The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker (book series for 10 year olds .txt) đź“•
"Sorry. But, of course, you don't understand such things." Then he went on talking before father had time to say a word.
"Let us get back to business. As you do not seem to follow me, let me explain that it is BECAUSE I do not forget that I wish to do this. I remember my dear mother's wish to make Aunt Janet happy, and would like to do as she did."
"AUNT Janet?" said father, very properly sneering at his ignorance. "She is not your aunt. Why, even her sister, who was married to your uncle, was only your aunt by courtesy." I could not help feeling that Rupert meant to be rude to my father, though his words were quite polite. If I had been as much bigger than him as he was than me, I should have flown at him; but he was a very big boy for his age. I am myself rather thin. Mother says thinness is an "appanage of birth."
"My Aunt Janet, sir, is an aunt by love. Courtesy is a small word to use in connection with such devoti
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town of Ilsin had been averted. A war-vessel acknowledging to no
nationality, and therefore to be deemed a pirate, had threatened to
bombard the town; but just before the time fixed for the fulfilment
of her threat, she was shaken to such an extent by some sub-aqueous
means that, though she herself was seemingly uninjured, nothing was
left alive on board. Thus the Lord preserves His own! The
consideration of this, as well as the other incident, was postponed
until the coming Voivode and the Gospodar Rupert, together with who
were already on their way hither.
THE SAME (LATER IN THE SAME DAY).
The Council resumed its sitting at four o’clock. The Voivode Peter
Vissarion and the Voivodin Teuta had arrived with the “Gospodar
Rupert,” as the mountaineers call him (Mr. Rupert Sent Leger) on the
armoured yacht he calls The Lady. The National Council showed great
pleasure when the Voivode entered the hall in which the Council met.
He seemed much gratified by the reception given to him. Mr. Rupert
Sent Leger, by the express desire of the Council, was asked to be
present at the meeting. He took a seat at the bottom of the hall,
and seemed to prefer to remain there, though asked by the President
of the Council to sit at the top of the table with himself and the
Voivode.
When the formalities of such Councils had been completed, the Voivode
handed to the President a memorandum of his report on his secret
mission to foreign Courts on behalf of the National Council. He then
explained at length, for the benefit of the various members of the
Council, the broad results of his mission. The result was, he said,
absolutely satisfactory. Everywhere he had been received with
distinguished courtesy, and given a sympathetic hearing. Several of
the Powers consulted had made delay in giving final answers, but
this, he explained, was necessarily due to new considerations arising
from the international complications which were universally dealt
with throughout the world as “the Balkan Crisis.” In time, however
(the Voivode went on), these matters became so far declared as to
allow the waiting Powers to form definite judgment—which, of course,
they did not declare to him—as to their own ultimate action. The
final result—if at this initial stage such tentative setting forth
of their own attitude in each case can be so named—was that he
returned full of hope (founded, he might say, upon a justifiable
personal belief) that the Great Powers throughout the world—North,
South, East, and West—were in thorough sympathy with the Land of the
Blue Mountains in its aspirations for the continuance of its freedom.
“I also am honoured,” he continued, “to bring to you, the Great
Council of the nation, the assurance of protection against unworthy
aggression on the part of neighbouring nations of present greater
strength.”
Whilst he was speaking, the Gospodar Rupert was writing a few words
on a strip of paper, which he sent up to the President. When the
Voivode had finished speaking, there was a prolonged silence. The
President rose, and in a hush said that the Council would like to
hear Mr. Rupert Sent Leger, who had a communication to make regarding
certain recent events.
Mr. Rupert Sent Leger rose, and reported how, since he had been
entrusted by the Council with the rescue of the Voivode Peter of
Vissarion, he had, by aid of the Voivodin, effected the escape of the
Voivode from the Silent Tower; also that, following this happy event,
the mountaineers, who had made a great cordon round the Tower so soon
as it was known that the Voivode had been imprisoned within it, had
stormed it in the night. As a determined resistance was offered by
the marauders, who had used it as a place of refuge, none of these
escaped. He then went on to tell how he sought interview with the
Captain of the strange warship, which, without flying any flag,
invaded our waters. He asked the President to call on me to read the
report of that meeting. This, in obedience to his direction, I did.
The acquiescent murmuring of the Council showed how thoroughly they
endorsed Mr. Sent Leger’s words and acts.
When I resumed my seat, Mr. Sent Leger described how, just before the
time fixed by the “pirate Captain”—so he designated him, as did
every speaker thereafter—the warship met with some under-sea
accident, which had a destructive effect on all on board her. Then
he added certain words, which I give verbatim, as I am sure that
others will some time wish to remember them in their exactness:
“By the way, President and Lords of the Council, I trust I may ask
you to confirm Captain Rooke, of the armoured yacht The Lady, to be
Admiral of the Squadron of the Land of the Blue Mountains, and also
Captain (tentatively) Desmond, late First-Lieutenant of The Lady, to
the command of the second warship of our fleet—the as yet unnamed
vessel, whose former Captain threatened to bombard Ilsin. My Lords,
Admiral Rooke has done great service to the Land of the Blue
Mountains, and deserves well at your hands. You will have in him, I
am sure, a great official. One who will till his last breath give
you good and loyal service.”
