by C. S. Lewis
The position of the Boxonians was now one of extreme danger; Viscount Quicksteppe, however, with great presence of mind sent a body of five hundred dragoons under command of his own son, Frederic, to Constantinople to beg help from the Sultan. Escaping from the city by night, the little band cut its way through the Pongeein lines and, after countless hardships and dangers, reached the Turkish metropolis, having lost two hundred men by disease and in skirmishes.
Here the Sultan, Ahmed VIII, recieved them kindly and sent them back to Fortressa, promising to send an army of twenty thousand braves after them: but the promise of a Turk resembles a pie-crust in that it is made only to be broken. Ahmed, owing to the extravagance of his court was deeply in debt, and did not wish to lose more money by raising volunteers; after a delay of a month he sent a thousand illtrained peasants, badly equipped and furnished.
In the meantime Frederic had found that, although he had broken out through the Pongeein lines with tolerable ease, he could not, with a much reduced force, weakened by long and tedious marching and disheartened by the perfidy of Ahmed, break in again, and was thus forced to lie in idleness within sight of his own friends on the ramparts.
Seeing this, the Viscount sent Major Big out to try and break through to Frederic from inside: the frog led a spirited charge, in which many Guardsmen fell on the Pongeein spears, while his friend attacked the enemy in the rear, who were put to flight. For this service, John was raised to the rank of General, thus becoming a member of the Staff and skipping out the rank of Colonel, while Frederic became one of the latter class. Shortly after the dragoons had regained the town the wretched Turkish auxiliaries arrived, and the Pongeeins, thinking them to be the forerunners of a vast Turkish hoard, raised the siege and fled. Herbert Vant led a large troop of cavalry out and persued the fugitives, many of whom were slain.
Thus, on the 2nd January 1888, John being thirty-two years of age, an end was put to Pongeein rule in Turkey and the Boxonians, having been imprisoned for over a year in Fortressa, were ready to proceed on their great march to Omar-Raam.
CHAPTER VI
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To attempt a detailed account of the march of the Boxonians from Turkey to Omar-raam would be outside the scope of this work. Suffice it to say that of the twenty-five thousand who set out early in 1888, only eighteen thousand ever arrived, and those late in 1889: not only was the country mountainous and the climate unhealthy, not only were the enemy numerous and determined, but the force, though by no means as large as was desirable, was crushed by its own magnitude: food could not be found for such a multitude. As they advanced, the natives burnt the crops and filled up the wells, preferring, with true Pongeein courage and malignity, starvation for themselves to a mouthful of corn for the invaders.
The first organized resistance was that which they encountered under Polbian at the city of Arrading: this general held out against the Boxonians for over a month but at last left his city and men and fled North on horseback and alone to the Emperor, to whom he urged the expediancy of his being sent to the distant town of Losen or Lˇo-Sèn. He thus was well removed from danger, and Mahhrin, believing his story that Quicksteppe was already threatening this outpost, created him a Mandarin.
But there was one man in Pongee who was more to be feared than the credulous Emperor or the cowardly Polbian; this was Choribund, the agent. No sooner had Quicksteppe passed the city of Arrading than the wily Pongeein invested it, and, using it as a base proceeded North after the invaders in the form of a huge crescent composed of pickets of men placed about ten miles apart, so as to cover Quicksteppe’s retreat.
On one occasion, Sir Marmaduke Powle, who was bringing up the rear, caught sight of a party following him, and, dashing back, engaged in a skirmish in which he lost his life; John was raised to his post as second Head of the War Office, in which capacity he first became acquainted with Sir Peter Mouse who afterwards was one of his greatest friends.
As Lord Vant and the Viscount drew their army closer and closer to Omar Raäm, Choribund widened his crescent until, at length, when the Boxonians had drawn up their lines round the capital they, in their turn were besieged by a larger ring of Pongeeins on the outside. Of this fact they were perfectly ignorant as the agent kept his men at a distance which rendered them invisible.
Now commenced a period of the war on which no Boxonian can look back without shame. The siege dragged on and on: the ramparts of the town were strong, and their provisions were plentiful. Mahhrin was content. The Boxonian force was hopelessly inefficiant to attempt to take it by storm, and after a few months they were made aware of the presence of Choribund who harrassed them by day and by night.
The state of things continued so for a year, and early in 1890, the Generals came to the conclusion that if the town was to be won, reinforcements were necessary. To his great delight, John was chosen to journey home to Murry and beg for more troops: it was a task whose difficulties might well have apalled the bravest heart.
Firstly, the journey through the heart of a hostile country was a Herculean piece of work, and secondly, when he had reached Murry it would need all his eloquence and impetuosity to rouse the country from its lethargy. But John’s character was of the type which is great in the midst of adversity and preserves despondancy and indolence for leisure hours.
He set out under cover of a moonless night, and passed unoticed between the Pongeein bevies, and, after a long and dangerous march reached the seabord town of Tchua, whence he & his men set sail for Murry. Mingled indeed must have been the sensations of the youthful general as he eyed once more the capital of his fatherland, wither he had hoped to return in a more felicitous fashion!
