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

made an upward curve, and in a few seconds was

skimming upwards towards the Flagstaff. Despite the wind, it arrived

there in an incredibly short time. Immediately after his flight

another aero, a big one this time, glided to the platform. To this

immediately stepped a body of ten tall, fine-looking young men. The

driver pulled his levers, and the plane glided out on the track of

the King. The Western King, who was noticing, said to the Lord High

Admiral, who had been himself in command of the ship of war, and now

stood close behind him:

 

“Who are those men, Admiral?”

 

“The Guard of the Crown Prince, Your Majesty. They are appointed by

the Nation.”

 

“Tell me, Admiral, have they any special duties?”

 

“Yes, Your Majesty,” came the answer: “to die, if need be, for the

young Prince!”

 

“Quite right! That is fine service. But how if any of them should

die?”

 

“Your Majesty, if one of them should die, there are ten thousand

eager to take his place.”

 

“Fine, fine! It is good to have even one man eager to give his life

for duty. But ten thousand! That is what makes a nation!”

 

When King Rupert reached the platform by the Flagstaff, the Royal

Standard of the Blue Mountains was hauled up under it. Rupert stood

up and raised his hand. In a second a cannon beside him was fired;

then, quick as thought, others were fired in sequence, as though by

one prolonged lightning-flash. The roar was incessant, but getting

less in detonating sound as the distance and the hills subdued it.

But in the general silence which prevailed round us we could hear the

sound as though passing in a distant circle, till finally the line

which had gone northward came back by the south, stopping at the last

gun to south’ard of the Flagstaff.

 

“What was that wonderful circle?” asked the King of the Lord High

Admiral.

 

“That, Your Majesty, is the line of the frontier of the Blue

Mountains. Rupert has ten thousand cannon in line.”

 

“And who fires them? I thought all the army must be here.”

 

“The women, Your Majesty. They are on frontier duty to-day, so that

the men can come here.”

 

Just at that moment one of the Crown Prince’s Guards brought to the

side of the King’s aero something like a rubber ball on the end of a

string. The Queen held it out to the baby in her arms, who grabbed

at it. The guard drew back. Pressing that ball must have given some

signal, for on the instant a cannon, elevated to perpendicular, was

fired. A shell went straight up an enormous distance. The shell

burst, and sent out both a light so bright that it could be seen in

the daylight, and a red smoke, which might have been seen from the

heights of the Calabrian Mountains over in Italy.

 

As the shell burst, the King’s aero seemed once more to spring from

the platform out into mid-air, dipped as before, and glided out over

the Blue Mouth with a rapidity which, to look at, took one’s breath

away.

 

As it came, followed by the aero of the Crown Prince’s Guard and a

group of other aeros, the whole mountain-sides seemed to become

alive. From everywhere, right away up to the farthest visible

mountain-tops, darted aeroplanes, till a host of them were rushing

with dreadful speed in the wake of the King. The King turned to

Queen Teuta, and evidently said something, for she beckoned to the

Captain of the Crown Prince’s Guard, who was steering the plane. He

swerved away to the right, and instead of following above the open

track between the lines of warships, went high over the outer line.

One of those on board began to drop something, which, fluttering

down, landed on every occasion on the bridge of the ship high over

which they then were.

 

The Western King said again to the Gospodar Rooke (the Lord High

Admiral):

 

“It must need some skill to drop a letter with such accuracy.”

 

With imperturbable face the Admiral replied:

 

“It is easier to drop bombs, Your Majesty.”

 

The flight of aeroplanes was a memorable sight. It helped to make

history. Henceforth no nation with an eye for either defence or

attack can hope for success without the mastery of the air.

 

In the meantime—and after that time, too—God help the nation that

attacks “Balka” or any part of it, so long as Rupert and Teuta live

in the hearts of that people, and bind them into an irresistible

unity.

 

Footnotes:

 

{1} Vladika, a high functionary in the Land of the Blue Mountains.

He is a sort of official descendant of the old Prince-Bishops who

used at one time to govern the State. In process of time the system

has changed, but the function—shorn of its personal dominance—

remains. The nation is at present governed by the Council. The

Church (which is, of course, the Eastern Church) is represented by

the Archbishop, who controls the whole spiritual functions and

organization. The connecting-link between them—they being quite

independent organizations—is the Vladika, who is ex officio a member

of the National Council. By custom he does not vote, but is looked

on as an independent adviser who is in the confidence of both sides

of national control.

 

{2} EDITORIAL NOTE—We shall, in our issue of Saturday week, give a

full record of the romantic story of Queen Teuta and her Shroud,

written by Mr. Mordred Booth, and illustrated by our special artist,

Mr. Neillison Browne, who is Mr. Booth’s artistic collaborateur in

the account of King Rupert’s Coronation.

 

{3} Greatest Kingdom—Editor Free America.