t. . . . He saw to the southwards and
far away westwards across the seas, how now this country, now
that, flew its flag and administered its laws, yet how those
flags all together saluted the Crossed Keys; how those laws,
however diverse, bowed all together before the Law of Liberty;
and how there, farther yet, already the gates of the East had
rolled back, and how there peered out across half the world the
patient seeking faces of those old children of earth, awakened at
last to destinies greater than their own--awakened, not as men
had once feared, by the thunder of Christian guns, but by the
call of the Shepherd to sheep that were not of His Fold. . . .

So there the vision lay before him--this man who had lost his
memory and had found a greater gift instead.

* * * * *

An old priest in the white fur of a canon came gently up the deck
from behind. . . .

"Your Eminence . . ." he said, "they have signalled up the
line. . . . I thought, perhaps----"

The new Cardinal started as one from a dream.

"What is it, Father Jervis? . . ."

The old man looked at him closely; then he laid his hand on his arm.

"Your Eminence, the King is waiting. Do you not remember? Your
Eminence was to give the signal."

Beneath, like huge voices speaking a single word all at once,
roared the old guns from the Tower and Greenwich and the palaces.

The Cardinal shook his head.

"I . . . I forget," he said; "I was thinking. . . . What am I to do?"

The old priest looked at him again earnestly, without speaking.
Then he leaned forward closer still.

"Will your Eminence authorize me to give the signals?"

"Yes, yes, Father . . . anything. What am I to do? Have I
to say anything?"

His eyes had a look of dawning terror in them as he glanced from
side to side. The priest once again laid his hand on the
lace-covered wrist and held it there steadily.

"Nothing at all, your Eminence. You have simply to sit still. I
will arrange everything."

Still standing there, he turned slightly and made a sharp gesture
behind the throne with his left hand. A bell sounded instantly.
There was a moment's silence. Then once again a bell; and a
chorus answered it.

Very slowly the Cardinal lifted his head, and saw before him the
Royal barge sway ever so slightly, conscious himself that through
his own vessel a vibration was beginning to run as the huge
engines beneath moved into action. Again roared the guns far down
the river, and