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TO THE READER
TO THE READER
T HIS novel is not a rehash of the idea of a foreign conquest of America based on the accidents of war. It is a study of the origin, meaning and destiny of American Democracy by one who believes that the time is ripe in this country for a revival of the principles on which our Republic was founded. Thomas Dixon. Los Angeles, California...
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PROLOGUE
PROLOGUE
O VER a bleak hillside in Scotland the sun is sinking in the sea. A group of humble men and women stand before the King’s soldiers accused of disobedience to Royal command. They have been found guilty of worshiping God according to the dictates of their own conscience and not according to the ritual of the Church of England. The sheriff appeals in vain that they yield and live. The grim prelate advances, reads the death warrant, and offers pardon if they renounce their faith. With quiet smiles t
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
T HE liveried flunkey entered the stately library and bowed: “You rang, sir?” He scarcely breathed the words. In every tone spoke the old servile humility of the creature in the presence of his creator the King. He might have said, “Sire.” His voice, his straight-set eyes, his bowed body, did say it. His master continued the conversation with the two men without lifting his head. He merely flung the order with studied carelessness: “Lights, Otto—the table only.” The servant bowed low, pressed th
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
V IRGINIA HOLLAND , at her desk preparing an address on the Modern Feminist Movement, dropped her pencil and raised her head with a look of startled surprise at the cry of a newsboy in the street below. The whole block seemed to vibrate with his uncanny yell: “Wuxtra! Wuxtra!” A sense of impending calamity caught her heart for a moment. It was a morbid fancy, of course, and yet the cry of the boy kept ringing a personal warning. Work impossible, she opened her door, called and asked her brother
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
W HEN Meyer reached the quarter of the East Side where eager crowds surge through a little crooked thoroughfare leading from the old Armory on Essex Street he encountered unexpected difficulties. He ran into a section of John Vassar’s congressional district saturated with the young leader’s ideals of a new Americanism. He was coldly received. Benda, the Italian fruit-dealer on the corner, Meyer had marked finally as his opening wedge in the little clannish community. The Italian was the most pop
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
J OHN V ASSAR’S triumphant return to his home on Stuyvesant Square, after the introduction of his sensational bill in Congress, was beset with domestic complications. Congratulations from his father, nieces, and Wanda had scarcely been received before the trouble began. “But you must hear Miss Holland!” Zonia pleaded. John Vassar shook his head. “Not tonight, dear—” “I’d set my heart on introducing you. Ah, Uncy dear—please! She’s the most eloquent orator in America—” “That’s why I hate her and
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
I T was barely seven when they reached Union Square. It was already packed by a dense crowd of good-natured cheering men and women. Seventy-five thousand was a conservative estimate. The air was electric with contagious enthusiasm. “We’ll hear the apostle of peace first,” Vassar said to Zonia, pushing his way slowly through the crowd toward a platform with three-foot letters covering its four sides: PEACE! PEACE! PEACE! PEACE! The Reverend A. Cuthbert Pike, president of the Peace Union of Americ
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
“Aren’t you glad you came?” Zonia asked eagerly. “Hurry! Don’t let her get away with Waldron—” The girl darted from his side and pushed rapidly to the platform. The crowd had encircled Virginia and a hundred people were trying to grasp her hand at the same time. There was no help for it. He must wait. At least he was glad the jam made it equally impossible for Waldron to reach her. He saw him wave his hand to her over their heads, bow and leave the platform for his waiting car. Vassar was glad t
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
W ITH light step Virginia mounted the low stone stoop, fumbled for her keys, unlocked the massive door and ushered John Vassar into the dimly lighted hall. “Come right into the sitting-room in the rear and meet my father and mother,” she cried, placing her little turban hat on the rack beside his, man-fashion. Vassar smiled at the assumption of equal rights the act implied. She caught the smile and answered with a toss of her pretty head as he followed her through the hall. The older folks were
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
J OHN V ASSAR’S sleep had been fitful and unsatisfying. Through hours of half-conscious brooding and dreaming he had seen the face of Virginia Holland. He had thus far found no time for social frivolities. The air of America was just the tonic needed to transform the tragic inheritance of the Old World into a passion for work that had practically ruled women out of the scheme of things. He had dreamed of a home of his own in the dim future—yes—when the work of his career, the work he had planned
