Latest / Literary Legends - Best Classic Fiction / The Sign of the Broken Sword - GK Chesterton

Transcript

The Sign of the Broken Sword - GK Chesterton · Literary Legends - Best Classic Fiction

0:00
Speaker 1: The Sign of the Broken Sword by G. K. Chesterton,
0:04
Speaker 1: Part one. The thousand arms of the forest were gray
0:11
Speaker 1: and its million fingers silver in a sky of dark
0:16
Speaker 1: green blue like slate. The stars were bleak and brilliant,
0:21
Speaker 1: like splintered ice. All that thickly wooded and sparsely tenanted
0:26
Speaker 1: countryside was stiff with a bitter and brittle frost. The
0:32
Speaker 1: black hollows between the trunks of the trees looked like
0:35
Speaker 1: bottomless black caverns of that Scandinavian hell, a hell of
0:41
Speaker 1: incalculable cold. Even the square stone tower of the church
0:47
Speaker 1: looked northern to the point of heathenry, as if it
0:50
Speaker 1: were some barbaric tower among the sea rocks of Iceland.
0:55
Speaker 1: It was a queer night for anyone to explore a churchyard,
1:00
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, perhaps it was worth exploring.
1:06
Speaker 1: It rose abruptly out of the ash and wastes the
1:09
Speaker 1: forest and a sort of hump or shoulder of green
1:13
Speaker 1: turf that looked gray in the starlight. Most of the
1:17
Speaker 1: graves were on a slant, and the path leading up
1:21
Speaker 1: to the church was as steep as a staircase on
1:25
Speaker 1: the top of the hill. In the one flat and
1:27
Speaker 1: prominent place was the monument for which the place was famous.
1:33
Speaker 1: It contrasted strangely with the featureless graves all round, for
1:39
Speaker 1: it was the work of one of the greatest sculptors
1:41
Speaker 1: of modern Europe, and yet his fame was at once
1:45
Speaker 1: forgotten in the fame of the man whose image he
1:48
Speaker 1: had made. It showed by touches of the small silver
1:54
Speaker 1: pencil of starlight, the massive metal figure of a soldier recumbent,
2:00
Speaker 1: the strong hands sealed in an everlasting worship, the great
2:04
Speaker 1: head pillowed upon a gun. The venerable face was bearded,
2:09
Speaker 1: or rather whiskered, in the old heavy Colonel newcom fashion.
2:14
Speaker 1: The uniform, though suggested with the few strokes of simplicity,
2:18
Speaker 1: was that of modern war. By his right side lay
2:23
Speaker 1: a sword of which the tip was broken off. On
2:27
Speaker 1: the left lay a bible. On glowing summer afternoons, wagonettes
2:32
Speaker 1: came full of Americans and cultured suburbans to see the suppulcher.
2:37
Speaker 1: But even then they felt the vast forest land, with
2:40
Speaker 1: its one dumpy dome of churchyard and church, as a
2:44
Speaker 1: place oddly dumb and neglected. In this freezing darkness of midwinter,
2:51
Speaker 1: one would think he might be left alone with the stars. Nevertheless,
2:56
Speaker 1: in the stillness of those stiff woods, a wooden gate creek,
3:00
Speaker 1: and two dim figures dressed in black, climbed up the
3:05
Speaker 1: little path to the tomb. So faint was that frigid
3:11
Speaker 1: starlight that nothing could have been traced about them, except that,
3:15
Speaker 1: while they both wore black, one man was enormously big,
3:19
Speaker 1: and the other, perhaps by contrast, almost startlingly small. They
3:26
Speaker 1: went up to the great graven tomb of the historic
3:29
Speaker 1: warrior and stood for a few minutes staring at it.
3:33
Speaker 1: There was no human, perhaps no living thing for a
3:37
Speaker 1: wide circle, and a morbid fancy might well have wondered
3:41
Speaker 1: if they were human themselves. In any case, the beginning
3:45
Speaker 1: of their conversation might have seemed strange. After the first silence,
3:50
Speaker 1: the small man said to the other, where does a
3:55
Speaker 1: wise man hide a pebble? And the tall man answered,
3:59
Speaker 1: in a low voice, on the beach. The small man nodded, and,
4:05
Speaker 1: after a short silence, said where does a wise man
4:09
Speaker 1: hide a leaf? And the other answered in the forest.
4:16
Speaker 1: There was another stillness, and then the tall man resumed,
4:21
Speaker 1: do you mean that when a wise man has to
4:23
Speaker 1: hide a real diamond, he has been known to hide it?
4:27
Speaker 1: Among sham ones. No, no, said the little man with
4:32
Speaker 1: a laugh. We will let bygones be bygones. He stamped
4:37
Speaker 1: his cold feet for a second or two, and then said,
4:41
Speaker 1: I'm not thinking of that at all, but of something else,
4:45
Speaker 1: something rather peculiar. Just strike a match, will you. The
4:50
Speaker 1: big man fumbled in his pocket, and soon a scratch
4:53
Speaker 1: and a flare painted gold the whole flat side of
4:56
Speaker 1: the monument. On it was cut in black letters, the
5:01
Speaker 1: well known words which so many Americans had reverently read,
5:06
Speaker 1: Sacred to the memory of General Sir Arthur Saint Clair,
5:10
Speaker 1: hero and martyr, who always vanquished his enemies, and always
5:15
Speaker 1: spared them, and was tremendously slain by them at last,
5:20
Speaker 1: May God in whom he trusted both reward and revenge him.
5:27
Speaker 1: The match burnt, the baked man's fingers blackened and dropped.
5:31
Speaker 1: He was about to strike another, but his small companion
5:34
Speaker 1: stopped him. That's all right, flambeaux, old man. I saw
5:39
Speaker 1: what I wanted, or rather I didn't see what I
5:42
Speaker 1: didn't want. And now we must walk a mile and
5:46
Speaker 1: a half along the road to the next inn, and
5:49
Speaker 1: I will try to tell you all about it. For
5:52
Speaker 1: heaven knows a man should have a fire and ale
5:55
Speaker 1: when he dares tell such a story. They descended the
6:01
Speaker 1: precipitous path. They relatched the rusty gate and set off
6:05
Speaker 1: at a stamping, ringing walk down the frozen forest road.
