Produced by Jason Isbell, Diane Monico, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: IN THE DARK ENTRANCE THERE APPEARED A FLAMING FIGURE.] The Napoleon of Notting Hill THE NAPOLEON _of_ NOTTING HILL _By_ GILBERT K. CHESTERTON _With Seven Full-Page Illustrations by W. GRAHAM ROBERTSON and a Map of the Seat of War_ REV. WILLIAM J. GORMLEY, C. M. JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD LONDON & NEW YORK. MDCCCCIV _Copyright in U.S.A., 1904_ William Clowes & Sons, Limited, London and Beccles. _TO HILAIRE BELLOC_ _For every tiny town or place God made the stars especially; Babies look up with owlish face And see them tangled in a tree: You saw a moon from Sussex Downs, A Sussex moon, untravelled still, I saw a moon that was the town's, The largest lamp on Campden Hill._ _Yea; Heaven is everywhere at home The big blue cap that always fits, And so it is (be calm; they come To goal at last, my wandering wits), So is it with the heroic thing; This shall not end for the world's end, And though the sullen engines swing, Be you not much afraid, my friend._ _This did not end by Nelson's urn Where an immortal England sits-- Nor where your tall young men in turn Drank death like wine at Austerlitz. And when the pedants bade us mark What cold mechanic happenings Must come; our souls said in the dark, "Belike; but there are likelier things."_ _Likelier across these flats afar These sulky levels smooth and free The drums shall crash a waltz of war And Death shall dance with Liberty; Likelier the barricades shall blare Slaughter below and smoke above, And death and hate and hell declare That men have found a thing to love._ _Far from your sunny uplands set I saw the dream; the streets I trod The lit straight streets shot out and met The starry streets that point to God. This legend of an epic hour A child I dreamed, and dream it still, Under the great grey water-tower That strikes the stars on Campden Hill._ G. K. C. _CONTENTS_ BOOK I _Chapter_ _Page_ I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE ART OF PROPHECY 13 II. THE MAN IN GREEN 21 III. THE HILL OF HUMOUR 49 BOOK II I. THE CHARTER OF THE CITIES 65 II. THE COUNCIL OF THE PROVOSTS 82 III. ENTER A LUNATIC 102 BOOK III I. THE MENTAL CONDITION OF ADAM WAYNE 125 II. THE REMARKABLE MR. TURNBULL 147 III. THE EXPERIMENT OF MR. BUCK 163 BOOK IV