Nice Chap

"Thoughtful, intelligent and committed"




UPDATE - only vaguely related, but Billy Bragg was in Bradford last week playing the East-Ender card for all it was worth.

"Where I come from in Barking we have a BNP councillor. One morning we woke up and 52 per cent of the people in a Labour ward had voted for the BNP. That was a bit of a shock"

How about "Where I came from in Barking (before I left for rural Dorset when the kids came along), they have a BNP councillor. One morning in September 2004 they woke up and 52 per cent of the people in a Labour ward had voted for the BNP. That was a bit of a shock. For them. But I'd long gone."

Prescott Latest ...

The Times :

"Mr Prescott has taken advice from friends such as Rosie Winterton, the Health Minister"

Sounds a sensible choice. As Drinking From Home (who also has a Cherie Blair exclusive) points out, Rosie is an expert on marriage.

March 2002 : "I want to reiterate that this Government supports marriage politically and financially. It recognises that marriage is the surest foundation for raising children ... We all understand that, in healthcare, prevention is better than cure. What we must now seek to do is take the same understanding forward into all areas of work on marriage and relationship support. To work on fostering the welfare and well-being of relationships."

April 2002 : "Most of us have a pretty good idea of how to look after our own health. But too many people have little or no idea about relationship well being – what to do if their relationship gets into difficulty. Or, more importantly, how to secure a better chance of avoiding problems in the first place."

Mr Clarke - Over Here !

"A man who stabbed a drug dealer to death before cutting his body into 133 pieces and dumping it in a canal, has been jailed for life at the Old Bailey.
Marvin Gentles, of north-west London gave Abdul El-Gharras, 31, some crack to sell, but instead he smoked it.

Mr Gentles, 28, was attacked after tracking El-Gharras down at his flat in Lisson Grove, central London."

"The prosecution said Mr Gentles suffered 26 stab wounds and cuts - some of them while he was still alive.

El-Gharras used a saw to cut up the body, and when he could not clean the blood from his flat he set it on fire, causing an explosion. "

Sounds like a nice chap - just the sort of person our ageing workforce needs.

The BBC report quoted above seems to have missed a couple of pertinent details, picked up by Reuters.

"LONDON (Reuters) - A Moroccan drug dealer was jailed for life on Thursday for killing his boss, chopping the body into 133 pieces and throwing them into a canal before setting his flat on fire in a bid to destroy evidence.

Abdul El-Gharras, 31, was obsessed with decapitation and had downloaded videos of al Qaeda beheadings before murdering Marvin Gentles last June in an argument over crack cocaine, the Old Bailey criminal court heard."

Mr Clarke - Over Here !

"A man who stabbed a drug dealer to death before cutting his body into 133 pieces and dumping it in a canal, has been jailed for life at the Old Bailey.
Marvin Gentles, of north-west London gave Abdul El-Gharras, 31, some crack to sell, but instead he smoked it.

Mr Gentles, 28, was attacked after tracking El-Gharras down at his flat in Lisson Grove, central London."

"Gharras used a saw to cut up the body, and when he could not clean the blood from his flat he set it on fire, causing an explosion. "

Sounds like a nice chap - just the sort of person our ageing workforce needs.

The BBC report quoted above seems to have missed a couple of pertinent details, picked up by Reuters.

"LONDON (Reuters) - A Moroccan drug dealer was jailed for life on Thursday for killing his boss, chopping the body into 133 pieces and throwing them into a canal before setting his flat on fire in a bid to destroy evidence.

Abdul El-Gharras, 31, was obsessed with decapitation and had downloaded videos of al Qaeda beheadings before murdering Marvin Gentles last June in an argument over crack cocaine, the Old Bailey criminal court heard."

Presumably a foreign national then - and with an unhealthy interest in the more robust manifestations of the Religion of Peace. Can't understand why the BBC should have missed that.

I see no mention of deportation orders by the judge. If Mr El-Gharras isn't booted out when his time is up, something's very wrong. But then we know that already.

In other theyre-good-for-the-economy news, a 13-year old Lithuanian boy is kicked to death in East London - presumably by some other group of doing-the-jobs-we-wont (or the BBC would be telling us all about it). Ah, kids - they don't grow up so soon nowadays.

In other murder news, the barbarians who killed Mary-Ann Leneghan are sentenced.

It emerged after the trial that Thomas, Johnson, Jamaile Morally and Krasniqi, had been serving community sentences at the time of the murder.

In the Guardian, a hilarious and sad piece on the aftermath of the murder.

