tats of the
League as a modern battleship would be to a three-decker of the time
of Nelson.

"The power represented by such a fleet as this is absolutely
inconceivable. The aerostats are large, clumsy, and comparatively
slow. They do not carry guns, and can only drop their projectiles
vertically downwards. Moreover, their sphere of operations has so far
been entirely confined to the land.

"Very different, however, would seem to be the powers of the
Terrorist air-ships. They have proved conclusively that they are
swift almost beyond imagination. They have crossed oceans and
continents in a few hours; they can ascend to enormous heights, and
they carry artillery of unknown design and tremendous range, whose
projectiles excel in destructiveness the very lightnings of heaven
itself.

"In the presence of such an awful and mysterious power as this even
the quarrels of nations seem to shrink into unimportance, and almost
to pettiness. Where and when it may strike, no man knows save those
who wield it, and therefore there is nothing for the peoples of the
earth, however mighty they may be, to do but to await the blow in
humiliating impotence, but still with a humble trust in that Higher
Power which alone can save it from accomplishing the destruction of
Society and the enslavement of the human race."

It may well be imagined with what interest, and it may fairly be
added with what intense anxiety, these words were read by hundreds of
thousands of people throughout the British Islands. Even the news
from the Seat of War began to pall in interest before such tidings as
these, invested as they were with the irresistible if terrible charm
of the unknown and the mysterious.

By noon it was almost impossible to get any one in London or any of
the large towns to talk of anything but the disappearance of Lord
Alanmere, the Terrorists, and their marvellous aerial fleet. But it
goes without saying that nowhere did the news produce greater
distress or more utter bewilderment than it did among the occupants
of Alanmere Castle, and especially in the breast of her who had been
so quickly and so strangely installed as its new owner and mistress.

Everywhere the wildest rumours passed from lip to lip, growing in
sensation and absurdity as they went. A report, telegraphed by an
anonymous idiot from Liverpool, to the effect that six air-ships had
appeared over the Mersey, and demanded a ransom of L10,000,000 from
the town, was eagerly