The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror

by George Chetwynd Griffith

  CHAPTER XLV.

  ARMAGEDDON.

  On the southern side of London the struggle between theFranco-Italian armies and the troops of the Federation had beenraging all night with unabated fury along a curved line extendingfrom Bexley to Richmond.

  The railways communicating with the ports of the south and east had,for their own purposes, been left intact by the commanders of theLeague; and so sudden and utterly unexpected had been the invasion ofthe force from America, and the simultaneous uprising of the BritishSection of the Brotherhood, that they had fallen into the hands ofthe Federationists almost without a struggle. This had enabled theinvaders and their allies to concentrate themselves rapidly along theline of action which had been carefully predetermined upon.

  Landing almost simultaneously at Southampton, Portsmouth, Shoreham,Newhaven, Hastings, Folkestone, Dover, Deal, Ramsgate, and Margate,they had been joined everywhere by their comrades of the BritishSection, whose first action, on receiving the signal from the sky,had been to seize the railways and shoot down, without warning ormercy, every soldier of the League who opposed them.

  What had happened at Harwich had at the same time and in the samefashion happened at Dover and Chatham. The troops in occupation hadbeen caught and crushed at a blow between overwhelming forces infront and rear. Added to this, the International was immenselystronger in France and Italy than in Russia, and therefore thedefections from the ranks of the League had been far greater thanthey had been in the north.

  Tens of thousands had donned the red ribbon as the Signal flashedover their encampments, and when the moment came to repel the assaultof the mysterious grey legions that had sprung from no one knewwhere, the bewildered French and Italian officers found theirregiments automatically splitting up into squads of tens andcompanies of hundreds, obeying other orders, and joining in theslaughter of their former comrades with the most perfect _sangfroid_. By daybreak on the 6th the various divisions of theFederationists were well on their way to the French and Italianpositions to the south of London. The utmost precautions had beentaken to prevent any news reaching headquarters, and these, as hasbeen seen, were almost entirely successful.

  The three army corps sent southward by General le Gallifet met with aruinous disaster long before they came face to face with the enemy.Ten of the fleet of thirty war-balloons which had been sent toco-operate with them, had been manned and commanded by men of theInternational. They were of the newest type and the swiftest in thefleet, and their crews were armed with the strangest weapons that hadyet been used in the war. These were bows and arrows, a curiousanachronism amidst the elaborate machinery of destruction evolved bythe science of the twentieth century, but none the less effective onthat account. The arrows, instead of being headed in the usual way,carried on the end of the shaft two little glass tubes full ofliquid, bound together, and tipped with fulminate.

  When the fleet had been in the air about an hour these ten aerostatshad so distributed themselves that each of them, with a littlemanoeuvring, could get within bowshot of two others. They also rose alittle higher than the rest. The flutter of a white handkerchief wasthe signal agreed upon, and when this was given by the man in commandof the ten, each of them suddenly put on speed, and ran up close toher nearest neighbour. A flight of arrows was discharged at thegas-holder, and then she headed away for the next nearest, anddischarged a flight at her.

  Considering the apparent insignificance of the means employed, theeffects were absolutely miraculous. The explosion of the fulminate onstriking either the hard cordage of the net or one of the steel ribsused to give the gas-holder rigidity, broke the two tubes full ofliquid. Then came another far more violent explosion, which toregreat rents in the envelope. The imprisoned gas rushed out intorrents, and the crippled balloons began to sink, at first slowly,and then more and more rapidly, till the cars, weighted with crews,machinery, and explosives, struck the earth with a crash, andexploded, like so many huge shells, amidst the dense columns of theadvancing army corps. In fifteen minutes each of the ten capturedaerostats had sent two others to the earth, and then, completelymasters of the position, those in charge of them began their assaulton the helpless masses below them. This was kept up until theFederation troops appeared. Then they retired to the rear of theFrench and Italian columns, and devoted themselves to burning theirstores and blowing up their ammunition trains with fire-shell.

  Assailed thus in front and rear, and demoralised by the defection ofthe thousands who, as soon as the battle became general, showed thered ribbon and echoed the fierce battle-cry of the Federation, thesplendid force sent out by General le Gallifet was practicallyannihilated by midnight, and by daybreak the Federationists, afterfifteen hours of almost continuous fighting, had stormed all theouter positions held by the French and Italians to the south ofLondon, the batteries of which had already been destroyed by theair-ships.

