ijlli !'i ii lilllii' llili'lililii i Willi m\\\ lilJir iijliljHjjjljn!!!!! THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES mMm THE CLIFFS (y^ Drama of the Time, in Five Parts) j4ll rights reserved THE CLIFFS BY CHARLES M. DOUGHTY author of *adam cast forth* 'the dawn in Britain' and 'travels in ARABIA DESERTA ' Imperii casus appropinquat. Cicero. LONDON: DUCKWORTH & CO. 3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1909 PK ALMAE PATRIAE 653507 DRAMATIS PERSONAE SiRiON, divine shining One from heaven ; one of the Mighty Powers of the Universe. YamIn and Shem6l ; tw^o strong heavenly Spirits, with Sirion. Truth, (sunborn eternally on the Earth ;) and a company of Light Elves with him. John Hobbe, Crimean veteran, now a shepherd on the ClifF. Captain Pakenham, R.N., commanding the Coastguard, Vicar Manby. Surgeon Newton. Little James, Dowells Son. Garland, Halliday, Hearty ; Coastguards. Drawlatch, Sexton. Ward, Constable. Hulbert, a fisherman. Godwin and Freeman, two veomen-farmers. John Newlands, miller. Early, Postman. Villagers, men and women. Two Foreign Aeronauts, with their Machinist; that are Spies. Two English Aeronauts, of the fraternity of the Sacred Band. Sir Robert Bond, a yachtsman, with friends and mariners. Intelligence Officer, Newsboy, Soldiers, and others. Postmistress Dowell. Alittle deformed MAiDEN,(a ladys daughter,living abroad.) Makepeace, John Hobbes wife, (who does not speak.) Souls of Britains Sleepers. Ghosts of Englands Hero-Dead. Foreign Ghosts ; (Buonaparte and the Maid of Orleans.) PART I THE CLIFFS PART I {An Of en heath- cliff in East Anglia : misty moonlight. John Hobbe, Crimean veteran, now an aged shep- herd, comes haltifig by, wrapped in an old horse- man^ s cloak, and leaning heavily on his crome.) Hobbe. Now in my once young veins, begins to creep Dull age, rheums too. I moun, these lambing nights, Lie out, in wind and wet, amongst the ewes, In fold ; that now I 've pitched gin the heath-croft. I feed them there of rapes, to give them strength. I may not rest, as I wor wont to sleep ; So a wimble bores my brain, of busy thought : Wherefore, what though 't be chill for an old wight, I 've left them ruckhng mother sheep ; to pace Awhile here to and forth, longs the sea-cHff. My windpipes wheeze, comes on me the old cough, When out of the East it blows, over this heath. 3 THE CLIFFS 'T will soon be five year, come next Michaelmas, Since when, being superannuate, as they called it, I 'm home returned here, to my fathers' trade ; That 's to keep sheep. I 've so far thriven in it, There 's nigh an hundred hoggerels now to shear. In the new moon : for, when the moon is making. The fleece is best. 'T will be a bit for us, That are poor folk. There 's more than most wot of, In shepherds craft : to know, when ails them aught : And there 's the bot and there 's the rot, and such- like : What water, feed and air should do them good ; What dip to use ; there 's nothing like to tar, For wounds : and when renews itself the year ; Which herbs and worts were best in every season. And how to pitch your pen in wind and rain. To give most harbour ; and in drought most air. There 's dipping, shearing, marking then the flock ; There 's severance of your yearling ewes and rams ; And rearing of them eanlings of yows lost. All John Hobbes shepherds were, round Clay- bourne heath, Far back as men have memory. They in church- Yard mould lie graved now, under yewen bough, Arow : and over them dreeps the cold dew, 4 THE CLIFFS And falls the rain, and seldwhiles shines the sun. I mind those five head-stones, with five green mounds, And mothers too : the sixth will mine be soon, Nigh Corporal Hobbe, (I put up that myself,) My father ; and next mother Anne, his wife. Within a while, there'll three-score years be passed ; Since I, for wounds received in Englands wars. Go halting on a staff. Was fifty-four The year, when I a youth, yet under age, EnHsted. Many tall lads in those days. Would take the sergeants shiUing. War, for Eng- land ; And to be sent, to see the world, seemed to us, A glorious part : but few of us turned home ; And of those few, the more with loss of limb. At months end, our draft sailed. The third I was Wounded in battle ; thinned were our red ranks. In that first field I saw ten thousand fall, On either part. At bloody Inkerman, The ' Soldiers Battle,' I all day again Fought ; when our two brigades, in Winters mist, 5 THE CLIFFS Held ground, gainst forty Russian regiments ! * A ball my schako drilled, three bored my coat. Out of our trenches, a third time, I fought : 'T was moonlight, when we stormed a Russian breach. Tall Major Boyse, who led us, was in first ; I next. Englandy with shining blade aloft. He cried, for ever, lads ; our lives for England ! And in that fell : the blood ran from his breast, 'T was I who caught our major in mine arms : I bayoneted him who shot him ; swarmed out on us Blue Russians, in bright moonlight. Long then was And deadly our strife ; fierce fighting hand to hand ; Our officers with sharp swords, we men with bayonets. We, though our foes were five to one of us. Wan, with hurrahs ! ditch, rampart and hornwork. One after other, fell our officers ; Then last I saw a sergeant take command ; One we named Fergus, a brave Northern man. No more I knew : under a flag of truce, Gathered at day the fallen were ; and when us The surgeons had inspected, one by one ; I on the dead-cart was mongst soldiers dead 6 THE CLIFFS Laid ; and that driven then to the grave-trench was. There on the brinks those, shrouded in their cloaks, White with night rime, were in long rows, outlaied : And pinned, on his cold breast, was each mans name. Yet for some sign, then showed in me of life, I 've heard say, 't was a movement of this hand ; I with the other corses was not cast ; When Earth to earthy and dust, our chaplain said, Down in the common pit. Come to myself, I in hospital, languished slowly back to life. Rejoined my company, hardly fifty soldiers. Now all told, and many fought with bandaged wounds ; Once more I, amongst our battle-ranks advanced. Gainst dinning wall of hell-fire, smoke and shot. In that the regimental trumpeter sounded ; With hideous schrecch, a shrapnel shell burst o'er us. Men round me fell, for that was stufl[ed with grape ; I amidst them lay, hip-shattered and half dead : And saw sway to and fro, long mortal fight. The enemy's heavy columns o'er us passed ; But by a British charge, being butted back ; 7 THE CLIFFS Those bayoneted wounded soldiers on the ground ! For which we deadly hated them again. When they had been repulsed, at bayonet-point, And British regiments held, at dusk, the field ; There few of us shell-hurt and mangled soldiers, Yet in that place we fell, remained alive. Next hour there went by searchers of the ground, With lanterns, stretchers, English shout and guard ; And us, that wearily cried for help and drink, They bleeding heaps found, stiffened in night frost ; And more than aught, that cold had anguished us. 'T was midnight, ere my splintered bones were set ; And dressed in my delirium were my wounds : One-coloured with my tunic was my shirt ! After three weeks, I invalided home, Was borne forth, by my comrades, to the shore ; Embarked, and hoised the Royal George aboard ; Was she a battleship, without her guns ; Our floating hospital. We at that months end, Having full complement now of invalids, Weighed with fair wind ; and joyful sailed for home. Month-long, through the East Seas, our gallant ship, 8 THE CLIFFS Stooping to prosperous gales, had held her voyage : Passed then the Straits ; we watched the Polestar rise. But in the Bay, fell sore night-tempest on us ; Wherein were not few vessels cast away, In weather thick, and lost. As for the George^ We shortened sail and sent down spars and top- masts, Before the storm fell. We had not been able, In rain and squall, ere the wind veered, to make Out Ushant Light. The George, much tossed, at midnight. Being by dead reckoning as the Master judged, (Allowed for currents off the Spanish Capes,) Scant eighty mile, from Englands Western coast. We altered course ; and close-reefed bore up thus. When order was being given, to light fires. Under the boilers ; (for an head of steam Should help our sails ; whilst steadied those the ship :) We suddenly fell mongst breakers and ledged rocks. Before us headland loomed of Englands cliffs, In misty moonlight. Shuddered the great ship, From deck to bilge ; grounded, lost way, sate fast ; . 