Welcome to Part Twenty-Eight of our current audio adventure: a far-sighted novel of 1907 by Robert Hugh Benson, Lord of the World.
Thank you for your many comments on this most ambitious of literary endeavours. Steyn Clubber Israel Pickholtz, who lives not far from where tonight's events take place, writes:
I see there was no mention of the fate of nuns in the convents. Today that would be different.
Well, maybe. But, when an entire city is vapourised, who knows? In tonight's episode, we get a sense of how total is the devastation visited by President Felsenburgh upon Rome:
There were left three Cardinals alive, Himself, Steinmann, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem; the rest lay mangled somewhere in the ruins of Rome. There was no precedent to follow; so the two Europeans had made their way out to the East, and to the one town in it where quiet still reigned. With the disappearance of Greek Christianity there had also vanished the last remnants of internecine war in Christendom; and by a kind of tacit consent of the world, Christians were allowed a moderate liberty in Palestine. Russia, which now held the country as a dependency, had sufficient sentiment left to leave it alone; it was true that the holy places had been desecrated, and remained now only as spots of antiquarian interest; the altars were gone but the sites were yet marked, and, although mass could no longer be said there, it was understood that private oratories were not forbidden.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Twenty-Eight of our adventure simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you'd like to know more about The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and don't forget our special gift membership. Do join me tomorrow evening for Part Twenty-Nine of Lord of the World - and just ahead of that some special Valensteyn programming.
