The Angels of Mons: The Bowmen and Other Legends of the War [1 ed.]

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6025 A24-5

A7

The *Angeis of ZMons

By

the

same Author :

THE HILL OF DREAMS THE HOUSE OF SOULS "THE GREAT GOD PAN" "THE THREE IMPOSTORS")

(including

and

HIEROGLYPHICS THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY

The Angels of Mons

THE BOWMEN AND OTHER

LEGENDS OF THE

WAR

BY

ARTHUR MACHEN

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR

LONDON SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LTD. 4, STATIONERS' HALL COURT, E.C. 1915

LONDOJT:

DCKE

PRINTED BT W1LUAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, S.E., AND GREAT WINDMILL

STREET, STAMFOHD STREET,

PR

629347 2 1, 2 S.

STI

INTRODUCTION

/HA

VE

asked

been

to

write an "

The Bowmen'' on its publication in book form together with three other tales of introduction to the story of

similar fashion. "

affair

oj

And I

hesitate.

The Bowmen

such an odd one

from

"

This

has

been

first to last, so

queer complications have entered it, there have been so many and so

many into

divers

currents

rumour and that

I

difficulty

I

of

concerning

it,

not

know where

then,

propose,

by

cross-currents

speculation

honestly do

begin.

at

and

apologising

all. 5

to

solve

to tlie

for beginning

THE ANGELS OF MONS and fitly

For, usually

an introduction there

is

,

held

the presence

of

imply

that

something of consequence

and

be

to

importance

is

to

introduced.

for

If,

man

has made an anthology of great poetry, he may well write an example, a

introduction justifying his principle of selection, pointing out here and there, as

moves him, high beauties and

the spirit

supreme

discoursing of the

excellencies,

magnates and

lords

whom

he

and princes

of

merely serving as the chamber. Introductions, groom of that is, belong to the masterpieces and literature,

is

the world, to

classics

of

ancient

and

and and I am

the great ;

accepted things here introducing a short, small story of my own which appeared in THE EVENING

NEWS about ten months ago. I appreciate the absurdity, enormity grossness.

of

the

position

And my 6

excuse

the

nay,

in

all

for

its

these

INTRODUCTION pages must be itself is

this

nothing,

:

that though the story it

had such consequences and

has yet

odd and

unforeseen adventures that the tale of them possess some

And

interest.

may

then, again,

there are certain psychological morals to be

drawn from the whole matter of the and its sequel of rumours and

tale

discussions that are not,

of consequence ; and

I

think, devoid

so to begin at the

beginning.

This was in last August ; to be more on the last Sunday of last Precise, There were terrible things to August. be

read on that hot

Sunday morning It was in THE WEEKLY DISPATCH that I saw the awful account of the retreat from Mons. between meat

and

mass.

no longer recollect the details ; but I have not forgotten the impression that

I

7

THE ANGELS OF MONS was then made on my mind. I seemed to see a fiirnace of torment and death and agony and terror seven times heated, ana midst of the burning was the British Army. In the midst of the

in

the

and yet aiireoled in it, scattered like ashes and yet triumphant, martyred andfor ever glorious. So I saw our men with a shining about them, so I took these thoughts with me to church, and, flame,

consumed by

I am sorry in

to say,

my head while

it

was making up a story was singing

the deacon

the Gospel.

was not the tale of " The Bowmen'' It was the first sketch, as it " The Soldiers' Rest" which is were, of This

I onlv wish I I conceived it. I think, a far

reprinted in this volume. had been able to write it as

The

tale as it stands

better piece

is,

of craft than

"

but the tale that came to

The Bowmen,"

me

as the blue

incense floated above the Gospel 8

Book on

INTRODUCTION the desk between the tapers

was a

noble story

that indeed

:

like all

I

that never get written.

the stories

conceived the

dead men coming up through the flames and in the flames, and being welcomed in songs and flowing cups and everlasting mirth. But every man is the child of his age, however

Eternal

the

much

he

may

Tavern with

hate

it ;

and our popular

religion has long determined that jollity

As

wicked.

is

far

as

I

can

make

modern Protestantism believes that Heaven is something like Evensong in an out

English cathedral,

and

Dean

the

opposed

to

/

mildest

Course

the service by

preaching.

dogma of any kind it

suppose

of Ethical

is

Stainer

For held

Lectures

those

even the that

will

a be

arranged.

I

have long maintained that on the whole the average church, considered Well,

as a house ofpreaching, is a 9

much more

THE ANGELS OF MONS poisonous place than the average tavern ; still, as I say, ones age masters one, and clouds and bewilders the intelligence, and the real story of " The Soldiers Rest," with its " sonus epulantium in tzterno convivio," its birth,

the

was ruined at the moment of it was some time later that

and

actual

of "The

Now

it

as here printed, got in the meantime the plot Bowmen" occurred to me. story,

And

written.

has been

murmured and

and suggested and whispered

hinted

in all sorts

of quarters that before I wrote the tale I had heard something. The most decorative

of

precise:

these

legends is also

"f know

the

most

for a fact that the

whole thing was given him in typescript This was not the by a lady-in-waiting" case ;

that

and all vaguer

I had

reports to the effect

heard some rumours or hints

of rumours are equally void of any of truth. 10

trace

INTRODUCTION Again I

for entering so pompously into the minutice of my bit of a story, as if it were the lost poems of apologise

appears that the subject interests the public, and I comply with

Sappho ; but

it

my

I take it, then, that the " were comThe Bowmen

instructions. "

origins posite.

of

First of all, all ages

and nations

have cherished the thought that spiritual hosts may come to the help of earthly that gods and heroes and saints have descended from their high immortal

arms,

for their worshippers and Then Kipling s story of the

places to fight clients.

ghostly Indian regiment got in my head and got mixed with the medievalism that is

always there

was

written.

and so

I was

"

The Bowmen

"

heartily disappointed

I

remember, and thought it as it, an indifferent piece of still think it

with

I

;

work.

for

However,

I

have tried

these thirty -five long years, ii

to

write

and if I

THE ANGELS OF MONS have not become practised in letters, I am at least a past master in the Lodge of " The Disappointment. Such as it was,

Bowmen " appeared NEWS of September

Now

THE EVENING

in

1914.

i^th,

the journalist

does

not,

as

a

rule, dwell much on the prospect offame ; and if he be an evening journalist, his

anticipations

of immortality are bounded

by twelve o clock at night at the latest ; and it may well be that tJwse insects

which begin to live in the morning and are dead by sunset deem themselves immortal.

Having written my story, having groaned and growled over it and printed it, I certainly never thought to hear another word of it. My colleague "

The Londoner" praised

it

my face, as his kindly fashion

warmly

is ;

entering,

very properly, a technical caveat as the battle-cries

of the

to

to the

bowmen.

language of "Why should English archers use French 12

INTRODUCTION terms f

"

he said.

I replied that

the only "

" reason was this that a Monseigneur here and there struck me as picturesque ; and I reminded him tfiat, as a matter of cold historical fact, most

of the archers of Agincourt were mercenaries from Gwent, my native country, who would appeal to

Mihangel and to saints not known to the Saxons Teilo, Iltyd, Dewi, Cadwaladyr

And I thought that that was and last discussion of " The Bowmen!' But in a few days from its Publication the editor of THE OCCULT REVIEW wrote to me. He wanted to know whether the story had any foundaI told him that it had no tion in fact. Vendigeid.

the Jirst

foundation in fact of any kind or sort;

Iforget whether I added

that it

foundation in rumour, but not,

since to the best

of

had no

I should think

my

belief there

were no rumours of heavenly interposition in existence at that time. 13

Certainly

I

THE ANGELS OF MONS had heard of none.