On his arrival he went at once to Riverside Palace to interview King Benjamin VI and Rajah Hawki IV, his joint sovereigns. Although now thirty four years old, John had never before met the kings with whom he was afterwards to be so closely connected: and, as we know from letters written at the time, the Kings were much impressed by the stalward soldier who spoke with ardour and yet with respect and deferentialy yet with dignity of the state of his comrades in Pongee. They saw truth in his words and talked with their ministers of his demands.
The question was discussed in Parliament, but the country was still apathetic. John, in despair, decided that he himself would try and be elected a member, so that he could give some vent to his pent up feelings, and, if possible influence the House; accordingly he stood for Bigham where he was popular with the peasantry, and in the year 1892 on his thirty-sixth birthday, he was elected a member of the Double House.
Thus, his political career – more important in some ways than his military career – was in a sense occasioned by an accident.
END OF VOLUME THE FIRST.
VOLUME TWO
PERIOD COVERED, 1892–1908 (16 YEARS)
CHAPTER VII
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Tlthough General Big had succeeded in becoming a member of Parliament, the most difficult part of his task lay before him: it would not have been an impossible feet for a young man of good and vigorous parts who was devotedly attached to either party to carry through any design which had the support of his own coalition. But John’s life had been too eventful to allow him leisure for studying politics, and, although he was inclined to be Walterian in his views, his demand would be likely to prove unpopular with both benches.
The enthusiasm with which the war had been begun had completely died down: the repeated failures and heavy losses had alienated many powerful men from the cause of the army: and the house was too busily engaged in discussing Sir Charles Arabudda’s suggestion of Home Rule for the South Sea Islands to listen to a petition for more troops.
Twice the despairing John rose to speak and each time, before he had uttered ten words, was called to order for speaking with no connection with the subject in hand, by Lord Twinkleburry who was acting as Little-Master in the absence of Lord Vant. On the third day, he struck a blow whose resonance still is heard and whose concussion
still is felt from the wintry bay of Peaktown to the rice fields of Ceylon: he saved his country and established forever his political reputation.
Descending to the floor of the house and calling upon the members not as Walterians and Diripians but as Boxonians, he burst forth into majestic words which stirred the most callous listener. It was not, he said, to discuss the legislation of a petty state, that he had come home through unnumbered trials and dangers: and he would not go back to those brave fellows who were doubtless at that moment existing merely on the hope of reinforcements, to tell them that their countrymen were callous, that they thought more of barbaric isles beyond the sea than of the life and death of their gallant soldiers. He did not deny that the rule of the colonies was a matter of grave importance, but if they did not help the Pongeein war, the oportunity of ruling these lands or even their own land would be taken away forever. Ever, he admitted, was a long word, but it was well known to his hearers that when a country has once lost its supremacy, it never regains it.
He spoke in this strain for over two hours. He had neither papers nor notes, but connoiseurs of oratory tell us that he has never since surpassed or even equalled the excellence of his first speech. His later work is finished and cultured, and his arguments are weighty: his delivery has improved and his presence is more impressive, but every subsequent oration lacks that indefinable feeling, those dramatic outburts of passion and those touches of poetry which are almost poetical in their polished simplicity.
The House was taken by storm: crowds of members serged round to shake hands with the general: copies of his speech were sold everywhere: the streets of Murry were placarded with complimentary notices and ample supplies were voted. Young John was much in demand; summoned before the two kings he narrated the story of his adventures, and recieved f[l]attering attentions from the Queens. No ball was given but General Big must attend it, no concert was complete without a ballad sung in the frog’s musical basso. He could not appear in the public streets without being followed by an adoring crowd, who pressed upon each other for a shake of the great man’s hand. Scheming mothers tried to lure him into matrimonial nets and those who had quarrelled with him were profuse in their apologies.
Such adulation might well have turned an honest guardsman into a conceited puppy had not the thought of his miserable comrades been ever present in his mind: as it was, he stayed no longer in Murry than was necessary for the preparation of the auxiliaries, and early in 1893, at the age of thirty-seven, he set sail in charge of five thousand troops.
Reaching Tchua without difficulty, he proceeded inland and was surprised at the lack of opposition which he encountred, in consequence of which he arrived in sight of Omar-Raäm in less than a week. To his astonishment there were none of Choribund’s pickets outside the Boxonian lines and he learnt that the agent, hearing of the approach of the reinforcements and despairing of success for the Emperor had deserted and joined the Boxonian force. With such a host Quicksteppe had little difficulty in taking the town by storm, though not before a sharp struggle.
When once the capital had fallen, resistance was at an end, and a peace was made in December 1893: the honour undoubtedly rested with Boxen, but there was little material advantage; the war had been long and expensive and their had been much loss of life. John, however, was jubilant, and returned home determined to continue the political career he had so successfully begun.
CHAPTER VIII
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John’s last visit to Murry and his success during that visit had placed him on a higher social, political and military level than he had ever expected to enjoy, and he was destined to rise still higher.
