Part 47 (1/2)

When morning came the Great Eastern Railway and the Thames had been cleared and opened, and the hearts of the starving citizens were gladdened by the welcome spectacle of train after train pouring in laden with provisions from Harwich, and of a fleet of steamers, flying the Federation flag, which filled the Thames below London Bridge, and was rapidly discharging its cargoes of food at the wharves and into lighters.

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

The frightful butcheries at the barricades had stopped for the time being from sheer exhaustion on both sides. One cannot fight without food, and the defenders were half-starved when they began. Rage and the longing for revenge had lent them strength for the moment, but twelve hours of incessant street fighting, the most wearing of all forms of battle, had exhausted them, and they were heartily glad of the tacit truce which gave them time to eat and drink.

As for the a.s.sailants, as soon as they saw conclusive proof that the blockade had been broken and the city victualled, they found themselves deserted by the ally on whose aid they had most counted.

While the grip of famine remained on London they knew that its fall was only a matter of time; but now--if food could get in so could reinforcements, and they had not the remotest idea as to the number of the mysterious forces which had so suddenly sprung into existence outside their own lines.

Added to this their losses during the night had been something appalling. The streets were choked with their dead, and the houses into which they had retired were filled with their wounded. So they, too, were glad of a rest, and many spoke openly of returning to their lines and abandoning the a.s.sault. If they did so it might be possible to fight their way to the coast, and escape out of this huge death-trap into which they had fallen on the very eve of their confidently-antic.i.p.ated victory.

So, during the whole of the 7th there was little or no hard fighting in London, but to the north and south the grey legions of the Federation fought their way mile by mile over the field of Armageddon, gradually driving in the two halves of the Russian and the Franco-Italian armies which had been faced about to oppose their progress while the other halves were making their a.s.sault on London.

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

”Mr. Marston, those fellows mean mischief. Put a three-minute time fuze on a couple of No. 3 fire-sh.e.l.l, 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 sh.e.l.l over the rising balloons. As the sixtieth second of the first minute pa.s.sed, he released the projectile. It soared away through the air, and burst with a terrific explosion about fifty feet over the ascending aerostats.

The rain of fire spread out far and wide, and showered down upon the gas-holders. Then came a concussion that shook the air like a thunder-clap as the escaping gas mixed with the air, took fire, and exploded. Seven of the twelve aerostats instantly collapsed and plunged back again to the earth, spending the collective force of their explosives on the slopes of Muswell Hill. Meanwhile the second gun had been loaded and fired with the same effect on the remaining five.

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

”Two more time-sh.e.l.ls, quick!” he cried. ”They are off to take part in 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 was ready. A moment later the messenger of destruction was speeding on its way, and they saw it explode fairly in the midst of the squadron.

The second followed before the glare of the first explosion had pa.s.sed, and this was the last shot fired in the aerial warfare between the air-s.h.i.+ps and the war-balloons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”The rain of fire spread out far and wide.”

_See page 344._]

The effects of these two shots were most extraordinary. The accurately-timed sh.e.l.ls burst, not over, but amidst the aerostats, enveloping their cars in a momentary mist of fire. The intense heat evolved must have suffocated their crews instantaneously. Even if it had not done so their fate would have been scarcely less sudden or terrible, for the fire falling in the cars exploded their own sh.e.l.ls even before it burst their gas-envelopes. With a roar and a shock as though heaven and earth were coming together, a vast dazzling ma.s.s of flame blazed out, darkening the daylight by contrast, and when it vanished again there was not a fragment of the thirteen aerostats to be seen.

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

”I hope so,” said Natasha's voice at his elbow. ”This awful destruction is sickening me. I knew war was horrible, but this is more like the work of fiends than of men. There is something monstrous, something superhumanly impious, in blasting your fellow-creatures with irresistible lightnings like this, as though you were a G.o.d instead of a man. Will you not be glad when it is over, Richard?”

”Glad beyond all expression,” replied her lover, the angry light of battle instantly dying out of his eyes as he looked upon her sweetly pitiful face. ”But tell me, what success has my angel of mercy had in pleading for the lives of her enemies?” he continued, slipping his arm through hers, and leading her aft.

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

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

”You will never be asked to do that,” said Natasha quietly, as Arnold disappeared down the companion-way.

It was nearly an hour before he came on deck again, and by this time the _Ithuriel_, constantly moving to and fro over London, so that any change in the course of events could be at once reported to Natas, had s.h.i.+fted her position to the southward, and was hanging in the air over Sydenham Hill, the headquarters of General le Gallifet, whence could be plainly heard the roar of the tide of battle as it rolled ever northward over the hills of Surrey.

An air-s.h.i.+p came speeding up from the southward as he reached the deck. He signalled to it to come alongside. It proved to be the _Mercury_ taking a message from Tremayne, who was personally commanding the Army of the South in the _Ariel_, to the air-s.h.i.+ps operating with the Army of the North.