Soon afterwards the

editor

of LIGHT wrote asking a like question, and I made him a like reply. It seemed to me that I had stifled any

"Bowmen"

mythos in the hour of

its

birth.

A month or two later, I received several requests from editors

ofparish magazines

to reprint the story.

editor

I

or, rather,

readily gavepermission;

after another

of one of

month or

my

and then,

two, the conductor

these

magazines wrote to me, that the saying February issue containing the story had been sold out, while there

was

still

I allow

a great demand for

them

to

as a pamphlet,

reprint

"

it.

Would

The Bowmen "

and would I write a

short preface giving the exact authorities for the story? / replied that they might reprint in pamphlet form with all heart,

I could since I had

but that

authorities,

not give

my my

the

tale

none,

INTRODUCTION The priest wrote again, suggesting to my amazement that I must be mistaken, that the main " "facts "of" The Bowmen must be true, that my share in the matter must surely being pure invention.

have been confined

to the elaboration

of a veridical

decoration

seemed that

my

and

history.

It

had

been

light fiction

the

by congregation of this particular church as the solidest of facts ; and it was then that it began to dawn on accepted

me

that if

letters,

the art

I had

I had

failed in the art of

succeeded, unwittingly, in

This happened,

of deceit.

I should

think, some time in April, and the snow-

ball of

rumour

that

was then

set rolling

has been rolling ever since, growing bigger

and

bigger,

monstrous It

of

till it is

now

swollen

to

a

size.

was at about thisperiod that variants

my

tale

histories.

began

At

to be told

first,

as authentic

these tales betrayed

*

THE ANGELS OF MONS their

relation

their

to

In

original.

several of them the vegetarian restaurant appeared, and St. George was the chief

In one

character.

case

and address missing

an

said

name there was

officer tJiat

a portrait of St.

George in a certain London restaurant, and that a figure, jiist like the portrait,

the battlefield,

with

the

variant

results.

happiest

I

this,

print

told

been

found

appeared

to

and was invoked think,

him on by him,

Another

never got into

how dead Prussians had on

the

with

battlefield

This wounds in their bodies. notion amused me, as I had imagined a scene, wJien I was thinking out the story, in which a German general was to appear before the Kaiser to

arrow

his

explain

failure

to

annihilate

the

English. "

"

A

it

is

II- Highest,"

true,

it

is

the general

was

to say,

impossible to deny 16

it.

INTRODUCTION The men were

killed

by arrows

;

the

shafts were foiind in their bodies by the

burying parties"

I

rejected the idea as over-precipitous

for a mere fantasy. I was therewhen I found that what I had refused as too fantastical for even

fore entertained

fantasy was accepted in certain occult circles as fiard fact.

Other versions of the story appeared in which a cloud interposed between the attacking British.

served

to

Germans and the defending In some examples the cloud conceal our men from the

advancing enemy ; in others, it disclosed shining shapes which frightened tJie horses of the

pursuing German cavalry.

will be noted, has disapGeorge, peared he persisted some time longer in St.

it

certain

Roman

there are no

But

and

Catholic variants

more bowmen, no more arrows.

so far angels are not 17

mentioned; yet c

THE ANGELS OF MONS to appear, and I think they are ready that I have detected the machine which

the story. brought them into

In soldier

"The Bowmen" saw

"

a long

my imagined of shapes, with a And Mr. A. P.

line

shining about them?' Sinnett, writing in the

May

issue

of

THE OCCULT REVIEW, reporting what he had heard, states that "those who could '

saw a row of shining '

see

said they

between the two armies" jecture that link between

beings

Now I

con-

the word "shining" my tale and the derivative is

the

view

shining from it. In the popular and benevolent supernatural beings are be else, and must angels and nothing and so, I believe, the Bowmen of angels,

"the Angels of they have been

my story have become Monsr In this shape received with respect

and

credence every-

where, or almost everywhere.

And here, I conjecture, we >

18

have the key

INTRODUCTION popularity of the delusion We have long ceased in as I think it. England to take much interest in saints, to the large

and St.

in the recent revival of the cultus the

George,

saint

is

little

of more

And the than a patriotic figurehead. us is to succour appeal to the saints a common English practice ; held Popish by most of our country-

certainly not it is

men. tions, so,

But

when

army

angels, with certain reserva-

have retained their popularity, and it

was

and for

religion

of the

way was the

man

clear for general

enthusiasms of the in the street.

soon as the legendgot the

of Mons

English

was delivered by

in its dire peril

angelic aid, the belief,

settled that the

title

' '

And so

The Angels

"

became impossible to avoid it. It permeated the Press : it would not be it

neglected ; it appeared in the most unlikely quarters in TRUTH and TOWN TOPICS,

THE NEW CHURCH WEEKLY 19

(Swedenc 2

THE ANGELS OF MONS borgian)

and JOHN BULL.

THE CHURCH TIMES reserve

:

The

editor

of

has exercised a wise

he awaits that evidence which so

lacking ; but in one issue of the paper I noted that the story furnished a

far

text

is

for a sermon,

and

the matter

send

me

the subject

for an

of a

article.

letter,

People

from

provincial papers hot controversy as to the exact containing cuttings

" nature of the appearances ; the Office

Window suggests

"

explanations of the the PALL MALL in a note

scientific

hallucination ;

about St.

THE DAILY CHRONICLE

of

James

hood of the

says he is of the brother-

Bowmen of Mons

reversion to the

bowmen from

this

the angels

being possibly due to the strong statements The that I have made on the matter. pulpits both of the Church and of Nonbeen busy : Bishop conformity have

Welldon, believer)^

Dean Hensley Henson Bishop

Taylor 20

(a dis-

Smith

(the

INTRODUCTION Chaplain-General\ and many other clergy have occupied themselves with the matter.

Dr. at

Horton preached about

Manchester;

the

Sir Joseph the

Eickett

(President of Federation of Free Church

"angels"

Compton National

Councils) stated that the soldiers at the front had

and dreamed drearns and had given testimony of powers and principalities fighting for them or against them. Letters come from all the ends of the earth to the Editor of THE EVENING seen visions

NEWS

with

suggestions.

>

theories, beliefs^ explanations

It

is

all

',

somewhat won-

derful ; one can say that the whole affair is a psychological phenomenon of considerable interest,

fairly comparable with the great

Russian delusion of September.

last

August and

THE ANGELS OF MONS Now

some persons, judging by the tone of these remarks of

may gather

mine,

am

it is possible that

the impression that

I

a profound disbeliever in the possi-

of any intervention of the super-

bility

order

physical

in

of the

affairs

They will

physical order.

make

the

be mistaken

if

inference; they will be they mistaken if they suppose that I think miracles injudcea credible but miracles in this

France or Flanders

But I

no such absurdities. frankly, that

of Mons

"

or think

I

I credit

I

incredible.

confess, very

none of the "Angels

legends, partly because see,

hold

their derivation

I

see,

from my

but chiefly because I received one jot or tittle not so have, far, of evidence that should dispose me to

own

idle fiction,

It

is

idle,

enough for a that story is a

man

belief.

lie,

indeed, to

say:

and

foolish

"/ am

sure

because the supernatural

element enters into

" it

22

;

here, indeed,

we

INTRODUCTION have the maggot writhing in tJu midst

of corrupted

of

But

the sun.

as he " says,

is

If

denying the existence if this fellow be a fool

offal

equally foolish

it

is

evidence the better

and

true,

" ;

who

anything of the

the tale has

supernatural

he

is

the

and I am

afraid

of many who

this tends to be the attitude

call themselves occultists.

less

I

hope that

I

that frame of mind.

shall never get to So I say, not that super-normal interventions are impossible, not that they

have not happened during this

know nothing or the other

war

/

as to that point, one way but that there is not one

atom of evidence

(so far] to support the current stories of the angels of Mons. For, be it remarked, these stories are specific

stories.

