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IN THE DARK ENTRANCE THERE APPEARED A FLAMINGFIGURE.]
The Napoleon ofNotting Hill
THE NAPOLEON_of_NOTTING HILL
_By_GILBERT K. CHESTERTON
_With Seven Full-Page Illustrations byW. GRAHAM ROBERTSONand a Map of the Seat of War_
REV. WILLIAM J. GORMLEY, C. M.
JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEADLONDON & NEW YORK. MDCCCCIV
_Copyright inU.S.A., 1904_
William Clowes & Sons, Limited, London and Beccles.
_TO HILAIRE BELLOC_
_For every tiny town or place God made the stars especially; Babies look up with owlish face And see them tangled in a tree: You saw a moon from Sussex Downs, A Sussex moon, untravelled still, I saw a moon that was the town's, The largest lamp on Campden Hill._
_Yea; Heaven is everywhere at home The big blue cap that always fits, And so it is (be calm; they come To goal at last, my wandering wits), So is it with the heroic thing; This shall not end for the world's end, And though the sullen engines swing, Be you not much afraid, my friend._
_This did not end by Nelson's urn Where an immortal England sits-- Nor where your tall young men in turn Drank death like wine at Austerlitz. And when the pedants bade us mark What cold mechanic happenings Must come; our souls said in the dark, "Belike; but there are likelier things."_
_Likelier across these flats afar These sulky levels smooth and free The drums shall crash a waltz of war And Death shall dance with Liberty; Likelier the barricades shall blare Slaughter below and smoke above, And death and hate and hell declare That men have found a thing to love._
_Far from your sunny uplands set I saw the dream; the streets I trod The lit straight streets shot out and met The starry streets that point to God. This legend of an epic hour A child I dreamed, and dream it still, Under the great grey water-tower That strikes the stars on Campden Hill._