London, a wonderful white city, gleaming ata thousand points with cross and spire and dome and pinnacle,patched with green in square and park and open space--London comeback again at last to her ancient faith and her old prosperity.
But this was not all.
For he knew and his imagination circled out wider and wider thathe might take it in--he knew that Europe itself at last dweltagain with one mind in her house. There beyond thechannel--across which ten minutes ago, as the thunder of guns hadtold him, the Arbiter of the World had come at last with histrain of kings behind him--there lay the huge continent, thegreat plains of France, the forests of Germany, the giant tumbleddebris of Switzerland, the warm and radiant coasts, the ancientworld-stage of Italy, passionate Spain which never yet had whollylost her love. There all lay, at one at last, each her own, withher own liberties and customs and traditions, yet each in theservice of her neighbour, since each and all alike lay beneaththe Peace of God.
Still wider fled his thought. . . . He saw to the southwards andfar away westwards across the seas, how now this country, nowthat, flew its flag and administered its laws, yet how thoseflags all together saluted the Crossed Keys; how those laws,however diverse, bowed all together before the Law of Liberty;and how there, farther yet, already the gates of the East hadrolled back, and how there peered out across half the world thepatient seeking faces of those old children of earth, awakened atlast to destinies greater than their own--awakened, not as menhad once feared, by the thunder of Christian guns, but by thecall of the Shepherd to sheep that were not of His Fold. . . .
So there the vision lay before him--this man who had lost hismemory and had found a greater gift instead.
* * * * *
An old priest in the white fur of a canon came gently up the deckfrom behind. . . .
"Your Eminence . . ." he said, "they have signalled up theline. . . . I thought, perhaps----"
The new Cardinal started as one from a dream.
"What is it, Father Jervis? . . ."
The old man looked at him closely; then he laid his hand on his arm.
"Your Eminence, the King is waiting. Do you not remember? YourEminence was to give the signal."
Beneath, like huge voices speaking a single word all at once,roared the old guns from the Tower and Greenwich and the palaces.
The Cardinal shook his head.
"I . . . I forget," he said; "I was thinking. . . . What am I to do?"
The old priest looked at him again earnestly, without speaking.Then he leaned forward closer still.
"Will your Eminence authorize me to give the signals?"
"Yes, yes, Father . . . anything. What am I to do? Have Ito say anything?"
His eyes had a look of dawning terror in them as he glanced fromside to side. The priest once again laid his hand on thelace-covered wrist and held it there steadily.
"Nothing at all, your Eminence. You have simply to sit still. Iwill arrange everything."
Still standing there, he turned slightly and made a sharp gesturebehind the throne with his left hand. A bell sounded instantly.There was a moment's silence. Then once again a bell; and achorus answered it.
Very slowly the Cardinal lifted his head, and saw before him theRoyal barge sway ever so slightly, conscious himself that throughhis own vessel a vibration was beginning to run as the hugeengines beneath moved into action. Again roared the guns far downthe river, and, as the bellow ceased, from a thousand steeplesbroke out the clamour of brazen tongues. . . .
He sat still; he knew at least that this he must do. . . . Surelythis obscurity of brain would pass again in a moment. He wasgoing to meet the Holy Father, was he not? . . . down there, downthat road of light and air, along which now his great bargefloated side by side with the King's. That was it. He rememberedagain now as his memory flickered in glimpses. This was the greatProgress round the world of the new Arbiter of the World, theVicar of the Prince of Peace, come into his Kingdom at last.
He kept his eyes steadily before him, scarcely seeing the flashof the river as it swept beneath him and away, or on all sidesthe dipping flags, the monstrous gilded prows, the bravery ofcolour, down this broad road on which he went, scarcely consciousthat, as he passed, the great barges wheeled behind him to followto the meeting; scarcely hearing the tremendous music that,sweeping up from the crowded streets below, wafted up to him theadoration of a free people who had learned at last that the Lawof Liberty was the Law of Love. . . .
Ah! there at last they came. . . .