They

rest

on

the

hand stories told by "a soldier? by "an officer," by "a Catholic correspondent" by "a

second,

third, fourth, fifth

23

THE ANGELS OF MONS by any number of anonymous Indeed^ names have been men-

nurse" people.

A

tioned. ladys name has been drawn, most unwarrantably as it appears to me, into the discussion, and I have no doubt

that this lady has been subject to a good deal of pestering and annoyance. She has written to the Editor of THE EVENING

NEWS denying all knowledge of the supposed miracle.

The Psychical Research

Society's

expert confesses that no real evidence has been proffered to her Society on ttie matter.

And

amazement, she accepts as fact the proposition that some men on the battlefield have been "hallucinated" then, to

my

and proceeds

to give the tfieory

of sensory

hallucination.

She forgets

by her reason to

own

there

is

that,

no

showing, suppose that anybody has been hallucinated at all. Someone (unknown) has met a

nurse

(unnamed} who has talked

soldier (anonymous)

who has 24

to

a

seen angels.

INTRODUCTION But THAT

is

not evidence ;

and

not even

Sam

Welter at his gayest would have dared to offer it as such in the Court of

Common

So far,

Pleas.

then, nothing

remotely approaching proof has been offered as to any supernatural intervention

during

Retreat

the

from Mons.

come; if so, it will be interesting and more than interesting.

Proof may

But, taking the affair as it stands at present, how is it that a nation plunged in materialism of the grossest

accepted idle

kind has

rumours and gossip of

the

The supernatural as certain truth ? answer is contained in the question : it is precisely because our whole atmosphere is materialist tJiat

anything

save

man from good methylated

we are ready the

truth.

to credit

Separate a

drink, he will swallow

spirit

with joy. 25

Man

is

THE ANGELS OF MONS created to be inebriated ; to be "nobly wild, not mad" Suffer the Cocoa Prophets

and

their

stuff that will make

mad

It

indeed.

men of

seduce

to

company

body and spirit\ and

in

him ignobly wild and

took

hard,

affairs, business

thinkers,

him

he will get himself

men, advanced to

Freethinkers,

practical in

believe

Madame the

Blavatsky and Mahatmas and famous message from the Golden

Shore

:

"Judges plan

him and STICK." And the main dismal

state

is

right ; follow

responsibility

for

of affairs undoubtedly

this

lies

on

the shoulders

of the as

of the majority of the clergy Church of England. Christianity,

Mr. W. L. Courtney has

pointed it is

out, is

so admirably a great Mystery Religion;

THE Mystery

Religion.

Its priests

are called to an awful and tremendous hierurgy ; its pontiffs are to be the pathfinders,

the

bridge-makers between the 26

INTRODUCTION world of sense and the world of

And, in

their

spirit.

time in

fact, they pass preaching, not the eternal mysteries, but a twopenny morality, in changing the

Wine of Angels and the Bread of Heaven into gingerbeer and mixed biscuits : a sorry transubstantiation, a sad alchemy, as it

seems to me.

27

THE BOWMEN IT

was during the Retreat of the Eighty Thousand, and the authority

of the Censorship is sufficient excuse for But it was on not being more explicit. the most awful day of that awful time, on the day when ruin and disaster came

near that

so

London

far

their

away

shadow and,

;

fell

without

certain news, the hearts of

men

over

any failed

them and grew faint as if the agony of the army in the battlefield had

within

;

entered into their souls.

On

this dreadful day, then,

hundred thousand men

in

when

three

arms with

all

their artillery swelled like a flood against

the

little

English company, there was 29

THE ANGELS OF MONS one point above

other points in our battle line that was for a time in awful all

danger, not merely of defeat, but of utter With the permission of annihilation.

the Censorship and of the military expert, may, perhaps, be described as

this corner

a salient, and if this angle were crushed and broken, then the English force as a whole would be shattered, the Allied left would be turned, and Sedan would inevitably follow. All the morning

the

German guns

had thundered and shrieked against this corner, and against the thousand or so of

men who

held

it.

The men joked

at

found funny names for had and bets about them, and them, greeted them with scraps of music-hall But the shells came on and songs. the shells, and

and tore good Englishmen limb from limb, and tore brother from brother,

burst,

and as the heat of the day increased so 30

THE BOWMEN did the fury of that terrific cannonade.

There was no

help,

seemed.

it

The

was good, but there it was was not nearly enough of it English

artillery

;

being steadily battered into scrap iron. There comes a moment in a storm at sea is

one another, " It can blow no harder,"

when people say

at its worst

;

and then there fierce

it

is

to

a blast ten times more

than any before

it.

So

it

was

in

these British trenches.

There were no stouter hearts

in the

whole world than the hearts of these

men

but even they were appalled as this seven - times - heated hell of the ;

German cannonade

fell

upon them and

overwhelmed them and destroyed them. And at this very moment they saw from their trenches that a

tremendous host

was moving against their lines. Five hundred of the thousand remained, and as far as they could 31

see

the

German

THE ANGELS OF MONS was pressing on against them, column upon column, a grey world of infantry

men,

ten

thousand

of

them,

appeared afterwards. There was no hope at

shook hands, some of them.

as

it

They One man

all.

improvised a new version of the battle"

Good-bye, good-bye to Tipper" And we shan't get ary," ending with And they all went on firing there." song,

The officers pointed out that steadily. such an opportunity for high-class, fancy shooting might never occur again the ;

Germans dropped

line

after line "

Tipperary humorist asked, "

Sidney Street ? guns did their

knew

it

And best.

was of no

use.

What

;

the price

the few machine

But everybody The dead grey

bodies lay in companies and battalions, as others came on and on and on, and

they swarmed and stirred and advanced

from beyond and beyond. 32

THE BOWMEN "

World without

Amen,"

end.

said

one of the British soldiers with some

he took aim and

irrelevance as

And

then he remembered

cannot think

why

or wherefore

vegetarian restaurant in

fired.

he says he a queer

London where

he had once or twice eaten eccentric dishes of cutlets

made

of lentils and

nuts that pretended to be steak. On the plates in this restaurant there

all

was printed a blue,

with

figure of St.

the

George in motto, Adsit Anglis

Sanctus Georgius May St. George be a present help to the English. This soldier happened to know Latin and other useless

man

fired at his

mass

things,

and now, as he

in the

300 yards away

grey advancing he uttered the

He went on pious vegetarian motto. firing to the end, and at last Bill on his right

had

him cheerfully over make him stop, pointing out

to clout

the head to

33

D

THE ANGELS OF MONS as he did so that the King's ammunition cost money and was not lightly to be

wasted

in

funny patterns into

drilling

dead Germans.

