And without a single thought for the woman whose confidence
he was betraying, and of whose bread and salt he had
partaken, Vandeloup shook the reins, and the horse
started down the road in the direction of Ballarat,
carrying Madame Midas and her nugget.
‘You carry Caesar and his fortunes, M. Vandeloup,’
she said, with a smile.
‘I do better,’ he answered, gaily, ’I
carry Madame Midas and her luck.’
LOVE’S YOUNG DREAM
Mr Mark Marchurst was a very peculiar man. Brought
up in the Presbyterian religion, he had early displayed
his peculiarity by differing from the elders of the
church he belonged to regarding their doctrine of
eternal punishment. They, holding fast to the
teachings of Knox and Calvin, looked upon him in horror
for daring to have an opinion of his own; and as he
refused to repent and have blind belief in the teachings
of those grim divines, he was turned out of the bosom
of the church. Drifting to the opposite extreme,
he became a convert to Catholicism; but, after a trial
of that ancient faith, found it would not suit him,
so once more took up a neutral position. Therefore,
as he did not find either religion perfectly in accordance
with his own views, he took the law into his own hands
and constructed one which was a queer jumble of Presbyterianism,
Catholicism, and Buddhism, of which last religion he
was a great admirer. As anyone with strong views
and a clever tongue will find followers, Mr Marchurst
soon gathered a number of people around him who professed
a blind belief in the extraordinary doctrines he promulgated.
Having thus founded a sect he got sufficient money
out of them to build a temple—for so he
called the barn-like edifice he erected—and
christened this new society which he had called into
existence ‘The Elect’. About one hundred
people were members of his church, and with their
subscriptions, and also having a little money of his
own, he managed to live in a quiet manner in a cottage
on the Black Hill near to his temple. Every Sunday
he held forth morning and evening, expounding his
views to his sparse congregation, and was looked upon
by them as a kind of prophet. As a matter of fact,
the man had that peculiar power of fascination which
seems to be inseparable from the prophetic character,
and it was his intense enthusiasm and eloquent tongue
that cast a spell over the simple-minded people who
believed in him. But his doctrines were too shallow
and unsatisfactory ever to take root, and it could
be easily seen that when Marchurst died ‘The
Elect’ would die also,—that is, as
a sect, for it was not pervaded by that intense religious
fervour which is the life and soul of a new doctrine.
The fundamental principles of his religion were extremely
simple; he saved his friends and damned his enemies,
for so he styled those who were not of the same mind
as himself. If you were a member of ‘The
Elect’, Mr Marchurst assured you that the Golden
Gate was wide open for you, whereas if you belonged
to any other denomination you were lost for ever;
so according to this liberal belief, the hundred people
who formed his congregation would all go straight
to Heaven, and all the rest of mankind would go to
the devil.