6:10
Speaker 1: They had gone a full quarter of a mile before
6:13
Speaker 1: the smaller man spoke again. He said, yes, the wise
6:18
Speaker 1: man hides a pebble on the beach, But what does
6:21
Speaker 1: he do if there is no beach? Do you know
6:24
Speaker 1: anything of that great Saint Clair trouble? I know nothing
6:29
Speaker 1: about English general's father, Brown, answered the large man, laughing,
6:33
Speaker 1: though a little about English policeman. I only know that
6:36
Speaker 1: you have dragged me a precious long dance to all
6:40
Speaker 1: the shrines of this fellow, whoever he is. One would
6:44
Speaker 1: think he got buried in six different places. I've seen
6:47
Speaker 1: a memorial to General Saint Clair in Westminster Abbey. I've
6:51
Speaker 1: seen a ramping equestrian statue of General Saint Clair on
6:55
Speaker 1: the embankment. I've seen a medallion of Saint Clair in
6:59
Speaker 1: the street he was born in, and another in the
7:01
Speaker 1: street he lived in. And now you drag me after
7:05
Speaker 1: dark to his coffin in the village churchyard. Now I
7:09
Speaker 1: am beginning to be a bit tired of his magnificent personality,
7:13
Speaker 1: especially as I don't in the least know who he was.
7:18
Speaker 1: What are you hunting for in all these crips and effigies.
7:23
Speaker 1: I am only looking for one word, said Father Brown,
7:28
Speaker 1: A word that isn't there, well, asked Flambeau, Are you
7:33
Speaker 1: going to tell me anything about it? I must divide
7:37
Speaker 1: it into two parts, remarked the priest. First there is
7:41
Speaker 1: what everybody knows, and then there is what I know. Now,
7:45
Speaker 1: what everybody knows is short and plain enough. It is
7:49
Speaker 1: also entirely wrong. Right you are, said the big man,
7:55
Speaker 1: called Flambeau. Cheerfully, Let's begin at the wrong end. Begin
8:00
Speaker 1: with what everybody knows, which isn't true. If not wholly untrue,
8:05
Speaker 1: it is at least very inadequate, continued Brown. Far In
8:10
Speaker 1: point of fact, all that the public knows amounts precisely
8:14
Speaker 1: to this. The public knows that author Saint Clair was
8:18
Speaker 1: a great and successful English general. It knows that, after
8:23
Speaker 1: splendid yet careful campaigns both in India and Africa, he
8:28
Speaker 1: was in command against Brazil when the great Brazilian patriot
8:32
Speaker 1: Olivier issued his ultimatum. It knows that on that occasion,
8:37
Speaker 1: Saint Clair, with a very small force, attacked Olivier with
8:41
Speaker 1: a very large one, and was captured after heroic resistance.
8:46
Speaker 1: And it knows that after his capture, and to the
8:49
Speaker 1: abhorrence of the civilized world, Saint Clair was hanged on
8:53
Speaker 1: the nearest tree. He was found swinging there after the
8:57
Speaker 1: Brazilians had retired, with his broken sword hung round his neck.
9:03
Speaker 1: And that popular story is untrue, suggested Flambeaux. No, said
9:10
Speaker 1: his friend quietly. That story is quite true, so far
9:13
Speaker 1: as he goes. Well, I think it goes far enough,
9:18
Speaker 1: said Flambeaux. But if the popular story is true, what
9:22
Speaker 1: is the mystery? They had passed many hundreds of gray
9:26
Speaker 1: and ghostly trees before the little priest answered. Then he
9:31
Speaker 1: bit his finger reflectively and said, why the mystery is
9:35
Speaker 1: a mystery of psychology, or rather, it is a mystery
9:39
Speaker 1: of two psychologies. In that Brazilian business, two of the
9:44
Speaker 1: most famous men of modern history acted flat against their characters.
9:50
Speaker 1: My new Olivier and Saint Clair were both heroes the
9:53
Speaker 1: old thing, and no mistake, it was like the fight
9:57
Speaker 1: between Hector and Achilles. Now, what would you say to
10:01
Speaker 1: an affair in which Achilles was timid and Hector was treacherous.
10:07
Speaker 1: Go On, said the large man, impatiently, as the other
10:10
Speaker 1: bit his finger again. Sir Arthur Saint Clair was a
10:15
Speaker 1: soldier of the old religious type, the type that saved
10:19
Speaker 1: us during the mutiny, continued Brown. He was always more
10:23
Speaker 1: for duty than for dash, and with all his personal courage,
10:28
Speaker 1: was decidedly a prudent commander, particularly indignant at any needless
10:33
Speaker 1: waste of soldiers. Yet in this last battle he attempted
10:38
Speaker 1: something that a baby could see was absurd. One need
10:42
Speaker 1: not be a strategist to see it was as wild
10:45
Speaker 1: as wind, just as one need not be a strategist
10:49
Speaker 1: to keep out of the way of a motor bus. Well,
10:53
Speaker 1: that is the first mystery, what had become of the
10:56
Speaker 1: English general's head. The second riddle is what had become
11:01
Speaker 1: of the Brazilian general's heart. President Olivier might be called
11:06
Speaker 1: a visionary or a nuisance, but even his enemies admitted
11:10
Speaker 1: that he was magnanimous to the point of knight errantry.
11:15
Speaker 1: Almost every other prisoner he had ever captured had been
11:18
Speaker 1: set free or even loaded with benefits. Men who had
11:22
Speaker 1: really wronged him came away touched by his simplicity and sweetness.
11:27
Speaker 1: Why the deuce should he diabolically revenge himself only once
11:32
Speaker 1: in his life, and that for the one particular blow
11:36
Speaker 1: that could not have hurt him. Well, there you have it.
11:40
Speaker 1: One of the wisest men in the world acted like
11:43
Speaker 1: an idiot for no reason. One of the best men
11:46
Speaker 1: in the world acted like a fiend for no reason.
11:50
Speaker 1: That's the long and the short of it. And I
11:52
Speaker 1: leave it to you, my boy. No you don't, said
11:57
Speaker 1: the other with a snart. I leave it to you you,
12:00
Speaker 1: and you jolly well tell me all about it. Well,
12:05
Speaker 1: resumed father Brown. It's not fair to say that the
12:09
Speaker 1: public impression is just what I've said without adding that
12:13
Speaker 1: two things have happened since. I can't say they threw
12:17
Speaker 1: a new light where nobody can make sense of them,
12:21
Speaker 1: but they threw a new kind of darkness. They threw
12:25
Speaker 1: the darkness in new directions. The first was this the
12:30
Speaker 1: family physician of the Saint Clair's quarreled with that family
12:35
Speaker 1: and began publishing a violent series of articles in which
12:39
Speaker 1: he said that the late General was a religious maniac.
