I. THE FIRST DAYS 221 II. ANCIENT LIGHTS 228 III. THE RETURN TO LONDON 237 IV. THE CONFERENCE 243 V. MY OWN PART 257 VI. PREPARATIONS 262 VII. THE SWORD OF THE LORD 271 VIII. THE PREACHERS 291 IX. THE CITIZENS 301 X. SMALL FIGURES ON A GREAT STAGE 312 XI. THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE 317 XII. BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER 330 XIII. ONE SUMMER MORNING 338 XIV. "FOR GOD, OUR RACE, AND DUTY" 343 XV. "SINGLE HEART AND SINGLE SWORD" 352 XVI. HANDS ACROSS THE SEA 360 XVII. THE PENALTY 366 XVIII. THE PEACE 374 XIX. THE GREAT ALLIANCE 383 XX. PEACE HATH HER VICTORIES 389 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE "I SAW THAT QUEEN OF ANCIENT BRITONS AT THE HEAD OF HER WILD, SHAGGY LEGIONS" _Frontispiece_ THE ROARING CITY 40 "RIVERS USHERED IN MISS CONSTANCE GREY" 114 "I WAS ON MY KNEES AND KISSING THE NERVELESS HAND" 212 PART I THE DESCENT Non his juventus orta parentibus infecit aequor sanguine Punico.--HORACE. THE MESSAGE I IN THE MAKING "Such as I am, sir--no great subject for a boaster, I admit--you see in me a product of my time, sir, and of very worthy parents, I assure you."--EZEKIEL JOY. As a very small lad, at home in Tarn Regis, I had but one close chum, George Stairs, and he went off with his father to Canada, while I was away for my first term at Elstree School. Then came Rugby, where I had several friends, but the chief of them was Leslie Wheeler. Just why we should have been close friends I cannot say, but I fancy it was mainly because Leslie was such a handsome fellow, and always seemed to cut a good figure in everything he did; while I, on the other hand, excelled in nothing, and was not brilliant even in the expression of my discontent, which was tolerably comprehensive. Withal, in other matters beside discontent, I was a good deal of an extremist, and by no means lacking in enthusiasm. My father, too, was an enthusiast in his quiet way. His was the enthusiasm of the student, and his work as historian and archaeologist absorbed, I must suppose, a great deal more of his interest and energy than was ever given to his cure of souls. He was rector of Tarn Regis, in Dorset, before I was born, and at the time of his death, to be present at which I was called away in the middle of the last term of my third year at Cambridge. I was to have spent four years at the University; but, as the event proved, I never returned there after my hurried departure, three days prior to my father's death.