For as the Latin scholar uttered invocation he

shudder

and

through

his

battle died

murmur

;

his

something between a an electric shock pass

felt

The

body.

down

roar of the

in his ears to

instead of

it,

a gentle

he says, he heard

a great voice and a shout louder than " a thunder-peal crying, Array, array, "

array

!

His heart grew hot as a burning

grew seemed

to

him

answered to or "

seemed

coal,

him, as

ice within

as

cold

it

it

that a tumult of voices

his

He

summons.

heard,

to hear, thousands shouting

:

"

St. "

George

Ha

!

!

St.

messire

George ha

;

"

sweet

!

grant us good deliverance

!

Saint,

" !

"

St.

George

for

merry England 34

!

THE BOWMEN " St.

Harow

!

Harow

Monseigneur

!

George, succour us."

"Ha!

Ha! St. George! George a long bow and a strong bow." " " Heaven's Knight, aid us St.

!

!

And

as the soldier heard these voices

he saw before him, beyond the trench, a long line of shapes, with a shining about them.

They were

like

men who drew

the bow, and with another shout, their

cloud of arrows flew singing and tingling through the air towards the German hosts.

The

other

firing all

men

in the trench

the while.

were

They had no hope as if they had been ;

but they aimed just

shooting at Bisley.

Suddenly one of them

lifted

up

his

voice in the plainest English. " Gawd help us " he bellowed to the !

35

D

2

THE ANGELS OF MONS next to him, " but we're blooming marvels Look at those grey

man

.

!

look at them

gentlemen,

!

.

.

D'ye see

They're going down in it's thousands, dozens, nor in 'undreds it is. Look look there's a regiment

them

not

?

;

!

!

gone while I'm talking to ye." " " Shut it the other soldier bellowed, !

"

"

what are ye gassing about ? But he gulped with astonishment even

taking aim,

as he spoke,

were

falling

for,

by

indeed, the grey the thousands.

men The

English could hear the guttural scream of the German officers, the crackle of their revolvers as they shot the reluctant

and

still

line after line

;

crashed to the

earth.

All the while the Latin-bred soldier

heard the cry: "

Harow

!

Harow 36

!

Monseigneur,

THE BOWMEN dear

saint,

quick to our aid

St.

!

George

help us!" "

"

High Chevalier, defend us The singing arrows fled so swift and !

the thick that they darkened the air heathen horde melted from before them. ;

"

"

More machine guns Tom.

!

Bill yelled to

"

"

Don't hear them, "Tom yelled back. But, thank God, anyway they've got ;

it

in the neck."

In

fact,

German

there were ten thousand dead

soldiers left before that salient

of the English army, there was no Sedan.

and consequently In

Germany, a

country ruled by scientific principles, the Great General Staff decided that the

English must have employed shells containing an unknown gas of a poisonous nature, as no wounds contemptible

37

THE ANGELS OF MONS were discernible on the bodies of the dead German soldiers. But the man

who knew what

they called themselves steak that St.

court

George had brought

Bowmen

when knew also

nuts tasted like

his

Agin-

to help the English.

THE

SOLDIERS' REST

THE

soldier with the ugly

wound

head opened his eyes at and looked about him with an air in the

last,

of pleasant satisfaction.

He

still

drowsy and dazed with experience through which

felt

some fierce he had passed, but so recollect

much about

far

he could not

But an agree-

it.

able glow began to steal about his heart such a glow as comes to people who

have been

a tight place and have it better than they had In its mildest form this set of in

come through expected.

emotions

may be observed

who have

crossed

the 39

in

passengers

Channel on a

THE ANGELS OF MONS windy day without being

sick.

triumph a

and are

little

internally,

They suf-

fused with vague, kindly feelings.

The wounded

soldier

was somewhat

of

he opened his eyes, pulled himself together, and looked about He felt a sense of delicious ease him. this disposition as

and repose in bones that had been racked and weary, and deep in the heart that had so lately been tormented there was an assurance of comfort of the battle won.

The

thundering, roaring

waves were passed he had entered into the haven of calm waters. After fatigues ;

and

terrors

that

as

yet he could not

recollect he seemed now to be resting in

the easiest of

all

easy chairs in a dim,

low room. In the hearth there was a glint of fire and a blue, sweet-scented puff of wood

smoke a great black oak beam roughly hewn crossed the ceiling. Through the ;

40

THE SOLDIERS' REST leaded panes of the windows he saw a rich glow of sunlight, green lawns, and against the deepest and most radiant of all blue skies the wonderful far-lifted

towers of a

Gothic

vast

cathedral

mystic, rich with imagery. " "

Good Lord "

self.

I

places in

And

!

didn't

he murmured to him-

know they had such

France.

just like Wells.

It's

might be the other day when I was going past the Swan, just as it might be past that window, and asked it

the ostler what time '

What

that

an

would inn

was, and he says, '

Why, summer-time outside it looks like summer

time

and there

it

?

;

last for ever.

ought

they

Soldiers' Rest.'

to

If this call

'

it

was

The

"

He

dozed off again, and when he opened his eyes once more a kindly looking

man

in

some

was standing by him. 41

sort of black robe

THE ANGELS OF MONS "

"

right now, isn't

It's all

it ?

he

said,

in

speaking good English. " Yes, thank you, sir, as right as can I be. hope to be back again soon/' "

Well, well

;

but

how

did you

come

"

He did you get that ? pointed to the wound on the soldier's forehead. here

?

Where

The

soldier put his hand up to his and looked dazed and puzzled. brow "Well, sir," he said at last, "it was

You

like this, to begin at the beginning.

know how we came over in August, and there we were in the thick of it, as you might time

it

say, in a

was, and it

alive.

I

through killed dead beside trenches. "

Then

An

day or two.

know how

don't

My me

best

as

By Cambrai, things got a

awful

I

we

got

was

lay in the

think

little

I

friend

it

was.

quieter for a

a village for bit, and I was quartered the best part of a week. She was a very in

42

THE SOLDIERS' REST nice lady

me

where

was, and she treated

I

proper with the best of everything. fighting; but she

Her husband he was had the little

nicest little

ever knew, a

I

boy

fellow of five, or six

it

might

be,

The amount We, taught me

and we got on splendid.

*

of their lingo that kid

we

'

and

'

Bong swor and

'

and

*

Commong

and

I taught voo porty voo,' him English. You should have heard 'Arf a mo', old un that nipper say

all

'

*

!

It

was a "

treat.

Then one day we

got

surprised.

There was about a dozen of us in the and two or three hundred village, Germans came down on us early one morning. They got us Before we could shoot. *

;

no help

it.

*

*

*

for

"

Well, there we were. They tied our hands behind our backs, and smacked

our faces and kicked us a 43

bit,

and we

THE ANGELS OF MONS were lined up opposite the house where I'd been staying. "

And

then that poor little chap broke from his mother, and he run out away and saw one of the Boshes, as we call

them, fetch

me one

his clenched

fist.

might have done that 11

little

over the jaw with Oh dear oh dear he !

!

a dozen times

it

if

only

child hadn't seen him.

He

had a poor bit of a toy I'd him at the village shop a toy bought gun it was. And out he came running, as I say, crying out something in French like Bad man bad man don't hurt my I shoot or and he pointed Anglish you ;

'

!