12:43
Speaker 1: But as far as the tale went, this seemed to
12:45
Speaker 1: mean little more than a religious man. Anyhow, the story
12:49
Speaker 1: fizzled out. Everyone knew, of course, that Saint Clair had
12:53
Speaker 1: some of the eccentricities of Puritan piety. The second incident
12:58
Speaker 1: was much more in the luckless and unsupported regiment that
13:03
Speaker 1: made that rash attempt at the Black River. There was
13:07
Speaker 1: a certain Captain Keith, who was at that time engaged
13:11
Speaker 1: to Saint Clair's daughter, and who afterwards married her. He
13:17
Speaker 1: was one of those who were captured by Olivier, and
13:20
Speaker 1: like all the rest except the General, appears to have
13:23
Speaker 1: been bounteously treated and promptly set free. Some twenty years afterwards,
13:29
Speaker 1: this man, then Lieutenant Colonel Keith, published a sort of
13:33
Speaker 1: autobiography called A British Officer in Burma and Brazil. In
13:39
Speaker 1: the place where the reader looks eagerly for some account
13:42
Speaker 1: of the mystery of Saint Clair's disaster, may be found
13:45
Speaker 1: the following words quote everywhere else in this book. I
13:50
Speaker 1: have narrated things exactly as they occurred, holding as I
13:55
Speaker 1: do to the old fashioned opinion that the glory of
13:58
Speaker 1: England is old enough to take care of itself. The
14:02
Speaker 1: exception I shall make is in this matter of the
14:05
Speaker 1: defeat by the Black River, and my reasons, though private,
14:10
Speaker 1: are honorable and compelling. I will, however, add this injustice
14:16
Speaker 1: to the memories of two distinguished men. General Saint Clair
14:21
Speaker 1: has been accused of incapacity on this occasion. I can
14:25
Speaker 1: at least testify that this action, properly understood, was one
14:29
Speaker 1: of the most brilliant and sagacious of his life. President Olivier,
14:34
Speaker 1: by similar report, is charged with savage injustice. I think
14:40
Speaker 1: it due to the honor of an enemy to say
14:42
Speaker 1: that he acted on this occasion with even more than
14:46
Speaker 1: his characteristic good feeling. To put the matter popularly, I
14:51
Speaker 1: can assure my countrymen that Saint Clair was by no
14:54
Speaker 1: means such a fool, nor Olivier such a brute as
14:58
Speaker 1: he looked. This is all I have to say, nor
15:02
Speaker 1: shall any earthly consideration induce me to add a word
15:06
Speaker 1: to it. Close quote. A large frozen moon, like a
15:11
Speaker 1: lustrous snowball, began to show through the tangle of twigs
15:15
Speaker 1: in front of them, and by its light, the narrator
15:19
Speaker 1: had been able to refresh his memory of Captain Keith's
15:22
Speaker 1: text from a scrap of printed paper. As he folded
15:26
Speaker 1: it up and put it back in his pocket. Flambeau
15:29
Speaker 1: threw up his hand with a French gesture. Wait a bit,
15:33
Speaker 1: Wait a bit, he cried excitedly. I believe I can
15:37
Speaker 1: guess it at the first go. He strode on, breathing hard,
15:42
Speaker 1: his black head and bull neck forward like a man
15:46
Speaker 1: winning a walking race. The little priest, amused and interested,
15:51
Speaker 1: had some trouble in trotting beside him. Just before them,
15:55
Speaker 1: the trees fell back a little to left and right,
15:57
Speaker 1: and the road swept downwards cross a clear, moonlit valley
16:02
Speaker 1: till it dived again, like a rabbit into the wall
16:05
Speaker 1: of another wood. The entrance to the farther forest looked
16:09
Speaker 1: small and round, like the black hole of a remote
16:12
Speaker 1: railway tunnel, but it was within some hundred yards and
16:17
Speaker 1: gaped like a cavern. Before Flambeau spoke again. I've got it,
16:23
Speaker 1: he cried at last, slapping his thigh with his great hand.
16:27
Speaker 1: Four minutes thinking, and I can tell your whole story myself,
16:32
Speaker 1: all right, asserted his friend. You tell it. Flambeau lifted
16:37
Speaker 1: his head but lowered his voice. General Sir, author, Saint Clair,
16:43
Speaker 1: he said, came of a family in which madness was hereditary,
16:48
Speaker 1: and his whole aim was to keep this from his daughter,
16:52
Speaker 1: and even if possible, from his future son in law.
16:56
Speaker 1: He thought the final collapse was close and resolved on suicide.
17:01
Speaker 1: Yet ordinary suicide would blazon the very idea he dreaded.
17:06
Speaker 1: As the campaign approached, the clouds came thicker on his brain,
17:12
Speaker 1: and at last, in a mad moment, he sacrificed his
17:15
Speaker 1: public duty to his private. He rushed rashly into battle,
17:20
Speaker 1: hoping to fall by the first shot. When he found
17:23
Speaker 1: that he had only attained capture and discredit, the sealed
17:27
Speaker 1: bomb in his brain burst, and he broke his own
17:30
Speaker 1: sword and hanged himself. He stared firmly at the gray
17:35
Speaker 1: facade of forest in front of him, with the one
17:38
Speaker 1: black gap in it, like the mouth of the grave
17:41
Speaker 1: into which their path plunged. Perhaps something menacing in the road.
17:46
Speaker 1: Thus suddenly swallowed, reinforced his vivid vision of the tragedy,
17:50
Speaker 1: for he shuddered. A horrid story, he said, a horrid story,
17:57
Speaker 1: repeated the priest with bent head, but not the real story.
18:03
Speaker 1: Then he threw back his head with a sort of despair,
18:06
Speaker 1: and cried, oh, I wish it had been. The tall
18:11
Speaker 1: flambeau faced round and stared at him, Yours is A
18:15
Speaker 1: clean story, cried Father Brown, deeply moved, A sweet, pure,
18:21
Speaker 1: honest story, as open and white as that moon. Madness
18:26
Speaker 1: and despair are innocent enough. There are worse things, Flambeau.
