The Lost Continent
doors set in the wall of the palace, with small windows between. As we
stood close behind one of the doors, listening, a horse within neighed.
“The stables!” I whispered, and, a moment later, had pushed back a door
and entered. From the city about us we could hear the din of great
commotion, and quite close the sounds of battle—the crack of thousands
of rifles, the yells of the soldiers, the hoarse commands of officers,
and the blare of bugles.
The bombardment had ceased as suddenly as it had commenced. I judged
that the enemy was storming the city, for the sounds we heard were the
sounds of hand-to-hand combat.
Within the stables I groped about until I had found saddles and bridles
for two horses. But afterward, in the darkness, I could find but a
single mount. The doors of the opposite side, leading to the street,
were open, and we could see great multitudes of men, women, and
children fleeing toward the west. Soldiers, afoot and mounted, were
joining the mad exodus. Now and then a camel or an elephant would pass
bearing some officer or dignitary to safety. It was evident that the
city would fall at any moment—a fact which was amply proclaimed by the
terror-stricken haste of the fear-mad mob.
Horse, camel, and elephant trod helpless women and children beneath
their feet. A common soldier dragged a general from his mount, and,
leaping to the animal’s back, fled down the packed street toward the
west. A woman seized a gun and brained a court dignitary, whose horse
had trampled her child to death. Shrieks, curses, commands,
supplications filled the air. It was a frightful scene—one that will be
burned upon my memory forever.
I had saddled and bridled the single horse which had evidently been
overlooked by the royal household in its flight, and, standing a little
back in the shadow of the stable’s interior, Victory and I watched the
surging throng without.
To have entered it would have been to have courted greater danger than
we were already in. We decided to wait until the stress of blacks
thinned, and for more than an hour we stood there while the sounds of
battle raged upon the eastern side of the city and the population flew
toward the west. More and more numerous became the uniformed soldiers
among the fleeing throng, until, toward the last, the street was packed
with them. It was no orderly retreat, but a rout, complete and
terrible.
The fighting was steadily approaching us now, until the crack of rifles
sounded in the very street upon which we were looking. And then came a
handful of brave men—a little rear guard backing slowly toward the
west, working their smoking rifles in feverish haste as they fired
volley after volley at the foe we could not see.
But these were pressed back and back until the first line of the enemy
came opposite our shelter. They were men of medium height, with olive
complexions and almond eyes. In them I recognized the descendants of
the ancient Chinese race.
They were well uniformed and superbly armed, and they fought bravely
and under perfect discipline. So rapt was I in the exciting events
transpiring in the street that I did not hear the approach of a body of
men from behind. It was a party of the conquerors who had entered the
palace and were searching it.
They came upon us so unexpectedly that we were prisoners before we
realized what had happened. That night we were held under a strong
guard just outside the eastern wall of the city, and the next morning
were started upon a long march toward the east.
Our captors were not unkind to us, and treated the women prisoners with
respect. We marched for many days—so many that I lost count of them—and
at last we came to another city—a Chinese city this time—which stands
upon the site of ancient Moscow.
It is only a small frontier city, but it is well built and well kept.
Here a large military force is maintained, and here also, is a terminus
of the railroad that crosses modern China to the Pacific.
There was every evidence of a high civilization in all that we saw
within the city, which, in connection with the humane treatment that
had been accorded all prisoners upon the long and tiresome march,
encouraged me to hope that I might appeal to some high officer here for
the treatment which my rank and birth merited.
We could converse with our captors only through the medium of
interpreters who spoke both Chinese and Abyssinian. But there were many
of these, and shortly after we reached the city I persuaded one of them
to carry a verbal message to the officer who had commanded the troops
during the return from New Gondar, asking that I might be given a
hearing by some high official.
The reply to my request was a summons to appear before the officer to
whom I had addressed my appeal. A sergeant came for me along with the
interpreter, and I managed to obtain his permission to let Victory
accompany me—I had never left her alone with the prisoners since we had
been captured.