"Today the six men responsible for her death will learn their fate at a sentencing hearing at Reading crown court. Justice will be served. But what no one in the town seems to want to discuss is how a 16-year-old schoolgirl, who should have been preparing for her GCSEs, fell in with this ruthless and violent drugs gang - and why no one thought to intervene.

Susan Harris, Mary Ann's 54-year-old mother, finds it hard to talk about her daughter or what led her to associate with the likes of Adrian Thomas, the 20-year-old leader of the drug gang. Close family friends have set up a website to appeal for money to support Harris in her grief. Requests for an interview with her are met with the query: "Will there be a fee?"

At Prospect College, the secondary school where Mary Ann was a pupil with an appalling attendance record, senior teachers refuse to discuss the teenager or her recidivist truancy. Louisa John, the school's community relations officer, tells me: "We have moved on."

Meanwhile, Reading borough council, the local education authority, will not comment on whether the education welfare department was alerted to Mary Ann's problems, or even on the drugs problem in the town, citing human rights as the reason for their silence."

Sad, because of the everyday story of underclass folk it reveals, from "eating chips and drinking cherry Lambrini in a friend's car" to "but what can you do ?" (A digression - we saw the bedroom of a friend's 14-year old son - covered in drug posters - dope leaves and E-related. They live in a town with major smack problems - the boy's best mate had an older brother dead of an overdose. "What can you do ? He's fourteen !" said mum.)

Sad, because the responses of the school and council show how caring the caring classes actually are. As long as the Wednesday Guardian is fat with non-job adverts all is well with them. They love mankind - it's people they can't help.

Hilarious, because for the Guardian to ask why society and community seems to have collapsed - well, I think chutzpah is the word, or 'brass neck'.

I imagine the answer will be 'more and earlier sex and drug education'.

I Disagree With What You Say ...

And you will be sacked if you exercise your right to say it.

He's Back II

James Hamilton.

Doesn't post that often (unless he's changed a mort) but always well-written, thoughtful, worth reading. Much missed - great to find he's back.

I must update my links ...

He's Back - And No More Mr Nice Guy

The mighty Littlejohn intervenes in the Prescott debate like a battleship in a cruiser fight.

From the opening salvo :

"So now we know why Two Jags always has the tetchy air of a man about to have his collar felt. Why he reacts to even the most innocuous question with an invitation to step outside.
He's been living in mortal dread of that moment when Fleet Street's finest knock on his door and ask him how long he's been cheating on his wife."

the shrapnel clearing the decks :

"a loathsome, Soviet-style political thug on the make"

"In his ascent — if that's the word — to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Two Jags has jettisoned everything he ever claimed to believe in. He's betrayed his class, his principles, and now his wife.

He has greedily acquired all the trappings of a Tory grandee — the turreted mansion, the country estate, the posh flat in town, the chauffeured limos, the private helicopters, the liveried flunkies, the padded expense account.

And now he's got his very own Tory sex scandal."

the steering gear and generators are gone :

"Tracey Temple hasn't surfaced yet. But her story will be worth a lot of money, and the Labour Party, in its current parlous financial state, can't afford to buy her silence.

Don't be surprised if she turns up in one of the Sunday tabloids sprawled across the bonnet of an XJ6, sporting a sailor's cap and telling all about "love rat" Prescott."

before the final blow to the engine room :

"Experience suggests that a man doesn't suddenly start straying at 63. How many more "moments of madness" have there been?

I'm prepared to bet that once Fleet Street's dogs of war start trawling through the Labour Party, the National Union of Seamen and the darker corners of the corridors of power, this will prove not to have been the first time Two Jags has dipped his fingers in the typing pool.

My bet is that Max Clifford's phone was ringing off the hook yesterday."

We watch with a lump in the throat as the great shape rolls over, slowly sinking beneath the waves.

"Prescott's tenure has been one, long, unmitigated disaster. Where do you want to start? Perm any one from destroying the transport network to bulldozing the North of England to concreting over the South of England.

He's only been doing to Tracey what he's been doing to the rest of us for the past nine years. "

One Woe Doth Tread Upon Another's Heel ...

... so fast they follow.

BBC Radio News are reporting around 900 prisoners whose nationality is not known, and about another 600 who claim to be British but whose status is doubtful. Making a total of 11,500-odd foreigners out of 72,000 prisoners.

Apparently Charles Clarke, when he offered his resignation to Blair and had it refused. hadn't bothered to tell him that another 300-odd had walked free after he (Clarke) knew about the problem. The rate of release actually accelerated after that.

