Project Gutenberg's The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by Gilbert K. Chesterton

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Napoleon of Notting Hill

Author: Gilbert K. Chesterton

Illustrator: W. Graham Robertson

Release Date: December 8, 2006 [EBook #20058]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NAPOLEON OF NOTTING HILL ***

Produced by Jason Isbell, Diane Monico, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: IN THE DARK ENTRANCE THERE APPEARED A FLAMING
FIGURE.]

The Napoleon of
Notting Hill

THE NAPOLEON
_of_
NOTTING HILL

_By_
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON

_With Seven Full-Page Illustrations by
W. GRAHAM ROBERTSON
and a Map of the Seat of War_

REV. WILLIAM J. GORMLEY, C. M.

JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD
LONDON & NEW YORK. MDCCCCIV

_Copyright in
U.S.A., 1904_

William Clowes & Sons, Limited, London and Beccles.

_TO HILAIRE BELLOC_

_For every tiny town or place
God made the stars especially;
Babies look up with owlish face
And see them tangled in a tree:
You saw a moon from Sussex Downs,
A Sussex moon, untravelled still,
I saw a moon that was the town's,
The largest lamp on Campden Hill._

_Yea; Heaven is everywhere at home
The big blue cap that always fits,
And so it is (be calm; they come
To goal at last, my wandering wits),
So is it with the heroic thing;
This shall not end for the world's end,
And though the sullen engines swing,
Be you not much afraid, my friend._

_This did not end by Nelson's urn
Where an immortal England sits--
Nor where your tall young men in turn
Drank death like wine at Austerlitz.
And when the pedants bade us mark
What cold mechanic happenings
Must come; our souls said in the dark,
"Belike; but there are likelier things."_

_Likelier across these flats afar
These sulky levels smooth and free
The drums shall crash a waltz of war
And Death shall dance with Liberty;
Likelier the barricades shall blare
Slaughter below and smoke above,
And death a