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
A NOTHER thing that had upset Vassar’s equanimity was the baffling quality of Virginia Holland’s character. The more honestly he had tried to approach her in friendly compromise the more bristling her mental resistance had become. She held him at arms’ length personally. He was surprised at her final decision to go to the Armory. No doubt only an uncompromising honesty had caused her to fulfil a promise. Clearly she was bored. As a matter of fact she was anything but bored. She was lashing herse
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
B ILLY volunteered to take the children home, Vassar waved his farewell to the crowd and hurried to the waiting automobile. Virginia presented him to the banker. “Our irreconcilable foe, Mr. Waldron!” The millionaire merely touched his hat with the barest suggestion of a military salute and Vassar bowed. It was not until they were seated in the car that Waldron spoke—the same cold smile about his lips. “I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time, Mr. Vassar—” “I’m surprised to hear that,” was the l
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
V ASSAR turned with a quick movement, passed into the hall and ran squarely into Virginia who was about to enter the library. “Your interview at an end so soon? I took a turn in the garden for only five minutes. I was to join your conference. You have quarreled?” “No—just agreed to fight, that’s all—” “A compromise is impossible?” “Utterly—” “I am sorry,” she answered gravely. The iron doors of the elevator softly opened with a low click and two slender young men of decidedly foreign features st
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
V ASSAR determined that every day of the two weeks at Babylon should be red lettered in his life. He had never taken a vacation; nor had his father. It was time to adopt this good custom of the country. It was mid-July. The campaign would not really be under way until October. There was nothing to worry about. Neither the suffragettes with their organization nor Waldron with his money could break his hold on the hearts of his people. He gave himself up to the sheer joy of living for the first ti
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
T HE idea that her child might attain the highest honor within the reach of any man on earth had stirred Angela to the depths and given new meaning and dignity to life. She lifted her head. She had borne a child whose word might bend a million wills to his. The world was a bigger, nobler place in which to live. She was stirred with sudden purpose to leave no stone unturned to bring this dream to pass. She bought books of the lives of the presidents. Twice she read the life of Abraham Lincoln, th
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
V ASSAR looked at the scrawled note and saw that he must return to the city. The incident probably meant nothing and yet it brought to his mind a vague uneasiness. He instinctively turned to Virginia who was looking at him with curious interest. She spoke with genuine admiration: “I had no idea that any politician in America could win the hearts of his people in the way you hold yours—” “It’s worth while, isn’t it?” “Decidedly. It makes my regret all the more keen that you will not accompany me
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
T HE perfection with which Virginia played her part in the little drama of deception at their parting was a new source of surprise and anger to Vassar. Her acting was consummate. Neither the children nor her parents could suspect for a moment that there had been the slightest break in their relations. Self-respect compelled him to act the part with equal care in detail. The old soldier had grown very fond of Marya. He held her in his arms chattering like a magpie. “Now don’t you go back on me wh
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
A RRIVING at Stuyvesant Square, Vassar decided to go at once and see Angela’s husband. The door of his tiny apartment opened on the little crooked street before the old Armory. He caught the gay colors of Angela’s dress at the window. She was leaning far out over the flower boxes, and gesticulating to her man in the street below. Benda, the center of a group of children, was playing the hand organ which Pasquale had given the boy. The kids were dancing. He stopped short his music at the sight of
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
V ASSAR plunged next day into his fight. Waldron had moved rapidly. His opponents had already nominated an Independent Democrat of foreign birth, a Bohemian of ability, whom he knew to be a man of ambition and good address. The women had begun a house to house canvass of voters and the number of fairy-tales they had started for the purpose of undermining his position and influence was a startling revelation of their skill in the art of lying. Virginia Holland was booked for a canvass of each ele
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CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