9 THE CLIFFS And blew out her rent topsails from the yards. Waked from night sleep, we heard the Captains voice, Calling for Volunteers, to lift the sick. A thousand wounded lay, in her sick-bays, For such was all the ship : few then had force, To creep out of their cots, and climb the hatch. Sounded the boatswains pipe. To lower boats : But those were few ; and in dark rage of waves. With loads of invalids, could not have lived : Nor was there shore, twixt sea and the cliffs foot. By great adventure then. High Power of God ! That blast slacked : seas huge-lifted hurling flood. Ship-buffeting breakers' race, went down around us. Anchors, borne between boats, then were laid out ; And capstans manned : whereon heaved hundred hands. Treading, with all their might, to music round. In that a rising tide stirred the great ship : Lifted her keel, and fell her forefoot off. Midst cheers we warped to seaward. Battleships Had engines in those days, of little force. Scaped from that peril, we at day stood off, Under raised steam and canvas, with a leak Forward of the ships working on sharp rocks. lO THE CLIFFS Toiled our ships company then, in hourly shifts, With a heave and a how-so-ho ! at the chain- pumps. 'T was afternoon when lifted the sea-mist : The Sun shone out, as we the Eddystone passed. Bearing in with the Land, we sick ones watched From our portholes, the green Home-coast, till sunset. We had saluted, and held on half-furled ; And at gunfire on shore hauled down our flag ; When anchor was let go, in Plymouth port. Thus I returned home, yet a beardless youth ; My other short leg kicking in a sling, Twixt hospital crutches, bent, when I was set Ashore, like an old man. The Medical Board Reported me, as unfit for further service ; And with a pension, for my wounds, I was Discharged. One evening from the Royal Blue, (Was that our Norwich coach,) I, a cripple, lighted Before my fathers gate ; men holp me forth : And passed our garden, when I stood again, And drew the latch, under our woodbine porch ; (How ofttimes had I seen this in my thought, In hospital, and when swinging in my cot, At sea !) Came mother running ; and her son 1 1 THE CLIFFS Knew hardly again, whom she with cries embraced ! Risen from his stool, beside the hearth ; strode forth My father, stern Peninsular old soldier ; Who in hundred hard-fought battles, had his part, Under the Iron Duke, gainst Buonaparte. When father, with his pigtail, stood in church. Upright, on Sundays, in his shepherds coat ; With soldiers medals glittering on his breast ; He seemed a pillar, fit to bear the roof ! In his stiff arms, he bore me, into the house. Then only, in laying down his smouldering pipe, ' Young John,' said he, ' why, unbeknown to us, Went'st thou a-soldiering, to this Russian war ? Much sorrow hath Anne thy mother had therefore. We 've none but thee, son. Howsomever, John, That pleaseth me, which thy colonel lately writ ; That thou hast borne thyself in all aright. For Queen and countrys sake, as a true soldier. Boy, that doth honour unto our poor house.' But when returned our regiment from the war. My companys captain, colonel in command. Now, for our senior officers had been killed ; Spake for me ; and I a sergeant doorkeepers stool. Obtained in London, at that Board of War ; 12 THE CLIFFS Where two years ere, I 'd listed for a soldier ; When I, a red-haired youth, from Walsingham ; Came driving up, by the waysides, two horn-beasts, For Smithfield Market. Once I 'd saved his life ; When, by night-sortie, we 'd been driven out From our trench-head. Had clubbed him with butt-end, A monstrous Russian ; and he swooned on ground. I him heaved, as I 'd learned to heave an hurt ewe : Those sometimes fall in ditches ; and a shepherd Has oft ado enow to lift, and set, The best he can, their wrung sides and wrenched bones. I Captain Miles bare, hitcht on my strong back ; And turning oft my face, still fenced us both, With bayonet ; and thus safe, at end, him brought. Where he revived, within our British lines. His mother. Lady Miles, (the colonel died. Within a while, of some internal hurt,) Did send mc each year, in memory of him, ten pounds, At Christmas, with her blessing, till her death. I come to London, Makepeace took to wife : Nor me, a cripple now, would she forsake. 13 THE CLIFFS We 'd sweethearts been, from children, ere the war ; When we together, from nigh cottage doors. Raced to dayschool together, and played home. In London, were then born to us five sons. We bred them up to fear God, and to serve Their Queen and England : All our boys were soldiers. We 've seen Queens medals shine on their young breasts. Of such have we till now, father and sons, Betwixt us all, as nigh as I may mind, Seventeen ; with more than thirty battle-clasps. Two fallen, of our brave boys, be in the wars. For Englands Right. Those died well, God be thanked ! Since all must die, we would, for sons of ours, No better death. Five orphelings those left to us : Wherefore, though old now and wellnigh past service, I make a shift, to keep sheep on these walks ; Where I and Makepeace bides in the old cote. Our third son, Rafe, won last year, the Queens cross, For valour ; that 's the soldiers highest honour. Rafe saved his comrade, and his officer. But I see risen the Shepherds' Morning Star. 14 THE CLIFFS 'T is then the ewes, that are in milk, stand up, To feed ; and I moun to them, at the troughs. I heard, now seaward, somewhat in the air, Like beating distant floats of paddleship ; Not that thick whiss and rushing, of fowls' flight. Each falling and renewing of the leaf ; O'er seas, twixt Hollands Coast and Claybourne chff. Under thick scudding wrack, though she 's to- night Nigh full, the moon doth cast so scarce a light ; That hardly I find my path ; though it have marked The coastguard, with white scars, longs the seas cliff. What see I a flitting shadow, that is cast On the night skies ! I would these clouds were brushed Once, from her bayonet-bright, high-burnished face. I 'm wont to perilous ways and doubtful nights : There 's many I 've in them trenches wrought and watched. Ah Lord of Glory ! Thou that all beholdest, From starry heavens yonder mighty steep ; Beseech Thee, I yet some soldiers deed might work, 15 THE CLIFFS That were my blood for England, when I pass ! Again ! like some thin, screaming, threshing sound, I heard ; and Ball, our dog, howled, mongst the ewes. A shepherd should not bide long from his fold ! Old age, they say, is tardy and garrulous ; As is the starling, that must still be pattering On a sheeps wool. Men tell me, I 'm heard to talk Much with myself. Ah well ! I 've no one else To speak with in the field, save Him alone Who sits on High, and rules this infinite night. Though likely it be, an old head may fare light. Sometimes for lack of sleep ; there 's naught can make Old soldiers heart cold ; though 't be, at the cliff Here, chill to-night, in John my dead sons cloak. {The old man clap his arms. A new rushing sound is heard aloft.) HoBBE. Ha, what do I hear, this humming in the air ? {He stands and listens attentively^ What see I on height ? and now I hear mens voices. {An Aerostat is seen descending from the skies.) They 're foreign too ! O what balloon-like hovering i6 ^ THE CLIFFS Thing is this, that on our sea-cliff lights ? 'T is likest that those should mean no good by us. I '11, like a skirmisher, shroud me in this briar bush. (HoBBE crouches in the hush : voices are heard, in the air approaching.) First Voice. Herr Baron., right beneath us wide cliff lies ! Second Voice. Cliff-brow of perfide Albion ! so aHght. First Voice. Avast, Hans ! let down anchor on the grass. {The balloon is brought down. 'Tioo foreign militaires, with their mechanician, circumspectly alight. He heats in pickets., whilst they hold down the airship. They bind her thereto., and make all fast with ropes ^ Baron. Herr Ingenieur., we sooner than we looked for, Here touch to shore. I like well this first luck ; Sailing by only compass, in the dark. Ingenieur. The airship, as her builder her designed, Flies true, though light and staunchly rides the wind. Not without lifes fear, was at first her course ; Whilst low and thwart land currents hindered us ; And somewhiles tossed. Bar. So covert is the night. There 's not moonlight enough, to view this coast ; B 17 THE CLIFFS Where our descent, which shall confound the World, Determined is to-morrow, to begin. Inc. (looking upon an opeji sheet in his hands.) This Staff-Karte shows, here lies much open heath. Bar. Where stirs not even a mus ridicidus. Well, we must patient time : there 's naught for us. But sitting down, to watch the labouring moon, That wades this scudding wrack. We may not even Light strike to our zigarren here, to refresh us. Ing. That were gainst regulations for night service. Bar. To drive the nightlong hours we may discourse. At our belle aise. Ing. Shall we sit on this grass ? Bar. 