by M. P. Shiel
XLVI
THE ORDER IN COUNCIL
Three days before that setting-out, O'Hara's appeal for pardon had comeunder the Regent's notice: and as he had read, his eyes--once more--hadsoftened, as he had thought: "It would be a great crime to forgive himthe long list; but never mind--we will see"....
And he had meant to reply, but suddenly the Jews had swept O'Hara quiteout of his mind.
He was away hardly two weeks: and when he returned, Palestineand western Armenia were his, all his acts of this period bearingresemblance in largeness and rage to the incredible forced-marches ofNapoleon.
If one spreads apart the first two fingers, he sees exactly the countryordained by Hogarth for modern Israel: the first finger Palestine,looking upon the Mediterranean; between the fingers, the Syrian Desert;the second (longer) finger that Mesopotamia, "the cradle of our race"between the Euphrates and the Tigris, this opening upon the PersianGulf, and the trade of the East.
The then population of this area was only 300,000 (Arabs, Turks, Jews,Greeks) in the Palestine finger, omitting Russian pilgrims to Jerusalem;while in the Mesopotamia finger--all that Hinterland of Palestine called"Turkish Armenia"--not 320,000 Armenians had been left by Khurdishrapine and Turkish atrocity: we may therefore say that the whole was anuninhabited land waiting for inhabitants.
The only things needed (according to modern notions) to make itimmediately colonizable were roads and railways, and the Regent had notreturned to Dover when both were making in Palestine, the Sultan, leftthunderstruck with a chronic eye of scare by that visit, "lending hisco-operation", consoled meanwhile by a Conversion Loan of thirteenmillions out of Sea-revenue; to which add a grant-in-aid of fifteenmillions to the emigrants, and the remark of Hogarth's Chancellor aboutthis time becomes intelligible: "Your Lordship's Majesty's expenditureis exceeding revenue by 50 per cent"; so that Beech's was soon realizingconsiderably in bonds over Europe, and Hogarth temporarily poor--hadstubbornly refused any Parliament-grant for the Regent's personalestablishment.
And suddenly from the blue fell his bolt: at that same table ofthe Regent's oath-of-office assembled eighty-seven Jewish lords andgentlemen at noon of the 24th March, the first day of the month Nisan inthe Jewish year 5699, ordered, each by himself, to the Royal presence;and the Regent, with the gravest eyes, both palms pressed on the table,in an embarrassment of compunction, rose and spoke with them--Rothschildand merchant-prince, Chief Rabbi, Manchester Chief Minister, Heads ofthe Alliance Israelite, Anglo-Jewish Association, Jewish Board, Jewishphilanthropists, writers; and they could not believe themselves awake.
He began by speaking of himself, the fact of his power, with suchgraciousness, that all were affected, not by the power, but by thegentleness which wielded it: Providence had given him the disposal ofthe earth, and it was for him to do his poor best--a lonesome, sorrowfulpost; so that talking could never alter in anything the main point; butit could modify details: and he had called them to invoke their greatadministrative gift and expert counsel; he told of the exodus which hedesigned, the home which he had prepared them; recommended a Sanhedrimof Chief Jews to form the Provisional Government of the new State, withthe Chief Rabbi as its head under the title of Shophet (Judge); wouldoffer a contribution of L 15,000,000 from his Exchequer toward anemigration and colonizing fund, and doubtless emigration bureaus wouldbe at once established at principal centres; he would also hand overa Deed of Gift of this larger Judaea as between the Sea and the Jewishpeople to the Central Authority as soon as established; also, duplicatesof the text of the Treaty as between the Sea and the Ottoman Empire.What he gave he gave, he assured them, with a free heart, withoutcondition; except, of course, one: that no inch of the new land shouldever "belong" to any particular Jew: for he gave, as Nature gave theearth, not to a hundred, but to all, living and to be born, occupiersto pay rent, not to any adventurer calling himself landlord, but to theCentral Authority, representing all. This done, he would invoke withconfidence upon their able race the blessing of Almighty God.
In tones so mellow did he utter himself, that for many minutes stillnessreigned, every face pale.
Until a baron stood up with ashen under-lip, to say that such a scheme,it seemed to him, must remain for ever abortive, unless enforced by Actof Parliament--
But Hogarth checked him quick.
"No, my lord, not by Act of Parliament: the how your lordship may leaveto me. I dare say you will see it in this evening's papers".
It was by an Order in Council!
* * * * * * *
"DECLARATION of the Court of Great Britain respecting the Order inCouncil.
"At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 24th day of March, hisLordship's Majesty, the Lord Regent, in Council.
"WHEREAS His Lordship's Majesty was pleased to declare in the name andon behalf of His Majesty the King on the 23rd day of March: THAT if atany time, after the expiration of the three months following, any of thehereinafter mentioned trades, occupations, pursuits, or acts, shallbe carried on or done within the United Kingdom of Great Britain andIreland by any person being a person coming within the sense of the term"Jew" as hereinafter defined, THEN and thereafter such person shall beliable to the pains and penalties hereinafter specified".