!

'

;

at the

that

German

gun German, he took drove

it

right through chap's throat."

The soldier's and twisted

soldier.

his bayonet,

face

The

and he

the poor

little

worked and twitched

itself into

a sort of grin, and

he sat grinding his teeth and staring at 44

THE SOLDIERS' REST the

man

in the

He was

black robe.

silent for

a

And

then he found

his voice,

and the oaths

rolled terrible,

little.

from

thundering

him,

he

as

cursed

murderous wretch, and bade him go down and burn for ever in hell. And the tears were raining down his that

and they choked him

face,

"

I

beg your pardon,

at last.

sir,

I'm

sure,'*

"

he said, especially you being a minister but I can't of some kind, I suppose ;

help

it.

He

was such a dear

little

man."

The man

in black "

thing to himself:

murmured some-

Pretiosa in conspectu

Domini morsinnocentium ejus

"

Dear

in

the sight of the Lord is the death of His Then he put a kind hand innocents.

very gently on the soldier's shoulder. Never mind," said he; " I've seen 1 '

some service in my time, " what about that wound ? 45

myself.

But

THE ANGELS OF MONS "Oh,

But

that; that's nothing.

you how I got it. It was just this. The Germans had us fair, tell

tell

in

you, and they shut us up

the village

ground and

They

flung

just

;

in

I'll

like

as

I

a barn

us on

the

us to starve seemingly. barred up the big door of the barn, left

and put a sentry were all right. " There were narrow windows

there,

sort of slits like very in

on the second day out of these

one of the it

was,

I

walls,

and

was looking

down the street, and I German devils were up

slits

could see those to mischief.

and thought we

They were

planting their

machine guns everywhere handy where an ordinary man coming up the street

would never see them, but I see them, and I see the infantry lining up behind the garden walls. Then I had a sort of a notion of what was coming and ;

presently, sure

enough, 46

I

could

hear

THE SOLDIERS' REST some

of our chaps singing Hullo, hullo, in the distance hullo and I says to '

'

!

;

'

myself, "

So

I

Not

this time.'

looked about me, and I found a kind of a drain

a hole under the wall I

should think

it

;

was, and

I

found

I

could just squeeze through. And I got out and crept round, and away I goes running down the street, yelling for all

was worth,

just as our chaps were round the corner at the bottom. getting went the guns, behind Bang, bang I

'

'

!

me and

in front of

of me, and then

me on

me, and on each side bash something hit !

the head and over

I

went

;

remember anything more woke up here just now."

don't

and

I

till

I

The soldier lay back in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them he saw that there were other people in the room besides the minister in the black robes. One was a 47

THE ANGELS OF MONS man

a big black cloak. He had a grim old face and a great beaky nose. He shook the soldier by the hand. "

in

By God!

credit

to

damned fine by God

!

he

sir,"

the British

said,

Army

;

"you're a you're a

and a good man, and, I'm proud to shake hands with soldier

you."

And

then someone came out of the

shadow, someone

queer clothes such as the soldier had seen worn by the heralds

in

when he had been on duty

at the

opening of Parliament by the King. " Now, by Corpus Domini," this man said, "of all knights ye be noblest and

and ye be of fairest report, and now ye be a brother of the noblest brotherhood that ever was since this

gentlest,

world's beginning, since ye have yielded dear life for your friends' sake."

The soldier did not understand what the man was saying to him. There were 48

THE SOLDIERS' REST others, too, in strange dresses,

who came

and spoke to him. Some spoke in what He could not sounded like French.

make

out

it

;

knew

but he

that they

all

spoke kindly and praised him. "

What

does

the minister.

about

my "

They

?

it

all

mean

" ?

he said to

"What are they talking don't think I'd let down

" ?

pals

Drink

this," said

the minister, and

he handed the soldier a great

silver cup,

brimming with wine.

The

soldier took a

in that

moment

deep draught, and

his sorrows passed

all

from him.

-What "

is it

?

Vin nouveau du Royaume," said the

minister. call

" it."

New Wine of the Kingdom, And then he bent down

you and murmured "

?" he asked

What,"

in the soldier's ear.

said the

place they used

wounded man,

to 49

tell

"

us about E

the in

THE ANGELS OF MONS Sunday School

?

With such drink and

"

such joy

His voice was hushed.

For as he

looked at the minister the fashion of his vesture was changed. The black robe seemed to melt away from him. He

armour, if armour be made of starlight, of the rose of dawn, and of sunset fires and he lifted up a great

was

all in

;

sword of flame.

Full in

the midst, his Cross

of Red

Triumphant Michael brandished,

And

trampled the Apostates pride.

THE MONSTRANCE Then

Mass

fell out in the sacring of the that right as the priest heaved up it

the

Host

any

rose

there

came a beam redder than

and smote upon

it,

and

then

it

was changed bodily into the shape and fashion of a Child having his arms stretched forth, as he had been nailed upon the Tree. OLD ROMANCE.

SO

were going very well The night was thick and

far things

indeed.

black and cloudy, and the German force had come three-quarters of their way or

There was no and challenge from the English lines

more without an alarm.

;

indeed the English were being kept busy by a high shell-fire on their front. This 51

E

2

THE ANGELS OF MONS had been the German plan and it was coming off admirably. Nobody thought that there was any danger on the left and so the Prussians, writhing on their ;

;

stomachs over the ploughed

field,

were

drawing nearer and nearer to the wood. Once there they could establish themcomfortably and securely during

selves

what remained of the night and at dawn the English left would be hopelessly enfiladed and there would be another of ;

movements

those

which

people really understand military matters " readjustments of our line."

who call

The noise made by the men creeping and crawling over the fields was drowned by the cannonade, from the English side as well as the German. On the English centre and right things were indeed very the big guns were thundering and shrieking and roaring, the machine guns brisk

;

were keeping up the very 52

devil's racket

;

THE MONSTRANCE the flares and illuminating shells were as good as the Crystal Palace in the old days, as the soldiers said to one another.

All this had been thought of and thought The German out on the other side.

The organised. men who crept nearer and nearer to the wood carried quite a number of machine force

guns

was

beautifully

in bits

on their backs

them had small bags

full

;

others of

of sand

yet others big bags that were empty. When the wood was reached the sand from the ;

small bags was to be emptied into the big bags the machine-gun parts were to ;

put together, the guns mounted behind the sandbag redoubt, and then, as

be

Major Von und Zu pleasantly observed, "

the English pigs shall to gehenna-fire

quickly come."

The major was

so well pleased with the way things had gone that he permitted himself a very low and guttural 53

THE ANGELS OF MONS chuckle

;

in

another ten minutes success

He

would be assured.

half turned his

head round to whisper a caution about some detail of the sandbag business to the big sergeant-major, Karl Heinz, who was crawling just behind him. At that instant

Karl Heinz leapt into the

air

with a scream that rent through the night and through all the roaring of the artillery.

He

"

cried in a terrible voice, "

Glory of the Lord

The

and plunged and

!

They said pitched forward, stone dead. that his face as he stood up there and cried aloud

was as

had been seen

if it

through a sheet of flame. 11

few

They" were one who got back to

or

two out of the

the

German

Most of the Prussians stayed ploughed

field.