If Clarke doesn't go for this, what DOES a minister resign for ?

Apparently we're unlikely to find the released murderers and rapists - despite the fact that they're supposed to be monitored. Shows how secure the whole early release system is.

"Sir David Normington, the department's permanent secretary, said attempts were being made to find more than 900 offenders who should have been considered for deportation when they left jail.

However, he was unable to give MPs a commitment that the information was available, despite the fact that murderers are released on life licences that should ensure they are routinely monitored"

In totally unrelated news, a murderer out on licence gets ANOTHER life sentence for raping a child. Perhaps the first life sentence should have actually meant what it said.

"After the case, West Yorkshire Probation service said public protection was its highest priority."

Of course it isn't - otherwise murderers would never be released.

In more totally unrelated news, we see how tough the system is on foreign criminals :

"The leader of an immigration scam that cost the taxpayer more than £500,000 has been jailed for four years.
Mohammed Faruq, 56, was at the head of a scam to bring over Pakistani relatives who then changed their names and applied for asylum and benefits.

He pleaded guilty to harbouring illegal immigrants and conspiracy to defraud.

Sixteen people have been convicted over false asylum claims and false benefit claims amounting to £611,000 in Oxford between 2000 and 2004.

According to council officials who investigated the case, Faruq - a well-known member of the East Oxford community and a social housing landlord - would provide them with emergency accommodation costing up to £235 a night then claimed rent back from the county council's social services. "

Fair enough - I presume Mr Faruq is an upstanding British citizen - although I'd happily do two years (you only serve half the sentence) for £500,000. Seems a decent pay rate. But what of the bogus asylum seeksrs, who'd come to the UK specifically to defraud taxpayers ?

"Most received suspended sentences and none of those brought into the country were recommended for deportation, on grounds of human rights and the fact that they now had children in the country, according to council officials."

On grounds of human rights, eh ? The human right to move to a country and defraud its citizens !

One last fatuity.

"We are looking to recover assets from Mr Faruq under the proceeds of Crime Act but this is still in the early stages. We are looking to recover a substantial sum of money."

You'd think Thames Valley Police would have heard of hawala.

If The Answer To The Question ...

is Rosie Winterton MP, what could the question be ?

Are The Prison Service Mad, Or Am I ?

Have a look at this list of PSIs (Prison Standing Instructions).

They appear to have forgotten the 'Hold Serious Foreign Offenders For Deportation' order, but this one's rather sweet.


Flying of national, European, Prison Service and company flags

10. Where an establishment has more than one flagstaff, the following flags may also be flown at the same time as the Union flag, but must not be in a superior position to it.
The Prison Service flag (except as detailed below)
For contracted out prisons, the relevant company’s flag (except as detailed below)
On St George’s Day, the national flag must be flown in preference to the Prison Service or company flag at establishments in England
On St David’s Day, the national flag must be flown in preference to the Prison Service or company flag at establishments in Wales
On Europe Day, the European flag must be flown in preference to the Prison Service or company flag

However, outside of St George's Day, the English flag is banned as racist.

The PSIs cover the serious issues. After all, who really cares about a few more murderers or rapists on the streets when there's stuff like this to worry about ?


12. The different Pagan denominations have their own spiritual philosophies, but these are generally in accord with the Three Principles of Paganism as defined by the Pagan Federation:

1) Love for and kinship with Nature. Reverence for the life force and its ever-renewing cycles of life and death.
2) A positive morality, in which the individual is responsible for the discovery and development of their true nature in harmony with the outer world and community. This is often expressed as ‘Do what you will, as long as it harms none'.
3) Recognition of the Divine, which transcends gender, acknowledging both the female and male aspect of Deity.

Looks like the prison service might be getting a new client soon. What was that again ?

Love for and kinship with Nature. Reverence for the life force and its ever-renewing cycles of life and death.

"In addition to shared interests in "money, paganism, sex, magic, and pills and potions", he and James liked to go to beaches together and watch sunsets."

Do what you will, as long as it harms none

"Peter Solheim suffered a gruesome death. He was murdered, having been sedated by a stupefying drug.

"His head and the joints of several of his limbs were targeted with blunt and sharp weapons either when he was dead or on the brink of death. His mutilated body was then dumped miles out at sea, his attackers thinking he was never to be seen again.

"Contrary to expectation, the body was spotted by fishermen within a few hours of it being dumped."

Reality Trumps Satire Again ...

Home Secretary Charles Clarke says he will not resign after 1,023 foreign prisoners were freed without being considered for deportation.

