August 30, 1 91 7 
LANE) & WATER 
17 
attfl*T5rfrtrf the clioiW°6f RYTrtaii sWiPtrru^^^ 
readings in the clays of powder and pcnike. when poets were 
?tiU elet^ant. and a part of soriety's amusement. D'Annunzio, 
small, blond, at once eager and discreet, with the air of a per- 
■ lectly charming bird of prey, his eyes full of bland smiles, 
his mouth, with its uplifted moustache, poised in a keen 
i expectant smile, had indeedthe air of a court poet as he stood 
in th. ante-room greeting his friends as they entered, before he 
made his way to the dais, draped at the back with crimson 
cloth, where he sat down at.the.taWe on which were liis !\IS. and 
a Bible. Once- seated, the reading once begun, you saw that 
other side to what you migljt have thought the merely mundane 
voung man ; you saw the artist, who, as he told me, -was well 
content if twelve hours' work had given him two pages ; for 
'--'iia'owiv words vis'rijiy absorbed, possessed him ; ho nfvoMifte^ • 
his eyes from the paper, he read all that chanting prose as if 
he were reading; it, not to the duchesses, but to the unseen 
company of the immortal judges of art. It had been announced 
that the conference was to be by someone else ; and one care-^ 
ful mother went to the host, and asked if he thought her ' 
daughter might remain. A French abbe, wlio had come to 
liear the unexceptionable Costa, seeing d'Annur.zio, quietly 
disappeared. Neither the abbe nor the motlier need have been 
alarmed. D'.Annunzio first read the parable out of the Bible, . 
then his gloss upon it. The gloss was full of colour and music. ' 
Then he read one of the most delicate of his poems, "Villa 
Chigi." Every one was charmed, d'Annunzio and all Ins 
hearers ; and then the duchesses went. 
An August Day, 1915 
By Bertha Harrison 
JL'ST at dawn there were two explosions. 
The waking hours brought a perfect autumn day. 
The sun shone, a soft haze hung over the woods and 
deepened the blue shadows in tlie folds of the great 
downs. From time to time an erratic breeze ruftled 
the smooth sea. The larks sang loudly- and disputed the 
^sovereignty of the upper air with other flying things — 
featherless — gigantic — that also sang loudly, but in a lower 
key. In the roadsteacl where some twent}' ships — chiefly 
neutrals — lay at anchor, the patrols were very busy running 
about paying visits now to one ship now to another. 
All at once the guardship — a respectable, elderly steamer, 
of comfortable build— slipped hf^ moorings and began 
racing about at full speed, her ■; inch gun barking defiantly. 
After a few minutes she described a circle, firing into the centre 
as she turned ; then, the manoeuvre completed, she paused a 
minutf or two as if to breathe herself, and returned to her 
moorings as if nothing untdN^ard had happened. 
After this we went out for a walk. 
()ur^ath lay over high grass fields and slanted into a narrow 
valley with a steep climb on the opposite side. Down that 
smooth green slope came an elderly gentleman of benign 
appearance but with a troubled look in his eyes. He stopped 
and passed the time of day. Then : " of coui-seyou have seen 
the wreck," he said. No, we had not seen it. " Vou will 
find it over there " — he pointed to where the clil? edge cut 
the sky line — " as usual the murderous devils had done the 
job thoroughly." And he went his .way down the hill. 
The cliff fell sheer 200 feet to the shingle beach ; and not 
half a mile from the shore lay the martyred ship — an oil 
tank steamer of some 3,000 tons ; built in the usual manner 
of her class, with high bows and engines aft. 
The job had been thoroughly done ; she was a total wreck. 
The torpedo had exploded in the engine room, so her stern 
was entirely submerged and she was, so to speak, sitting on her 
own tail. Her navigating bridge amidships was almost a- 
wash. and her shattered funnel, rising at a strange angle from 
the water, only waited a blow from a moderate wave to carry 
away altogether. • . . 
She was a piteous sight .'verily a mark of the Beast — an 
abomination of the De.solator. There is that in the aspect of 
a wrecked or disabled ship which rouses feelings akin to those 
excited by seeing a beautiful animal wounded to death ; 
and it was in such a mind we looked on the latest victim of the 
enemy's morning Hate. 
There was no sign of life aboard her. ' The living and some 
ol the dead had been taken ofi' earlier in the morning and landed 
at the little fcwn two miles away. Half a dozen gulls chatter- 
. ing querulously, and a young porpoise — his black fin showing 
from time to time as he chased his lunch — were the sole com- 
panions of the poor thing, and to them she was of no con- 
st quence at all. 