T HE caucus of the delegates of the Women’s Convention was booked to meet at six o’clock. The House would hold a night session and the vote on the Defense Bill would be called between ten and eleven. To prevent the possibility of any influence from Vassar’s speech reaching the caucus, Waldron succeeded in changing the hour to three o’clock. He would prolong the discussion until six and deliver their orders to the members of Congress in ample time. Vassar saw him whispering in earnest conference
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CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
W OMAN’S political power was hurled solidly against an increase of armaments, and Vassar’s Bill for National Defense was defeated. Waldron’s triumph was complete. His lawyers drew the compromise measure which Congress was permitted to pass a few weeks later. It made provision for a modest increase of the Army, Navy and the National Guard. The banker’s newspapers led the chorus of approval of this absurd program and the nation was congratulated on its happy deliverance from the threatened curse o
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CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XX
F OR two years the nation drifted without a rational policy of defense, while the world war continued to drench the earth in blood. The combination of forces represented by Waldron had succeeded in lulling the people into a sense of perfect security. We had always been lucky. A faith that God watched over children and our Republic had become one of the first articles of our creed. John Vassar became an officer in the National Security League and attempted to extend its organization into every el
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CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXI
T HE outcome of the First Parliament of Man was hailed by the professional peace-makers as the sublimest achievement of the ages. A way had been found at last to banish war. The dream of the poet had been fulfilled. They called on all men to beat their guns into plowshares, their swords into pruning-hooks. They proclaimed the end of force, the dawn of the Age of Reason. Our nation once more demonstrated its love for the orator who preaches smooth things. The Honorable Plato Barker praised the Pr
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CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXII
V ASSAR smashed the skylight of the low roof on which he had been hurled, reached the ground floor and kicked his way through a window. The half-drunken crowd of revelers were pouring out of restaurants close by. The electric lights on the four blocks about the gaping hole had been extinguished and only the gas lamps on the side streets threw their dim rays over the smoking cavern. The merrymakers were still in a jovial mood. What was one explosion more or less? A gas main had merely blown up—th
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CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIII
V ASSAR’S Committee of Public Safety in the rear room of Schultz’ store grew rapidly into a recruiting stand for volunteers. Before twelve o’clock the old Armory across the way was packed with hundreds of excited followers eager to fight. A bare hundred of them had permits to carry revolvers. A few had secured sticks of dynamite from builders. A hundred old muskets Vassar’s East Side Guard had used were there—but not a shell. While they talked and raged in stunned amazement over the situation, a
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CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV
T HE sun rose on a day never to be forgotten by the people of Long Island. Refugees were pouring along every road from the city. A wild rumor of the bombardment of New York had spread and they were determined to get behind General Hood’s thin line of half-armed defenders. They were still imbued with a blind faith that somewhere our mighty nation had an army of adequate defense. Virginia Holland had reached home by automobile to find her father’s house turned into a recruiting camp. Old soldiers
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CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXV
I N vain officers tried to stem the torrent of humanity that poured out in the wake of the volunteers. The wildest rumors had deprived them of all reason. They had heard that the city would be shelled by the foreign fleet within six hours and reduced to ashes. It was reported that the enemy’s giant submarines had already passed the forts at Sandy Hook and the Narrows and were now taking their places around the city in the North and East Rivers. The guns of these dreadnaught submarines threw five
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CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVI
S O intense and spectacular had been the battle of the fleets that neither Vassar nor his superior officer had lifted their eyes to the dim struggle of the skies. The birdmen had climbed to such heights they were no larger to the eye than a flock of circling pigeons. The tragedies of this battle were no less grim and desperate. Two of these daring defenders of our shores had been ordered to stay out of the fight and report to General Hood if the fleet should be sunk. They saw one of these courie