'T is well enough. (They sit down.) Ing. Save the chill, damp nights breath. Which hovers from waves' face, that we have passed ; This melancholy surge, with the reflux Of seas salt tide, down on those desolate rocks ; . . . Bar. All still is as a graveyard at midnight ! Ing. Yet can it be, the Englanders keep no watch. Save in few towers and lightships on their Coast ? Like to rich city, without gates and walls. Or garrison ; midst strong, treacherous enemies ! i8 THE CLIFFS No man, except he were a natural sot, Doth by the common highway leave his purse. Bar. Well, those do more ; they leave without defence (Though would safeguard their own, the very beasts !) Their natural Land, and all therein to loss ; And are become thus the World's laughing stock. Inc. Is there no fear, that we might be surprised, By some armed watch ? Bar. Nein^ none : there be none such. Are not to Petticoat Island we arrived ? Where so men womanised and effeminate grown Are, (that to flickering of their womens eyes, Do set their wits ;) that they, we hear, send home Their very watchhounds, which they softly rear, On sugarbread and milksop, now to sleep. : Ing. They dread then no outlandish enemies ? Bar. They are too slow of heart and Island-bred. Confusion born is in the English blooc. As clouds in Britains skies : besides they deem It their prerogative to excel, with small Endeavour : they live thus in blind illusions. And evil counseled ; seeing their Parliament men Do, each side honestly, wellnigh anything So they may votes win. Who set over them, ^9 THE CLIFFS Their pennywise fool-hardy mandarins, Will make believe, (for votes too !) they, by shifts, Spare hundred thousand marks ; though for that sot Few pounds saved ; like the churl, who would not paint His house till its nigh falling, certain is, They must tomorrow panic-millions spend ; Not nine, but ten times ninety-fold that they saved ; To their undoing, and grossly them misspend. Meanwhile their State 's in danger to be lost. Blinded by Providence, that it seems loves us ! Their Admiralty, in the last year, have disbanded Their last reserve the Coastguard : now they could not Supply the waste of war, in one sea-fleet. Were aught to go at first against our warships, We 've hundred thousand, to repair our loss ; Men, which have passed their seatime in war- service. You '11 find no docks, on all East Englands Coast ; Whereas they might refit one battered Dread- nought ! Whence those should fall an easy prey to us, 20 THE CLIFFS In second fight : thus holds our Generalstaff\ Ing. Yet, have they not the greatest merchant navy ? Bar. Ships, but all too few seamen of their own : Nor are their untrained merchant-seafolk apt, To serve in warships : and so those «unk up Are in all swinish vices of the ports, They 're quite unfit to render stedfast service. Their merchants sooner wage now foreign shipfolk. As of more temperate living and more trust. Nay, and even, in English waters, foreign pilots They '11 hire to guide their ships. Inc. That 's wonder sworth ! But hold they not a sovereignty of seas .? Bar. Not in the opinion of our Generalstaff. English warships, Hke merchant vessels ride, By night-time careless, on seas open water ; Their stems, sterns, steering-gear without defence, Gainst sudden offence of enemy submarines. Those cannot see you, and they cannot shoot ; Their guns bear not so low. To fight by night. Their gunners be untaught. We in 6ne night might Sink, by surprise, the strength of Britains war- fleets. Inc. Is their marine artillery of none account ? Bar. When last time those contended on high seas, 21 THE CLIFFS Three British frigates did not once the frigate, To each opposed, a ship of equal force, Hit with great shot ; and those were Nelsons ships, Nine only years after Trafalgars fight ! They six times fought, and five times had the worse : 'T is so recorded in our Service books. I might tell you the names of all twelve frigates. Offhand ; the artillery is mine arm. Ing. How is Decayed so great seafaring Nation thus ? Bar. They 're governed now, by loose-brained dema- gogues : The dusty feet rule England, not the head. All carries now the irrational Parliament vote, Of a brain-addled crooked populace. Part their sheeplike conditions be in fault. Each will-with-the-wisp, that hovers from their mist, Through fens, through briars, over strange steeps and floods. This soul-blind people follow like a flock. Whereunto you might add their native fog Of misbegotten language. 'T is a speech. Wherein can none think clearly. Were Persanian Speech, full as theirs, of islands dark enclaves, 22 THE CLIFFS Of all tongues spoken with us, since the Stone Age ; Where should even we be ? Whilst he speaks, may your Unschooled Cimmerian Englander, hardly more Than a bare glimmering of the meaning have Of his half-shut lips' confused utterance. Ing. That 's noteworthy ! Words, all Philosophy showeth, Be such as ciphers are, the elements ; Whereof each human soul builds from the Earth, The mathematic fabric of his thoughts. Natheless, we read, their fathers manly fought, By land and seas ; and vanquished Buonaparte. Bar. 'T is on this fond persuasion, they yet live ; And hug themselves, for that their fathers wrought ; Being so themselves degenerate and decayed. In mind and manhood, they are good for naught. Poltroons, but games ; they cease to handle arms. Each third man you shall see sling on his back. That seems a rifle : if you nigher look, You '11 find 't is but some bag of toys, of sticks ! Though they fool-hardy courage have enough. To break their necks in games, which they call Sport ; {Magnifique ! but that will not bear the touch ^3 THE CLIFFS Of hard reality ;) they all national spirit Of patriots lack, to put their bubbling lives, To any small displeasure, to bear arms, For Countrys sake. See, how few on them take First duty of every loyal citizen male, Being grown to his full age, to uphold England ! Dead is all Patriotismus in their breasts, Grown out of fashion now, quite obsolete. Those know not heavens high pure religious fire ! Which, in the hardest of extremities. Can arm mans breast, with constant fortitude. In few of them, that sacred flame doth burn ; Nor any heart consume. Fetish it is. These men-of-butter say, of lower races ! Inc. a picture old, in my book-chamber, hangs, Of great Trafalgars fight. Bar. Trafalgar, fpff Have you ne'er heard, how Frenchmen manned their fleet. With cafe gar^ons, cobblers, tailors, pressed ; Men hardly men, with other of like sort. I 've somewhere read, they monkeys used aloft, From Se'negal : they themselves might hardly set Or take in sail ; nor navigate great ships. If I lie not too much, was found Villeneuve, 24 THE CLIFFS At death, to be a woman. Yet the French Have sunk, before these cHffs, an EngHsh fleet. Hollanders sailed up Thames mouth, and fired their ships. Four days those wrought, (indelible disgrace !) Their wills in England. Ruyters cannon speak Heard rumbling Londons craven populace. Ing. Yet was not Waterloos victory very great ? Bar. The stomach all day ached of Buonaparte : When he began, tormented him the flux ; A windmill of thick pain whirled in his head : Might only, at an hand-gallop, charge his horse. Through mire of the late rain. With powder wet, Nor guns nor Frcnchmens muskets, would go off ! The strength of Wellingtons part were Persic soldiers, That held Haye Sainte ; those buoyed the English up : Victory that day, with Persic blood was bought. And Waterloo was but one of many fields ; Wherein were manifold feats more glorious, Of arms, achieved : thus holds our Generalstaff. We do allow the kilted men stood fast : The Irish caterans Buonaparte could not daunt. Were beardless children the most Englishmen. 