Both the kings of Boxen had a high opinion of him, and they comunicated to Lords Vant and Twinklebury their belief that it was General Big who had one the war. Vant, a clever politician and an honest pig, to a large extent agreed with his master, but Twinklebury, who feared lest the frog might become too powerful and who was jealous of any rïval in the Kings’ favour, did all in his power to influence them against him: but all was in vain. The Rajah was strong-willed while King Benjamin was perfectly indifferent to all arguments, so that the courtier’s arguments fell on stony ground: John was summoned to Riverside Palace, and, in the presence of the whole court was commended for his courage and industry.
Lord Big he already was by his father’s death, and he was now created The Frog and appointed to the post of tutor of the Crown Princes, Hawki and Benjamin, with a salary of over two thousand [a] year. In this capacity, John took up his abode in the palace, and became a well known figure at court.
Here, had he been endowed with certain qualities, he might have risen to even greater hieghts than he has, and in a shorter period of time: but he was lacking in those attributes which go to make a good courtier. Although by no means insolent or insubordinate he was impatient of command & unskilled in the art of flattery. In addition to these facts, Lord Twinklebury, who had hoped to gain the Tutorship for his own son, was violently opposed to the newcomer and did all he could to bring about his dismissal.
Every nursery trouble of the two children was carried through to the kings by his instrumentality & presented to them in such a way that the unhappy John was shown up in the worst possible light: when the frog left his handsome riding boots outside his door to be cleaned, they were filled with a compound of glue and chopped straw: if he retaliated by annoying his tormentor in public, the latter told his sovereigns in private that the frog had taken a violent and absolutely unwarranted hatred to him and was abusing him in the most outrageous manner.
Such a state of affairs would in most courts soon have brought John into bad odour, but, as has been seen, neither of the kings was the man to be easily persuaded: in a few months, Twinklebury, by his inopportune efforts, had caused the kings to take a strong dislike to him, and he knew that his court life was at an end.
Benjamin’s character was of the sort that, having once conceived a plan, will carry it out by any means, however vicious, and in the face of any opposition. Having determined to expel a certain courtier from his court, the king did not hesitate to make that unfortunate’s life a burden to him, even though, in so doing, he outraged all humane and social laws: the wretched Twinklebury would be summoned to a banquet and on his arrival be curtly told by the rabbit ‘that there was a paucity of chairs and he had better go to make room for his superiors.’
The most thick-skinned nature could not for long have stood such insults, and still less the sensitive and haughty noble. In 1896 he retired from Murry, and at the age of forty, John lost his enemy for good.
Whatever had been the young general’s success or failure as a courtier, there is no doubt of his excellence in the capacity of tutor: under his care the young princes, naturally wild and headstrong boys, became gentle and well educated, and indeed, since children of the royal blood see but little of their own parents, became much attached to the good frog whom they grew to regard almost as a father – a fact which was very important in later years because of the influence it gave John over them when they became kings.
While John was thus employed at Riverside palace he was one day summoned to the death bed of his old friend Chutney, who with his last breath begged the frog to undertake the education of his son St John, which mission he fulfilled, obtaining permission from his sovereigns to bring up the boy together with his two original charges.
Although thus actively employed and occupied even in his leisure moments by the life of the court, John, having once dipped into politics, could not resist the temptation of returning to the fascinating game, and in the year 1897 he was once more elected member for Bigham.
At that time, under Lord Herbert Vant as Little-Master, a fierce contest was raging between the Walterians and Diripians on the subject of Cat-land. For over five hundred years, since, in fact, their defeat by Mouseland under King Mouse the Good, the cats had lain under desparate disabilities: there was no doubt that, in very early times, it was natural that a c
ruel and ambitious race, having failed in an attempt to subjugate the whole country to its will, should feel the utmost fury of the conqerors who would otherwise have been their victims, but it was clearly unjust that, after hundreds of years when the feline race had ceased to stand misanthropically aloof from their fellow countrymen and had by marriage and by business partnerships sunk blended with the common mass, they should yet labour under disadvantages laid upon them by furious foes of vanished ages.
And their disabilities were those which tend to embitter a man’s private life and ruin his social career. The feline nobles had been deprived of their estates and these had been given to neighbouring squires: large duties were imposed upon all articles passing in and out of the state. It seems absurd that such bigotry and persecution should have held sway less than fifty years ago!
Yet when Lord Grimalkan, a cattish noble of old and honoured pedigree who earned a wretched living as a schoolmaster while Sir Charles Arabudda, a fish, lived on his family demain, brought in a motion for redress of feline grievances, there were many who opposed it.
To begin with, those who held estates in Cat-land were against it, fearing that if the Cats’ position were improved the demesnes would be returned to their real owners; and, as well, say what he will, in every man’s heart of hearts there is a deep rooted objection to change – a love of old customs because of their age which neither time nor eternity can efface.
With Grimalkan were, of course, all the cats and a few disinterested gentlemen, such as Sir Peter Mouse, while his chief opponent was a vigorous young soldier, Lieutenant Fortescue, and Sir Charles Arabudda.