He said he does not know where most of the offenders, who include three murderers and nine rapists, are.

He admits that a growth in foreign prisoners had led to the Home Office taking its "eye off the ball".

The Guardian has details :

"The rules about deporting foreign nationals who serve a prison sentence in Britain are fairly straightforward and have not changed in recent years.

"Our policy has always been to consider serious offenders for deportation before release, or if that is not possible to make a decision about immigration detention, electronic monitoring or restriction orders before release," said Mr Clarke.

In practice the policy meant that any non-EU foreign national jailed for a serious crime - defined as a sentence of 12 months or more - was supposed to have the case for deportation considered before the end of his or her sentence. The Home Office said it had looked at 5,500 such cases in 2004 and 2005 and decided on deportation in 3,000 of them. In a minority of cases the court recommends that the individual should be deported at the end of their sentence - this was the case with 160 of the 1,023 foreign prisoners who had been overlooked."

I can't see why ANY offences short of a parking ticket shouldn't merit deportation - the above rules mean that quite serious thefts and assaults, or driving uninsured get past the 12 month sentence rule. But let it pass.

You can see how it would happen, of course. The Prison 'Service' is one of the most politically correct organisations in the country.

They have confessed to their institutional racism.

Like the police, they have 'targets' (not quotas - that would be racist) for ethnic minority staff.

Prison staff are prohibited from membership of organisations 'deemed to be racist'.

The way to honours and promotions is to exhibit anti-racism.

The flag of England is banned in prisons as a racist insignia.

In an environment like that, who's going to say :

"That chap Oluwale Mogambe - due for release next week. He's ... well ... he's not a foreigner, is he ?"

After all, there are plenty of British citizens with names like that. And you're in a service which is terrified of being seen as racist.

"What makes you ask that ?"

"Well .. he's got an unusual name"

"Could you just sit down for a minute ? I need to make a phone call."

"Governor ? I think we've got one"

"I'll be right down"

The great Aaronovitch said in 2003 that "there is no greater propensity among immigrants towards crime, prostitution and anti-social behaviour than among the population at large". In 2004 10% of the UK prison population were foreign nationals - around 7,000 people. The figure is now over 10,000. As I said before, if you accept the Aaronovitch thesis then these figures must simply reflect our racist criminal justice system.

In totally unrelated news, "Criminal gangs trading in people and fake ID are "out of control", senior police officers have told the BBC."

The Met does a nice line in understatement.

"This is an area, given the changes that are taking place in the nature of London, which is something that we should invest in."

And in more totally unrelated news, "a majority of people back the British National Party's policies, according to a new poll."

"It found that 59% of people supported a halt to all further immigration to the UK - one of the BNP's main pledges - when they were not told of the far-right group's association with the policy.

Among those who were told that it was a BNP commitment, support for the policy was only 48%."

The full survey is here. What's interesting - and I think reflects well on the English - is that the statement

Non-white British citizens are inherently ‘less British’ than
white citizens.

was opposed by 68% of respondents and only supported by 16% - and these were people who hadn't been asked the question in the context of the BNP (when the proportions fell to 76/11). These aren't people who want to start packing cattle trucks full of unfortunates.

Its numbers that are cheesing off the natives - and giving the BNP support - numbers, numbers, numbers. The demographics are such that we're already well on the way to seeing an ethnically divided polity.

A year or so back I wrote to two famous liberal columnists, asking them both the same question - do numbers matter in the immigration debate ?

One replied that I'd been reading the Daily Mail too much - a paper I have bought maybe twice in the last year - and pretty much concluded I'd been seduced by the tabloid agenda, whatever that means.

The other replied 'Really, the question's not worth answering. The government would never allow immigration to grow in such a way'.

You Can Run, But You Can't Hide

Left London for Shropshire or Gloucestershire, or maybe Dorset ? For the children, of course. Better schools, a slower pace of life, the city's 'frantic lifestyle' ?

Don't think you can get away from multicultural England that easily.


Professor Ted Cantle does his bit for the local election campaign by highlighting the fact that there are still some 'unhealthily white' towns in Derbyshire. Apparently such places are dangerous for ethnic minorities.

Professor Ted Cantle, who wrote the report on the 2001 riots in Bradford and Oldham, suggested people from ethnic minorities in some parts of the Midlands might not feel “safe and secure” living near predominantly white communities.

Just imagine a Government adviser and academic saying that our major cities were dangerous for white people because of their large ethnic minority populations.