18:32
Speaker 1: Flambeau looked up wildly at the moon thus invoked, and
18:36
Speaker 1: from where he stood, one black tree bough curved across it,
18:40
Speaker 1: exactly like a devil's horn. Father Father, cried Flambeau, with
18:47
Speaker 1: the French gesture, and stepping yet more rapidly forward. Do
18:51
Speaker 1: you mean it was worse than that? Worse than that,
18:56
Speaker 1: said Paul, like a grave echo. And they plunged, unged
19:00
Speaker 1: into the black cloister of the woodland, which ran by
19:03
Speaker 1: them in a dim tapestry of trunks, like one of
19:07
Speaker 1: the dark corridors in a dream. They were soon in
19:11
Speaker 1: the most secret entrails of the wood and felt close
19:14
Speaker 1: about them foliage that they could not see. When the
19:18
Speaker 1: priest said again, where does a wise man hide a
19:22
Speaker 1: leaf in the forest? But what does he do if
19:26
Speaker 1: there is no forest? Well, well, cried Flambeaux irritably. What
19:32
Speaker 1: does he do? He grows a forest to hide it in?
19:36
Speaker 1: Said the priest in an obscure voice, a fearful sin.
19:42
Speaker 1: Look here, cried his friend, impatiently, for the dark wood,
19:46
Speaker 1: and the dark saying got a little on his nerves.
19:49
Speaker 1: Will you tell me this story or not? What other
19:52
Speaker 1: evidence is there to go on? There are three more
19:56
Speaker 1: bits of evidence, said the other, that I have dug
19:59
Speaker 1: up in holes and corners, and I will give them
20:02
Speaker 1: in logical rather than chronological order. First of all, of course,
20:07
Speaker 1: our authority for the issue and event of the battle
20:10
Speaker 1: is in Olivier's own dispatches, which are lucid enough. He
20:15
Speaker 1: was entrenched with two or three regiments on the heights
20:19
Speaker 1: that swept down to the Black River, on the other
20:22
Speaker 1: side of which was lower and more morshy ground. Beyond
20:26
Speaker 1: this again was gently rising country on which was the
20:30
Speaker 1: first English outpost, supported by others, which lay, however, considerably
20:35
Speaker 1: in its rear. The British forces as a whole were
20:38
Speaker 1: greatly superior in numbers, but this particular regiment was just
20:44
Speaker 1: far enough from its space to make Olivier consider the
20:47
Speaker 1: project of crossing the river to cut it off my sunset. However,
20:52
Speaker 1: he had decided to retain his own position, which was
20:55
Speaker 1: a specially strong one. At daybreak next morning, he was
20:59
Speaker 1: thundered struck to see that this stray handful of English,
21:04
Speaker 1: entirely unsupported from their rear, had flung themselves across the river,
21:09
Speaker 1: half by a bridge to the right and the other
21:11
Speaker 1: half by a ford higher up, and were masked upon
21:14
Speaker 1: the marshy bank below him. That they should attempt an
21:18
Speaker 1: attack with such numbers against such a position was incredible enough.
21:23
Speaker 1: But Olivier noticed something yet more extraordinary, For instead of
21:28
Speaker 1: attempting to seize more solid ground, this mad regiment, having
21:33
Speaker 1: put the river in its rear by one wild charge,
21:36
Speaker 1: did nothing more but stuck there in the mire like
21:40
Speaker 1: flies in trickle. Needless to say, the Brazilian's blue gray
21:45
Speaker 1: gaps in them with artillery, which they could only return
21:48
Speaker 1: with spirited but lessening rifle fire. Yet they never broke,
21:53
Speaker 1: and Olivier's curt account ends with a strong tribute of
21:57
Speaker 1: admiration for the mystic valor of these imbeciles. Our line
22:02
Speaker 1: then advanced, finally, writes Olivier, and drove them into the river.
22:07
Speaker 1: We captured General Saint Clair himself and several other officers.
22:11
Speaker 1: The colonel and the major had both fallen in the battle.
22:14
Speaker 1: I cannot resist saying that few finer sights can have
22:18
Speaker 1: been seen in history than the last stand of this
22:21
Speaker 1: extraordinary regiment, wounded officers picking up the rifles of dead soldiers,
22:26
Speaker 1: and the General himself facing us on horseback, bareheaded and
22:31
Speaker 1: with a broken sword. On what happened to the general afterwards?
22:35
Speaker 1: Olivier is as silent as Captain Keith, well grunted flambeau.
22:41
Speaker 1: Get on to the next bit of evidence, end of
22:45
Speaker 1: Part one, Part two. The next evidence, said Father Brown,
22:52
Speaker 1: took some time to find, but it will not take
22:56
Speaker 1: long to tell. I found, at last, in an allms
23:00
Speaker 1: house down in the Lickinshire Fens, an old soldier who
23:04
Speaker 1: not only was wounded at the Black River, but had
23:07
Speaker 1: actually knelt beside the colonel of the regiment when he died.
23:13
Speaker 1: This latter was a certain Colonel Clancy, a big bowl
23:17
Speaker 1: of an irishman, and it would seem that he died
23:19
Speaker 1: almost as much of rage as of bullets. He, at
23:24
Speaker 1: any rate, was not responsible for that ridiculous raid. It
23:28
Speaker 1: must have been imposed on him by the General. His
23:32
Speaker 1: last edifying words, according to my informant, were these, and
23:37
Speaker 1: there goes the damned old donkey, with the end of
23:39
Speaker 1: his sword knocked off. I wish it was his head.
23:43
Speaker 1: You will remark that everyone seems to have noticed this
23:46
Speaker 1: detail about the broken sword blade, though most people regard
23:50
Speaker 1: it somewhat more reverently than did the late Colonel Clancy.
23:54
Speaker 1: And now for the third fragment. Their path through the
23:59
Speaker 1: woodland began to go upward, and the speaker paused a
24:02
Speaker 1: little for breath before he went on. Then he continued
24:06
Speaker 1: in the same business like tone. Only a month or
24:10
Speaker 1: two ago a certain Brazilian official died in England, having
24:15
Speaker 1: quarreled with Olivier and left his country. He was a
24:18
Speaker 1: well known figure both here and on the continent, a
24:22
Speaker 1: Spaniard named Espoto. I knew him myself, a yellow faced
24:28
Speaker 1: old dandy with a hooked nose. For various private reasons,
24:32
Speaker 1: I had permissioned to see the documents he had left.
