the midday sun
For , moving alone in a solid phalanx , each vessel separated only by the space necessary for close manoeuvring , came the royal barges of Europe , ranked on either side by a line of guard-boats -- France , Austria , and Germany , then Belgium and Holland , then the Scandinavian kingdoms , then a crowd of lesser States from the Balkan , Greece , and the Black Sea ; then the black-eagled barge of Russia , and finally the great galleons of Spain and Italy : and on each sat a royal figure beneath a canopy of state . And last of all moved a huge vessel , in scarlet and white , with a banner of white and gold and cross-keys at the prow ; scarcely seen at first through the crowding craft , with a squadron of guard-ships coming after . There , then , the man who had lost his memory sat motionless , and watched it all -- this astounding display of inner grace transformed into glory at last , that Royalty which since first the Fisherman took his seat in Holy Rome , had little by little , through reverse and success , forced its way outwards on the world -- the leaven hid in the meal till all was leavened ... . And it seemed to him as he looked , as if , through the splendour of the midday sun , the glitter of that sea of air-craft -- through the pealing of the bells beneath and the shock of the guns and the shrill crying that filled the air -- there moved other Presences , too , in yet a third medium than those of air and earth ; as if diffused throughout this material plane was a world of more than matter and mind , more than of sense and perception -- a world where all was reconciled and made at one -- this clash of flesh and spirit -- and that at last each answered to each , and spirit inspired flesh , and flesh expressed spirit . It seemed to him , for one blinding instant , as if at last he saw how distance was contained in a single point , colour in whiteness , and sound in silence , as at the very Word of Him who now at last had taken His power and reigned , whose Kingdom at last had come indeed , to whom in very truth All Power was given in heaven and earth ... The white-skirted , clean-looking doctor came briskly and noiselessly into the little room that opened off Ward No . IV in the Westminster Hospital as the clock pointed to nine o'clock in the morning , and the nursing-sister stood up to receive him .