From eight o"clock men began to let themselves in at the two doors in both streets, and continued to arrive till nine, when a marquis at the table-head rose to speak, the others leaning back with downcast eyes, nearly all pale.
The point before them was plainly put by the speaker on the Question: viz., whether they had more to fear from the life, or from the death, of the Lord of the Sea.
"By a strange Providence", he said, "this man is in our hands: and we have the right to become his executioners. My Lords and Gentlemen, the awful decision rests with you to-night".
Then, one after another, they rose, they spoke: no two views identical; till at ten it was voted that the question be put, voting papers went round, and presently the ballot-result was announced amid a momentous stillness.
Twenty-eight had voted for the death, twenty-five against.
But in that minute a key was heard in the room door, and in rushed two flushed men: Frankl and O"Hara, just arrived in London from the sea; and Frankl burst into speech:
"I hope this is all right, my lords, my coming like this, and bringing into your very midst a gentleman who is not one of us. When I tell you that he is Admiral Donald of the _Mahomet_, turned away like a servant, how does that make your lordships feel? A house divided against itself can"t stand; and this gentleman has a scheme in his pocket--he will read it to your lordships--which will crack up the Empire of the Sea like an egg-sh.e.l.l! So I do hope, my lords, that you have not decided anything hasty about putting away Richard Hogarth: for unless he is liberated this night, it means sure and certain stoppage of everything tomorrow: and _that_ means my ruin, and many another"s beside--"
Now the Master called him to order, and addressed himself to O"Hara, who, in admiral"s uniform and stars, all stately bows, grave smiles, in ten minutes had given guarantees, was a member, and in thirty had read a memorandum of a scheme of betrayal which everyone saw to be feasible.
Then the vote of death was annulled; and when the meeting broke up Hogarth was being lifted with bandaged eyes through the subterranean way to Market Street, where four men deposited him near the house-door, undid his ropes, said to him "You are free", and there he remained twenty minutes without motion, deadly sick, then rose, and, on finding the door, went wildly with dragged feet, tottered into a cab, and leant brow on hand.
As he entered the porch of his Berkeley Square house, Loveday rushed out to his knees with adoring eyes, having hardly hoped to see again that face of Hogarth, while Hogarth patted the bowed head, saying: "Do get me a meal, and let me hear what has been going on....Oh, I am weary ".
And during the meal he heard all: of the Land Bill, the turmoil.
"Well, my G.o.d!" he exclaimed, "is there no drop of generous blood at all among those people? Never again do I trust them to make their own arrangements I When does this precious Bill have the Royal a.s.sent?"
"To-morrow, it is supposed".
"Really!"--he started: "and whereabouts is the Prince of Wales?"
"At Windsor to-night".
"Order the motor quick. I"ll go".
He was soon off, and Loveday, listening to the dark story of Margaret"s appearing and singing, and vanishing, accompanied him under a frosty moon, snow lying on village-street and hedge; but, travelling hard, they arrived shortly after one upon a Prince who, a wakeful man that night, sat conferring with Private Secretary and Attorney-General, he having a.s.sented to the introduction of the Land Bill, then been alarmed by the storm, and now was confronted with the responsibility of either giving His Majesty"s a.s.sent, and earning execration, or refusing it, and taking a step unheard-of since William III.
In that state of embarra.s.sment he was, when the Lord of the Sea was announced, and "It is with heartiest pleasure that I offer to your Lordship"s Majesty my congratulations on this re-appearance", he said, greatly and gladly surprised, without at all seeming so.
And the two conferred till three, when a secretary, at Hogarth"s dictation, wrote a doc.u.ment and its duplicate: a contract between Prince and King, giving pledges on each side, private, yet most momentous; and each, having signed both copies, retained one.
The next evening the Clerk in the Lords uttered those unusual words: "_Le Roy s"avisera_," and the country was thrown into transport by the news of the Royal rejection of the Land Bill, processions singing the National Anthem, bells ringing: and for a month the mention of a Royal name in any a.s.sembly brought the people to their feet.
Ministers, of course, resigned; and, as the Liberals refused office, writs for a new House were made returnable for the end of January.
XLIV
THE REGENCY
During the next month England was in a general-election turmoil; at the same time a Land Bill in the French Chamber, and one in the Reichstag, was thrown out: whereupon a _ukase_ from the _Boodah_ announced the raising of sea-rent to 5s. on all ships over 2000 tons after the 1st February, the month of grace over, the "screw tightening".
Already distress in England was great, coal being at three-and-sixpence, bread at nine pence; a cry had arisen for the Union of Britain with the Sea; and on the 27th of January a plebiscite among the Trade Unions resulted in an affirmative vote of five millions out of an electorate of nine.
Now, at this time the bulletins respecting His Majesty were of a settled depression: he lived, but languished; and it was understood that the new Ministry"s first act would be the appointment of a Regency.
Then appeared a rumour: alterations were going forward at Buckingham Palace on a scale of splendour new to Western mansions; the Prince of Wales had pa.s.sed three days, from the 17th to the 19th, in the _Boodah_: and the saying went that, on the night of the rejection of the Land Bill, a compact had taken place between the Prince and the Sea for a three years" Regency of the latter.