There. are many inhabitants of the British Isles to whom 
the cold blooded sa\ agery of the enemy is still but a name. 
They are somewhat shocked by reading (rf its manifestation 
in the papers; but the .daily recital has become so familiar 
to the public mind as to reduce itvjiearly to the state men- 
tioned in a certain homely proverb. 
To us, however, the thing came home as a concrete horror. 
Destruction had been wrought and men killed almost before 
our eyes. The enemy in his actual person was somewhere 
under that calm blue water. 
A further proof of his presence and activity awaited us 
beyond the next headland, where a big steamer loaded with 
timber was also in distress. She was afloat, though evidently 
badly holed ; and so low in the water as to seem in imminent 
danger of sinking. Probablv, however, her cargo- much of 
""■which she carried on dpck - helpefl -t^i keen bei: uu-: and with 
Some assistance she might get safely into port. Two power- 
ful tugs had already arrived and were preparing to take her 
in tow. A little group of trawlers stood by. 
A black destroyer slid up from the south, gave some orders ' 
and proceeded northwards. The tugs followed with the timber 
ship. The trawlers dispersed. All vanished in the misty 
distance. 
Then there was nothing left on the sea except the lightship 
aboiit three miles off. \ 
Lightships are dull. They do not look lik^ proper ships ; 
but are clumsy things, modelled apparently after the pattern' 
of those drawn by small children. Moreover, they make no 
appeal to the imagination of the adventurous, for they are- 
always in the same place ; and when — on a fine afternoon — '■ 
they bellow at regular intervals, they are irritating— to people' 
on shore. 
It was a beautiful afternoon ; land and sea were full of colour/ 
The turf was like a gay carpet, so thick were the flowers, 
eyebright, yellow crepis, pink and white clover, daisies,- 
scabious, harebells, yellow lotos ; with here and there clumps 
of ladies' tresses ; smallest and sweetest of English orchids. 
Wide patches of purple field gentians, delicate pink erigerons" 
and golden thistles brought back happy memories of Alpine 
valleys. The great knapweed and the wild mignonette 
fringed the cliffs with purple and pale gold ; and bej^ond, an 
-ultramarine sea melted into pearly distance. ■ 
The air was warm and balmy. The odours of the grass and' 
flowers mixed pleasantly with the sharp salt smell of the sea. 
The small waves fell lazily on the shore. Everything seemed 
at peace except the lightship. 
Presently, a little to the east of that discontented thing, a 
trawler emerged from the mist. After describing some curious 
evolutions, she began firing as if sh£ were at target practice. 
The shells hit the blue water into spirts of white foam. '• 
It was interesting to speculate as to what might happen.; 
Mines ? Possiblv ; though as a rule they are settled with 
rifle fire. Still •"...... 
The lightship bellowed on, but with uncertain tremulous 
tones, like a distressed cow. An aeroplane came droning, 
along like a cockchafer on a June evening and flew out over the- 
water ; it seemed she had a little word to say in the matter., 
A bomb flashed in mid-air. The trawler fired once more, 
then held her peace. The lightship ceased complaining. 
Suddenly the earth was seized with a great trembling as 
from an earthquake shock and there came a loud noise of 
rushing water. 
Not far from the. lightship the sea had become violently 
agitated. There was a boiling whirlpool of fierce white water, 
with breakers liissing angrily as they foamed and tossed 
themselves in all directions. It seemed as if the uttermost 
depths were being churned up by some irresistible unseen 
force. A few seconds — then a prolonged, heavy, thunderous 
roar shook the air and beat upon the ears with stupefying in- 
tensity. It was a terrifying sound. It surged up over the 
land and rolled awau sullenly among the hills. 
* " * * * « 
The sun shone. The warm air moved lightly over the scented 
land. The little waves crawled among the stones along the 
shore. The depths of the.sea held the silence of death. 
In the warm evening light the trawlers went home to their 
base. They steamed in single line ahead, keeping distance 
with the precision of a first class battle fleet. 
One among them was a happy little ship and well contented 
with the day's work, (iooci hunting had fallen to her lot. 
The evil wrought at dawn had been amply avenged before sun- 
set, and in tliat swift vengeance there was poetic justice. 
The Sea Beast had been rent in pieces from within by her own 
vile spawn. - . 