25 THE CLIFFS Of four and twenty thousand, eighteen thousand Were Landwehr ^ soldiers. Ing. The brave English lads ! Bar. Methinks, you too much praise our adversaries. Ing. I praise them, ja ! My much loved mother was An Englishwoman ; nor her like again Shall I see, under this star-bent of heaven ! Yet I '11 perform my military oath, As to my Prince. But who live now in England ; Be not they their sons' sons' sons' sons, which fought At Cre^y, at Poictiers ; that won Agincourt ; And tennis played through fair wide fields of France ? Bar. Those got the better, with their feathered sticks. As children use ; they stole those victories : Scant honour to them, that not manhood had, To close in fight. Seld, even on the high seas. Have Englanders laid aboard their enemies. Ing. Fought they not mainly with the Muskovite ? Bar. The French fought well ; in our staff-books the English, (Save for some foolish charge !) are hardly mentioned. Persanians, passed few years, o'erfought the French ; So England, by our arms, shall be subdued ; Whose State much like is to her crumbling cliffs. 1 Militia. 26 THE CLIFFS Shall be of these Phoenicians, which have spoiled The World before, immense our booty. It was With such brave thought, in London, Blucher smiled ; (When her rich citizens cast all up their caps, To him, with hurrahs !) closely in his sleeve ; Foreseeing, what should one day be done by us. Ing. Should not we render evil, for their good ? (We 've nothing seen from them, I think, but good !) Helped they not us, in Fricdrichs wars, and since ? Else, had we surely had, till now, the worse ! Made they not us the equals of themselves, In all their Colonies ? still regarding us As their nigh kinsfolk. What cause then, I ask, Have we against them ? Bar. That have those too much ; And we Persanians not enough. Usurp Faint Englanders the World ! An old saw saith, ForcCy is Gods law of Nations on the Earth. Ing. What of our Treaties ? Bar. So our power is great ; That for no dusty treaties need we spare. We are our fathers' fathers ; so exceed We them in virtue : the dead ages past, If they might rise, should testify for us. 27 THE CLIFFS This age that is, is ours : Arms, Riches, Arts ; These be Persanias gods, which prosper us ; And that shall give us Empire of the Earth. Consider, what today the Englanders are, Those pale Provincials of our Continent, Nourished of fond illusions ! a bvword Amongst all Nations. We shall shortly win Their vast possessions ; Islands, Continents : We '11 take all that is offered to our hands. Ing. I 've read of Rome and Carthage : but are Carthage They, and we Rome ? as loudly all da}- declare Our spectacled pedants. Bar. Thereof shall dark War, That dread begins tonight, be Arbiter ! Ing. Can this proud Island Nation, once so stout, Make only slight resistance to our arms .? Bar. An handfuU of Dutch peasants was too much, Have we not lately seen, for Britains armv. Too long have these faint Englanders cried, Chuck- Chuck ! Over vast cockpit of the World ; that live By our longsufferance, like the very Turk. Ing. Some dream, they '11 indemoniately fight ; Dispute the fate of England, inch by inch. 28 THE CLIFFS Bar. Even that should hardly avail them : force un- taught Is easily broken. Jews, that frenziedly fought, Coveting, as heavens riches, wounds and death, Saved not Jerusalem. Impious Romans laughed. Ate pork and beat them ! Shall not likewise pass Britain, found not World-worthy ; and by us Her Empire be destroyed. I have myself, Among them lived, Hanse Consul, certain years ; And have thus felt their pulse. After six days ; When our highsea fleet shall have sunk their fleet?, And shall our mines have sealed their entry-ports ; When their home shires our army corps possess : Will clamour Englands abject multitude, (Since all with them is less than daily food, Nor reck such, who them rule, so they eat bread !) To king and parliament, for wage and bread : And willy-nilly, them compel make peace ; Such then, as we, their conquerors, will concede : That 's annexation or indemnity. Inc. What r Bar. Ten hundred millions; all the wealth of England, That 's ours by Conque:>t : we '11 them bleed to death. 29 THE CLIFFS Being heirs then of her merchandise ; which was what They had besides ; (for Britain in herself Is, without rich mens substance, a poor Land !) Persania shall be great indeed henceforth. Bethink you ; how we easily shall them tame And speedily. There 's not corn enough in stack, In barn, nor field ; bread-stuff in chandlers' stocks Within their shores, to last them out three weeks ! Of all the grain which these quaint Englanders eat. Five-sixths they fetch, from foreign soil, in ships. This cut off ; and it is the Nations death. Within few days ; whose brainsick politicians Have seen the fields to mourn and husbandmen Go lean and pale and broken, with light heart ; And though thereby the Peoples root did perish. All townlings now, too soft be grown their hands, To guide the plough and break a stubborn glebe ; Which labour maketh hardy and strong men. To keep a land against her enemies. The fourth day of our Invasion, you shall see Men who bare arms surrender every hour, As were they taught to do, in their Dutch War. Ing. Were taught ? Ach^ himmel ! That is ascer- tained ? 30 THE CLIFFS Bar. Well Wilhelm, of the Uhlans, told me so, My cousin, a keen soldier, whom you know. He one years foreign-service leave obtained ; And sailed to fight against the British army, On the Boer staff : and almost Wilhelm won, I had it from his lips, himself alone, The town of Aldaymist. Ing. When he came home. Was not your Cousin blamed ? Bar. Blamed ? au contraire ! Wilhelm received a laughing reprimand ; And that promotion, which he 'd long looked for. When we 've deported their surrendered men, There '11 little be left over to oppose Our arms. What can few do, in whom extinct 'S all citizen virtue ; when great foreign armies, Of war-trained soldiers, well-prepared to this. They see march in their highways, fields and streets. Their streets, that torrents were of wheels, which roared Today with traffic, shall be desolate. The therein hurrying footway throngs shall cease ; All thoroughfares shall be silent as the night ! Our soaring airships' fleet, which can with winds Contend, nor fears waves' watery wilderness, 31 THE CLIFFS Beneath ; ere our first transports may arrive, Wherein an expeditionary force Embarked ; shall seize these cHffs. The British warfleets, Combined, (our Intelligence is,) lie four days West From Irelands Coast ; where last week they were sent. To play war games, and patrol their trade-routes ; Wherein already is good part consumed Of all their ammunition, coal and victual. Be equal, (ja, at least !) to theirs our warships ; Our crews not less than theirs. Our officers are, We think, one better. Twixt our forces landed. And Englands diseased army of Lilliput, Fourth segment of Earths round wide compass lies. Ing. What of that Truce-of-God^ for thirty years. Which last month was concluded at the Hague ? And through the World proclaimed ; whereto their hands And seals, the ambassadors set of every Nation ! Bar. We are assured, by our alliances. 'T was long the play of our Weltpolitik^ To exploit the eternal enmity of the French, Gainst them in Africa, and in Further Asia The Muskovite : but that 's now, like an old cloak, 32 THE CLIFFS Worn too threadbare, to keep the weather out. N''irnporte I Persania hath in herself such force, We fear none under heaven, and can cast sops To all neutral Nations, of our great Conquest. Will the Worlds Peoples, which have longtime hated This pirate Island Nation, open wide, To mocking scornful laughter, then their mouths. They '11 pain them, for insuperable mirth, To hold their quaking sides, and lose first breath. Nine days will this mad World scoff on ; and then, As cloyed, revert unto his former course. Have not we, by the sword, won all our State ? We '11 keep it and enlarge it by the sword ! Inc. And yet behoves us, not too much to boast : Deep was the humiliation of our arms. (Great Friederichs arms !) in Friedrich Wilhelms days. In one week was our more than equal force, Driven from the field, in ignominious flight. Surrendered, at first summons of few horse. Our border fortresses. Tamely even laid Down whole divisions their inglorious arms. Napoleon, (with good reason !) held us cheap. Our Eagle was, he said, a double-faced Cringing rapacious vulture : so possessed c 33 THE CLIFFS A long low-hearted slumber had all hearts. 