* * * * * * *
No Jew might own or work land, or teach in any Cheder or school, orbe entered at any Public School or University, or sign any stampeddocument, or carry on certain trades, or vote, or officiate at anypublic service, and so on: parentage, not religion, constituting a"Jew". Through Britain this piece of Russian despotism sent a wave ofquiet gladness, and an epidemic of jest broke out, in club, factory,"Lane", and drawing-room: "You hurry up--to Jericho!" became theworkman's answer to a Jew; it was remarked that the chimney of train andsteamship would furnish a new pillar of cloud by day, and pillar of fireby night, to go before the modern Exodus; they were little to be pitied,for even Heaven was their mortgagor in land, with promise to pay--thePromised Land; a syndicate would be formed to "pool" milk and honey, andeither Sharon or Salem would become the new Get-O at any price; being arather Peculiar People, they would call the new Temple "the 'Ouse" (ofPrey-ers), and make contango-day coincide with Passover....But let himlaugh that is of a merry heart: as for Israel, with weary breast andhunted stare he sandalled his foot for the final Exodus: yet not asthem without hope. Already--some days before the Order in Council--thedisappearance of Estrella's body, her daring prophecies, had led to theembarkation of 700 Jews for Palestine; and when the Regent's Edict gavestartling confirmation of her prediction of "the Return", in many amillion hearts thrilled the certainty: "the Day of the Lord is nigh!"
And with that their stoicism and organizing strength, they mutely turnedto follow the finger of Destiny: their _takifs_ (rich men), hard uponthe unchosen, were, as usual, liberal to their own, the fund swelled,and a Committee left England for the accumulation of stores andimplements; at the same time two Parliament Bills were passed in twosittings, empowering the purchase by Government of land "owned" by Jewson Land Bill terms, and quickening the machinery for the collection ofdebts due to Jews.
Whereupon, "You see", said the Chief Rabbi, "he drives us out: but hemakes us aprons--if only of fig-leaves--to cover us. Let us bow to hisrod, and thank him, and go: he is God's Minister".
So they went: the world's mercantile marine having been summoned,sea-ports were turned into caravansaries of gabardine and ear-lock: theExodus began.
In the midst of which it came to the knowledge of the Regent that thehouse of Frankl was making ready for departure.
And now Hogarth rebelled against Heaven: self-forgetfully he did hisbest, and it returned and struck him dead: for what good, he thought,would his life do him, she always in Asia, he in Europe?
He wrote to her, a passionate hotch-potch of command and grovellingsupplication: if she went, he would curse her; would go mad; wouldblaspheme God; would throw up everything; would die.
&n
bsp; He had promised to go down to Oxford to receive a degree, and as up tothe time of his departure she had not replied, he went half-unconsciousof himself and those about him.
Now, upon Adair Street the Expulsion had brought despair, thesecond-reading now assured, the Jews' vote over, and new writs issued;the second-reading debate was actually in progress at that date of theOxford visit; and though the four yachts, copies of the _Mahomet II_,were being rapidly put together, the Bill, if at all pressed, must getthrough before they could be ready; nor could the House of Lords longdelay its passage.
There remained Harris, so far ineffectual, but not therefore hopeless:so he, spurred, went down to Oxford.
But what Harris could not do was to get near to Hogarth: his task was,as it were, to pluck Venus from the firmament; but he mused, he musedupon her, with musing astrologic eye, with grand patience, fascinatedby her very splendours, not without hope. When at 8 P.M. a banquet wasserved to 250 guests in the Radcliffe Library, the upper gallery beingopen to a crawling public to see the lions feed, Harris, watching thencethe unattainable under the blue of the canopy--blue always in honour ofthe Sea--thought within himself: "Ah, Mr. 76, you've got it all, ain'tyou?--for the time being. But 'ow'd you feel if I had a pistol now?Gawd! I can just see him nicely curl and kick. Worse luck, I can't shoota bloomin' 'ouse".
But the opportunity was so exquisite, that he resolved to try--the exitreached, would run, get a pistol, and return; but at the door itselfa hand touched his shoulder, and, with a twist of guilty scare, hesaw--O'Hara.
"Good Gawd!" he whispered, "what you want to startle anybody like thatfor? Don't you know that the wicked flea pursueth every man, but therighteous shall escape his filthy snare?"
"What are you doing here, boy?" asked O'Hara.
"Thick-head! ain't I down 'ere after this precious Mr. 76?"--forHogarth, if Monarch of the Sun, would have remained for Harris only aglorified 76, Colmoor being for him the reality of the universe, allelse mirage, such stuff as dreams are made of.
"Well", said O'Hara, "come with me: want to talk to you"--he just comefrom the _Mahomet_ through Spain and France, drawn to Hogarth as mothsto a candle, his petition for pardon not yet answered; and he assumedthat Hogarth's wrath still blazed, though, in fact, answer was onlydelayed by competition of greater interests, Hogarth having forgottenO'Hara; at any rate, O'Hara, with shrinking qualms, had come to Oxford,thinking: "I will try and get at him for one more talk--I am not afraidof your eyes, my son: tut! I've seen the great brow in a prison-cap. Andthe haughty beast still loves old Pat at bottom, I do declare. Be bold,be bold, but not _too_ bold....Well, I will! And, if I perish, I perish,and he perishes, too, so help me, God"....
