The Lord of the Sea

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lord of the Sea, by M. P. Shiel
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Title: The Lord of the Sea
Author: M. P. Shiel
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6993]?[This file was first posted on February 20, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LORD OF THE SEA ***
Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreaders.
THE LORD OF THE SEA
By M. P. SHIEL
CONTENTS
I. THE EXODUS
II. THE FEZ
III. THE HUNTING-CROP
IV. THE SWOON
V. REID'S
VI. "PEARSON'S WEEKLY"
VII. THE ELM
VIII. THE METEOR
IX. HOGARTH'S GUNS
X. ISAAC
XI. WROXHAM BROAD
XII. THE ROSE
XIII. OUT OF THE WORLD
XIV. THE PRIEST
XV. MONSIGNOR
XVI. THE ROPE
XVII. OLD TOM'S LETTER
XVIII. CHLOROFORM
XIX. THE GREAT BELL
XX. THE INFIRMARY
XXI. IN THE DEEP
XXII. OLD TOM
XXIII. UNDER THE ELM
XXIV. FRANKL SEES THE METEORITE
XXV. CHURCH ARCHITECTURE
XXVI. FRANKL AND O'HARA
XXVII. THE BAG OF LIGHT
XXVIII. THE LETTER
XXIX. PRIORITY OF CLAIM
XXX. MR. BEECH
XXXI. THE HAMMERS
XXXII. WONDER
XXXIII. REEFS OF STEEL
XXXIV. THE "KAISER"
XXXV. THE CUP OF TREMBLING
XXXVI. THE "BOODAH" AND THE BATTLESHIPS
XXXVII. THE STRAITS
XXXVIII. THE MANIFESTO
XXXIX. THE "BOODAH'S" LOCK-UP
XL. THE WEDDING
XLI. THE VISIT
XLII. REBEKAH TELLS
XLIII. THE LAND BILL
XLIV. THE REGENCY
XLV. ESTRELLA, THE PROPHETESS
XLVI. THE ORDER IN COUNCIL
XLVII. THE EMIGRANTS
XLVIII. THE SEA-FORTS
XLIX. THE D��BACLE
L. THE DECISION
LI. THE MODEL
I
THE EXODUS
In the Calle Las Gabias--one of those by-streets of Lisbon below St. Catherine--there occurred one New Year a little event in the Synagogue there worth a mention in this history of Richard, Lord of the Sea.
It was Kol Nidr��, eve of the Day of Atonement, and the little BethEl, sweltering in a dingy air, was transacting the long-drawn?liturgy, when, behind the curtain where the women sat, an old dame who had been gazing upward smote her palms together, and let slip a little scream: "The Day is coming...!"
She then fainted, and till near ten lay on her bed, lit by the Yom Kippur candle, with open eyes, but without speech, her sere face still beautiful, on each temple a little pyramid of plaits, with gold-and-coral ear-rings: a holy belle. About ten P.M. three women watching heard her murmur: "My child, Rebekah...!"
She was childless, and whom she meant was not known. However, soon afterwards there was a form at the amulet-guarded door, and Estrella sat up, saying: "Rebekah, my child..."
A young lady of twenty-two ran in and embraced her, saying: "I have been to Paris and Madrid with my father--just arrived, so flew to see you. We leave for London to-night".
"No: I shall keep you seven days. Tell Frankl _I_ say so. What jewels! You have grown into a rose of glory, the eyes are profounder and blacker, and that brow was made for high purpose. Tell me--have you a lover?"
"No, mamma Estrella".
"Then, why the blush?"
"It is nothing at all," Miss Frankl answered: "five years ago when at school in Bristol I thrice saw through a grating a young man with whom I was frivolous enough to speak. Happily, I do not know what has become of him--a wild, divine kind of creature, of whom I am well rid, and never likely to see again".
The old lady mused. "What was he?"
"A sailor".
"Not a common sailor?"
"I fancy so, mamma".
"What name?"
"Hogarth--Richard".
"A Jew?"
"An Englishman!"
She laughed, as the old lady's eyes opened in sacred horror, and as she whispered: "Child!"
Within three months of that night, one midnight the people of Prague rose and massacred most of the Jewish residents; the next day the flame broke out in Buda-Pesth; and within a week had become a revolution.
On the twelfth morning one of two men in a City bank said to the other: "Come, Frankl, you cannot fail a man in this crisis--I only want 80,000 on all Westring--"
"No good to me, my lord," answered Frankl, who, though a man of only forty--short, with broad shoulders,--already had his skin divided up like a dry leaf; in spite of which, he was handsome, with a nose ruled straight and long, a black beard on his breast.
But the telephone rattled and Frankl heard these words at the receiver: "Wire to hand from Wertheimer: Austrian Abgeordneten-haus passed a Resolution at noon virtually expelling Jewish Race...."
When Frankl turned again