The Lady of the Shroud - Bram Stoker (phonics reader txt) 📗

have

been looking through the reports of the geological exports of the

Commission of Investigation which my husband organized soon after he

came to live here, and, according to them, our whole mountain ranges

simply teem with vast quantities of minerals, almost more precious

for industry than gold and silver are for commerce—though, indeed,

gold is not altogether lacking as a mineral. When once our work on

the harbour is done, and the place has been made secure against any

attempt at foreign aggression, we must try to find a way to bring

this wealth of woods and ores down to the sea.

 

“And then, perhaps, may begin the great prosperity of our Land, of

which we have all dreamt.”

 

She stopped, all vibrating, almost choked with emotion. We were all

moved. For myself, I was thrilled to the core. Her enthusiasm was

all-sweeping, and under its influence I found my own imagination

expanding. Out of its experiences I spoke:

 

“And there is a way. I can see it. Whilst our dear Voivodin was

speaking, the way seemed to clear. I saw at the back of the Blue

Mouth, where it goes deepest into the heart of the cliffs, the

opening of a great tunnel, which ran upward over a steep slope till

it debouched on the first plateau beyond the range of the

encompassing cliffs.

 

Thither came by various rails of steep gradient, by timber-shoots and

cable-rails, by aerial cables and precipitating tubes, wealth from

over ground and under it; for as our Land is all mountains, and as

these tower up to the clouds, transport to the sea shall be easy and

of little cost when once the machinery is established. As everything

of much weight goes downward, the cars of the main tunnel of the port

shall return upward without cost. We can have from the mountains a

head of water under good control, which will allow of endless

hydraulic power, so that the whole port and the mechanism of the town

to which it will grow can be worked by it.

 

“This work can be put in hand at once. So soon as the place shall be

perfectly surveyed and the engineering plans got ready, we can start

on the main tunnel, working from the sea-level up, so that the cost

of the transport of material will be almost nil. This work can go on

whilst the forts are building; no time need be lost.

 

“Moreover, may I add a word on National Defence? We are, though old

in honour, a young nation as to our place amongst Great Powers. And

so we must show the courage and energy of a young nation. The Empire

of the Air is not yet won. Why should not we make a bid for it? As

our mountains are lofty, so shall we have initial power of attack or

defence. We can have, in chosen spots amongst the clouds, depots of

war aeroplanes, with which we can descend and smite our enemies

quickly on land or sea. We shall hope to live for Peace; but woe to

those who drive us to War!”

 

There is no doubt that the Vissarions are a warlike race. As I

spoke, Teuta took one of my hands and held it hard. The old Voivode,

his eyes blazing, rose and stood beside me and took the other. The

two old fighting-men of the land and the sea stood up and saluted.

 

This was the beginning of what ultimately became “The National

Committee of Defence and Development.”

 

I had other, and perhaps greater, plans for the future in my mind;

but the time had not come for their utterance.

 

To me it seems not only advisable, but necessary, that the utmost

discretion be observed by all our little group, at all events for the

present. There seems to be some new uneasiness in the Blue

Mountains. There are constant meetings of members of the Council,

but no formal meeting of the Council, as such, since the last one at

which I was present. There is constant coming and going amongst the

mountaineers, always in groups, small or large. Teuta and I, who

have been about very much on the aeroplane, have both noticed it.

But somehow we—that is, the Voivode and myself—are left out of

everything; but we have not said as yet a word on the subject to any

of the others. The Voivode notices, but he says nothing; so I am

silent, and Teuta does whatever I ask. Sir Colin does not notice

anything except the work he is engaged on—the planning the defences

of the Blue Mouth. His old scientific training as an engineer, and

his enormous experience of wars and sieges—for he was for nearly

fifty years sent as military representative to all the great wars—

seem to have become directed on that point. He is certainly planning

it all out in a wonderful way. He consults Rooke almost hourly on

the maritime side of the question. The Lord High Admiral has been a

watcher all his life, and very few important points have ever escaped

him, so that he can add greatly to the wisdom of the defensive

construction. He notices, I think, that something is going on

outside ourselves; but he keeps a resolute silence.

 

What the movement going on is I cannot guess. It is not like the

uneasiness that went before the abduction of Teuta and the Voivode,

but it is even more pronounced. That was an uneasiness founded on

some suspicion. This is a positive thing, and has definite meaning—

of some sort. We shall, I suppose, know all about it in good time.

In the meantime we go on with our work. Happily the whole Blue Mouth

and the mountains round it are on my own property, the portion

acquired long ago by Uncle Roger, exclusive of the Vissarion estate.

I asked the Voivode to allow me to transfer it to him, but he sternly

refused and forbade me, quite peremptorily, to ever open the subject

to him again. “You have done enough already,” he said. “Were I to

allow you to go further, I should feel mean. And I do not think you

would like your wife’s father to suffer that feeling after a long

life, which he has tried to live in honour.”

