ng
with the south and east were cut. As day after day passed, signs of
an intense but strongly suppressed excitement became more and more
visible all over the provinces, and especially in the great towns and
cities.

In London very much the same thing had happened. Hundreds of
thousands of civilians vanished during that seven days of anxious
waiting for the hour of deliverance, and in their place sprang up
orderly regiments of grey-clad soldiers, who saw the red knot in each
other's button-holes, and welcomed each other as comrades unknown
before.

To the surprise of the commanders of the regular army, orders had
been issued by the King that all possible assistance was to be
rendered to these strange legions, which had thus so suddenly sprang
into existence; and the result was that when the sun set on the 5th
of December, the twenty-first day of the total blockade of London,
the beleaguered space contained over two millions of armed men,
hungering both for food and vengeance, who, like the five millions of
their fellow-countrymen outside London, were waiting for a sign from
the sky to fling themselves upon the entrapped and unsuspecting
invader.

That night countless eyes were upturned throughout the length and
breadth of Britain to the dun pall of wintry cloud that overspread
the land. Yet so far, so perfect was the discipline of this gigantic
host, not a sign of overt hostile movement had been made, and the
commanders of the armies of the League looked forward with exulting
confidence to the moment, now only a few hours distant, when the
capital of the British Empire, cut off from all help, should be
surrendered into their hands in accordance with the terms agreed
upon.

When night fell the _Ithuriel_ was floating four thousand feet above
Aberdeen. Arnold and Natasha, wrapped in warm furs, were standing on
deck impatiently watching the sun sinking down over the sea of clouds
which lay between them and the earth.

"There it goes at last!" exclaimed Natasha, as the last of the level
beams shot across the cloud-sea and the rim of the pale disc sank
below the surface of the vapoury ocean. "The time that we have waited
and worked for so long has come at last. This is the eve of
Armageddon! Who would think it, floating up here above the clouds and
beneath those cold, calmly shining stars! And yet the fate of the
whole world is trembling in the balance, and the doings of the next
twenty-four hours will settle the de