Far down, rising every instant higher above the summer haze,outlined against a heaven of intensest blue, approached a cloudthat sparkled as it came, that broke into a thousand points ofcolour--a long, flat cloud, seen at first as a steamer stretchedacross the sky, curving down behind, as it seemed, into the hazefrom which it came. On and up it came, growing every instant,widening and deepening, ever more and more clear in colour andform and depth.
It could be seen now of what elements it was made--a throng oftiny specks, moving like stately birds, which, even as the eyewatched, seemed to spread their wings upon the breeze thatfollowed; to expand their bulk, and to glow, as the distancelessened, into the separate colours of each. . . .
Then once again bellowed the guns, heard now like the voice ofarticulate thunder five miles behind, rolling up the river as ifto welcome this fleet upon its way; and still he kept his eyesupon those who came so swiftly.
There in front moved the great guard-ships, monsters ofpolished steel, decked at prow and stern with the huge bannersthat stood out straight behind in the swiftness of theircoming, but which, even as he looked, flapped and bellied tothis side and that as the speed decreased. Then, wheelingoutwards, disclosing as they wheeled the insignia that eachbore, the eagles of Germany, the lilies of France and the rest,the guard of thirty giants fell once more into line, half amile apart, as those that followed came on, and waited; beatingthe air with the shimmer of their netted wings.
Then ship after ship came up, each wheeling in its turn andwaiting, building now up with the speed of thought a vastsemicircle, expanding ever more and more swiftly, as thewatcher looked--himself halted now, with the royal barge on hisright and his train of boats behind. There each in its turnpassed the air-navies of the Great Powers, come to bring theirLord with honour on his progress through the world--vastarmaments of inconceivable war, enrolled at last in the serviceof the Prince of Peace.
Then when the movement was complete, and there lay there acrossthe burning blue of the sky, five hundred feet in air, this vastcurve of glittering splendour, ten miles from horn to horn, oncame the great fleet that they had escorted.
There, then, the watcher saw two by two, first the barges of thePapal Orders, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre with its five-foldcross, and the Golden Spur, leading--huge medieval galleons,carved at prow and stern, each bearing its insignia; then camecouple afte
r couple bearing the Papal Court, followed closely bygreat barges, each with its canopy and throne, and the coat ofthe Cardinal whom each bore flying overhead.
And then a glorious sight.
For, moving alone in a solid phalanx, each vessel separated onlyby the space necessary for close manoeuvring, came the royalbarges of Europe, ranked on either side by a line ofguard-boats--France, Austria, and Germany, then Belgium andHolland, then the Scandinavian kingdoms, then a crowd of lesserStates from the Balkan, Greece, and the Black Sea; then theblack-eagled barge of Russia, and finally the great galleons ofSpain and Italy: and on each sat a royal figure beneath a canopyof state. And last of all moved a huge vessel, in scarlet andwhite, with a banner of white and gold and cross-keys at theprow; scarcely seen at first through the crowding craft, with asquadron of guard-ships coming after.
There, then, the man who had lost his memory sat motionless, andwatched it all--this astounding display of inner gracetransformed into glory at last, that Royalty which since firstthe Fisherman took his seat in Holy Rome, had little by little,through reverse and success, forced its way outwards on theworld--the leaven hid in the meal till all was leavened. . . .And it seemed to him as he looked, as if, through the splendourof the midday sun, the glitter of that sea of air-craft--throughthe pealing of the bells beneath and the shock of the guns andthe shrill crying that filled the air--there moved otherPresences, too, in yet a third medium than those of air andearth; as if diffused throughout this material plane was a worldof more than matter and mind, more than of sense andperception--a world where all was reconciled and made atone--this clash of flesh and spirit--and that at last eachanswered to each, and spirit inspired flesh, and flesh expressedspirit. It seemed to him, for one blinding instant, as if at lasthe saw how distance was contained in a single point, colour inwhiteness, and sound in silence, as at the very Word of Him whonow at last had taken His power and reigned, whose Kingdom atlast had come indeed, to whom in very truth All Power was givenin heaven and earth. . . .
The Dawn of All Page 66