 

I bowed, and said no more. So there the matter rests, and I have to

take my own course. I have had a survey made, and on the head of it

the Tunnel to the harbour is begun.

 

BOOK VIII: THE FLASHING OF THE HANDJAR

 

PRIVATE MEMORANDUM OF THE MEETING OF VARIOUS MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL

COUNCIL, HELD AT THE STATE HOUSE OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS AT PLAZAC ON

MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1907.

(Written by Cristoferos, Scribe of the Council, by instruction of

those present.)

 

When the private meeting of various Members of the National Council

had assembled in the Council Hall of the State House at Plazac, it

was as a preliminary decided unanimously that now or hereafter no

names of those present were to be mentioned, and that officials

appointed for the purposes of this meeting should be designated by

office only, the names of all being withheld.

 

The proceedings assumed the shape of a general conversation, quite

informal, and therefore not to be recorded. The nett outcome was the

unanimous expression of an opinion that the time, long contemplated

by very many persons throughout the nation, had now come when the

Constitution and machinery of the State should be changed; that the

present form of ruling by an Irregular Council was not sufficient,

and that a method more in accord with the spirit of the times should

be adopted. To this end Constitutional Monarchy, such as that

holding in Great Britain, seemed best adapted. Finally, it was

decided that each Member of the Council should make a personal

canvass of his district, talk over the matter with his electors, and

bring back to another meeting—or, rather, as it was amended, to this

meeting postponed for a week, until September 2nd—the opinions and

wishes received. Before separating, the individual to be appointed

King, in case the new idea should prove grateful to the nation, was

discussed. The consensus of opinion was entirely to the effect that

the Voivode Peter Vissarion should, if he would accept the high

office, be appointed. It was urged that, as his daughter, the

Voivodin Teuta, was now married to the Englishman, Rupert Sent Leger-

-called generally by the mountaineers “the Gospodar Rupert”—a

successor to follow the Voivode when God should call him would be at

hand—a successor worthy in every way to succeed to so illustrious a

post. It was urged by several speakers, with general acquiescence,

that already Mr. Sent Leger’s services to the State were such that he

would be in himself a worthy person to begin the new Dynasty; but

that, as he was now allied to the Voivode Peter Vissarion, it was

becoming that the elder, born of the nation, should receive the first

honour.

 

THE SAME—Continued.

 

The adjourned meeting of certain members of the National Council was

resumed in the Hall of the State House at Plazac on Monday, September

2nd, 1907. By motion the same chairman was appointed, and the rule

regarding the record renewed.

 

Reports were made by the various members of the Council in turn,

according to the State Roll. Every district was represented. The

reports were unanimously in favour of the New Constitution, and it

was reported by each and all of the Councillors that the utmost

enthusiasm marked in every case the suggestion of the Voivode Peter

Vissarion as the first King to be crowned under the new Constitution,

and that remainder should be settled on the Gospodar Rupert (the

mountaineers would only receive his lawful name as an alternative;

one and all said that he would be “Rupert” to them and to the nation-

-for ever).

 

The above matter having been satisfactorily settled, it was decided

that a formal meeting of the National Council should be held at the

State House, Plazac, in one week from to-day, and that the Voivode

Peter Vissarion should be asked to be in the State House in readiness

to attend. It was also decided that instruction should be given to

the High Court of National Law to prepare and have ready, in skeleton

form, a rescript of the New Constitution to be adopted, the same to

be founded on the Constitution and Procedure of Great Britain, so far

as the same may be applicable to the traditional ideas of free

Government in the Land of the Blue Mountains.

 

By unanimous vote this private and irregular meeting of “Various

National Councillors” was then dissolved.

 

RECORD OF THE FIRST MEETING OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE LAND OF

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, HELD AT PLAZAC ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH, 1907, TO

CONSIDER THE ADOPTION OF A NEW CONSTITUTION, AND TO GIVE PERMANENT

EFFECT TO THE SAME IF, AND WHEN, DECIDED UPON.

(Kept by the Monk Cristoferos, Scribe to the National Council.)

 

The adjourned meeting duly took place as arranged. There was a full

attendance of Members of the Council, together with the Vladika, the

Archbishop, the Archimandrites of Spazac, of Ispazar, of Domitan, and

Astrag; the Chancellor; the Lord of the Exchequer; the President of

the High Court of National Law; the President of the Council of

Justice; and such other high officials as it is customary to summon

to meetings of the National Council on occasions of great importance.

The names of all present will be found in the full report, wherein

are given the ipsissima verba of the various utterances made during

the consideration of the questions discussed, the same having been

taken down in shorthand by the humble scribe of this precis, which

has