24:35
Speaker 1: He was a Catholic, of course, and I had been
24:38
Speaker 1: with him towards the end. There was nothing of his
24:41
Speaker 1: that lit up any corner of the Black Saint Clair business,
24:45
Speaker 1: except five or six common exercise books filled with the
24:49
Speaker 1: diary of some English soldier. I can only suppose that
24:53
Speaker 1: it was found by the Brazilians on one of those
24:56
Speaker 1: that fell. Anyhow, it stopped abruptly the night before the
25:01
Speaker 1: But the account of that last day in the poor
25:04
Speaker 1: fellow's life was certainly worth reading. I have it on me,
25:09
Speaker 1: but it's too dark to read it here, and I
25:11
Speaker 1: will give you a resume. The first part of that
25:15
Speaker 1: entry is full of jokes, evidently flung about among the men,
25:19
Speaker 1: about somebody called the Vulture. It does not seem as
25:23
Speaker 1: if this person, whoever he was, was one of themselves,
25:27
Speaker 1: or even an Englishman. Neither is he exactly spoken of
25:31
Speaker 1: as one of the enemy. It sounds rather as if
25:34
Speaker 1: he were some local go between and none combatant, perhaps
25:38
Speaker 1: a guide or a journalist. He has been clauseted with
25:42
Speaker 1: old Colonel Clancy, but is more often seen talking to
25:46
Speaker 1: the Major. Indeed, the Major is somewhat prominent in this
25:50
Speaker 1: soldier's narrative, a lean, dark haired man apparently of the
25:54
Speaker 1: name of Murray, a North Ireland man, and a Puritan.
25:58
Speaker 1: There are continual jests about the contrast between the elfstermen's
26:03
Speaker 1: austerity and the conviviality of Colonel Clancy. There is also
26:08
Speaker 1: some joke about the vulture wearing bright colored clothes. But
26:12
Speaker 1: all these levities are scattered by what may well be
26:16
Speaker 1: called the note of a bugle. Behind the English camp,
26:20
Speaker 1: and almost parallel to the river, ran one of the
26:23
Speaker 1: few great roads of that district. Westward, the road curved
26:28
Speaker 1: round toward the river, which he crossed by the bridge
26:31
Speaker 1: before mentioned. To the east, the road swept backwards into
26:35
Speaker 1: the wilds, and some two miles along it was the
26:38
Speaker 1: next English outpost. From this direction. There came along the
26:43
Speaker 1: road that evening a glitter and clatter of light cavalry,
26:47
Speaker 1: in which even the simple diarist could recognize with astonishment
26:51
Speaker 1: the general and his staff. He rode the great white horse,
26:56
Speaker 1: which you may have seen so often in illustrated papers
26:59
Speaker 1: and academy pictures, And you may be sure that the
27:02
Speaker 1: salute they gave him was not merely ceremonial. He at
27:06
Speaker 1: least wasted no time in ceremony, but, springing from the saddle,
27:10
Speaker 1: immediately mixed with the group of officers and fell into emphatic,
27:15
Speaker 1: though confidential speech. What struck our friend the Diarist most
27:19
Speaker 1: was his special disposition to discuss matters with Major Murray.
27:24
Speaker 1: But indeed such a selection, so long as it was
27:27
Speaker 1: not marked, was in no way unnatural. The two men
27:30
Speaker 1: were made for sympathy. There were men who read their bibles.
27:35
Speaker 1: They were both the old evangelical type of officer. However
27:40
Speaker 1: this may be, it is certain that when the General
27:42
Speaker 1: mounted again, he was still talking earnestly to Murray, and
27:47
Speaker 1: that as he walked his horse slowly down the road
27:50
Speaker 1: toward the river, the tall ulstermens still walked by his
27:54
Speaker 1: bridle reign in earnest debate. The soldiers watched the two
27:58
Speaker 1: until they vanished behind a clump of trees where the
28:01
Speaker 1: road turned towards the river. The colonel had gone back
28:05
Speaker 1: to his stint, and the men to their pickets. The
28:08
Speaker 1: man with the diary lingered for another four minutes and
28:11
Speaker 1: saw a marvelous sight. The great white horse, which had
28:17
Speaker 1: marched slowly down the road as it had marched in
28:20
Speaker 1: so many processions, flew back, galloping up the road towards them,
28:25
Speaker 1: as if it were mad to win a race. At
28:27
Speaker 1: first they thought it had run away with the man
28:29
Speaker 1: on its back, but they soon saw that the General,
28:33
Speaker 1: a fine rider, was himself urging it to full speed.
28:37
Speaker 1: Horse and man swept up to them like a whirlwind,
28:41
Speaker 1: and then raining up the reeling charger. The General turned
28:45
Speaker 1: on them a face like flame and called for the colonel.
28:48
Speaker 1: Like the trumpet that wakes the dead. I can see
28:51
Speaker 1: that all the earthquake events of that catastrophe tumbled on
28:54
Speaker 1: top of each other, rather like lumber in the minds
28:57
Speaker 1: of men such as our friend with the diary, with
29:00
Speaker 1: the dazed excitement of a dream. They found themselves falling,
29:05
Speaker 1: literally falling into their ranks, and learned that an attack
29:09
Speaker 1: was to be led at once across the river. The
29:12
Speaker 1: General and the Major, it was said, had found out
29:15
Speaker 1: something at the bridge, and there was only just time
29:18
Speaker 1: to strike for life. The major had gone back at
29:21
Speaker 1: once to call up the reserve along the road behind.
29:25
Speaker 1: It was doubtful if even with that prompt appeal, help
29:28
Speaker 1: could reach them in time. But they must pass the
29:31
Speaker 1: stream that night and seize the heights by morning. It
29:36
Speaker 1: is with the very stir and throb of that romantic
29:40
Speaker 1: nocturnal march that the diary suddenly ends. Father Brown had
29:45
Speaker 1: mounted ahead, for the woodland path grew smaller, steeper, and
29:50
Speaker 1: more twisted, till they felt as if they were ascending
29:53
Speaker 1: a winding staircase. The priest's voice came from above. Out
29:58
Speaker 1: of the darkness. There was one other, little and enormous thing,
30:03
Speaker 1: when the general urged them to their chivalric charge, he
30:07
Speaker 1: half drew his sword from the scabbard, and then, as
30:11
Speaker 1: if ashamed of such melodrama, thrust it back again. The
30:15
Speaker 1: sword again. You see a half light broke through the
30:19
Speaker 1: network of boughs above them, flinging the ghost of a
30:22
Speaker 1: net about their feet, for they were mounting again to
30:25
Speaker 1: that faint luminosity of the naked knight. Flambeau felt truth
30:31
Speaker 1: all round him as an atmosphere, but not as an idea.