He'd be out of a job before you could say Frank Ellis.

And he wouldn't get another one with Cheshire Police, either.

Police forces should be allowed to fast-track job applicants from ethnic minorities, despite the practice being against the law, a leading officer has claimed.

The Chief Constable of Cheshire, Peter Fahy, is appealing to the Government to change the law on positive discrimination to enable police chiefs to meet tough Home Office targets for increasing the number of black and Asian officers.

Whan is a quota not a quota ? When it's a target which your performance (and bonus) will be judged against.

Peter Fahy runs Sir Ian Blair pretty close in the race for the most PC PC. It's he who had the Bishop Of Chester investigated and consulted with the Crown Prosecution Service over the following hate speech :

"Some people who are primarily homosexual can reorientate themselves. I would encourage them to consider that as an option, but I would not set myself up as a medical specialist on the subject - that's in the area of psychiatric health."

Of course, such things never happen in the real world.

A Technical Query - any Techies Out There ?

In the happy steam-powered days of the 56k modem, you'd occasionally double-click the connection icon to see how many bytes you'd sent and received. You might find you'd sent a few 10s of K, and retrieved a few meg over an hour or so.

Not so since broadband.

I use a firewall (Zonealarm basic), Panda antivirus, Spybot monitoring the Windows config. Win2000 with service packs, IE6 with updates.

BT Voyager 205 ADSL router (I haven't tweaked this in any way, including the default password - should I ?)

Router goes to a Netgear switch and from there to three PCs.

For this and the previous post I've fired up the box, checked BBC news, searched my blog for the Falconer link, Google image search and Blogger. Connected for 18 minutes, received 2.5 meg, sent - a staggering 958K - nearly a meg for visits to 4 websites plus Google.

What on earth is all this data - and where the hell's it going ?

New Scam ?

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The header on the mail contains this :

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:51:40 +0400 (MSD)
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:51:40 +0400 (MSD)
From: "euromillions2006"
Sender: euromillions2006@yandex.ru
Message-Id: <444B866C.000001.16447@soapbox.yandex.ru>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Yamail [ http://yandex.ru ]
Errors-To: euromillions2006@yandex.ru
Subject: REVIEW AND RESPOND
Reply-To: euromillions2006@yandex.ru
X-Source-Ip: 64.201.33.9
X-Originating-Ip: 10.254.9.2

Hmmm.


The phone number (with 44 knocked off and 0 added) is provided by Magrathea, according to the ICSTIS website.

Men Without Religion ...

"Just can't keep in a righteous man's position."

Joel Edwards of the Evangelical Alliance expands this Gregory Isaacs theme.

"Politicians are happy to embrace the pragmatic benefits of Britain’s faith communities who now have a seat at every conceivable table of policy making in Britain. But this is happening precisely at a time when the volume of legislation is going against the values of religious communities on a whole range of moral issues from abortion and human sexuality to family life and education. Public servants want our goods but not necessarily our gods.

If we are to build better communities based on Respect, the idea that we are congenitally and corporately Fallen is a politically astute starting point. It means that mass murders, child abuse, racial intolerance or company fraud may disappoint us deeply but they will never shock us as we legislate against them. Politicians don’t have to preach about ‘sin’ and ‘Fallen-ness’ but these spiritual signposts should not be defaced in the name of progress or professionalism.

Consequently, Christian faith suggests that a recovery of a ‘culture of respect’ begins with a renewal of our Fallen-ness or at least recognition of our need for it. Great transitions in British culture have taken place as a result of changed values which have been internalised. This was true of the Reformation, Wesley’s revival and Wilberforce’s mission to abolish slavery and see a ‘reformation of manners’ As the French philosopher Tocqueville affirmed in his 18th century studies of American life it was the ‘habits of the heart’ which shaped the culture of the people"

Amen to that.

"Inevitably the individualisation of choice yields a harvest of personal moralities. Quiet simply it’s hard to know what’s right from wrong. Our society had a long run-up to our dysfunctional society. Asbo’s were a long time coming. A 1940 survey amongst teachers showed that the seven most serious matters for them included chewing gum, running in corridors and dropping litter. By comparison in 1990 teachers were complaining of problems such as guns, alcohol, suicide and assault"

"One thing is clear: in the absence of a moral consensus and apart from a willingness to share a common ancestry in God, legislation will fail to arrest our growing culture of disrespect."