'T was Gottlieb Fichte roused our sires from sleep ; And fired the generous spirits of the Lands youth, To serve, with the whole impulse of the Nation, The common welfare. Was Persania made One manhood thus ; that marched great Tugend- bund^ To conquer Freedom, gainst all enemies. Bar. Burned in our fathers a great moral force, An high, a passionate resolve. Ideals, Enthusiasmus I Such find hardly place, In English hearts ! Ing. Were their whole youth, as ours, Taught citizen manhood, how to handle arms. Our enterprise should be hopeless. ^^ Bar. Well, I grant, That to the brainsick fury of their factions, (Which rage, like frantic women in the picture,) We are much beholden : whilst each one, gainst other, Shrieks injuries, and they cat-like mongst them strive. Their State stands still ! Ing. Though it be an house divided 1 League of Virtue. 34 THE CLIFFS Against itself ; yet there 's a Providence Works for them hitherto. Bar. Even as there is, For fools and children : their best Providence, Have been these cliffs and wild wave-rows, till now ; Waves that have we tonight overflown and passed. Our folk grows daily, and lacks now Colonies : Wherefore must vast Australien soon be ours ; In Europe must the Netherlands fall to us. (That shall enhance to heaven, our Naval Force !) With all her oversea great Dependencies. South Africa shall be ours too. Of late years, Our Rulers it have coveted ; with the there- To joining, settlements of old effete States. The Nile Lands then ; and when Time is more ripe. By right derived from Charlemagne to us ; We '11 challenge France, North Italy, Sicily and Spain ; y<2, and Barbary, that 's so wide, from East to West ; By virtue of those old conquests of our arms, Shall all these be Persania, in the new maps. As for this Isle, it plainly appertains, To our Imperial Crown, by antique right. Came not her Sachsen out of our Alt-Sachsen ? Persania Irredenta yet remains ; 35 THE CLIFFS The Eastriche then and Baltic Provinces. There are moreover certain doubtful States, Ungarn, three Scandinavias, and the rest. In fine, shall all be ours to Moskow gates. We hoped for Turkey ; there 's great warlike stuff In Turkey, more than fifty myriad soldiers ; Little Asien 's a sweet sugarplum in that cake : And Mesopotamien too might go with us. Beyond lies Persien, and great Indiens Gulf. Besides, we would they 'd join our Triple League : But Turkey 's hareem-ziy of her beaux-yeux. We 've barely gotten her goodwill, till now. Yet having that, it is a Key of State. Be, as be may ; it costs no more to us Than promises ; and that 's only paper-breath. To us all 's one, Muslem or Galilean ; So there 's but profit or Welt-politik in it. And by their gates our road to Delhi lies. Ing. Were you not too much leaving out of count, This Island Peoples chivalrous allies ; Their counterpart, on yond side of the Earth ? Would those look on, to hear our jas and wm;s, In the Still Sea ? which lately approved themselves Insuperable, whether by land or sea. Was it not Moltke said ? Were but a sheep- 36 THE CLIFFS Flock, to set gainst us all their hard horned fronts We might, though soldiers, find it hard enough, To overthrow them. How then, with men-rocks, Harder than granite, souls that fear no death. Should we contend ; whose only dread in death. Is, to be found less than their fathers' spirits. In warlike worth ! Are they content, for this. Each one, far from loved home, to fall, to rot ; In grave, or without grave ; sport of wild winds. And teeth of evil beasts, in hostile earth : Wounds, sickness, pain, endure before their deaths ! What is there, can be matched with their true worth ! Where were swash-buckler brags, big bully-strut, Mustachios at full cock, tall beer-steeped flesh, Brave clink of sabres, spurs, in Linden street ; Or warhke fripperies ; whereat the World laughs ? In a new Age, and that 's not now far off. As many think, Europa, now our boast. Must in her turn^, recede to second place. The New Worlds pivot shall be set up midst Still Ocean then, twixt great Pacific States ! Bar. {stretching himself and yawning.) Ja^ shall our aftercomers see to this ! Meanwhile 't is a great hour since we did cat, 37 THE CLIFFS Midst foggy skies ; and here an air breathes fresh. (7*0 their chauffeur.) Lift from the basket Hans, our -provi ant-sack. (Hans brings them their victual ; and sets it before them. 'They begin to eat.) Bar. Here 's Lieutenant Weise, in juice of Rhenish grapes, A long great health, to our high Enterprise ! We first possession take of Englands cliffs ; Englands proud cliffs ! {They clink beakers.) What see I, flames at sea ? Or eome reflection it might be, of lightning. {They rise., still eating ; and move towards the cliff- brink.) Lieut. W. Are those not rockets, thrown up in the skies ? Full-like some fantasia of passing yacht. Bar. The hour is late for that. A searchlight casts. See, beams like comets' tails, up, in the night ! Lieut. W. Can this, mein Gott ! be, in tragedy of the War, First battle gleam ? Bar. In my binocular, > By Engelmann of Leipsic, which h, merveille, 38 THE CUFFS Defines, I see two masts, from time to time, Of hull-down ship, with heavy fighting tops. Lieut. W. It might then be some Frenchman. Strange is, that We at sea saw no ships lights, in time we passed. Bar. a likely guess of yours ! How she cocquettes, Like boy with magic-lantern, whirling beams ! Lieut. W. Yet, what should be a Frenchman doing thus ? Bar. They may have lent her, (Britain 's now so poor !) Some warship as they lent her millions ere. I have it ! they were signalling, to Mars ; To warn them, should Britannia, from Worlds face, Anon be blotted ! Lieut. W. Their light 's suddenly quenched. Bar. Like that new star, which blazed up few years past, Nulli secundus ! We suppose there was Some fire-brigade in heaven, that put it out. {They return to eat and drink.) Why Friend, do you so silent pensive sit I What so misgives that mathematic mind Of yours ; that 's winged with abstruse sciences ? Too much thought, like to a corroding flame, Drinks up the sap of life. 39 THE CLIFFS Lieut. W. Of manifold things I must be musing still ; and never come To any fine ; the whole 's insoluble. From the foundation of the World have men ; Since they had conscious mind, with utterance ; whence Those laid first knowledge up, debated them, Without conclusion. I do ask myself ; What is our human orphan littleness ? To weigh with yonder starbright infinite Gulf ; This inconceivable Majesty of the high heavens ! Whence that immensurable Star-frame ? yond Frost Of Suns ? From What All-Parent it derives ; Through never-ending years ? Whence have we breath ; This reasonable soul, cloaked in with flesh ? Warm pulsing flesh ! And when mans kind is dead ; Cold too this living world, dead, void and ended ; Shall, (far transcending our now living thought,) It hang unchanged, and everlasting still ! Bar. Lief Friend, take orders : all PersepoHs Shall flow to hear your saws, in the Domkirche. Lieut. W. Aye, I wonder, and do oftwhiles ask my- self ; 40 THE CLIFFS If not the natural piety should revolt Of our peace-loving, homely, honest folk ? Can rightly one Persanian heart approve. This violent new aggression of our arms ? Bar. L}se majeste^ in Persania, so treads down The public conscience, that no common voice It hath. Lieut. W. And they, with calumnies, have been nursed. I know, how their credulity was abused, Till men cried ffui ! Was feigned among them, how (In days of the Dutch War, not long ago ;) Wrought unexampled villanies Englands soldiers : Whereas, in every age, by sea and shore ; English humanity hath gone before The common -praxis of our Continent. Not only did men hazard their own lives (Their traitorous foes, as many as held up hands, To save !) but they made haste, to bind their wounds. N Like brothers, those them fed and freely clothed ; Though went they very bare of all themselves. Before aught, womens honour they observed : Wives, maidens, children of their brutish enemies, They two years fostered, in the safety camps, 41 THE CLIFFS Whilst war continued. England gave them schools, Aye, and portioned them, when that bitter strife was ended : They were not to their own like generous ! Bar. I own, I heard as much, from Wilhelms lips. Lieut. W. If there 's an Eye in heaven, if there 's an Ear, I dread must fall one day a Nemesis, For all this, on us ! Bar. Well, I 'm a plain soldier ; And my belief is only in the mailed fist. Besides our shallow Predigers shall then preach, Nay, if any lack persuasion ; they '11 protest, And hammer out an hundred godly texts ; And loudly asseverate, all those make for us ! Methinks, their white be-banded vulpine throats I see above their tubs ; and heavenward lifted. Their feminine hands bless our war-enterprises ! Hands, that would hang, on Peace-Gods holy walls, More banners, from new gorestained battle-fields. 