CHAPTER XXXIV.
LONDON IN REVOLUTION.
Becausethe Rising had seemingly broken out in one day, because on the Saturday night London had gone to bed in peace and quietness, on the Sunday night London was aflame, and, on the Monday morning, London was apparently at peace again—because of all this, some hope was entertained in certain high official quarters that the trouble would subside as suddenly as it had arisen.
So, at least—possibly for the prevention of panic—it was pretended, and when, at mid-day, there was no sign of a reassembling of the forces under the Dumpling's command the belief was expressed in certain early afternoon papers that the threatened safety of the Empire was assured.
But the police were wiser. They knew that though the firing of the fuse had been but a night's, or even a moment's, work, the laying of the mine had been going on for years; and though the suddenness ofthe rising, coming as it did on a Sunday, had taken them unawares, it had not found them altogether unprepared, as after-events proved.
But on Monday, at mid-day, a sudden reaction set in. The wildest rumours were afloat of some awful danger that assailed not only London, but the very Empire.
The fact of the Dumpling's extraordinary resemblance to Napoleon, and of his claim to be the great Napoleon himself, had got abroad, and religious fanatics proclaimed him to be the Beast of the Book of Revelation, the anti-Christ who was to come. Them and their diatribes no sane man heeded; but that something was afoot which directly menaced our very existence as a nation, was believed by all. It was openly stated that the Dumpling and the German Emperor were acting in concert, and that it was from Germany that the arms and the funds which furnished the rioters with the sinews of war had come.
The Kaiser was depicted as not only jealous of the popularity of King Edward, but as hating the form of Limited Monarchy which exists in England, and as anxious to establish, first in Europe, and finally all overthe world, the autocratic rule which prevails in his own country and in Russia. The Dumpling—so it was openly stated—had succeeded in convincing the Kaiser of the genuineness of his claim to be the re-incarnation of Napoleon. An agreement had been come to between the two men by which it was arranged that, if the Kaiser would assist the Dumpling to obtain supreme power in England, this country should be put under the rule of an Absolute Monarchy even more despotic and more autocratic than that of Russia and Germany. That once achieved, the German Emperor and the Dumpling would combine against France, and re-establish the Monarchy there.
Already, so it was stated, the German war squadron was on its way to England, and German vessels of every sort were conveying an army of half a million of men to this country, nominally to assist King Edward's troops in crushing the rebellion. Once, however, they had succeeded in effecting a landing, the real purpose for which they had come here would be revealed, and they would co-operate with the Dumpling's forces, and officially recognise his claim to be Emperor of England and of France. The fact thata German squadron had sailed with sealed orders the day before the outbreak, lent some colour to this preposterous theory, and the fact, also, that undoubtedly something in the nature of a panic prevailed at Court, went far to support it. What was wrong there nobody knew. The Prince of Wales and the Prime Minister, it was known, had been hastily summoned, and had driven to Buckingham Palace in hot haste, surrounded on every side by escorts large enough to be spoken of as small armies. An hour after their arrival, the King, so it was stated, had, in response to a loyal demonstration outside the Palace, appeared for a moment at a window, hurriedly bowed, and as hurriedly retired.
Clearly something was wrong at Court, and what that something was, and how intimately concerned in it I was to be, I could not in my wildest dreams have conceived.