  Thus, when the _Ithuriel_ passed over London on the morning of the7th the position of affairs was as follows: The two armies which hadbeen detached by the Tsar and General le Gallifet to stop the advanceof the Federationists had been destroyed almost to a man. Of the twofleets of war-balloons there remained twenty-two aerostats in thehands of the Terrorists, while the twenty-five sent by the Tsaragainst the air-ships had retired at nightfall to the depot atMuswell Hill to replenish their stock of fuel and explosives. Theirammunition-tenders, slow and unwieldy machines, adapted only forcarrying large cargoes of shells, had been rammed and destroyed withease by the air-ships during the running, or rather flying, fight ofthe previous afternoon.

  At sunset on the 6th the whole available forces of the League whichcould be spared from the defence of the positions, numbering morethan three million men, had descended to the assault on London atnearly fifty different points.

  No human words could convey any adequate conception of that night ofcarnage and terror. The assailants were allowed to advance far intothe mighty maze of streets and byways with so little resistance, thatthey began to think that the great city would fall an easy prey tothem after all. But as they approached the main arteries of centralLondon they came suddenly upon barricades so skilfully disposed thatit was impossible to advance without storming them, and from which,as they approached them, burst out tempests of rifle and machinegunfire, under which the heads of their columns melted away fasterthan they advanced.

  Light, quick-firing guns, posted on the roofs of lofty buildings,rained death and mutilation upon them. The air-ships, flying hitherand thither a few hundred feet above the house-tops, like spirits ofdestruction, sent their shells into their crowded masses and wroughtthe most awful havoc of all with their frightful explosives, blowinghundreds of men to indistinguishable fragments at every shot, whilefrom the windows of every house that was not in ruins came aceaseless hail of missiles from every kind of firearm, from amagazine rifle to a shot-gun.

  When morning came the Great Eastern Railway and the Thames had beencleared and opened, and the hearts of the starving citizens weregladdened by the welcome spectacle of train after train pouring inladen with provisions from Harwich, and of a fleet of steamers,flying the Federation flag, which filled the Thames below LondonBridge, and was rapidly discharging its cargoes of food at thewharves and into lighters.

  As fast as the food could be unloaded it was distributed first to thetroops manning the barricades, and then to the markets and shops,whence it was supplied free in the poorer districts, and at the usualprices in the richer ones. All that day London feasted and mademerry, for now the Thames was open there seemed to be no end to thefood that was being poured into the city which twelve hours beforehad eaten its last scanty provisions. As soon as one vessel wasdischarged another took its place, and opened its hold filled withthe necessaries and some of the luxuries of life.

  The frightful butcheries at the barricades had stopped for the timebeing from sheer exhaustion on both sides. One cannot fight withoutfood, and the defenders were half-starved when they began. Rage andthe longing for revenge had lent them
strength for the moment, buttwelve hours of incessant street fighting, the most wearing of allforms of battle, had exhausted them, and they were heartily glad ofthe tacit truce which gave them time to eat and drink.

  As for the assailants, as soon as they saw conclusive proof that theblockade had been broken and the city victualled, they foundthemselves deserted by the ally on whose aid they had most counted.While the grip of famine remained on London they knew that its fallwas only a matter of time; but now--if food could get in so couldreinforcements, and they had not the remotest idea as to the numberof the mysterious forces which had so suddenly sprung into existenceoutside their own lines.

  Added to this their losses during the night had been somethingappalling. The streets were choked with their dead, and the housesinto which they had retired were filled with their wounded. So they,too, were glad of a rest, and many spoke openly of returning to theirlines and abandoning the assault. If they did so it might be possibleto fight their way to the coast, and escape out of this hugedeath-trap into which they had fallen on the very eve of theirconfidently-anticipated victory.

  So, during the whole of the 7th there was little or no hard fightingin London, but to the north and south the grey legions of theFederation fought their way mile by mile over the field ofArmageddon, gradually driving in the two halves of the Russian andthe Franco-Italian armies which had been faced about to oppose theirprogress while the other halves were making their assault on London.

  As soon as news reached the Tsar that the blockade of the river hadbeen broken, he had ordered twelve of his remaining war-balloons todestroy the ships that were swarming below London Bridge. Their fueland cargoes of explosives had been renewed, and they rose into theair to execute the Autocrat's command just as Natasha had taken leaveof Arnold on her errand of mercy. He fathomed their design at once,swung the _Ithuriel_ rapidly round to the northward, and said to hislieutenant, who had just come on deck--

  "Mr. Marston, those fellows mean mischief. Put a three-minute timefuze on a couple of No. 3 fire-shell, and load the bow guns."

  The order was at once executed. He trained one of the guns himself,giving it an elevation sufficient to throw the shell over the risingballoons. As the sixtieth second of the first minute passed, hereleased the projectile. It soared away through the air, and burstwith a terrific explosion about fifty feet over the ascendingaerostats.

  The rain of fire spread out far and wide, and showered down upon thegas-holders. Then came a concussion that shook the air like athunder-clap as the escaping gas mixed with the air, took fire, andexploded. Seven of the twelve aerostats instantly collapsed andplunged back again to the earth, spending the collective force oftheir explosives on the slopes of Muswell Hill. Meanwhile the secondgun had been loaded and fired with the same effect on the remainingfive.

  Arnold then ran the _Ithuriel_ up to within a mile of Muswell Hill,and found the remaining thirteen war-balloons in the act of makingoff to the northward.

  "Two more time-shells, quick!" he cried. "They are off to take partin the battle to the north, and must be stopped at once. Look lively,or they'll see us and rise out of range!"

  Almost before the words were out of his mouth one of the guns wasready. A moment later the messenger of destruction was speeding onits way, and they saw it explode fairly in the midst of the squadron.The second followed before the glare of the first explosion hadpassed, and this was the last shot fired in the aerial warfarebetween the air-ships and the war-balloons.

  "The rain of fire spread out far and wide."

  _See page 344._]

  The effects of these two shots were most extraordinary. Theaccurately-timed shells burst, not over, but amidst the aerostats,enveloping their cars in a momentary mist of fire. The intense heatevolved must have suffocated their crews instantaneously. Even if ithad not done so their fate would have been scarcely less sudden orterrible, for the fire falling in the cars exploded their own shellseven before it burst their gas-envelopes. With a roar and a shock asthough heaven and earth were coming together, a vast dazzling mass offlame blazed out, darkening the daylight by contrast, and when itvanished again there was not a fragment of the thirteen aerostats tobe seen.

  "So ends the Tsar's brief empire of the air!" said Arnold, as thesmoke of the explosion drifted away. "And twenty-four hours moreshould see the end of his earthly Empire as well."

  "I hope so," said Natasha's voice at his elbow. "This awfuldestruction is sickening me. I knew war was horrible, but this ismore like the work of fiends than of men. There is somethingmonstrous, something superhumanly impious, in blasting yourfellow-creatures with irresistible lightnings like this, as thoughyou were a god instead of a man. Will you not be glad when it isover, Richard?"

  "Glad beyond all expression," replied her lover, the angry light ofbattle instantly dying out of his eyes as he looked upon her sweetlypitiful face. "But tell me, what success has my angel of mercy had inpleading for the lives of her enemies?" he continued, slipping hisarm through hers, and leading her aft.

  "I don't know yet, but my father told me to ask you to go to him assoon as you could leave the deck. Go now, and, Richard, remember whatI said to you when you offered me the empire of the world as we weregoing to Aeria. No one has such influence with the Master as youhave, for you have given him the victory and delivered his enemiesinto his hands. For my sake, and for Humanity's, let your voice befor mercy and peace--surely we have shed blood enough now!"

  "It shall, angel mine! For your sweet sake I would spare evenAlexander Romanoff himself and all his Staff."

  "You will never be asked to do that," said Natasha quietly, as Arnolddisappeared down the companion-way.

  It was nearly an hour before he came on deck again, and by this timethe _Ithuriel_, constantly moving to and fro over London, so that anychange in the course of events could be at once reported to Natas,had shifted her position to the southward, and was hanging in the airover Sydenham Hill, the headquarters of General le Gallifet, whencecould be plainly heard the roar of the tide of battle as it rolledever northward over the hills of Surrey.

  An air-ship came speeding up from the southward as he reached thedeck. He signalled to it to come alongside. It proved to be the_Mercury_ taking a message from Tremayne, who was personallycommanding the Army of the South in the _Ariel_, to the air-shipsoperating with the Army of the North.

  "What is the message?" asked Arnold.

  "To engage and destroy the remaining Russian war-balloons, and thencome south at once," replied the captain of the _Mercury_. "I amsorry to say both the _Lucifer_ and the _Azrael_ have been disabledby chance shots striking their propellers. The _Lucifer_ was so badlyinjured that she fell to the earth, and blew up with a perfectlyawful explosion; but the _Azrael_ can still use her fan-wheels andstern propeller, though her air-planes are badly broken and twisted."

  Arnold frowned at the bad news, but took no further notice of itbeyond saying--

  "That is unfortunate; but, I suppose, some casualties were inevitableunder the circumstances." Then he added: "I have already destroyedall that were left of the Tsar's war-balloons, but you can take theother part of the message. Where is the _Ariel_ to be found?"

  The captain of the _Mercury_ gave him the necessary directions, andthe two air-ships parted. Within an hour a council of war, consistingof Natas, Arnold, and Tremayne, was being held in the saloon of the_Ithuriel_, on the issue of which the lives of more than two millionsof men depended.