'T is likely, as we sit here, at this night-hour, (Englands Invasion-secret being now out ;) Their bricky walls sound with religious hum. Windpipes of women, men and swelling organs ; 42 THE CLIFFS Chanting that God of Peace, with chastened throats : With undersong in all their secret hearts ; . . . Ing. 'S Persania over all ! Bar. Well : homo sum : That 's Kant and Hegel of our army clubs. Each Nation is self-loving as a man ! And there 's late sprung up a new school of thought ; Which holds, that even Religion 's in abeyance, (And justly, as when a tiger rends his prey,) In that a man 's in doing of a thing, To his advancement. When that 's done and past, And may not be undone, he can repent. And fall to whining contrite penitence ; Baking his two cold knees on the flagstones. So men cheat heaven ! What, if our Rulers kept The Christian precepts, should not our victorious Arms 16ng ago have fallen from their faint hands ? We will, with them, all superstitious fears Despise. Lieut. W. A piety of our common flesh. There is ; mongst all who partake human voice, And form and understanding have with us ; Humanity, on the Earth ; that cannot cease ! Bar. Such may remain a matter of some doubt : 43 THE CLIFFS When we 've all won, we '11 give it further thought. Some then upstart Professor shall it handle ; And with his new tin trumpet din the World ! As s6me now, of mean parts and weak judgment, out Of their own livers, history of Church and State Presume to teach, not as indeed it was. Lieut. W. What makes today so fade infatuate The Englanders ; so from their minds divorced Their hands, and hands divided from their heads ? Bar. Nonchalante^ sumptuous, ignorant, strange : it is ; Today, a moonstruck, woman-ridden race. They see, above the dimness of their mist. No star in heaven shine. There 's naught to lift. From dust, their dull eyes up to. They 've no arts, The solace of high minds, save at third hand ; Nor aught, whereon to stay their minds, as music. They know no speech of any neighbour Nation, Nor other Countrys customs, than their own. The World to them, is this Cimmerian Isle ; Wherein runs out dull sandglass of their lives ; Mongst whom, there frankly none declares his mind, In manly sort ; as freely are all men wont To on the Continent : and lack Englanders thus The corporate sense, community of just thought. 44 THE CLIFFS Creeps sooner in these sons of Puritans' hearts, A carping vein of impotent cynicism ; Which passes for a pretty pocket-wit, Mocking all right endeavour and true deeds. Instead of speech, sounding to patriotism ; You '11 hear most current in this Peoples mouths, (As all that 's done among them 's like a race,) Loose-brained, loose-tongued, irrational sporting cant ; Disloyal, sordid, forged, pernicious argot. A Nation thus at variance with herself. Undisciplined, all to patriot arms untaught ; Can such make any serious defence. Resistance, to the sudden immense impact Of our warskilled, well ordered patriot State ? Shall not the vast Persanian phalanx break, Tread down, confound them ? Eachwhere will be heard Then bitter cry of disillusioned hearts. As Spaniards, out of their Armada ships ; Hath God forsaken us ! Lieut. W. Then, what is it ; Lacking war force and wanting sense of art. Which makes today this Island Nation great ! 45 THE CLIFFS Bar. God wot ! Lieut. W. Is not their Theatre highly praised ? Bar. Brain-wasting rant, and marrow-melting plaint ! Emasculate, meretricious, void of merit. There 's nothing National in it : that 's the last Thing whereon Englanders nowadays set their hearts; The nebulous knaves ! Lieut. W. Is not their literature great ? Bar. Some hold it was, if something barbarous. 'T is now a putrid petrifying corse, Soul-withering, as the Medusas head : The voice of hunch-back Spirits and blighted hearts. They imitate now each other, till they dwindle. Like the images of opposed looking-glasses, Barocco too ! to inane nothingness. 'T is nigh not credible, how they are untaught, In their own tongue. They seem to think it hath, Nor dignity nor honour ! Lieut. W. Have they not Their National Chants, as we Persanians have. Of glorious war, and lays of gentle love ? Bar. You 'U sooner find to please the Island mind, (The Englanders intelligence is so low !) Ignoble taunting songs, which they call komisch ; Jigging malicious street banality ; 46 THE CLIFFS Whereat all fleer like hounds and show their teeth ; But hounds should howl, to hear them in our parts. That is the English humour, as they call it ! We call it brainless mockery, where fools laugh. Lieut. W. Call it their Idiotismus ! Bar. They being such, A people of gamesters ; many are deadly oppressed By their old desperate debts. That hidden need. We exploit, to draw some to our Secret Service. None but an Englander, ach ! could stoop so low. There 's something in them servile, traitorous, base, Exceedingly. I was in the Intelligence Service Some while ; and I might say, we bought for gold, Their Service Codes. Signals, in the three elements. Can now, by day and night, be read of us. Lieut. W. I marvel, what it is makes them ashamed. Of their Kings uniform, in both their Services ? They '11 not be seen in it, save in th' hours of duty ! Bar. That 's part of the strange humour of their Nation : They think it shows good breeding, as do women, That nothing seem among them to be done, Au serieux. Moreover hangs to this ; That in their lower military ranks. Desertions now are ominously rife. 47 THE CLIFFS To speak but of their Navy ; Britain sent, This last year, warships to Columbias Coast : When by desertions of their Liberty-men, (The most ones being good-conduct men, with stripes And badges ! serving with increase of pay !) The British crews lost one man in fifteen. Lieut. W. That 's nigh, in every seamens mess, one man ! Bar. They '11 their most solemn military oaths, (For base regard of gain !) thus lightly break. With those consorted one imperial warship. Of ours ; whose company was eight-hundred men : But renegade to his devoir was not one man. Did no Persanian seaman so his war- Lords uniform dishonour. Lieut. W. You amaze me ! But might be said, upon the English part ; Is made comparison of unequal things. Our ship lay in a port of foreign speech : Our seamen conscripts, drilled out of their minds, Hemmed and hedged-in by iron-bound Articles ; The penalty of whose breach is civil death. None extreme punishment the free Englishman ; (They serve on board, as laughing Volunteers,) 48 THE CLIFFS Fears : and those lay on Coast of their own kindred ; Of customs Hke, and of one Mother Speech. Bar. 'T is commonly said among them, that dead is Th' old Service patriotism, in all sea-ranks ! The sum of all this is ; after few days, Subject, subdued, shall Britain be proclaimed, Of our Imperial Crown, great Island Province. Lieut. W. Have not wc read the like of Buonaparte ? Yet the World stands. Bar. a fig for Buonaparte ! We are the fathers of the Worlds great future. That 's Destiny ! Put away then all weak thoughts. Crown we once more our beakers, and cry Hoch ! {They drink and cry Hoch !) Bar. Now, shall we say the new Belief together ? Of our Song-unions, in Persepolis. Lieut. W. What 's that, I heard it not ; I am from Susa. Bar. We chant it thus, to our full beakers' klink : / do believe, in one two three ; in Biz, The father ; and in AzveheUn, only son ; And in the granite-great Persanian army. Lieut. W. Ach nein ! That 's damnable ; treason to high Heaven : D 49 THE CLIFFS Treason of treasons : {ach, might Heaven not hear it !) By my Religion, I abominate it ! Must blasphemy draw down swift destruction on us. Bar. What 's blasphemy, but vain sound-beat of mans breath ; One of the impotent cries of the infinite Children of life, the rustling of a leaf ! From bosom of this God-small, man-great Earth ; They rise, like airy motes, a little moment ; And ruffling in the cloud-girt element, Have there their ending, soon almost as uttered ! Lieut. W. We see the confines of Eternity, From hence. {Loud Thunder.) Ha, thunder ! Bar. What is more in thunder. Than in storms roar, or in brute boom of Etna : No mind directs it ; elemental blind Eruption, rumour ! {It thunders