The Napoleon of Notting Hill

Excerpt

TO HILAIRE BELLOC

For every tiny town or place
God made the stars especially;
Babies look up with owlish face
And see them tangled in a tree:
You saw a moon from Sussex Downs,
A Sussex moon, untravelled still,
I saw a moon that was the town's,
The largest lamp on Campden Hill.

Yea; Heaven is everywhere at home
The big blue cap that always fits,
And so it is (be calm; they come
To goal at last, my wandering wits),
So is it with the heroic thing;
This shall not end for the world's end,
And though the sullen engines swing,
Be you not much afraid, my friend.

This did not end by Nelson's urn
Where an immortal England sits—
Nor where your tall young men in turn
Drank death like wine at Austerlitz.
And when the pedants bade us mark
What cold mechanic happenings
Must come; our souls said in the dark,
"Belike; but there are likelier things."

Likelier across these flats afar
These sulky levels smooth and free
The drums shall crash a waltz of war
And Death shall dance with Liberty;
Likelier the barricades shall blare
Slaughter below and smoke above,
And death and hate and hell declare
That men have found a thing to love.

Far from your sunny uplands set
I saw the dream; the streets I trod
The lit straight streets shot out and met
The starry streets that point to God.
This legend of an epic hour
A child I dreamed, and dream it still,
Under the great grey water-tower
That strikes the stars on Campden Hill.

G. K. C.

ChapterPageI.Introductory Remarks on the Art of ProphecyII.The Man in GreenIII.The Hill of HumourI.The Charter of the CitiesII.The Council of the ProvostsIII.Enter a LunaticI.The Mental Condition of Adam WayneII.The Remarkable Mr. TurnbullIII.The Experiment of Mr. BuckI.The Battle of the LampsII.The Correspondent of the "Court Journal"III.The Great Army of South KensingtonI.The Empire of Notting HillII.The Last BattleIII.Two Voices

ILLUSTRATIONS

In the Dark Entrance there appeared a Flaming FigureTo face pageCity Men out on All Fours in a Field covered with Veal Cutlets"I'm the King of the Castle""I bring Homage to my King"Map of the Seat of WarKing Auberon descended from the Omnibus with Dignity"A Fine Evening, Sir," said the Chemist"Wayne, it was all a Joke!"

THE NAPOLEON OF NOTTING HILL

The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called "Keep to-morrow dark," and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) "Cheat the Prophet." The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely....