Part 15 (1/2)
”Well, no doubt she will recover,” I said.
He pipped a nothing with relief, his lips unwreathed, his teeth shone out happily, and he said: ”Oh, well, everything works out nicely in the end, if only things be premeditated by men of grasp and vigour. I a.s.sure you, the longer I live the more I see it--the supremacy of mind in the world. When I was a wild chap of seventeen I said to myself one night: 'go to, now, I will be a man: I will be grand, I will govern my pa.s.sions, and have a hand in history.' And so said, so done. I did it!
here you see me now, I did it very well, very well, oh yes, here I am.
Mind is everything. Look at Mr Edwards, now--nice fellow, powerful fellow, sharp as a falchion! You know, of course, that the Lords have just virtually thrown out Diseased Persons? Tell me now which of the two you think will come off the victor in this duel between Edwards and the archbishop.”
”Who can win against the grain of an archbishop under a _regime_ of miracles, Baron Kolar?” I asked.
”What!” said he, eyeing me sternly from top to toe, ”but is there to be no term to the insolence of the Church? Remember that this plan of sterilising diseased persons is no new thing: during twenty years it has been under discussion; in Austria, I a.s.sure you, if it had not been for the miracles, diseased persons would at present be consigned to the lethal chamber; but this most moderate bill only ensures their sterilisation. Everywhere such a measure is called for; it is in the very gist of our age; and now when Mr Edwards, by a travail of Hercules, has driven it through his House with a grim majority of twelve--earnest fellow, grand fellow--are we to see his pearl trampled under foot by a herd of bishops? But you shall not see that. I forecast that the bill will be sent back to the Lords a second and a third time, and in the end Edwards will win--oh yes, he will win.”
”He may,” said I.
”He will,” said he: ”England will rise to his support; wait, you will see.”
He turned off from me, but turned again to ask after the Misses Chambers, then left me to rejoin his friends.
When I mentioned his words the next day at Swandale, Langler said to me: ”but since this man is so very sure beforehand of the Prime Minister's victory, may we not at once look for some stroke of policy against the Church on his part--perhaps the showing of the miracles to be none?”
”In that case, Aubrey,” said I, for I was excited, ”let us be beforehand with him! let both of us now write plainly to our friends that the miracles are probably none, but still are no contrivance of priests----”
But Langler interrupted me, saying: ”you would hardly have us, Arthur, appear to our friends in the light of crusaders and quixotes.”
”Why quixotes?” said I.
”Wouldn't it be terribly like springing upon them the statement, '_the sky is brown_'? The miracles are now among established things, nor are our suspicions anything but suspicions. Certainly, we should seem pert, if not irrelevant. Letters are perused over the breakfast-cup, and are not expected to be epic.”
”However,” said I, ”this is the one plan which you can carry out without fear of being interfered with and hindered, and by it you wash your hands at once of the whole business and burden.”
”Perhaps; but still, frankly, it would not be quite to my taste: I'd rather die than seem _outre_, or strutting, or oracular----”
”But since so much is at stake----”
”Sooner any other plan, Arthur.”
”But what other plan--except going to Styria?”
”Hardly again,” said he, with closed eyes, ”hardly again,” and we were silent.
After a while he asked: ”does the agent, Barker, still decline to go to Styria alone?”
”Yes,” said I; ”he and others naturally scent danger in the adventure after what has twice befallen us. If anyone goes, it must be ourselves; so what shall be done?”
”But do you ask me that, Arthur?” cried he, much moved: ”how shall I answer you? I have already paid a great price; my heart has wept. The men who are against us are of withering mood, though I do not say wicked men; in fact, they are not, since the mere success of their exploits implies, I think, an erectness of meaning which commands our esteem----”
”Esteem, Aubrey,” I murmured: but such was the _finesse_ of Langler's criticism, whose scales no zephyr of pa.s.sion could ever shake, and he derided as cra.s.s and green whoever did not give to the devil his dainty due.
”Yes, I say esteem,” said he, ”for the misdoer is, and must be, a bungler, so where you have a series of lawlessnesses finely achieved you may look to find behind them a mood of moral erectness. But little the morality of these men concerns me--I was speaking of their power.”
”Now, however,” said I, ”whatever their power, is the hour for us to strike in, if ever: Diseased Persons will soon be back in the Lords; Burton, of course, will not yield--”
”Talking of Burton,” said he, ”I have two letters of his which I will show you now”--and he rose and got them: one was a letter of sympathy, very feelingly worded, written to Langler on the second wounding of our friend; the other, written only five days before to Percival of Keble, was as follows:--”The Palace, Lambeth. P. + T. My dear Percival,--Forgive my silence, since you are continually in my heart. It is now confirmed that Diseased Persons will be thrown out; and as Israel prevailed over Amalek in Rephidim, so we shall ride over them that rise up against us. Hertford, Jersey, and Ellenborough have declared on our side, and the zeal of young Denman, who now has rooms in the Palace, is profitable to me: the Lord reward them according to their works....
There can be no looking back now, even if we would, being more strongly impelled against the Bill from the side of St Peter than many divine; and, in addition, there are forces, _in their nature subterranean_, which prompt and urge us, and make retreat impossible--even if we would!
Bellini of the Maddallena writes that he does not consider the Bill contrary to Holy Writ! And is it? What say you? Give me of your wisdom.