Karl

lines.

in

the

Heinz's scream

had frozen the blood of the English soldiers, but it had also ruined the He and his men, caught major's plans. 54

THE MONSTRANCE unready, clumsy with the burdens that they carried, were shot to pieces all

;

The hardly a score of them returned. to were attended rest of the force by an According to custom the dead men were searched before they were buried, and some English burying party.

singular

relics

of

the

campaign were

found upon them, but nothing so singular as Karl Heinz's diary.

He

had been keeping it for some It began with entries about bread time. and sausage and the ordinary incidents here and there Karl of the trenches wrote about an old grandfather, and a ;

big china pipe, and pinewoods and roast Then the diarist seemed to get goose. fidgety about his health.

Thus

:

April 17. Annoyed for some days by murmuring sounds in my I trust I shall not become head. 55

THE ANGELS OF MONS deaf, like

my

departed uncle Chris-

topher.

April 20. grows worse

The ;

it is

me

It distracts

a

noise in

humming

twice

;

to hear the captain

my head

I

sound.

have

failed

and have been

reprimanded.

April 22. So bad is my head I go to see the doctor. He speaks of tinnitus, and gives me an

that

inhaling apparatus that shall reach,

he

says, the

middle

ear.

April 25. The apparatus is of no use. The sound is now become

booming of a great church

like the bell.

St.

It

reminds

me

Lambart on that

of the bell at terrible

day

of last August.

April

26.

I

could swear that

the bell of St. Lambart that all

the time.

procession

They rang

it

I

it is

hear

as the

came out of the church. 56

THE MONSTRANCE The man's writing,

at first firm enough,

begins to straggle unevenly over the

page at this point. The entries show that he became convinced that he heard the bell of St. Lambart's Church ringing,

though

he knew better than most

(as

men) there had been no

bell

and no

church at St. Lambart's since the sum-

mer of either

There was no village the whole place was a rubbish1914.

heap.

Then

the unfortunate Karl Heinz was

beset with other troubles.

May ill.

I

2.

fear I

To-day Joseph

next to

why

I

me

am becoming Kleist,

in the trench,

jerked

my

who

asked

is

me

head to the right

so constantly. I told him to hold his tongue but this shows that I ;

am

noticed.

there

is

I

keep fancying that

something white just beyond 57

THE ANGELS OF MONS the range of hand.

May

3.

my

This whiteness

quite clear, All this day

before me. if

sight on the right

and

I

in

front

is

now

of

me-

has slowly passed asked Joseph Kleist

it

he saw a piece of newspaper just

beyond the trench. He stared solemnly he is a stupid fool and said, " There is no paper."

at

me

May

4.

It

looks

like

a white

There was a strong smell of incense to-day in the trench. No one seemed to notice it. There is robe.

decidedly a white robe, and I think I can see feet, passing very slowly before me at this moment while I write.

There

is

no space here

for continuous

extracts from Karl Heinz's diary. to condense with severity, it would 58

But

seem

THE MONSTRANCE that he slowly gathered about himself a complete set of sensory hallucinations. First the auditory hallucination of the

sound of a

which the doctor called

bell,

Then

a patch of white growing into a white robe, then the smell of

tinnitus.

At last he lived in two worlds. saw his trench, and the level before he talked with it, and the English lines his comrades and obeyed orders, though with a certain difficulty but he also incense.

He

;

;

boom

heard the deep

of St. Lambart's

and saw continually advancing towards him a white procession of little children, led by a boy who was swinging

bell,

a censer. "

There But

is

one extraordinary

August those children carried no lilies now they have lilies in their hands. Why should they have

entry

:

in

;

lilies?" It is interesting to

over the border

line.

59

note the transition

After

May

2

there

THE ANGELS OF MONS is

no reference

in the

diary to bodily notable exceptions.

illness,

with

two

Up

and

including that he

to

sergeant knows illusions

after that

;

date

that is

the

suffering from

he accepts his hallu-

cinations as actualities.

The man who

cannot see what he sees and hear what

he hears ask

a

So he

fool.

writes

" :

I

singing Ave Maria Stella.' blockhead Friedrich Schumacher

who

That

is

'

is

raises his crest

and answers insolently

that no one sings, since singing

forbidden for the present." few days before the

A

is strictly

disastrous

night expedition the last figure in the procession appeared to those sick eyes.

The

old priest now comes in his golden robe, the two boys holding each side of it. He is looking just

as he did

when he

when he walked there

died, save that

in St. Lambart was no shining round his

60

THE MONSTRANCE head.

But

contrary to

this

is

reason,

illusion

has a shining about his head. must take some medicine.

Note here

that Karl

and

no one

since

I

Heinz absolutely

accepts the appearance of the martyred priest of St. Lambart as actual, while he thinks that the halo must be an illusion

and so he reverts again

;

to his

physical condition.

The

held up both his hands, the diary states, " as if there were someBut there is a thing between them. priest

sort of cloud or

dimness over

this object,

whatever

it may be. My poor Aunt Kathie suffered much from her eyes in

her old age." *

One

*

*

#

can guess what the priest

of

Lambart carried in his hands when he and the little children went out into St.

the hot sunlight to implore mercy, while 61

THE ANGELS OF MONS the great resounding bell of St. Lambart boomed over the plain. Karl Heinz

knew what happened then they said that it was he who killed the old priest ;

and helped

crucify the

to

little

child

against the church door. The baby was He died calling only three years old. piteously for

"

*

mummy

"

and

"

*

*

daddy." *

who will may guess what And Karl Heinz saw when the mist cleared those

from

before

priest's hands.

the

monstrance

Then he

died.

62

in

the

shrieked and

THE DAZZLING LIGHT The new heavy

steel,

treated to

head-covering is has been

which

increase

made of specially

its

resisting power. The walls protecting the skull are particularly thick, and the weight of the

helmet renders

its

use in open warfare

The rim is large, out of the question. like that of the headpiece of Mambrino,

and

the soldier can at will either

wear

bring

and protect

his eyes or it so as to protect the base of the

the helmet forward

Military experts admit that a continuance of the present trench warfare may lead to those engaged in it, especially bombing parties and barbed wire cutters, being more heavily armoured than the knights who fought at Bouvines skull.

.

.

.

63

THE ANGELS OF MONS and at Agincourt.

THE

war

is

THE

TIMES, July

already a

fruitful

22,

mother

of legends. Some people think that there are too many war legends, and

a Croydon gentlemansure which wrote to telling

me

that

a

or lady,

I

am not

me quite recently certain particular

legend, which I will not specify, had become the "chief horror of the war."

There may be something

to be said for

this point of view, but

strikes

interesting

that

it

the old

me

as

myth-making

faculty has survived into these days, a relic

of noble, far-off Homeric battles.

And

after

all,

what do we know

does not do to be too sure that that, or the other hasn't

?

It this,

happened and

couldn't have happened.

What

follows,

at

any

rate,

has no

claim to be considered either as legend 64

THE DAZZLING LIGHT or as myth.

It is

merely one of the odd I have

circumstances of these times, and

no doubt

it

can easily be " explained

In fact, the rationalistic explanation of the whole thing is patent and on the surface. There is only one little

away."

difficulty,

and

that,

I

fancy,

is

by no

means

In any case this insuperable. one knot or tangle may be put down as a queer coincidence and nothing more.