anew.) Hans, {imitating thunders sound.) Rumble-humble, boom ! Bar. I 'm not afraid of thunder : have no thunder- bolts. From drowsing Jupiter fallen, since the Stone Age! There 's naught, that we know of, beyond the Sun, For man ! Lieut. W. What gnats we are ! That Sun itself, 50 THE CLIFFS Fountain of Light and infinite Life, to us ; Is but a midge, in Gods dread Universe ! Our gnat-like being crushed, what then ? Bar. Even as A gnat dies, so a man, for want of breath. Lieut. W. What of his expired breath ? Ah, there 's the knot ! Bar. Man was, and is not : covers him again, That old Eternity, which priests call heaven ; From whence he sprung ! ^ Lieut. W. From this, once more to pass, Unto that new Weltpolitik : what, I ask. Of those young Peoples of the Mother-blood, Of Britain, lately weaned from her great breast ; Daughters, now Sister Nations ? Bar. Lies the next, Of her Sea-Colonies, eight days voyage far off. But we Persanians, ere that week be out. Shall, as an eggshell have crushed underfoot, England ; and scattered her defence of warfleets. We '11 deal then with the rest, as they arrive, One after other. Yet our Rulers hope. By ensample of those old Virginian States, (Though had they sucked the Mothers vital blood,) 5i THE CLIFFS Soon as their proper Interests shall be touched, Her great-grown Daughters likewise will fall off. The best, from Britains shores, each year ship forth, Seeking new happier homes, o'er seas : be left Thus, in the Mother Land, the lees, the dregs ; And cannot those beget the English Nation. Lieut. W. What of that great Worlds People, whose confines Are Ocean floods, once offspring of her veins ; In whose mouths tongue of Britain Mother sounds ? Be such not touched, by sense of kindred blood ? Bar. We shall essay to purchase their good will, With thing which never might belong to us. Lieut. W. And is the World so base ? Bar. Your World is like The signboard of an Inn ; that to and forth Sways with shrill note, unto every wind that bloweth ! What if, to keep, (more than enough for us,) The rest ; we some of Britains great estates, Our new and vast possessions should lop off. Exploited, of her huge inheritance, Might be carved out, five mighty Kaiser-States ! Is India alone surpassing great Worlds lot. 52 THE CLIFFS Lieut. W. Well, that I grant ; and I took, few years past;, My part in th' Expedition, which sent forth Europa against the Boxers : cause whereof ' Our Eagles tiring on a Sacred Province : There fleshed her pounces, with her crooked beak, She would have rent it from the mangled corse. After long voyage, when we freshwater sailors, Past three seas and two Oceans, had disbarked. With guns and stores and warlike ordinance ; Unto the pontoon corps, I was attached. Bar. Marked you not, that our soldiers there surpassed Those of the other Nations ? Lieut. W. Them I saw not, Though all were chosen men ; the rank and file, In military worth, of other armies. Excel : only ours, I fear there died more fast. Of mal du fays, the climate, and the rest. In warfare nothing notable we achieved. We officers there augmented our ideas ; Seeing the fighting force of other armies. Were eminent, for their valour, Indias soldiers : And when, at years end, partly were those tumults Suppressed ; I with sick furlough, visited India. Bar. Are they yet loyal, to the Enghsh Rule ? 53 THE CLIFFS Lieut. W. Loyal ? Her rajahs would, I am persuaded, Whet loyal sabres, and lead forth prowd armies. To maintain Britains cause ! whereby they long Assurance have and righteous government. Enjoyed. Enranged, all Brothers then in arms ; Her white-skinned and her sun-browned Aryan warriors, With their heroic British officers ; (With whom, in the past ages of the World, Few mongst the sons of men can be compared ;) A mighty force, and not to be contemned, Will vie in warfield, in prowd battle ranks, For Indias Emperor, gainst all adversaries. Bar. Herr Balaam, now you bless our enemies ! Lieut. W. {drawing from his -pocket, a paper.) I do remember, I 've here a friends letter. Was this put in my hands, ere we embarked. One lately had received it out of England. {The Lieutenant reads the letter, with diflculty, in the moonlight.) ' Lieher Ernst ; as I you promised, when we met, I write from London. Here our merchandise Doth grow and prosper. We Vv^ould there were peace : But if not, you were best soon to begin ; 54 THE CLIFFS Whilst this slow-hearted Nation *s yet unready, Contending, mongst themselves, and with their women. Of this haphazard People you enquire. They easy are to do with, and most whiles Deal fairly by you : but if they 're once crossed, They harder be than flint-grains. Were their sands Knit by some frost to granite, they in War Should be invincible. Though they 're so divided Amongst themselves ; that Britains dry trunk seems Tree, cleft in hundred shivers, to the ground : They are, as the sea-waves, all one beneath.' {A sudden clamour of sea- fowl.) Hans, {looking forth and imitating, with his arms, their lifting white wings.) Wild sea mews Herren, cleping on their nests. {Mocking their cries.) Hieu, Men ! Heh-heh-heh, heh- heh-heh ! Some fisher bark draws by. Lieut. W. There 's Morningstar ! Is it not time we mount ? Hans. Yonder I see Rushlights, of early-rising upland folk. Lieut. W. Might be some hamlet, not marked on our Karte. 55 THE CLIFFS Hans. Heark Herren ; a cock shrills, Churl-up-early, ho! Lieut. W. We of some labouring folk might be espied, My Captain ; and now see the moon outshines ! 'T were good we return soon ; there 's not too much Gas left in the envelope : we might chance to droop, Else ; whence there 's none escape. Bar. Well then to air ! Lieut. W. Look to our ropes, Hans ; levers, rudders, stays : See the machine runs smoothly ; and her planes And vans ride clear ; wherein our safety lies. Trice our fore aeroplane, to take the wind. {The Ingenieur goes forward himself to overlook and handle every fart.) Hans. Ready ; as commanded ! Bar. Yet, ere we leave grass, One last round-look, under this English moon ! Here our descent tomorrow shall begin ; And that shall strike the mouth dumb of the World ! Here our entrenched base-camp : from hence our march ; Great London our objective, and the Thames. Wide cavalry screen, and thick artillery screen. 56 THE CLIFFS Enemy demoralized, driven back : wide field searched, Above the pitch of shot, by Zeppelins airships. Bomb-dropping great destroyer aeroplanes. Fifteen more fighting days ; then London falls ! Hark Lieutenant Weise ! On Nelsons monu- ment. Navel of London and their Empires midst ; (Or if we 've shot down that, then on the stumps,) I 've vowed my bottle of champagne to break ; Or on those cur-like lions : I hope by then, With my well-fought field heavy artillery train. My looked-for next promotion to have won. Lieut. W. Shall not our airships' fleet precede the sea- fleet .? Bar. I do bezuonder, that they come not yet ! They should have left, when we tonight, the grass. Lieut, W. There be a thousand accidents of the wind ; Flaws, cross and counter-currents, Hfts, down- throws. Bar. We 've seaborne, airborne and now subsea fleets. Look seaward ! As this moonpath o'er night waves, Our shipway 's laid, betwixt two banks of mines ; So knit with wires above and underneath ; 57 THE CLIFFS Might hardly a divedopper by them pass. Shall thus our highsea fleet securely advance, As in wide lane, and overfare to Britain. So colourably our diplomats had the matter Conveyed ; that till our whole sea-force was ready ; They lulled, on sleep of fond security ; This, drowsing deep, foolhappy Island Nation. Now many as theirs be our Persanian warships. More newly and heavily armed and better found. (Lieut. W. flucks and tosses up grass from his fist, to try the force and direction of the wind.) Lieut. W. The wind 's yet fair, but changing ; Shall we part ? Bar. Aye, and circling ; will we make now of these parts. The best we can, a careful reconnaisance. Happy return then to Persepolis ! (HoBBE rises slowly, and lets slide from hiin his military cloak.) Bar. What stirs there in the fern ? Hans. Herren, some hedgeswine ; Or likely a frightsome hare turns on her form. Lieut. W. It might be a snake or viper of this heath ! 