BY FAR EUPHRATES A TALE BY D. ALCOCK _Author of "The Spanish Brothers" "Crushed, yet Conquering" "Dr. Adrian" etc_ London HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27 PATERNOSTER ROW MDCCCXCVII BUTLER & TANNER, THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS, FROME, AND LONDON. "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; ... and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." PREFACE Many a tale of blood and tears has come to us of late from far Euphrates, and from the regions round about. It is not so much the aim of the following pages to tell these over again as to show the light that, even there, shines through the darkness. "I do set My bow in the cloud" is true of the densest, most awful cloud of human misery. As in the early ages of Christianity, "what little child, what tender woman" was there "Who did not clasp the cross with a light laugh, Or wrap the burning robe round, thanking God"? As in later times, of no less fervent faith, "men took each other's hands and walked into the fire, and women sang a song of triumph while the gravedigger was shovelling the earth over their living faces," so now, in our own days, there still walks in the furnace, with His faithful servants, "One like unto the Son of God." Every instance of faith or heroism given in these pages is not only true in itself, but typical of a hundred others. The tale is told, however feebly and inadequately, to strengthen our own faith and quicken our own love. It is told also to stir our own hearts to help and save the remnant that is left. The past is past, and we cannot change it now; but we CAN still save from death, or from fates worse than death, the children of Christian parents, who are helpless and desolate orphans because their parents _were_ Christians, and true to the Faith they professed and the Name they loved. D. ALCOCK. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I THE DARK RIVER 1 CHAPTER II FATHER AND SON 9 CHAPTER III FIRST IMPRESSIONS 17 CHAPTER IV A NEW LIFE 26 CHAPTER V BARON MUGGURDITCH THOMASSIAN 44 CHAPTER VI ROSES AND BATH TOWELS 59 CHAPTER VII GATHERING STORMS 66 CHAPTER VIII A PROPOSAL 73 CHAPTER IX PEACE AND STRIFE 91 CHAPTER X AN ARMENIAN WEDDING 113 CHAPTER XI AN ADVENTUROUS RIDE 125 CHAPTER XII THE USE OF A REVOLVER 143 CHAPTER XIII WHAT PASTOR STEPANIAN THOUGHT 155 CHAPTER XIV A MODERN THERMOPYLÆ 173 CHAPTER XV DARK HOURS 194 CHAPTER XVI "THE DARK RIVER TURNS TO LIGHT" 214 CHAPTER XVII A GREAT CRIME 229 CHAPTER XVIII EVIL TIDINGS 241 CHAPTER XIX A GREAT CRIME CONSUMMATED 256 CHAPTER XX