Chapter I: Front Matter

The Napoleon of Notting Hill

THE NAPOLEON _of_ NOTTING HILL

_By_ GILBERT K. CHESTERTON

_With Seven Full-Page Illustrations by W. GRAHAM ROBERTSON and a Map of the Seat of War_

REV. WILLIAM J. GORMLEY, C. M.

JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD LONDON & NEW YORK. MDCCCCIV

_Copyright in U.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._

G. K. C.

_CONTENTS_

BOOK I

_Chapter_ _Page_

I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE ART OF PROPHECY 13

II. THE MAN IN GREEN 21

III. THE HILL OF HUMOUR 49

BOOK II

I. THE CHARTER OF THE CITIES 65

II. THE COUNCIL OF THE PROVOSTS 82

III. ENTER A LUNATIC 102

BOOK III

I. THE MENTAL CONDITION OF ADAM WAYNE 125

II. THE REMARKABLE MR. TURNBULL 147

III. THE EXPERIMENT OF MR. BUCK 163

BOOK IV

I. THE BATTLE OF THE LAMPS 189

II. THE CORRESPONDENT OF THE "COURT JOURNAL" 208

III. THE GREAT ARMY OF SOUTH KENSINGTON 224

BOOK V

I. THE EMPIRE OF NOTTING HILL 259

II. THE LAST BATTLE 279

III. TWO VOICES 291

_ILLUSTRATIONS_

IN THE DARK ENTRANCE THERE APPEARED A FLAMING FIGURE _Frontispiece_

_To face page_

CITY MEN OUT ON ALL FOURS IN A FIELD COVERED WITH VEAL CUTLETS 16

"I'M THE KING OF THE CASTLE" 70

"I BRING HOMAGE TO MY KING" 104

MAP OF THE SEAT OF WAR 190

KING AUBERON DESCENDED FROM THE OMNIBUS WITH DIGNITY 220

"A FINE EVENING, SIR," SAID THE CHEMIST 264

"WAYNE, IT WAS ALL A JOKE!" 296