Lord of the Sea Read online

  Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreaders

  THE LORD OF THE SEA

  By M. P. Shiel

  CONTENTS

  I. THE EXODUS

  II. THE FEZ

  III. THE HUNTING-CROP

  IV. THE SWOON

  V. REID'S

  VI. "PEARSON'S WEEKLY"

  VII. THE ELM

  VIII. THE METEOR

  IX. HOGARTH'S GUNS

  X. ISAAC

  XI. WROXHAM BROAD

  XII. THE ROSE

  XIII. OUT OF THE WORLD

  XIV. THE PRIEST

  XV. MONSIGNOR

  XVI. THE ROPE

  XVII. OLD TOM'S LETTER

  XVIII. CHLOROFORM

  XIX. THE GREAT BELL

  XX. THE INFIRMARY

  XXI. IN THE DEEP

  XXII. OLD TOM

  XXIII. UNDER THE ELM

  XXIV. FRANKL SEES THE METEORITE

  XXV. CHURCH ARCHITECTURE

  XXVI. FRANKL AND O'HARA

  XXVII. THE BAG OF LIGHT

  XXVIII. THE LETTER

  XXIX. PRIORITY OF CLAIM

  XXX. MR. BEECH

  XXXI. THE HAMMERS

  XXXII. WONDER

  XXXIII. REEFS OF STEEL

  XXXIV. THE "KAISER"

  XXXV. THE CUP OF TREMBLING

  XXXVI. THE "BOODAH" AND THE BATTLESHIPS

  XXXVII. THE STRAITS

  XXXVIII. THE MANIFESTO

  XXXIX. THE "BOODAH'S" LOCK-UP

  XL. THE WEDDING

  XLI. THE VISIT

  XLII. REBEKAH TELLS

  XLIII. THE LAND BILL

  XLIV. THE REGENCY

  XLV. ESTRELLA, THE PROPHETESS

  XLVI. THE ORDER IN COUNCIL

  XLVII. THE EMIGRANTS

  XLVIII. THE SEA-FORTS

  XLIX. THE DEBACLE

  L. THE DECISION

  LI. THE MODEL

  I

  THE EXODUS

  In the Calle Las Gabias--one of those by-streets of Lisbon below St.Catherine--there occurred one New Year a little event in the Synagoguethere worth a mention in this history of Richard, Lord of the Sea.

  It was Kol Nidre, eve of the Day of Atonement, and the little Beth-El,sweltering in a dingy air, was transacting the long-drawn liturgy, when,behind the curtain where the women sat, an old dame who had been gazingupward smote her palms together, and let slip a little scream: "The Dayis coming...!"

  She then fainted, and till near ten lay on her bed, lit by the YomKippur candle, with open eyes, but without speech, her sere facestill beautiful, on each temple a little pyramid of plaits, withgold-and-coral ear-rings: a holy _belle._ About ten P.M. three womenwatching heard her murmur: "My child, Rebekah...!"

  She was childless, and whom she meant was not known. However, soonafterwards there was a form at the amulet-guarded door, and Estrella satup, saying: "Rebekah, my child..."

  A young lady of twenty-two ran in and embraced her, saying: "I have beento Paris and Madrid with my father--just arrived, so flew to see you. Weleave for London to-night".

  "No: I shall keep you seven days. Tell Frankl _I_ say so. What jewels!You have grown into a rose of glory, the eyes are profounder andblacker, and that brow was made for high purpose. Tell me--have you alover?"

  "No, mamma Estrella".

  "Then, why the blush?"

  "It is nothing at all," Miss Frankl answered: "five years ago when atschool in Bristol I thrice saw through a grating a young man with whom Iwas frivolous enough to speak. Happily, I do not know what has become ofhim--a wild, divine kind of creature, of whom I am well rid, and neverlikely to see again".

  The old lady mused. "What was he?"

  "A sailor".

  "Not a common sailor?"

  "I fancy so, mamma".

  "What name?"

  "Hogarth--Richard".

  "A Jew?"

  "An Englishman!"

  She laughed, as the old lady's eyes opened in sacred horror, and as shewhispered: "Child!"

  Within three months of that night, one midnight the people of Praguerose and massacred most of the Jewish residents; the next day the flamebroke out in Buda-Pesth; and within a week had become a revolution.

  On the twelfth morning one of two men in a City bank said to the other:"Come, Frankl, you cannot fail a man in this crisis--I only want 80,000on all Westring--"

  "No good to me, my lord," answered Frankl, who, though a man of onlyforty--short, with broad shoulders,--already had his skin divided uplike a dry leaf; in spite of which, he was handsome, with a nose ruledstraight and long, a black beard on his breast.

  But the telephone rattled and Frankl heard these words at the receiver:"Wire to hand from Wertheimer: Austrian Abgeordneten-haus passed aResolution at noon virtually expelling Jewish Race...."

  When Frankl turned again he had already resolved to possess WestringVale, and was saying to himself: "Within six months the value of Englishland should be--doubled".

  The bargain was soon made now: and within one week the foresight ofFrankl began to be justified.

  Austria, during those days, was a nation of vengeful hearts: for theJews had acquired half its land, and had mortgages on the other half:peasant, therefore, and nobleman flamed alike. And this fury wascontagious: now Germany--now France had it--Anti-Semite laws--likethe old May-Laws--but harsher still; and streaming they came, fromthe Leopoldstadt, from Bukowina, from the Sixteen Provinces, from allGalicia, from the Nicolas Colonies, from Lisbon, with wandering foot andweary breast--the Heines, Cohens, Oppenheimers--Sephardim, Aschkenasim.And Dover was the new Elim.

  With alarm Britain saw them come! but before she could do anything, thewave had overflowed it; and by the time it was finished there was nodesire to do anything: for within eight months such a tide of prosperitywas floating England as has hardly been known in a country.

  The reason of this was the increased number of hands--each making morethings than its owner could consume himself, and so making every otherricher.

  There came, however, a change--almost suddenly--due to the new demandfor land, the "owners" determining to await still further rises, beforeletting. This checked industry: for now people, debarred from the land,had only air.

  In Westring Vale, as everywhere, times were hard. It was now theproperty of Baruch Frankl: for at the first failure of Lord Westring tomeet terms, Frankl had struck.

  Now, one of the yeomen of Westring was a certain Richard Hogarth.