30:36
Speaker 1: He answered, with bewildered brain, Well, what's the matter with
30:40
Speaker 1: the sword? Officers generally have swords, don't they. They are
30:45
Speaker 1: not often mentioned in modern war, said the other dispassionately,
30:50
Speaker 1: But in this affair one falls over the blessed sword everywhere.
30:56
Speaker 1: Well what is there in that? Growled Flambou. It was
31:00
Speaker 1: a twopence colored sort of incident, the old man's blade
31:04
Speaker 1: breaking in his last battle. Any One might bet the
31:07
Speaker 1: papers would get hold of it, as they have on
31:10
Speaker 1: all these tombs and things. It shone broken at the point.
31:14
Speaker 1: I hope you haven't dragged me through this polar expedition
31:18
Speaker 1: merely because two men with an eye for a picture
31:21
Speaker 1: saw Saint Clair's broken sword, No, cried Father Brown, with
31:26
Speaker 1: a sharp voice like a pistol shot. But who saw
31:29
Speaker 1: his unbroken sword? What do you mean? Cried the other,
31:34
Speaker 1: and stood still under the stars. They had come abruptly
31:38
Speaker 1: out of the gray gates of the wood. I say,
31:42
Speaker 1: who saw his unbroken sword? Repeated Father Brown, obstinately not
31:48
Speaker 1: the writer of the diary anyhow, the general Sheath did
31:51
Speaker 1: in time. Flambeau looked about him in the moonlight, as
31:55
Speaker 1: a man struck blind might look in the sun, and
31:58
Speaker 1: his friend went on for the first time with eagerness.
32:02
Speaker 1: Glambeau he cried, I cannot prove it, even after hunting
32:07
Speaker 1: through the tombs, but I am sure of it. Let
32:11
Speaker 1: me add just one more tiny fact that tips the
32:14
Speaker 1: whole thing over. The Colonel, by a strange chance, was
32:19
Speaker 1: one of the first struck by a bullet. He was
32:22
Speaker 1: struck long before the troops came to close quarters. But
32:26
Speaker 1: he saw Saint Clair's sword broken. Why was it broken?
32:31
Speaker 1: How was it broken? My friend? It was broken before
32:36
Speaker 1: the battle, oh, said his friend, with a sort of
32:41
Speaker 1: forlorn jocularity, And pray, where is the other piece? I
32:47
Speaker 1: can tell you, said the priest promptly in the northeast
32:50
Speaker 1: corner of the cemetery of the Protestant Cathedral at Belfast. Indeed,
32:56
Speaker 1: inquired the other, have you looked for it? I couldn't,
33:00
Speaker 1: replied Brown, with frank regret. There's a great marble monument
33:04
Speaker 1: on top of it, a monument to the heroic Major Murray,
33:08
Speaker 1: who fell fighting gloriously at the famous Battle of the
33:11
Speaker 1: Black River. Flambeaux seemed suddenly galvanized into existence. You mean,
33:18
Speaker 1: he cried hoarsely, that General Saint Clair hated Murray and
33:23
Speaker 1: murdered him on the field of battle. Because you are
33:27
Speaker 1: still full of good and pure thoughts, said the other.
33:30
Speaker 1: It was worse than that, well, said the large man.
33:35
Speaker 1: My stock of evil imagination is used up. The priest
33:40
Speaker 1: seemed really doubtful where to begin, And at last he
33:43
Speaker 1: said again, where would a wise man hide a leaf
33:49
Speaker 1: in the forest? The other did not answer. If there
33:53
Speaker 1: were no forest, he would make a forest, And if
33:57
Speaker 1: he wished to hide a dead leaf, he would make
34:00
Speaker 1: a dead forest. There was still no reply, and the
34:04
Speaker 1: priest added, still more mildly and quietly, And if a
34:08
Speaker 1: man had to hide a dead body, he would make
34:10
Speaker 1: a field of dead bodies to hide it in Flambeau
34:14
Speaker 1: began to stamp forward with an intolerance of delay in
34:18
Speaker 1: time or space. But Father Brown went on as if
34:21
Speaker 1: he were continuing the last sentence. Sir Arthur, Saint Clair,
34:26
Speaker 1: as I have already said, was a man who read
34:29
Speaker 1: his Bible. That was what was the matter with him.
34:33
Speaker 1: When will people understand that it is useless for a
34:37
Speaker 1: man to read his Bible unless he also reads everybody
34:41
Speaker 1: else's bible. A printer reads the Bible from miss prince.
34:45
Speaker 1: A Mormon reads his Bible to find polygamy. A Christian
34:49
Speaker 1: scientist reads his and finds we have no arms and legs.
34:55
Speaker 1: Saint Clair was an old Anglo Indian Protestant soldier. Now
35:00
Speaker 1: just think what that might mean, and for Heaven's sake,
35:03
Speaker 1: don't cant about it. It might mean a man physically formidable,
35:08
Speaker 1: living under a tropic sun in an oriental society, and
35:12
Speaker 1: soaking himself without sense or guidance in an oriental book.
35:17
Speaker 1: Of course, he read the Old Testament rather than the New.
