110 LONDON INSECTS 



to their more brilliant qualities the patient obstinacy 

 which made Sir Henry Lawrence's band hold out in 

 Lucknow till Havelock came, in spite even of ' infinite 

 torture of flies.' 



Difference of race may be at the bottom of much 

 that is to be seen north of the Tweed and across St. 

 George's Channel ; but making all allowance for this, the 

 legacies of conquest will not be lost sight of altogether. 

 And Scotland was once, as completely as Ireland ever 

 was, a conquered country, and with every prospect of 

 remaining so, until a Spider came to the rescue, and 

 by cheering the Bruce as he lay with broken spirits 

 six times beaten to make a last attempt which was to 

 succeed, drove out the English and delayed the Union 

 for three hundred years, until all reasonable excuse for 

 soreness was forgotten. 



To look further still afield and take a wider view. 

 It is a simple matter of history that the danger faced 

 on the field of Tours did more than anything else to 

 startle Europe, which had lain for a long time half- 

 stunned and stupefied by the fall of Rome, into life 

 again. And surely not even the modern sceptics, who 

 throw doubt on the Dun Cow, and try to explain away 

 Lady Godiva's ride through Coventry, would wish us to 

 give up the sure belief that we should never have heard 

 of the Saracens but for that other Spider which stood 

 ready at Allah's command to throw his web, at a 

 critical moment, over the hole in the cave in which 

 Mahomet crouched for his life on the great day of the 

 Hegira the day which is to every Mussulman, good, 



