WILLIAM LE QUEUX: 15 Dystopian Novels & Espionage Thrillers (Illustrated Edition). William Le Queux

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СКАЧАТЬ men were fairly well treated by the Germans, though with his limited supplies Von Kronhelm was already beginning to contemplate releasing them. Many of the higher grade officers who had fallen into the hands of the enemy, together with the Lord Mayor of London, the Mayors of Hull, Goole, Lincoln, Norwich, Ipswich, and the Lord Mayors of Manchester and Birmingham, had been sent across to Germany, where, according to their own reports, they were being detained in Hamburg and treated with every consideration. Nevertheless, all this greatly incensed Englishmen. Lord Byfield, with Hibbard and Woolmer, was leaving no stone unturned in order to reform our shattered Army, and again oppose the invaders. All three gallant officers had been to Bristol, where they held long consultation with the members of the Cabinet, with the result that the Government still refused to entertain any idea of paying the indemnity. The Admiralty were confident now that the command of the sea had been regained, and in Parliament itself a little confidence was also restored.

      Yet we had to face the hard facts that nearly two hundred thousand Germans were upon British soil, and that London was held by them. Already parties of German commissioners had visited the National Gallery, the Wallace Collection, the Tate Gallery, and the British and South Kensington Museums, deciding upon and placing aside certain art treasures and priceless antiques ready for shipment to Germany. The Raphaels, the Titians, the Rubenses, the Fra Angelicos, the Velasquezes, the Elgin Marbles, the best of the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Roman antiques, the Rosetta Stone, the early Biblical and classical manuscripts, the historic charters of England, and suchlike treasures which could never be replaced, were all catalogued and prepared for removal. The people of London knew this; for though there had been no newspapers, information ran rapidly from mouth to mouth. German sentries guarded our world-famous collections, which were now indeed entirely in the enemy’s hands, and which the Kaiser intended should enrich the German galleries and museums.

      One vessel flying the British flag had left the Thames laden with spoil, in an endeavour to reach Hamburg, but off Harwich she had been sighted and overhauled by a British cruiser, with the result that she had been steered to Dover. Therefore our cruisers and destroyers, having thus obtained knowledge of the enemy’s intentions, were keeping a sharp lookout along the coast for any vessels attempting to leave for German ports.

      Accounts of fierce engagements in the Channel between British and German ships went the rounds, but all were vague and unconvincing. The only solid facts were that the Germans held the great cities of England, and that the millions of Great Britain were slowly but surely preparing to rise in an attempt to burst asunder the fetters that now held them.

      Government, Army, Navy, and Parliament had all proved rotten reeds. It was now every man for himself — to free himself and his loved ones — or to die in the attempt.

      Through the south and west of England, Graham’s clear, manly voice was raised everywhere, and the whole population were now fast assembling beneath the banner of the Defenders, in readiness to bear their part in the most bloody and desperate encounter of the whole war — a fierce guerilla warfare, in which the Germans were to receive no quarter. The firm resolve now was to exterminate them.

      The swift and secret death being meted out to the German sentries, or, in fact, to any German caught alone in a side street, having been reported to Von Kronhelm, he issued another of his now famous proclamations, which was posted upon half the hoardings in London, but the populace at once amused themselves by tearing it down wherever it was discovered. Von Kronhelm was the arch-enemy of London, and it is believed that there were at that moment no fewer than five separate conspiracies to encompass his death. Londoners detested the Germans, but with a hatred twenty times the more intense did they regard those men who, having engaged in commercial pursuits in England, had joined the colours and were now acting as spies in the service of the enemy.

      Hundreds of extraordinary tales were told of Germans who, for years, had been regarded as inoffensive toilers in London, and yet who were now proved by their actions to be spies. It was declared, and was no doubt a fact, that without the great army of advance-agents — every man among them having been a soldier — Germany would never have effected the rapid coup she had done. The whole thing had been carefully thought out, and this invasion was the culmination of years of careful thought and most minute study.

      CHAPTER XII

       DAILY LIFE OF THE BELEAGUERED

       Table of Contents

      They were dark days in London — days of terror, starvation — death.

      Behind the barricades south of the Thames it was vaguely known that our Admiralty — whose chief offices had been removed to Portsmouth before the entry of the enemy into London — were keenly alive to the critical position. Reports of the capture of a number of German liners in the Atlantic, and of several ships laden with provisions, attempting to cross the North Sea were spread from mouth to mouth, but so severe was the censorship upon the Press that no word of such affairs was printed.

      The London Gazette, that journal which in ordinary circumstances the public never sees, was published each evening at six o’clock, but, alas, in German. It contained Von Kronhelm’s official orders to his army, and the various proclamations regarding the government of London. The Daily Mail, as the paper with the largest circulation, was also taken over as the German official organ.

      At the head of each newspaper office in and about Fleet Street was a German officer, whose duty was to read the proofs of everything before it appeared. He installed himself in the editorial chair, and the members of the staff all attempted to puzzle him and his assistants by the use of London slang. Sometimes this was passed by the officer in question, who did not wish to betray his ignorance, but more often it was promptly crossed out. Thus the papers were frequently ridiculous in their opinions and reports.

      The drawn game continued.

      On one side of the Thames the Germans held complete possession, while on the other the people of London were defiant behind their barricaded bridges. West London was occupied in building barricades in all quarters to prevent any further entry into London, while Von Kronhelm, with his inborn cunning, was allowing the work to proceed. In this, however, the German Commander-in-Chief did not display his usual caution, as will be seen in later chapters of this history.

      Once it was rumoured that the enemy intended to besiege the barricades at the bridges by bringing their field howitzers into play, but very soon it became apparent that Von Kronhelm, with discreet forbearance, feared to excite further the London populace.

      The fact that the Lord Mayor had been deported had rendered them irritable and viciously antagonistic, while the terms of the indemnity demanded, now known everywhere — as they had been published in papers at Brighton, Southampton, Bristol, and other places — had aroused within the hearts of Londoners a firm resolve to hold their own at no matter what cost.

      Beyond all this remained the knowledge of Gerald Graham’s movement — that gigantic association, the League of Defenders, which had for its object the freeing of England from the grip of the now detested eagle of Germany.

      Daily the League issued its bulletins, notices, manifestoes, and proclamations, all of which were circulated throughout South London. South Coast resorts were now crowded to excess by fugitive Londoners, as well as towns inland. Accommodation for them all was, of course, impossible, but everywhere were encampments over the Kentish hop fields and the Sussex pastures.

      Some further idea of life in South London at this time may be obtained from the personal narrative of Joseph Cane, a tram driver, in the employ of the London County Council, living at Creek Road, Battersea. His story, written by himself, and subsequently published in the Daily Express, СКАЧАТЬ