58 THE CLIFFS (HoBBE flings sudde7ily out upon them. They at first recoil : then seeing him to he but an old shepherd, they stand firm.) HoBBE. Who goes there, who ? Stand men ! Am I that snake, That hare ? I warrant, ye foreign high-flyers are No friends, that Hght tonight on Englands cHffs. Ah, had I now the pith of my first youth. As when I fought before the Russian town. And my bright bayonet, I would broach you and fetch The heathen souls, out of your sausage skins ; And fling you from this brink. Yet, as it is, I '11 generalstaif, I '11 polish you with this. {Taking the bar of the crome betwixt his hands, Hobbe advances to drive them back, over the cliffy Some of your pestilent words, dog-Enghsh like ; Though at my years, I 'm somewhat dull of hearing. And your much droning, like a broken-winded Bagpipe made me dream, I understandcd : I knows such, from what days the foreign legion (But that 's now long ago !) lay on our downs ; More shame say I to Englands government ! For to keep England, whiles we were away. But what be ye ? wor those good lads enow. 59 THE CLIFFS Knives and mailed-fist been cowards' terms with us ; For murder-tools of them low foreign seafolk, On Englands quays. Belike ye 're some of them, Would kick an honest man beneath the belt : That bayonet wounded soldiers on the ground ! For I may see, ye are some foreign soldiers. (Hustling them.) What do ye, in my Kings Country ? Ho ! If any True Englishman hear me ; help me arrest these men ! Were now my dog with me, I 'd have you all three. (HoBBE, approaching it., thrusts, with his crook-staff, at the airship ; endeavouring to open a rent therein. The Baron draws his sword.) Lieut. W. {i?iterposing.) Ach, nein ; ach, nein I my Captain : hurt not, nein I This poor old man : but rather honour him ; That soldier valiantly defends his Land ! Hans, {who struggles to hold back the limping strong old man from the balloon.) There 's Gott ! and peril of the seas before us. Bar. How durst thou carle, insult this uniform ! Die peasant swine ! Did any and he were but Some drunken reeling clod, in pubHc street, 60 THE CLIFFS That bounced me, I slay him ! {He stabs Hobbe, from the backward. The old man falls heavily forth beside the balloo7i.) Twice have I done this ; And underwent detention in a fortress, Two or three weeks : but after came promotion. Such be our laws ungeschrieben : I were else Loath to smutch, with clowns blood, my glanzende blade ; That three most mortal duels ; (widewhere known Those are, from Susa to Persepolis, For swordmanship,) in this right hand, hath won ; And mine opponents slain, all noblemen ! {With a silken kerchief he wipes down his blade ; and -flings then the bloody cloth forth from the clijf-briftk. Lieut. W. sorrowfully covers the dying Englishman with his cloak.) After this contretemps, mount we to airship ! Let us up. Lieut. W. Dawn cometh apace ! Bar. And fetch a circuit : Such our Instructions were. Lieut. W. Delay were dangerous. {They enter the balloon-basket.) Bar. Reach me that EngHsh flag : I '11 hang now out 6i THE CLIFFS This gaudy clout. If any hap to see us, Over the fields at dawn ; they '11 think we are But some sky-riding, rich, mad Englishmen ; Which take the air, that breathes on mountain-tops. Lieut. W. {to Hans.) Up anchor ! Set now the machine awork ! I 'm at the helm, to bring her head to wind. All ready ! Hew away the ropes ; cast off. Hans. With Gott^ I hope, to Friend ! Lieut. W. Trim her ! Hans. Hold fast ! {The last stay is cut and from the surging aerostat, some small things are seen to fall. Hobbe, left bleeding on the heath, bye and bye raises himself uf on an elbow.) Hobbe. By spies, I 'm murdered. Is now England full They say of such. The Nation 's sick to death ; Like rotten flocks, with evil shepherds to them. His steel went through me, like a bayonet thrust ; So sharp, my God ! it ran to mine heart-root. My days been done ; so ended father his. As I was born, so moun I be unbore. Death and dark grave ; what then ? eternal sleep ! This Cometh to all. Howbe, thank God, I leave After me, three stout sons, to fight for England ! 62 THE CLIFFS {Lifting his hands to heavens stars.) Father Al- mighty, Everlasting ! Thou, That livest and reignest in heaven, when we lie cold ; Those orphelings, left with Makepeace, in the cote ; Lord, bless Thou ! Give them needful meat and cloth ! {A celestial music.) What holy Vision ? Music, heavenly Light ! See I and hear. I '11 close mine eyes and pass. {The old man sinks down in death. Thunder and lightning.) 63 PART II No person is born into the fVorld, for his own sake ; but for the Commonwealths sake. Latimer. PART II Scene, the Same; in Night Vision {In a sea mist, which is streaming over the Clijf, there gathers form the appearance of a Temple ; in whose porch stands the Sacred Image, on a pedestal, of Britannia : and in the Precinct, which is before the Temple- steps, is seen the likeness of an Altar of Incense. The walls of Brita7inias Temple are rent, afid lea?i, forth, as ready to fall ; the courses of her building- stones are unknit. The joints of her pillars are broken and out of frame. Her Altar, cold and moss-grown, is blackened now only of the rain of heaven. Upon the altar sides, are seen graven, in partly effaced letters. Religion and Patriotism. Britannias helmed Image latigtiishes, under heavy constraining bough ts of a monstrous Serpent. Her august front is blindfold with a thick veil. A great Light is seen approaching in heaven ; and SiRioN, divine Ruler of the Lower Universe, 67 THE CLIFFS descends in a celestial radiance ; his upper parts having the form of a man : and stations upon Britannias Altar. At his either hand, alight then, upo?i the two flanks of the Temple- steps, two mighty Eons, endowed with golden and azure-shining wings.) SiRION I SiRiON, breathed from bosom of High God, Rule His clear courses of the lower Stars ; Ascending up, in never-ending ranks, From infinite East, to infinite Occident : That ever-trembhng in Almighty View, Return about HIS everlasting Throne. Under Bootes Cold, my mansion is : Whence still, through the year-thousands, I look down. On Earths low dwellers, deathling feeble kin. Of Adam, sheltering under builded roofs ; Their harms, confusions and calamities. I, inhabiting the high harmonies of my God, Now heard an earthling cry, ascend amidst The Signs ; and being, mongst all Gods creatures, naught Accounted of, in His Hfgh all-infinite Sight, 68 THE CLIFFS As small or great ; the winged celestial wheels, Of Throne, (whereon, midst crystal-rolling spheres, Whither my Spirit, through never-ending years, To wend is, I as lightning glance, remove ;) I stayed : and, to this low forwandered Round, Clothed with thick skies and girt with ponded seas, Made with a Word, and marvellously adorned, Earth-world ; that turns with wailful jarring noise ; (Whereas, in each Reversion of the Heavens, I once, by Gods decree, am wont to pass ;) From the celestial brow, I stooped. Like star Shot ovcrthwart Earths night, I drew to pit Corruptible of mans House, dust of the Earth : And ferment heard therein of living breath. Lighted my foot then on this sea-bound Cliff. How is that Image, which her Peoples spirits Breathed forth, blindfeld thus, darkened, foully oppressed. Of hell-born Error ! Thou Britannia awake ! Soul-slaying venim on thy bosom drips. Mother of Nations, from the Serpent jaws. Deformed, (sleepest thou, in deadly dreaming, thus !) Thy Temple is ; whose buildcd stones be loosed : Thine Altar cold ; thy Precinct lies defaced. 69 THE CLIFFS Thine eyes, whence shone forth beams, of heavenly light, Are blindfeld ; and thine Isle, amidst the seas, Britannia I behold, in looking forth. Become a wilderness of briars, full of Mens living corses : and from this low plot Of ground is cry come up, of innocent blood. In heavens ears ? {Addressing the corse <7/"Hobbe.) And thou, mans son, O Flesh ! Was thine that unbound earthling soul which passed Now by me in heaven, like to a radious breath ; Ascending up to Gods immortal Seats, In infinite Light ? Shemol, fly, heavenly Spirit Of my left hand ; and cite me to this Cliff, Isle Britains antique Truth. Him shalt thou seek Under green hills and eaves of the cleft rocks ; Where Truth, long exiled, by mans kin unjust ; With righteous elves, doth rather choose to wonne.^ {That great winged Y.oti fades from view.) And thou Yamin, strong Spirit of my Right Hand, Ere yet Earth-Star had being ; fly o'er Worlds Round ; Eachwhere upholding heavens Righteousness. {This great winged Eon also fades from mortal sight.) ' The Da- r r'X *^ » ■-•,"* . i^> ^. llllllllll '^ 3 11 58 00391 5633 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 370 733 8