To my delight I found that the officer into whose presence we were
conducted spoke Abyssinian fluently. He was astounded when I told him
that I was a Pan-American. Unlike all others whom I had spoken with
since my arrival in Europe, he was well acquainted with ancient
history—was familiar with twentieth century conditions in Pan-America,
and after putting a half dozen questions to me was satisfied that I
spoke the truth.
When I told him that Victory was Queen of England he showed little
surprise, telling me that in their recent explorations in ancient
Russia they had found many descendants of the old nobility and royalty.
He immediately set aside a comfortable house for us, furnished us with
servants and with money, and in other ways showed us every attention
and kindness.
He told me that he would telegraph his emperor at once, and the result
was that we were presently commanded to repair to Peking and present
ourselves before the ruler.
We made the journey in a comfortable railway carriage, through a
country which, as we traveled farther toward the east, showed
increasing evidence of prosperity and wealth.
At the imperial court we were received with great kindness, the emperor
being most inquisitive about the state of modern Pan-America. He told
me that while he personally deplored the existence of the strict
regulations which had raised a barrier between the east and the west,
he had felt, as had his predecessors, that recognition of the wishes of
the great Pan-American federation would be most conducive to the
continued peace of the world.
His empire includes all of Asia, and the islands of the Pacific as far
east as 175°W. The empire of Japan no longer exists, having been
conquered and absorbed by China over a hundred years ago. The
Philippines are well administered, and constitute one of the most
progressive colonies of the Chinese empire.
The emperor told me that the building of this great empire and the
spreading of enlightenment among its diversified and savage peoples had
required all the best efforts of nearly two hundred years. Upon his
accession to the throne he had found the labor well nigh perfected and
had turned his attention to the reclamation of Europe.
His ambition is to wrest it from the hands of the blacks, and then to
attempt the work of elevating its fallen peoples to the high estate
from which the Great War precipitated them.
I asked him who was victorious in that war, and he shook his head sadly
as he replied:
“Pan-America, perhaps, and China, with the blacks of Abyssinia,” he
said. “Those who did not fight were the only ones to reap any of the
rewards that are supposed to belong to victory. The combatants reaped
naught but annihilation. You have seen—better than any man you must
realize that there was no victory for any nation embroiled in that
frightful war.”
“When did it end?” I asked him.
Again he shook his head. “It has not ended yet. There has never been a
formal peace declared in Europe. After a while there were none left to
make peace, and the rude tribes which sprang from the survivors
continued to fight among themselves because they knew no better
condition of society. War razed the works of man—war and pestilence
razed man. God give that there shall never be such another war!”
You all know how Porfirio Johnson returned to Pan-America with John
Alvarez in chains; how Alvarezl’s trial raised a popular demonstration
that the government could not ignore. His eloquent appeal—not for
himself, but for me—is historic, as are its results. You know how a
fleet was sent across the Atlantic to search for me, how the
restrictions against crossing thirty to one hundred seventy-five were
removed forever, and how the officers were brought to Peking, arriving
upon the very day that Victory and I were married at the imperial
court.
My return to Pan-America was very different from anything I could
possibly have imagined a year before. Instead of being received as a
traitor to my country, I was acclaimed a hero. It was good to get back
again, good to witness the kindly treatment that was accorded my dear
Victory, and when I learned that Delcarte and Taylor had been found at
the mouth of the Rhine and were already back in Pan-America my joy was
unalloyed.
And now we are going back, Victory and I, with the men and the
munitions and power to reclaim England for her queen. Again I shall
cross thirty, but under what altered conditions!
A new epoch for Europe is inaugurated, with enlightened China on the
east and enlightened Pan-America on the west—the two great peace powers
whom God has preserved to regenerate chastened and forgiven Europe. I
have been through much—I have suffered much, but I have won two great
laurel wreaths beyond thirty. One is the opportunity to rescue Europe
from barbarism, the other is a little barbarian, and the greater of
these is—Victory.