Here, then, in question. will call for

is

A

the curiosity or oddity

young

fellow,

avoidance of

all

whom we

identification

Delamere Smith he is now Lieutenant Delamere Smith was spending his holidays on the coast of west South

Wales at the beginning of the war. He was something or other not very important in the City, and in his leisure hours he smattered lightly and agreeably a little literature, a little art, a little antiquarianism.

He 6

liked

the

Italian F

THE ANGELS OF MONS primitives,

he knew the difference be-

tween

second, and third pointed, he

first,

had looked through Boutell's " Engraved Brasses." He had been heard indeed to speak with enthusiasm of the brasses of Sir Robert de Septvans and Sir Roger de Trumpington.

One morning

he thinks

it

must have

been the morning of August 16, 1914 the sun shone so brightly into his room that he

him

woke

that

cliffs in

it

and the fancy took fine to sit on the

the pure sunlight.

and went Point, and air

early,

would be

out,

So he dressed

and climbed up Giltar

sat there enjoying the sweet

and the radiance of the

sea,

and the

sight of the fringe of creaming foam about the grey foundations of St. Margaret's

Then he looked beyond and gazed at the new white monastery on Caldy, and wondered who the architect was, and how he had contrived to Island.

66

THE DAZZLING LIGHT make like

the group of buildings look exactly the background of a mediaeval

picture.

After about an hour of this and a couple of pipes, Smith confesses that he

He extremely drowsy. was just wondering whether it would not be pleasant to stretch himself out on began to

feel

thyme that scented the high place and go to sleep till breakfast, when the mounting sun caught one of the monastery windows, and Smith stared the wild

sleepily at the darting flashing light it

dazzled him.

Then he

felt

till

"queer."

There was an odd sensation as if the top of his head were dilating and contracting, and then he says he had a sort of shock, something between a mild current of

and the sensation of putting one's hand into the ripple of a swift electricity

brook.

Now,

what

happened 67

next

Smith F 2

THE ANGELS OF MONS cannot describe at

He knew

all clearly.

he was on

Giltar, looking across the waves to Caldy he heard all the while ;

the hollow, booming tide in the caverns And yet of the rocks far below him. a he saw, as if in a glass, very different

a level fenland

by slow streams, by long avenues of trimmed country

cut

trees.

"

It looked," he says, "as if it ought have been a lonely country, but it was swarming with men they were And they thick as ants in an anthill.

to

;

were

all

dressed in armour

the strange thing about "

I

thought looked as if it

was

I

;

that

was

it.

was standing by what had been a farmhouse ;

bits, just a All that heap of ruins and rubbish.

but

was

it

left

all

battered to

was one

tall

shaped very much century

chimneys

round chimney,

like in

68

the

fifteenth-

Pembrokeshire.

THE DAZZLING LIGHT And

thousands and tens of thousands

went marching " They were sorts

all

in

fastened

armour, and in

Some

of armour.

all

them had

of

bright metal on their clothes, others were

overlapping

in chain mail

were

by.

tongues

of

from head to

foot,

others

heavy plate armour. "They wore helmets of all shapes and sorts and sizes. One regiment had in

wide brims, something Another the old barbers' basins.

steel caps with

like

had knights' tilting helmets on, closed up so that you couldn't see their faces. Most of them wore metal gauntlets, lot

either of steel rings or plates,

had

steel

many had

over their boots. things

like

and they

A

great battle-maces

swinging by their sides, and all these fellows carried a sort of string of big metal balls round their waist.

dozen regiments went by, every 69

Then a man with

THE ANGELS OF MONS a steel shield slung

The In

last to fact,

it

his shoulder

over

go by were cross-bowmen." appeared to Delamere Smith

that he watched the passing of a host of men in mediaeval armour before him, and

yet he knew by the position of the sun and of a rosy cloud that was passing over

the

Worm's Head

whatever two.

it

Then

returned,

that this vision, or

was, only lasted a second or that slight sense of shock

and Smith returned

templation of the physical the Pembrokeshire coast

to the con-

phenomena of blue waves,

grey St. Margaret's, and Caldy Abbey white in the sunlight. be said, no doubt, and very with truth, that Smith fell asleep likely on Giltar, and mingled in a dream the It will

thought of the great war just begun with his smatterings of mediaeval battle

arms

and armour.

The

seems tolerable enough. 70

and

explanation

THE DAZZLING LIGHT But there

is

the one

little

difficulty.

Smith

has been said that

It

He

Lieutenant Smith.

is

his

now com-

got mission last autumn, and went out

May.

He

in

happens to speak French become what

rather well, and so he has is

called, I believe,

or

some such term.

behind the French

an

officer of liaison,

Anyhow, he is often lines.

He was home on short and said "

leave last week,

:

Ten days ago I was

ordered to

.

got there early in the morning, and had to wait a bit before I could see the I

General.

on the

looked about me, and there of us was a farm shelled into

I

left

a heap of ruins, with one round chimney Flemish standing, shaped like the

'

'

chimneys

in

Pembrokeshire.

And

then

men in armour marched by, just as had seen them French regiments. The things like battle-maces were bomb-

the I

71

THE ANGELS OF MONS throwers, and the metal balls round the

men's waists were the bombs. told

me

They

that the cross-bows were used

for bomb-shooting. "

The march

movement

;

before long."

saw was part of a big you will hear more of it I

THE BOWMEN AND OTHER NOBLE GHOSTS BY

"THE LONDONER" was a journalist

THERE Evening News the

initials

down

of his

and the

reader well knows

name

who

lately sat

to write a story.

OF

course his story had to be about the war there are no other stories nowa;

And so he wrote of English days. soldiers who, in the dusk on a field of France, faced the sullen

on-coming

mass of the

They were

Huns.

few

against fearful odds, but, as they sent 73

THE ANGELS OF MONS the breech-bolt

home and aimed and

they became aware that others Down the air fought beside them.

fired,

came

George and twanging

cries to St.

of the bow-string

England had

;

bowmen

of

in

England's need that French earth

for

England.

from their graves and were fighting

HE

the old

risen at

said that he

made up that story by down and wrote it But others knew better.

himself, that he sat

out of his head.

have happened. There was, I remember, a clergyman of good credit who told him that he was clean It

must

mistaken truly

really

;

the

risen

the tale was

archers

up to all

had

really

and

fight for England and down the front. up

74

:

BOWMEN AND OTHER GHOSTS FOR my

part I had wrote out of his head

;

thought that he I had seen him

the detestable job of doing it. myself have hated this business

I

at

writing ever since was not so easy as

always spare a

who

is

it

little

of

found out that

I

looks,

it

and

I

can

for

a

man

sympathy

driving a pen to the task of

putting words in their right places. the clergyman persuaded me at

Who am

I

that

I

Yet last.

should doubt the faith

of a clerk in holy orders ? It must have happened. Those archers fought for us,

and the grey-goose feather has flown once again

in

English

battle.

SINCE that day I look eagerly for the ghosts who must be taking their share in

Never since the world began was such a war as this surely Maryborough and the Duke, Talbot and

this world-war.

:

75

THE ANGELS OF MONS Harry of Monmouth, and many another shadowy captain must be riding among our horsemen. The old gods of war are wakened by this loud clamour of the guns.

*

ALL

*

the lands are

astir.

It

is

not

enough that Asia should be humming like an angry hive and the far islands in arms, Australia sending her young men and Canada making herself a camp.