He had sat down, the President put to the Council resolutions, which
were passed by acclamation. Admiral Rooke was given command of the
navy, and Captain Desmond confirmed in his appointment to the
captaincy of the new ship, which was, by a further resolution, named
The Gospodar Rupert.
In thanking the Council for acceding to his request, and for the
great honour done him in the naming of the ship, Mr. Sent Leger said:
“May I ask that the armoured yacht The Lady be accepted by you, the
National Council, on behalf of the nation, as a gift on behalf of the
cause of freedom from the Voivodin Teuta?”
In response to the mighty cheer of the Council with which the
splendid gift was accepted the Gospodar Rupert—Mr. Sent Leger—
bowed, and went quietly out of the room.
As no agenda of the meeting had been prepared, there was for a time,
not silence, but much individual conversation. In the midst of it
the Voivode rose up, whereupon there was a strict silence. All
listened with an intensity of eagerness whilst he spoke.
“President and Lords of the Council, Archbishop, and Vladika, I
should but ill show my respect did I hesitate to tell you at this the
first opportunity I have had of certain matters personal primarily to
myself, but which, in the progress of recent events, have come to
impinge on the affairs of the nation. Until I have done so, I shall
not feel that I have done a duty, long due to you or your
predecessors in office, and which I hope you will allow me to say
that I have only kept back for purposes of statecraft. May I ask
that you will come back with me in memory to the year 1890, when our
struggle against Ottoman aggression, later on so successfully brought
to a close, was begun. We were then in a desperate condition. Our
finances had run so low that we could not purchase even the bread
which we required. Nay, more, we could not procure through the
National Exchequer what we wanted more than bread—arms of modern
effectiveness; for men may endure hunger and yet fight well, as the
glorious past of our country has proved again and again and again.
But when our foes are better armed than we are, the penalty is
dreadful to a nation small as our own is in number, no matter how
brave their hearts. In this strait I myself had to secretly raise a
sufficient sum of money to procure the weapons we needed. To this
end I sought the assistance of a great merchant-prince, to whom our
nation as well as myself was known. He met me in the same generous
spirit which he had shown to other struggling nationalities
throughout a long and honourable career. When I pledged to him as
security my own estates, he wished to tear up the bond, and only
under pressure would he meet my wishes in this respect. Lords of the
Council, it was his money, thus generously advanced, which procured
for us the arms with which we hewed out our freedom.
“Not long ago that noble merchant—and here I trust you will pardon
me that I am so moved as to perhaps appear to suffer in want of
respect to this great Council—this noble merchant passed to his
account—leaving to a near kinsman of his own the royal fortune which
he had amassed. Only a few hours ago that worthy kinsman of the
benefactor of our nation made it known to me that in his last will he
had bequeathed to me, by secret trust, the whole of those estates
which long ago I had forfeited by effluxion of time, inasmuch as I
had been unable to fulfil the terms of my voluntary bond. It grieves
me to think that I have had to keep you so long in ignorance of the
good thought and wishes and acts of this great man.
“But it was by his wise counsel, fortified by my own judgment, that I
was silent; for, indeed, I feared, as he did, lest in our troublous
times some doubting spirit without our boundaries, or even within it,
might mistrust the honesty of my purposes for public good, because I
was no longer one whose whole fortune was invested within our
confines. This prince-merchant, the great English Roger Melton—let
his name be for ever graven on the hearts of our people!—kept silent
during his own life, and enjoined on others to come after him to keep
secret from the men of the Blue Mountains that secret loan made to me
on their behalf, lest in their eyes I, who had striven to be their
friend and helper, should suffer wrong repute. But, happily, he has
left me free to clear myself in your eyes. Moreover, by arranging to
have—under certain contingencies, which have come to pass—the
estates which were originally my own retransferred to me, I have no
longer the honour of having given what I could to the national cause.
All such now belongs to him; for it was his money—and his only—
which purchased our national armament.
“His worthy kinsman you already know, for he has not only been
amongst you for many months, but has already done you good service in
his own person. He it was who, as a mighty warrior, answered the
summons of the Vladika when misfortune came upon my house in the
capture by enemies of my dear daughter, the Voivodin Teuta, whom you
hold in your hearts; who, with a chosen band of our brothers, pursued
the marauders, and himself, by a deed of daring and prowess, of which
poets shall hereafter sing, saved her, when hope itself seemed to be
dead, from their ruthless hands, and brought her back to us; who
administered condign punishment to the miscreants who had dared to so
wrong her. He it was who later took me, your servant, out of the
prison wherein another band of Turkish miscreants held me captive;
rescued me, with the help of my dear daughter, whom he had already
freed, whilst I had on my person the documents of international
secrecy of which I have already advised you—rescued me whilst I had
been as yet unsubjected to the indignity of search.
“Beyond this you know now that of which I was in partial ignorance:
how he had, through the skill and devotion of your new Admiral,
wrought
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