Excitement ensued, the matter becoming an election test: and 180 Labour Members, with 70 Liberals were returned pledged to support a Regency of the Sea.
A definite coalition, meantime, had been announced between the Jews and the Conservatives.
Never was election so rolled in dust and noise, in the result the Jews having the casting vote: and if ever race was looked at askance, it was they now by the British.
The session having been opened by Commission, a resolution pa.s.sed Lords and Commons that the Prince of Wales be empowered to exercise the Royal Authority; whereupon the Prince at the palace, having heard the Address, read a reply, sufficiently startling to the country, though well foreknown to those present: he laid stress upon the new conditions of the world--that phlegmatic eye, which had seen so much, lifting a moment in punctuation to dwell coldly upon his hearers, then coldly reading again; the difficulties, he said, which he was called upon to face on behalf of His Majesty were not lightly to be undertaken, and his fuller answer would be contained in a proposal which he would make in the Lords as a peer of the realm.
The next night in a crowded House he read a speech distinguished by extraordinary dignity and severity: "My lords", he said at one point, slapping the table, though those eyes remained royally null: "when will your lordships learn to recognize the facts of life?" and, having proposed His Lordship"s Majesty, the Lord of the Sea, to be Regent during His Majesty"s illness, such Regency not to exceed a period of three years, he recommended a plebiscite.
No plebiscite was taken: for within some days the sense of the const.i.tuencies was revealed, and the Leader in the Lords received stern hints from the Liberal Leader, which damped pride: so their lordships abstained from Westminster, their Resolution being pa.s.sed by just a quorum.
The country wondered at the ease with which the whole went off--not knowing that those who might have led resistance had a thought, and a prospect, inspired by one Pat O"Hara, which comforted them.
And now a Deputation of Five took boat in the _Prince George_, to wait upon the Lord of the Sea in the _Boodah_ Throne Room, where the Lord President read the information that they were a Committee appointed to attend His Lordship"s Majesty with the Resolutions of the Houses.
"We are instructed", he read, "to express the hope which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, entertain, that His Lordship"s Majesty, from his regard to the interests of His Majesty the King, will be ready to undertake the weighty and important trust proposed to be invested in His Lordship"s Majesty, as soon as an Act of Parliament shall have been pa.s.sed for carrying the same into effect".
He then read, and delivered, the Resolutions.
Hogarth replied, reading: "My Lords and Gentlemen, I receive the communication which your two Houses have instructed you to make to me with those sentiments of regard which I ever entertain for your two Houses. Deeply impressed with the necessity of tranquillizing the public mind throughout the world, I do not hesitate to accept the office and situation proposed to me".
So the Deputation departs; five days later twelve British battleships surround the _Boodah_, come to accompany the Lord of the Sea to England; and at eleven on the morning of the 9th, his yacht, borne in on the strong thunders of a royal salute, drops anchor in Southampton Water.
He had set so gorgeous a standard of luxury to Europe, that no one dreamed of making his entry into London an ordinary _fete_; and, as the procession traversed the triumphal arches of Piccadilly, he, swept to the G.o.ds in the lap of gallant sublimities, plumes, sabres, showering hoofs, squad-troops, outriders, showed to the Prince beside him and to the Czarowitz before him a miniature of Rebecca Frankl.
Some streets cheered--not all much: but during the illuminated night all London seemed to abandon itself to revelry.
The next morning Hogarth went in state to the Chapel Royal for certificate of Communion, attended by heralds, Sergeants-at-mace, sword-of-state, the Duke of York; and after "the service" communicated under a canopy at the hand of the Bishop of London.
Then, on the 14th, Lords and Commons had a final conference over the Regency Bill, when the a.s.sistant of the Parliaments uttered the worlds: "_Le Roy le Veult_"; and on the 15th, the swearing-in day, a party of grenadiers with colours and fifes marched into the palace grounds, continuously to play "G.o.d Save the King"; while yeomen and ushers, together with servants-in-state of the Lord of the Sea, lined the great hall and staircase, life-guardsmen lining a vista of state-apartments ending in a Blue-velvet Room, recently decorated; by 2.30 P.M. Privy Councillors commenced to arrive, till at 3.45 P.M. the Lord of the Sea sent Admiral Quilter-Beckett to the President of the Council, ordering his presence; and presently was himself seen coming up the vista, accompanied by his own household-officers, to the Blue-velvet Room where he sat at the table-head, the Royal personages on each hand, his own officers ranged on each side of the entrance-arch; and now one by one entered the full-dressed Councillors, with bows which he returned, taking seat according to precedence--Canterbury, then the Lord Chancellor, then York; and last came and sat a certain Mr. Forrest, Keeper of the Records.
Hogarth then rose and said:
"My Lords: I understand that by the Act pa.s.sed by your Parliament appointing me Regent of this Empire, I am required to take certain oaths, as prescribed by the said Act: I am now ready to take these oaths ".
Whereupon rose the Lord Privy Seal, made a reverence, approached, and read, while Hogarth p.r.o.nounced after him:
"I sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King George. So help me, G.o.d.
"I do solemnly promise and swear that I will truly and faithfully execute the Office of Regent of the King"s Empire according to an Act of Parliament ent.i.tled "an Act, etc.", and that I will, etc. So help me, G.o.d".