While the two others still talked, the priest went to the side and looked over, again suddenly overwhelmed by the strangeness of the whole position. Once again there came on him the sense of irresponsible unreality. . . . He stared out, hardly seeing that on which he looked: the grey ma.s.s of the lower castle beneath with lighted windows, at the blankness beyond, again with the scattered lights--the nearer ones, within what seemed a stone"s throw, along the village street--the farther ones, infinitely remote, out upon the invisible sea. There again too, far off across the land, shone another cl.u.s.ter of lights, seen rather as a luminous patch, that marked Rye. There too, eyes were watching; there too it was felt that interests were at stake, so vast and so unknown, that heaven or h.e.l.l might be within their limits. He looked inland, and there too was darkness, but darkness unrelieved. Near at hand, immediately below the bounding walls, rose up the dark swelling outlines that he knew to be the woods of the park, crowding up against the very castle walls themselves; and beyond, dimness after dimness, to meet the sky. . . .
It seemed to him incredible, as he looked, that things of such moment should be under way, somewhere beyond that sleeping country; and yet, as his eyes grew accustomed to the night, he could make out at last a faint glow in the sky to the north that marked the outskirts of that enormous city of which he was a citizen, where such matters even now were approaching a decision.
For it was only little by little that he had become aware that a real crisis was at hand. The Cardinal had told him the facts, indeed, in the dispa.s.sionate, tolerant manner that was characteristic of him; but the point of view necessary to take them in as a coherent whole, to see them, not as isolated events, but with the effect of the past upon them and their hidden implications and probabilities for the future--this needed that the observer should be of the temper and atmosphere of the time.
For prophecy just now was little better than feeling at outlines in the dark. Facts could be discerned and apprehended by all--and the priest was well aware of his own capacities in this--but their interpretation was another matter altogether. . . . He felt helpless and puzzled. . . .
The General came towards him.
"Well," he said, "anything to be seen?"
"Nothing."
"We may as well make our way down again. There"s nothing to be gained by stopping here."
As they made their way down again through the covered pa.s.sage, the General once more began to talk about the crisis.
Monsignor had heard it all before; but he listened for all that.
It seemed to him worth while to collect opinions; and this soldier"s very outspoken remarks cast a sort of sharp clarity upon the situation that the priest found useful. The establishment of the Church in England was being regarded on the Continent as a kind of test case; and even more by the Anglo-Saxon countries throughout the world. In itself it was not so vast a step forward as might be thought. It would make no very radical changes in actual affairs, since the Church already enjoyed enormous influence and complete liberty. But the point was that it was being taken as a kind of symbol by both sides; and this explained on the one hand the tactics of the Government in bringing it suddenly forward, and the extraordinary zeal with which the Socialists were demonstrating against it.
"The more I think of it," said the General, "the more----"
Monsignor stepped suddenly aside into the embrasure at which they had halted on the way up.
"What"s the matter?"
"I thought I saw----"
The General uttered a sharp exclamation, pressing his head over the priest"s shoulder.
"That"s the second," whispered the priest harshly.
Together they waited, staring out together through the tall, narrow window that looked towards Rye.
Then for the third time there rose against the far-off horizon, above that faint peak of luminosity that marked where Rye watched over her marshes, a thin line of white fire, slackening its pace as it rose.
Before it had burst in sparks, there roared out overhead a deafening voice of fire and thunder, shaking the air about them, bewildering the brain. Then another. Then another.
Beneath the two as they stood, shaking with the shock, silent and open-mouthed, staring at one another, in the courtyard a door banged; then another; and then a torrent of voices and footsteps as the servants and grooms poured out of the lower doors.
(III)
Two hours later the two ecclesiastics sat together, on either side of the large table in the Cardinal"s room. The Cardinal pa.s.sed over the sheets one by one as he finished them. One set was being brought straight up here from the little office at the end of the hall. Another set, they knew, was simultaneously being read aloud by Lord Southminster in the hall below.
The guns had aroused even the most drowsy; and the whole population, village as well as castle, had poured into the courtyard to hear the news.
Monsignor sat and read sheet after sheet after his chief, hopelessly trying to notice and remember the princ.i.p.al points of the report. Everything was recorded there--the a.s.sembling of the crowds, the difficulty that the later members found in getting through into the House at all; the breakdown of the police arrangements; and the storming of the wireless station by an organized mob, many of whom had been later put under arrest.
Then there was the Prime Minister"s speech, recorded word by word in the machines, and translated later, by machinery instead of by human labour, into terms of dots and dashes, themselves transmitted again over miles of country, and retranslated again by mechanical devices into these actual printed sheets that the two were reading.
The speech was given in full, down to that tremendous scene when half the House, distracted at last by the cries that grew nearer and nearer, and the messengers that appeared and reappeared from outside, had risen to its feet. And then----
The Cardinal leaned back suddenly, with a swift indrawing of his breath that was almost the first sign of emotion that he had shown.
Monsignor looked up. The last two sheets were still under the ringed hand that lay upon the table.
"Well, it"s done," said the Cardinal softly, almost as if talking to himself. "But it needed his last card."
"Your Eminence?"
"The announcement as to the East," went on the other, with the same air. "I thank G.o.d it came in time."
"Your Eminence, I don"t understand."
The Cardinal looked at him full.
"Why," he said, "the Holy Father was accepted as Arbitrator of the East by the united Powers this morning. The news was in the Prime Ministers hands at six o"clock. But I"m sorry he had to use it; it would have been stronger without. . . . Don"t you understand, Monsignor? The House would have refused to vote otherwise."
"But it"s finished--it"s finished, isn"t it, your Eminence?"
"Yes, yes, it"s finished. Or had we better say it"s begun. Now the last conflict begins. . . . Now, Monsignor, I"m afraid I must begin to dictate. Would you mind setting the phonographs?"
From the hall beneath rose a sudden confusion of cheering and stamping of feet.
PART III
CHAPTER I
(I)
"Monsignor," said the Cardinal, "I am afraid I shall have to ask you to go, after all. It is extremely important that the Catholic authorities in England should be represented in this scheme. And I think, you will have to travel with the first batch. They leave Queenstown on the first of April."
"Certainly. And when shall I be back, your Eminence?"
"You must judge for yourself. It will not be more than a month or six weeks at the outside, and I dare say a good deal less. It will depend on the temper of the settlers. The American civil authorities will have the final arrangements. But it is exceedingly important that the emigrants should have some one to speak for them; and as, of course, the Church will be believed to be really responsible, it will be as well that an ecclesiastic should be their friend. Identify yourself with them as far as possible. The civil authorities are sure to be inclined to be hard."
"Very good, your Eminence."