When I got back to the hotel crowds were besetting it, and at the door stood a grey Rolls-Royce, which I knew for Allenby's. I ran in and found him there with Clayton and Cornwallis and other noble people. In ten words he gave his approval to my having impertinently imposed Arab Governments, here and at Deraa, upon the chaos of victory. He confirmed the appointment of Ah' Riza Rikabi as his Military Governor, under the orders of Feisal, his Army Commander, and regulated the Arab sphere and Chauvel's.

He agreed to take over my hospital and the working of the railway. In ten minutes all the maddening difficulties had slipped away. Mistily I realized that the harsh days of my solitary battling had passed. The lone hand had won against the world's odds, and I might let my limbs relax in this dreamlike confidence and decision and kindness which were Allenby.

Then we were told that Feisal's special train had just arrived from Deraa. A message was hurriedly sent him by Young's mouth, and we waited till he came, upon a tide of cheering which beat up against our windows. It was fitting the two chiefs should meet for the first time in the heart of their victory; with myself still acting as the interpreter between them.

Allenby gave me a telegram from the Foreign Office, recognizing to the Arabs the status of belligerents; and told me to translate it to the Emir: but none of us knew what it meant in English, let alone in Arabic: and Feisal, smiling through the tears which the welcome of his people had forced from him, put it aside to thank the Commander-in-Chief for the trust which had made him and his movement. They were a strange contrast: Feisal, large-eyed, colourless and worn, like a fine dagger; Allenby, gigantic and red and merry, fit representative of the Power which had thrown a girdle of humour and strong dealing round the world.

When Feisal had gone, I made to Allenby the last (and also I think the first) request I ever made him for myself--leave to go away. For a while he would not have it; but I reasoned, reminding him of his year-old promise, and pointing out how much easier the New Law would be if my spur were absent from the people. In the end he agreed; and then at once I knew how much I was sorry.

EPILOGUE

DAMASCUS HAD NOT SEEMED A SHEATH FOR MY SWORD, WHEN I LANDED IN ARABIA: BUT ITS CAPTURE DISCLOSED THE EXHAUSTION OF MY MAIN SPRINGS OF ACTION. THE STRONGEST MOTIVE THROUGHOUT HAD BEEN A PERSONAL ONE, NOT MENTIONED HERE, BUT PRESENT TO ME, I THINK, EVERY HOUR OF THESE TWO YEARS. ACTIVE PAINS AND JOYS MIGHT FLING UP, LIKE TOWERS, AMONG MY DAYS: BUT, REFLUENT AS AIR, THIS HIDDEN URGE RE-FORMED, TO BE THE PERSISTING ELEMENT OF LIFE, TILL NEAR THE END. IT WAS DEAD, BEFORE WE REACHED DAMASCUS.

NEXT IN FORCE HAD BEEN A PUGNACIOUS WISH TO WIN THE WAR: YOKED TO THE CONVICTION THAT WITHOUT ARAB HELP ENGLAND COULD NOT PAY THE PRICE OF WINNING ITS TURKISH SECTOR. WHEN DAMASCUS FELL, THE EASTERN WAR--PROBABLY THE WHOLE WAR--DREW TO AN END.

THEN I WAS MOVED BY CURIOSITY. 'SUPER FLUMINA BABYLONIS', READ AS A BOY, HAD LEFT ME LONGING TO FEEL MYSELF THE NODE OF A NATIONAL MOVEMENT. WE TOOK DAMASCUS, AND I FEARED. MORE THAN THREE ARBITRARY DAYS WOULD HAVE QUICKENED IN ME A ROOT OF AUTHORITY.

THERE REMAINED HISTORICAL AMBITION, INSUBSTANTIAL AS A MOTIVE BY ITSELF. I HAD DREAMED, AT THE CITY SCHOOL IN OXFORD, OF HUSTLING INTO FORM, WHILE I LIVED, THE NEW ASIA WHICH TIME WAS INEXORABLY BRINGING UPON US. MECCA WAS TO LEAD TO DAMASCUS; DAMASCUS TO ANATOLIA, AND AFTERWARDS TO BAGDAD; AND THEN THERE WAS YEMEN. FANTASIES, THESE WILL SEEM, TO SUCH AS ARE ABLE TO CALL MY BEGINNING AN ORDINARY EFFORT.