"Philip Johnson is right to point out that since 1997 we have had over two dozen criminal justice acts introducing a catalogue of offences. “If the first wave of initiatives failed,” he asks, “why should the new measures succeed; and if they are working, why do we need even more?”[17] It is a reasonable question. In pursuing a new culture of respect the Government would do better to put more resources on informing attitudes rather than added to the maze of legislation."

Bang, bang, bang. Nails smacked firmly on head.

Joel Edwards came here from Jamaica when he was nine years old. If there are any Church of England bishops with his vision, or with his knowledge of British history and culture, they're keeping remarkably quiet about it.

The New St George

Written in 1971 by Richard Thompson, in the days when there were still factories and forges in England. Prophetic stuff.


The time has come for action
Leave your satisfaction
Can’t you hear St. George’s tune
St. George’s tune is calling you on
Freedom was your mother
Fight for one another
Leave the factory, leave the forge
And dance to the new St. George

Don’t believe pretenders
Who say they would defend us
While they flash their teeth and wave
The other hand is being paid
They choke the air and bleed us
These noble men who lead us
Leave the factory, leave the forge
And dance to the new St. George

The fish and fowl are ailing
The farmer’s life is failing
Where are all the backroom boys
You backroom boys won’t save us now
We’re poisoned by the greedy
Who plunder off the needy
Leave the factory, leave the forge
And dance to the new St. George




Thompson was prophetic in his spiritual life, too. He had always been searching for meaning in life, and converted to Islam in 1974. He obviously wasn't inspired by the wishy-washy standards of contermporary Christianity. He's still a Muslim.

Talking of which, read Peter Hitchens views on Islam and many other topics in these two Conservative Home posts, here and here.

A Nation Once Again ....

Can we have our democracy back please, Messrs Brown and Falconer ?


Icon of St George by Ilian Rachov.



"Ah, the mummers, the mummers!" cried several guests at once. "Clear a space for the mummers."

Humpbacked Father Christmas then made a complete entry, swinging his huge club, and in a general way clearing the stage for the actors proper, while he informed the company in smart verse that he was come, welcome or welcome not; concluding his speech with

"Make room, make room, my gallant boys,
And give us space to rhyme;
We've come to show Saint George's play,
Upon this Christmas time."

The guests were now arranging themselves at one end of the room, the fiddler was mending a string, the serpent-player was emptying his mouthpiece, and the play began. First of those outside the Valiant Soldier entered, in the interest of Saint George--

"Here come I, the Valiant Soldier;
Slasher is my name";

and so on. This speech concluded with a challenge to the infidel, at the end of which it was Eustacia's duty to enter as the Turkish Knight. She, with the rest who were not yet on, had hitherto remained in the moonlight which streamed under the porch. With no apparent effort or backwardness she came in, beginning--

"Here come I, a Turkish Knight,
Who learnt in Turkish land to fight;
I'll fight this man with courage bold:
If his blood's hot I'll make it cold!"

During her declamation Eustacia held her head erect, and spoke as roughly as she could, feeling pretty secure from observation. But the concentration upon her part necessary to prevent discovery, the newness of the scene, the shine of the candles, and the confusing effect upon her vision of the ribboned visor which hid her features, left her absolutely unable to perceive who were present as spectators. On the further side of a table bearing candles she could faintly discern faces, and that was all.

Meanwhile Jim Starks as the Valiant Soldier had come forward, and, with a glare upon the Turk, replied--

"If, then, thou art that Turkish Knight,
Draw out thy sword, and let us fight!"

And fight they did; the issue of the combat being that the Valiant Soldier was slain by a preternaturally inadequate thrust from Eustacia, Jim, in his ardour for genuine histrionic art, coming down like a log upon the stone floor with force enough to dislocate his shoulder. Then, after more words from the Turkish Knight, rather too faintly delivered, and statements that he'd fight Saint George and all his crew, Saint George himself magnificently entered with the well-known flourish--

"Here come I, Saint George, the valiant man,
With naked sword and spear in hand,
Who fought the dragon and brought him to the slaughter,
And by this won fair Sabra, the King of Egypt's daughter;
What mortal man would dare to stand
Before me with my sword in hand?"

This was the lad who had first recognized Eustacia; and when she now, as the Turk, replied with suitable defiance, and at once began the combat, the young fellow took especial care to use his sword as gently as possible. Being wounded, the Knight fell upon one knee, according to the direction. The Doctor now entered, restored the Knight by giving him a draught from the bottle which he carried, and the fight was again resumed, the Turk sinking by degrees until quite overcome--dying as hard in this venerable drama as he is said to do at the present day.

Thomas Hardy - The Return of the Native