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The Sign of the Broken Sword - GK Chesterton · Classic Drama Book Collection

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