35:20
Speaker 1: Of course, he found in the Old Testament any thing
35:24
Speaker 1: that he wanted, lust, tyranny, treason. Oh I dare say
35:28
Speaker 1: he was honest as you call it, But what is
35:32
Speaker 1: the good of a man being honest in his worship
35:35
Speaker 1: of dishonesty? In each of the hot and secret countries
35:40
Speaker 1: to which the man went, he kept a harem, He
35:44
Speaker 1: tortured witnesses, he amassed shameful gold. But certainly he would
35:49
Speaker 1: have said with steady eyes that he did it to
35:52
Speaker 1: the glory of a lord. My own theology is sufficiently
35:56
Speaker 1: expressed by asking which lord. Anyhow, there is this about
36:01
Speaker 1: such evil that it opens door after door in hell,
36:06
Speaker 1: and always into smaller and smaller chambers. This is the
36:11
Speaker 1: real case against crime, that a man does not become
36:15
Speaker 1: wilder and wilder, but only meaner and meaner. Saint Clair
36:21
Speaker 1: was soon suffocated by the difficulties of bribery and blackmail,
36:25
Speaker 1: and needed more and more cash, And by the time
36:28
Speaker 1: of the Battle of the Black River he had fallen
36:31
Speaker 1: from world to world to that place which Dante makes
36:35
Speaker 1: the lowest floor of the universe. What do you mean,
36:39
Speaker 1: asked his friend again. I mean that, retorted the cleric,
36:43
Speaker 1: and suddenly pointed to a puddle sealed with ice that
36:46
Speaker 1: shone in the moon. Do you remember whom Dante put
36:50
Speaker 1: in the last circle of ice? The traitors said Flambeaux,
36:55
Speaker 1: and shuddered as he looked around at the inhuman landscape
36:59
Speaker 1: of trees with taunting and almost obscene outlines. He could
37:05
Speaker 1: almost fancy he was Dante, and the priest with the
37:08
Speaker 1: rivulet of a voice was indeed a virtual leading him
37:12
Speaker 1: through a land of eternal sins. The voice went on, Olivier,
37:18
Speaker 1: as you know, was quixotic and would not permit a
37:22
Speaker 1: secret service in spies. The thing, however, was done, like
37:26
Speaker 1: many other things, behind his back. It was managed by
37:30
Speaker 1: my old friend Espado. He was the bright clad fop
37:34
Speaker 1: whose hook nose got him called the Vulture. Posing as
37:38
Speaker 1: a sort of philanthropist at the front, he felt his
37:42
Speaker 1: way through the English army and at last got his
37:45
Speaker 1: fingers on its. One corrupt man, please God, and that
37:50
Speaker 1: man at the top, Saint Clair, was in foul need
37:54
Speaker 1: of money and mountains of it. The discredited family doctor
37:58
Speaker 1: was threatening those extra extraordinary exposures that afterwards began and
38:03
Speaker 1: were broken off, tales of monstrous and prehistoric things in
38:07
Speaker 1: Park Lane, things done by an English evangelist that smelt
38:11
Speaker 1: like human sacrifice, and hordes of slaves. Money was wanted
38:16
Speaker 1: to for his daughter's dowry, for to him the fame
38:19
Speaker 1: of wealth was as sweet as wealth itself. He snapped
38:24
Speaker 1: the last thread, whispered the word to Brazil, and wealth
38:28
Speaker 1: poured in from the enemies of England. But another man
38:32
Speaker 1: had talked to Espott of the vulture as well as he. Somehow,
38:36
Speaker 1: the dark, grim young major from Ulster had guessed the
38:40
Speaker 1: hideous truth. And when they walked slowly together down that
38:45
Speaker 1: road towards the bridge, Murray was telling the general that
38:49
Speaker 1: he must resign instantly or be court martialed and shot.
38:54
Speaker 1: The General temporized with him till they came to the
38:57
Speaker 1: fringe of tropic trees by the bridge, and there by
39:00
Speaker 1: the singing river and the sunlit palms. For I can
39:03
Speaker 1: see the picture. The General drew his saber and plunged
39:08
Speaker 1: it through the body of the major. The wintery road
39:12
Speaker 1: curved over a ridge in cutting frost, with cruel black
39:16
Speaker 1: shapes of bush and thicket. But Flambeau fancied that he
39:20
Speaker 1: saw beyond it faintly the edge of an oriole that
39:24
Speaker 1: was not starlight and moonlight, but some fire such as
39:28
Speaker 1: is made by men. He watched it as the tail
39:31
Speaker 1: drew to its clothes Saint Clair was a hell hound,
39:37
Speaker 1: but he was a hound of a breed. Never elsewhere
39:41
Speaker 1: was he so lucid and so strong as when poor
39:45
Speaker 1: Murray lay a cold lump at his feet. Never in
39:49
Speaker 1: all his triumphs, as Captain Keith said, truly was the
39:53
Speaker 1: great man so great as he was in this last world.
39:57
Speaker 1: Despised defeat, he looked coolly at his weapon to wipe
40:02
Speaker 1: off the blood. He saw the point he had planted
40:05
Speaker 1: between his victim's shoulders had broken off in the body.
40:09
Speaker 1: He saw, quite calmly, as through a club window pane.
40:13
Speaker 1: All that must follow. He saw that men must find
40:17
Speaker 1: the unaccountable corpse, must extract the unaccountable sword. Point, must
40:22
Speaker 1: notice the unaccountable broken sword or absence of sword. He
40:27
Speaker 1: had killed but not silenced. But his imperious intellect rose
40:33
Speaker 1: against the facer. There was one way, yet, he could
40:37
Speaker 1: make the corpse less unaccountable. He could create a hill
40:42
Speaker 1: of corpses to cover this one. In twenty minutes, eight
40:47
Speaker 1: hundred English soldiers were marching down to their death. The
40:53
Speaker 1: warmer glow behind the black winter Wood grew richer and brighter,
40:57
Speaker 1: and Flambeaux strode on to reach it. Father Brown also
41:01
Speaker 1: quickened his stride, but he seemed merely absorbed in his tail.
41:07
Speaker 1: Such was the valor of that English thousand, and such
41:10
Speaker 1: the genius of their commander, that if they had at
41:14
Speaker 1: once attacked the hill, even their mad march might have
41:17
Speaker 1: met some luck. But the evil mind that played with
41:21
Speaker 1: them like ponds had other aims and reasons. They must
41:26
Speaker 1: remain in the marshes by the bridge, at least till
41:29
Speaker 1: British corpses could be a common sight there. Then, for
41:33
Speaker 1: the last grand scene, the silver haired soldier saint would
41:37
Speaker 1: give up his shattered sword to save further slaughter. Oh,
41:41
Speaker 1: it was well organized for an impromptu, but I think
41:46
Speaker 1: I cannot prove. I think that it was while they
41:49
Speaker 1: stuck there in the bloody mire that someone doubted, and
41:54
Speaker 1: some one guessed. He was muted a moment, and then said,
41:59
Speaker 1: there is a voice from nowhere that tells me the
42:02
Speaker 1: man who guessed was the lover, the man to wed
42:06
Speaker 1: the old man's child. But what about Olivier in the hanging,
42:10
Speaker 1: asked Flambeaux. Olivier, partly from chivalry, partly from policy, seldom
42:17
Speaker 1: encumbered his march with captives, explained the narrator he released everybody.
