ed about
equality. Some stars are big and some small; some stand still and some
circle around them as they stand. They can be orderly, but they cannot
be equal."

"They are all very beautiful," said Evan, as if in doubt.

"They are all beautiful," answered the other, "because each is in his
place and owns his superior. And now England will be beautiful after the
same fashion. The earth will be as beautiful as the heavens, because our
kings have come back to us."

"The Stuart----" began Evan, earnestly.

"Yes," answered the old man, "that which has returned is Stuart and yet
older than Stuart. It is Capet and Plantagenet and Pendragon. It is all
that good old time of which proverbs tell, that golden reign of Saturn
against which gods and men were rebels. It is all that was ever lost
by insolence and overwhelmed in rebellion. It is your own forefather,
MacIan with the broken sword, bleeding without hope at Culloden. It is
Charles refusing to answer the questions of the rebel court. It is Mary
of the magic face confronting the gloomy and grasping peers and the
boorish moralities of Knox. It is Richard, the last Plantagenet,
giving his crown to Bolingbroke as to a common brigand. It is Arthur,
overwhelmed in Lyonesse by heathen armies and dying in the mist,
doubtful if ever he shall return."

"But now----" said Evan, in a low voice.

"But now!" said the old man; "he has returned."

"Is the war still raging?" asked MacIan.

"It rages like the pit itself beyond the sea whither I am taking you,"
answered the other. "But in England the king enjoys his own again.
The people are once more taught and ruled as is best; they are happy
knights, happy squires, happy servants, happy serfs, if you will; but
free at last of that load of vexation and lonely vanity which was called
being a citizen."

"Is England, indeed, so secure?" asked Evan.

"Look out and see," said the guide. "I fancy you have seen this place
before."

They were driving through the air towards one region of the sky where
the hollow of night seemed darkest and which was quite without stars.
But against this black background there sprang up, picked out in
glittering silver, a dome and a cross. It seemed that it was really
newly covered with silver, which in the strong moonlight was like
white flame. But, however, covered or painted, Evan had no difficult
in knowing the place again. He saw the great thoroughfare that sloped
upward to the base of its huge p