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CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVII
T HE General hastened to give orders for the retirement. By noon the next day his battleline stretched from Patchogue through Holtsville to Port Jefferson and a hundred thousand men were wielding pick and shovel with savage determination. There was one thing these men didn’t lack whatever was missing in their equipment. They hadn’t enough guns. They had no uniforms—save on the handful of regulars sprinkled among them. They hadn’t much ammunition. They did have courage. They were there to do and
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CHAPTER XXVIII
CHAPTER XXVIII
W HEN the unique voluntary peace delegation finally reached the headquarters of the imperial army, the commander was conducting a prayer meeting. They must wait. They waited with joy. Pike’s little wizened face beamed with good will to men. From the moment he heard that the army was at prayers he had no doubt of the final outcome of their mission. He turned once more to the soldier who had arrested and brought them in. “Your General always leads the service?” he asked genially. “Always—before a
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CHAPTER XXIX
CHAPTER XXIX
T O Vassar sleep had been impossible for the past two nights. He dozed for an hour during the day from sheer exhaustion, but the nearer the hour came for the test of strength between the opposing armies on which hung the fate of a hundred million people, the deeper became his excitement. All life seemed to mirror itself in a vast luminous crystal before his eyes—the past, the present, the future. He nodded in the saddle as he watched the construction of the second line of entrenchments five mile
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CHAPTER XXX
CHAPTER XXX
T HE grim gray wave of destruction from the sand dunes had rolled into battleline and spread out over the green clothed hills and valleys of the Island—swiftly, remorselessly, with an uncanny precision that was marvelous. The scouts were soaring in the clear blue skies with keen eyes searching for the position of our guns. As they found them, a puff of black smoke streamed downward and the distant officer, perched high on his movable observation tower, took the range and called it mechanically t
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CHAPTER XXXI
CHAPTER XXXI
T HE first day’s battle brought to many a raw recruit the sharp need of military training. Many a man who had never consciously known the meaning of fear waked to find his knees trembling and hung his head in shame at the revelation. Tommaso had led his squad into the trenches before his bitter hour of self-revelation came. He had caught a glimpse of his wife and boy in a group of panic-stricken refugees and the sight had taken the last ounce of courage out of him. He was going to be killed. He
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CHAPTER XXXII
CHAPTER XXXII
O UR observers in a captive balloon had made out before sunrise the massing of machine guns in front. They were still coming on in endless procession of swirling auto-transports that lifted clouds of white dust that swept toward our lines in billows so dense at times the field was obscured. Hood decided to close in on those guns before they could be assembled and mounted. With a savage yell a brigade of regulars led the charge, followed by ten thousand picked men. Pressing forward before a dust
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CHAPTER XXXIII
CHAPTER XXXIII
T HE twilight was deepening on scenes of stark horror in the streets of Babylon when Vassar slipped through the field and along the hedgerows toward the center of the town. Flames were leaping from a dozen homes along the turnpike. He saw the brutal soldiery enter a pretty lawn, call out the occupants and as they emerged fire in volleys on old men, women and children. They fell across the doorsteps and lay where they fell. A dark figure approached the open door, hurled a quart of gasoline inside
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CHAPTER XXXIV
CHAPTER XXXIV
T HE orderly who searched the house found two shotguns. The Colonel who had quartered his staff for the night pointed to the two old men. “Arrest them—you understand.” Andrew Vassar knew what the brief clause with which the order ended meant. He crossed himself and breathed a prayer for the safety of his loved ones. Zonia and Marya burst into tears. Virginia and her mother drew themselves erect and waited white and silent. Holland faced the commander, erect, defiant. “I am a soldier, sir,” he be
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CHAPTER XXXV
CHAPTER XXXV
M RS . HOLLAND rallied from her swoon and Marya helped her to rise as Zonia shouted joyfully: “Come quick! He’s alive—he’s alive!” Billy opened his eyes feebly and raised his hand to the ugly wound in his breast. Zonia caught it, bent and kissed him. Mrs. Holland staggered to the group and knelt by their side. “Oh—my boy—you’ll live—I feel it—I know it. God has heard my prayer—” She paused and turned to Marya— “Go, darling, quick—bring some water and tell Peter to come.” Marya darted across the