42:22
Speaker 1: In most cases he released everybody. In this case, everybody
42:27
Speaker 1: but the general, said the tall man. Everybody, said the priest.
42:34
Speaker 1: Flambeaux knit his black brows. I don't grasp at all yet,
42:39
Speaker 1: he said. There is another picture. Flambeaux said Brown, in
42:44
Speaker 1: his more bistical undertone. I can't prove it, but I
42:47
Speaker 1: can do more. I can see it. There is a
42:51
Speaker 1: camp breaking up on the bare Torrid hills at morning,
42:55
Speaker 1: and Brazilian uniforms massed in blocks and columns to march.
43:01
Speaker 1: There is the red shirt and long black beard of Olivier,
43:04
Speaker 1: which blows as he stands, his broad brimmed hat in
43:08
Speaker 1: his hand. He is saying farewell to the great enemy.
43:12
Speaker 1: He is setting free the simple snow headed English veteran,
43:16
Speaker 1: who thanks him in the name of his men. The
43:19
Speaker 1: English remnant stand behind at attention. Besides them are stores
43:24
Speaker 1: and vehicles for the retreat. The drums roll, the Brazilians
43:29
Speaker 1: are moving. The English are like statues, so they abide
43:33
Speaker 1: till the last hum and flash of the enemy have
43:36
Speaker 1: faded from the tropic horizon. Then they alter their postures
43:41
Speaker 1: all at once, like dead men coming to life. They
43:45
Speaker 1: turn their fifty faces upon the general faces not to
43:50
Speaker 1: be forgotten. Plambeaux gave a great jump ah. He cried,
43:56
Speaker 1: you don't mean yes, said Father Bran in a deep
44:01
Speaker 1: moving voice. It was an English hand that put the
44:05
Speaker 1: rope round Saint Clair's neck. I believe the hand that
44:09
Speaker 1: put the ring on his daughter's finger. They were English
44:13
Speaker 1: hands that dragged him up to the tree of shame,
44:16
Speaker 1: the hands of men that had adored him and followed
44:19
Speaker 1: him to victory. And there were English souls, God, pardon
44:23
Speaker 1: and endure us, all who stared at him swinging in
44:27
Speaker 1: that foreign sun on the green gallows of palm, and
44:31
Speaker 1: prayed in their hatred that he might drop off it
44:35
Speaker 1: into hell. As the two topped the ridge, there burst
44:40
Speaker 1: on them the strong scarlet light of a red curtained
44:44
Speaker 1: English inn. It stood sideways in the road, as if
44:48
Speaker 1: standing aside in the amplitude of hospitality. Its three doors
44:53
Speaker 1: stood open with invitation, and even where they stood they
44:57
Speaker 1: could hear the hum and laughter of humanity. Be for
45:00
Speaker 1: a night. I need not tell you more, said father Brown.
45:06
Speaker 1: They tried him in the wilderness and destroyed him. And
45:09
Speaker 1: then for the honor of England and of his daughter,
45:12
Speaker 1: they took an oath to seal up forever the story
45:16
Speaker 1: of the traitor's purse and the assassin's sword blade. Perhaps
45:21
Speaker 1: Heaven help them. They tried to forget it. Let us
45:25
Speaker 1: try to forget it anyhow. Here is our m with
45:28
Speaker 1: all my heart, said Flambeau, and was just striding into
45:33
Speaker 1: the bright, noisy bar when he stepped back and almost
45:36
Speaker 1: fell on the road. Look there in the devil's name,
45:40
Speaker 1: he cried, and pointed rigidly at the square wooden sign
45:45
Speaker 1: that overhung the road. It showed dimly the crude shape
45:50
Speaker 1: of a saber hilt and a shortened blade, and was
45:53
Speaker 1: inscribed in false archaic lettering the sign of the broken sword.
46:00
Speaker 1: Were you not prepared, asked Father Brown gently. He is
46:04
Speaker 1: the god of this country. Half the inns in parks
46:07
Speaker 1: and streets are named after him and his story. I
46:11
Speaker 1: thought we had done with the lever, cried Flambeau, and
46:14
Speaker 1: spat on the road. You will never have done with
46:18
Speaker 1: him in England, said the priest, looking down. While brass
46:21
Speaker 1: is strong and stone abides, his marble statues will erect
46:26
Speaker 1: the souls of proud, innocent boys for centuries. His village
46:30
Speaker 1: tomb will smell of loyalty as of lilies. Millions who
46:35
Speaker 1: never knew him shall love him like a father. The
46:38
Speaker 1: man whom the last few that knew him dealt with
46:41
Speaker 1: like dung. He shall be a saint, and the truth
46:46
Speaker 1: shall never be told of him. Because I have made
46:49
Speaker 1: up my mind at last, there is so much good
46:52
Speaker 1: and evil in breaking secrets, that I put my conduct
46:56
Speaker 1: to a test. All these newspapers will perish. The anti
47:01
Speaker 1: Brazil boom is over. Olivier is already honored everywhere. But
47:06
Speaker 1: I told myself that if anywhere by name in metal
47:10
Speaker 1: or marble that will endure like the Pyramids, Colonel Clancy
47:14
Speaker 1: or Captain Keith, our President Olivier, or any innocent man
47:18
Speaker 1: was wrongly blamed, then I would speak. If it were
47:22
Speaker 1: only that Saint Clair was wrongly praised, I would be silent,
47:27
Speaker 1: and I will. They plunged into the red curtain to tavern,
47:32
Speaker 1: which was not only cozy but even luxurious. Inside, on
47:36
Speaker 1: a table stood a silver model of the tomb of
47:39
Speaker 1: Saint Clair. The silver head bowed, the silver sword broken.
47:44
Speaker 1: On the walls were colored photographs of the same scene
47:48
Speaker 1: and of the system of wagonettes that took tourists to
47:51
Speaker 1: see it. They sat down on the comfortable padded benches.
47:56
Speaker 1: Come it's cold, cried father Brown. Let us have some
47:59
Speaker 1: wine or beer or brandy, said Flambeau. End of Part two.
48:07
Speaker 1: End of the Sign of the Broken Sword by G. K.
48:10
Speaker 1: Chesterton