When we

talk over the

war news, we

up ancient names we debate how Rome stands and what is the matter

call

:

with Greece.

As her.

for Greece,

If

I

have ceased

I

wanted

to talk of

to say anything about

should get down the Poetry Book and quote Lord Byron's fine old

Greece

I

ranting verse.

"

The mountains 76

look

BOWMEN AND OTHER GHOSTS and Marathon looks on

on Marathon

standing on the Persians' Greece seems in the same humour

But

the sea." "

grave that

"

made Lord Byron give her up

as a

hopelessly flabby country.

"

'Tis

more

Greece,

" is

but

Greece no

living

as true as ever

was.

it

That

telegram of the Kaiser must have done its soothing work. You remember last

how it ran the Kaiser was make up new phrases. He :

too busy to

telegraphed

to his sister the familiar Potsdam sen" to those who dare to draw tence :

Woe

the sword against me." I

I

am

have heard that before.

added script

delightful " !

My

and

sure that

And he

significant post-

compliments to Tino."

77

THE ANGELS OF MONS AND

Tino

Hellenes

King Constantine of the

now with a very bad bed

stay in

and

bed

like to

more

But before going to bed he tell a journalist that Greece

settled.

business

;

the

on with her proper

quietly

was her mission

it

to

civilisation

the

world.

mission

What we get is

cold,

in

is

the weather be

until

was able to was going

was

He

understood.

of

to carry

Truly that

ancient

Greece.

from Tino's modern Greece

not civilisation

but

the

black

little

currants for plum-cake.

BUT Rome.

Greece may be dead or

Rome

the currant trade.

Do

not

Giolitti,

who

immortal.

Signor the

new

only things Italy,

which

talk to is

that is

is

old

78

quite

alive

me

about

sure

matter

Rome,

in

and

in

that this

are her

BOWMEN AND OTHER GHOSTS commercial

with

relations

Rome of the legions,

Germany.

our ancient mistress

and conqueror, is alive to-day, and she cannot be for an ignoble peace. Here

my

in

newspaper

spoken I

Rome

in

the speech of a poet

is

to a shouting

crowd

out the column and put

will cut

it

:

in

the Poetry Book.

HE "

I

calls to the living

saw the

and

O

of Vesta,

fire

to the

dead

Romans,

:

lit

yesterday in the great steel works of

The

Liguria.

Romans,

I

armour, to

saw chill

O

water run to temper the drills that hollow

its

out the bore of guns." the old Roman sort.

Rome

of Juturna,

fountain

This I

is

poetry of

imagine that

the latest poet of Rome Romans in the name of the calling upon Vesta's holy fire, in the name of the

scene in

springs

at

:

which 79

the

Great

Twin

THE ANGELS OF MONS Brethren washed their horses.

I

still

power and the ancient charm of noble words. I do not think believe in the

that Giolitti

and the stockbrokers

will

keep old Rome off the old roads where the legions went.

80

TOSTSCRITT. TJTT'HILE

rr

t'his

volume was passing

Shirley,

through the press, Mr. the Editor of "The

Review"

called

that

is

me The

attention to

see the

Occult

an

appearing in the

article

issue

of August and was kind enough to

his magazine, let

my

Ralph

advance proof sheets.

article

Leaders"

It

Campbell.

I

is

called

"

The Angelic

written by Miss Phyllis have read it with great

is

care.

Miss Campbell says that she was in France when the war broke out. She

and while she was nursing wounded she was informed that an

became a nurse, the

" English soldier wanted a holy picture" She went to the man and found him to 81

G

THE ANGELS OF MONS be

He

a Lancashire Fusilier.

said that

he was a Wesley an Methodist and asked "for a picture or medal (he didnt care ',

because he had which) of St. George him on a white horse, leading the .

.

.

seen

British at

Vitry-le-Francois, Allies turned!'

when

the

This statement was corroborated by a

wounded R.F.A. man who was present. saw a tall man with yellow hair, in golden armour, on a white horse, holding his sword up, and his mouth open as if he was saying, " Come on, boys / I'll put

He

This figure the kybosh on the devils" was bareheaded as appeared later from the testimony of other soldiers and the R.F.A. man and the Fusilier knew that

he was St. George, because he was exactly like the figure of St. George on the " sovereigns.

his

Hadnt

they seen

sword on every 'quid'

had?" 82

him with

they'd ever

POSTSCRIPT From further

evidence it seemed that

had seen

while the English

of

St.

mist

"

the apparition

George coming out of a ''yellow or " cloud of light" to the French

had been vouchsafed visions of St. Michael Miss the ArcJtangel and Joan of Arc. Campbell says

:

"Everybody has

seen

them who has

fought through from Mons to Ypres ; they all agree on them individually,

and have no issue

doubt at all as to the final

of their

Such are

interference!'

main points of

the

the article "

The concerns the great legend of I that ttie cannot say Angels of Mons"

as

it

author has shaken

my incredulity

firstly,

because the evidence is second-hand.

Miss

Campbell perhaps acquainted with " Pickwick" and I would remind her of is

that

(and golden)

famous

Stareleigh, J.

:

to

the effect 83

ruling that

of

you

THE ANGELS OF MONS mustrit tell us what the soldier said ;

Miss Campbell has

not evidence.

it's

offended against this rule, and she has not only told us what the soldier said,

but she has omitted to give us the soldier s

name and address. If Miss Campbell proffered herself as a witness at the Old Bailey and said, "John Doe is undoubtedly guilty. A soldier I met told me that he had seen the prisoner put his hand into an old gentlemans pocket and take out a purse " well, she wouldJind that the stout spirit of Mr. Justice Stareleigh still survives in our judges.

The that

is

soldier

must

Before done we are not technically aware

that he exists at

Then article

Fusilier St.

be produced.

all.

there are one or two points in the itself

and "

George

which puzzle the

me.

R.F.A. man had

The seen

leading the British at Vitry84

POSTSCRIPT when

le- Francois,

Thus

ttie

Allies turned''

the

time of the apparition

and

the

place of ttie apparition were firmly fixed in the two soldiers minds.

Yet the very next paragraph in the article begins

"

'

Where was

neither

This

:

'

this ?

/ asked.

But

of them could tell''

is

an odd

circumstance.

They

knew, and rather,

yet they did not know ; or, they Jiad forgotten a piece of

information

tliat

they

imparted a few seconds

Another point.

had

themselves

before.

The

soldiers

knew

that the figure on the horse was St. George by his exact likeness to the figure

of the saint on the English sovereign.

The apparition was of a bareheaded figure in golden armour. The St. George of the toinage is naked, except for a short cape flying This, again, is odd.

85

THE ANGELS OF MONS the shoulders,

from

not bareheaded,

and a

He

helmet.

is

and has no armour save I do not quite see

the piece on his head.

how

the soldiers were so certain as to the

identity

of the apparition.

Lastly,

Miss Campbell

declares

that

"everybody" who fought from Mons Ypres saw the apparitions. If that so, it is

to

be

again odd that Nobody has come

forward

to

testify

at first

hand

to the

most amazing event of his life. Many men have been back on leave from the front,

we have many woimded in

hospital,

many

soldiers have written letters home.

And

they have all combined, this great

host, to keep silence as to the

ful of

assurance, the surest

It

may

be

so,

most wonder-

the most

occurrences,

inspiring

omen of victory.

but

ARTHUR MACHEN. 86

o

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