And to Harris, walking by the towing-path, he said: "No, boy, don't you.Not now. Tut!--those lords: they are only making you their tool. Don'tyou understand? Hogarth is robbing from them the land which they haverobbed from the British people, and they naturally wish to murder him:but what have _you_, or I, to do with that? Let the thieves fight it outbetween them, while we enjoy ourselves, if we can. Weren't we happy inthe _Mahomet_, boy--we two? Didn't you roll whole weeks drunk? That wasbetter than Colmoor, eh, Alfie? And didn't I have my incense, my grapes,my little Circassian, and ten thousand pounds in yellow gold ayear? Wasn't that all right? Well, we may have it again!--not in the_Mahomet_, perhaps, but somewhere. Do nothing--not yet: till I give theword. If you _must_ kill, get a dog, or a horse, or an obscure old man,not the Regent of England--"
"Dirty old swine!" cried Harris, angry, "'aven't I forbid you again andagain from making game of me? You're doing it now! You just try that on,and go up thou bald-head, it _is_!"
"But is this understood between us?"
"Old duffer! you are one thing to-day, and another thing to-morrow:there's no knowing how to tyke you. You're such a sinful old 'ypocrite,that you play-act before yourself, I do believe. What is it you do mean?You myke anyone sick of you; your incense and your burnt sacrifices arean offence unto me. This Mr. 76 once put a knife into me, and I mean toput another into him: 'ow's that?"
"Not now!"
"'Ow about your sweet friend, Frankl? I'm under contract with him, ain'tI?"
"Better put the knife into Frankl".
"Into the pair of you, it strikes me!"
"Well, if you make the least attempt upon Hogarth now, you get notanother shilling--".
"Bah! shut that--!"
But the threat won sullen consent; and when after the Banquet theOxford guests had driven to see the illuminations, spoiled by boisterousSpring-winds, and when the Regent returned to his chambers, he caughtsight of O'Hara amid the throng that lined the stair; upon which, afterstepping up past, he stopped, twisted round, to say: "You, AdmiralDonald?"
"If I might speak ten minutes with your Lordship's Majesty--"
"What about?"
Those bold eyes of O'Hara dropped.
"Well", said the Regent, "I will see. Come to-morrow--about five," andwent on up.
The next morning the Degree was conferred in the theatre, Doctor ofCommon Law--"an appropriate one", the Master of Balliol remarked,"though 'Surgeon' would perhaps be the _mot juste_"; and thus at lastHogarth donned cap-and-tassel, though not Frankl's--a livery which drewfrom Harris the reflection: "Sweet beauty!--in his mortarboard". The nipupon the brow of the college-cap peak resembled the nip of the Scotchprison-cap, awaking memories: but the symbolism was different.
Meantime, the Regent's eye wandered, madness and folly in his heart, andfear, till at four a letter came, he having left Loveday at BuckinghamPalace with instructions to open letters and send the One.
She had written:
"What you can expect of me I am unable to conceive. Have you notexpelled me? Let us be worthy of our long friendship, and 'play theman'....'My exaltation to afflictions high'....With prayers for you, Isay good-bye: and will remember.
"REBEKAH FRANKL".
Loveday had added: "She left London at noon for Southampton. Purchasfollowed to spy. Machray's other detective waits in Palace forinstructions".
As to the dinner in Christ Church Hall, and the Ball, which were to endthe program of this last day, at four-thirty the news spread that theRegent had been taken ill.
"Have you not expelled me?"...Was she angry? Did _she_ not know that hemeant well? Hogarth, breaking into a rage, leapt up, with, "I swear toGod that not one step does she move out of this country--!" and rushedto a bell: a gentleman-usher came.
"What about going?"
"All will be ready in fifteen minutes, my Lord King".
"I feel bad: say ten minutes; tell the Lord Chamberlain".
"Yes. I might mention--did your Lordship's Majesty grant a ten minutes'audience to Admiral Donald for this hour?"
"_Who_? Yes, I think--Just kick him down the stairs! Or no--say I maysee him some day".
This message, as the usher dashed through, was faithfully dropped atO'Hara's consciousness; and O'Hara said: "Hoity-toity...!"
Bent-backed he descended to the Quadrangle, with a sense of defeat,rebuff, contumely, rage, but quite sprightly said to Harris, waitingbeyond the Gateway: "Well, boy, how can we make a night of it? I feelthat way".
"Seen Mr. 76?"
"Tut, no. Sharpen up that knife for his throat, boy!"
And Harris exclaimed: "Another chynge! Strike me silly!--what did Isye? Give me a new 'eart, O Lawd, it _is_--you grey-haired old duffer.Chopping and chynging, always the syme--to your old wife Jyne. I'd beashamed of myself in your plyce. But sharpen up the knife, it _is_".
