Chapter I: Front Matter

THE JUDGMENT HOUSE

by

Gilbert Parker

CONTENTS

I THE JASMINE FLOWER
II THE UNDERGROUND WORLD
III A DAUGHTER OF TYRE
IV THE PARTNERS MEET
V A WOMAN TELLS HER STORY
VI WITHIN THE POWER-HOUSE
VII THREE YEARS LATER
VIII "HE SHALL NOT TREAT ME SO"
IX THE APPIAN WAY
X AN ARROW FINDS A BREAST
XI IN WALES, WHERE JIGGER PLAYS HIS PART
XII THE KEY IN THE LOCK
XIII "I WILL NOT SING"
XIV THE BAAS
XV THE WORLD WELL LOST
XVI THE COMING OF THE BAAS
XVII IS THERE NO HELP FOR THESE THINGS?
XVIII LANDRASSY'S LAST STROKE
XIX TO-MORROW ... PREPARE!
XX THE FURNACE DOOR
XXI THE BURNING FIERY FURNACE
XXII IN WHICH FELLOWES GOES A JOURNEY
XXIII "MORE WAS LOST AT MOHACKSFIELD"
XXIV ONE WHO CAME SEARCHING
XXV WHEREIN THE LOST IS FOUND
XXVI JASMINE'S LETTER
XXVII KROOL
XXVIII "THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM"
XXIX THE MENACE OF THE MOUNTAIN
XXX "AND NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET!"
XXXI THE GREY HORSE AND ITS RIDER
XXXII THE WORLD'S FOUNDLING
XXXIII "ALAMACHTIG!"
XXXIV "THE ALPINE FELLOW"
XXXV AT BRINKWORT'S FARM
XXXVI SPRINGS OF HEALING
XXXVII UNDER THE GUN
XXXVIII "PHEIDIPPIDES"
XXXIX "THE ROAD IS CLEAR"

NOTE

Except where references to characters well-known to all the world occur in these pages, this book does not present a picture of public or private individuals living or dead. It is not in any sense a historical novel. It is in conception and portraiture a work of the imagination.

"Strangers come to the outer wall--
(Why do the sleepers stir?)
Strangers enter the Judgment House--
(Why do the sleepers sigh?)
Slow they rise in their judgment seats,
Sieve and measure the naked souls,
Then with a blessing return to sleep.
(Quiet the Judgment House.)
Lone and sick are the vagrant souls--
(When shall the world come home?)"

"Let them fight it out, friend! things have gone too far,
God must judge the couple: leave them as they are--
Whichever one's the guiltless, to his glory,
And whichever one the guilt's with, to my story!

"Once more. Will the wronger, at this last of all,
Dare to say, 'I did wrong,' rising in his fall?
No? Let go, then! Both the fighters to their places!
While I count three, step you back as many paces!"

"And the Sibyl, you know. I saw her with my own eyes at
Cumae, hanging in a jar; and when the boys asked her, 'What
would you, Sibyl?' she answered, 'I would die.'"

"So is Pheidippides happy for ever,--the noble strong man
Who would race like a God, bear the face of a God, whom a
God loved so well:
He saw the land saved he had helped to save, and was suffered to tell
Such tidings, yet never decline, but, gloriously as he began
So to end gloriously--once to shout, thereafter to be mute:
'Athens is saved!' Pheidippides dies in the shout for his meed."

"Oh, never star
Was lost here, but it rose afar."

THE JUDGMENT HOUSE