Chapter I: Preface

Many a tale of blood and tears has come to us of late from far Euphrates, and from the regions round about. It is not so much the aim of the following pages to tell these over again as to show the light that, even there, shines through the darkness. "I do set My bow in the cloud" is true of the densest, most awful cloud of human misery. As in the early ages of Christianity, "what little child, what tender woman" was there

"Who did not clasp the cross with a light laugh,
Or wrap the burning robe round, thanking God"?

As in later times, of no less fervent faith, "men took each other's hands and walked into the fire, and women sang a song of triumph while the gravedigger was shovelling the earth over their living faces," so now, in our own days, there still walks in the furnace, with His faithful servants, "One like unto the Son of God."

Every instance of faith or heroism given in these pages is not only true in itself, but typical of a hundred others. The tale is told, however feebly and inadequately, to strengthen our own faith and quicken our own love. It is told also to stir our own hearts to help and save the remnant that is left. The past is past, and we cannot change it now; but we CAN still save from death, or from fates worse than death, the children of Christian parents, who are helpless and desolate orphans because their parents _were_ Christians, and true to the Faith they professed and the Name they loved.

D. ALCOCK.

CONTENTS

PAGE
CHAPTER I

THE DARK RIVER 1

CHAPTER II

FATHER AND SON 9

CHAPTER III

FIRST IMPRESSIONS 17

CHAPTER IV

A NEW LIFE 26

CHAPTER V

BARON MUGGURDITCH THOMASSIAN 44

CHAPTER VI

ROSES AND BATH TOWELS 59

CHAPTER VII

GATHERING STORMS 66

CHAPTER VIII

A PROPOSAL 73

CHAPTER IX

PEACE AND STRIFE 91

CHAPTER X

AN ARMENIAN WEDDING 113

CHAPTER XI

AN ADVENTUROUS RIDE 125

CHAPTER XII

THE USE OF A REVOLVER 143

CHAPTER XIII

WHAT PASTOR STEPANIAN THOUGHT 155

CHAPTER XIV

A MODERN THERMOPYLÆ 173

CHAPTER XV

DARK HOURS 194

CHAPTER XVI

"THE DARK RIVER TURNS TO LIGHT" 214

CHAPTER XVII

A GREAT CRIME 229

CHAPTER XVIII

EVIL TIDINGS 241

CHAPTER XIX

A GREAT CRIME CONSUMMATED 256

CHAPTER XX

BY ABRAHAM'S POOL, AND ELSEWHERE 271

CHAPTER XXI

"GOD-SATISFIED AND EARTH-UNDONE" 287

CHAPTER XXII

GIVEN BACK FROM THE DEAD 301

CHAPTER XXIII

BETROTHAL 315

CHAPTER XXIV

UNDER THE FLAG OF ENGLAND 323

CHAPTER XXV

AT HOME 341

CHAPTER XXVI

A SERMON 351

APPENDIX 367