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CHAPTER XXXVI
CHAPTER XXXVI
V ASSAR succeeded in making his way to Fort Hamilton and joined General Hood. He had cut his way through Waldron’s garrison which had mobilized in Brooklyn to join its levies with the invading army. General Hood disbanded the handful of surviving officers and men and ordered each individual to join him at a secret rendezvous on the plains of Texas. He kept intact two companies of cavalry for an escort. He would take his chances with these by avoiding the fallen cities. He placed final orders to
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CHAPTER XXXVII
CHAPTER XXXVII
T HREE days later the magnificent imperial army entered the fallen metropolis, its scarlet, gold-embossed standards flying, its bands playing. Waldron marched to meet them at the head of twenty-five thousand picked men of his garrison. His division more than made good the losses of battle. When the grand march began at the entrance of the Queensboro Bridge—one hundred and sixty-five thousand men were in line. The immensity of the spectacle stunned the imagination of the curious thousands that pr
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CHAPTER XXXVIII
CHAPTER XXXVIII
V IRGINIA had just dressed in dead black for her visit to the palace of the Governor-General on the Heights. Waldron insisted on sending a state automobile. The machine was at the door with liveried flunkies standing in stiff servant attitudes. A slender Italian woman passed them with a listless stare and rang the bell of the Holland house. Virginia answered. She had seen the somber figure from the window. “Angela!” she cried in surprise. “Si. Signorina, I may see—you?” “Yes”—was the quick, symp
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CHAPTER XXXIX
CHAPTER XXXIX
T HE Governor-General received Virginia in royal state. His manner was gracious and genial. He led her to a seat in his great library and closed the doors. The royal guard took his stand outside. “I told you, Miss Holland,” he began eagerly, “that I had high ambitions. You see that I am a man of my word. Of course, the thing that happened was inevitable. It was written in the book of Fate. Had I not seized the reins—another would. Conditions made my coup possible. For the excesses of the Imperia
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CHAPTER XL
CHAPTER XL
T HE jails were crowded with our leading statesmen. The President and his Cabinet had been transferred to Fort Warren at Boston before the Capitol was destroyed. The Honorable Plato Barker, for reasons deemed sufficient by the Governor-General, was placed in the United States penitentiary at Albany. In spite of his mania for peace, Waldron thoroughly mistrusted him. His passion for oratorical leadership he knew to be insatiate. What fool scheme he might advocate in secret could not be guessed. I
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CHAPTER XLI
CHAPTER XLI
V IRGINIA HOLLAND’S conversion to the open advocacy of the principles of monarchy and aristocracy was Waldron’s first sensation in the campaign in which he began to destroy the American conception of liberty. Her confession of faith was a liberal outline of the ideals which the Governor-General had proclaimed in his library. Waldron was elated at his complete triumph. Her brief statement and appeal to the women of America to support her movement of loyalty he ordered printed in every newspaper i
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CHAPTER XLII
CHAPTER XLII
T HE preparations for the grand celebration of the Conqueror’s birthday by the people of America were complete to the last detail at noon on the day preceding. The Governor-General was determined to make this event an example in promptness, glorious display and perfect efficiency. How prompt and efficient its real managers were going to make it he could not dream! Every suspicion of disloyalty had been put at rest by the eager enthusiasm with which the Woman’s Legion of Honor, with its five thou
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CHAPTER XLIII
CHAPTER XLIII
B EFORE eleven o’clock the Daughters of Jael, accorded the place of honor at every banquet hall, had succeeded in slipping from drunken soldiers and sailors thousands of arms. Swift automobiles, commandeered by their persuasive voices, or taken by direct attack from maudlin chauffeurs, were speeding with these guns to the appointed places. More than two hundred thousand soldiers of the Imperial Army have deserted to our colors. Ten thousand rough riders from the Western plains had been smuggled
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CHAPTER XLIV
CHAPTER XLIV
W ALDRON left Virginia to recover, as he knew she would, and hurried again to the tower to rush his garrison. The answer came at once: “The men are on the way, sir.” They were! Ten thousand cavalrymen with guidons streaming from their lances! A thousand automobiles were sweeping with them in companies of twenty—each machine packed with sturdy infantrymen, their battle standards flying from speeding cars. The first division of cavalry which Angela had summoned rescued Billy’s hard pressed men, wi
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