Let rumours be, when did not rumours fly?
Contrary to the rumours that you've heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-El, to save the planet Earth.
Wars and rumours of wars.
Vana quoque ad veros accessit fama timores=--Idle rumours were also added to well-founded apprehensions.
The flying Rumours gather'd as they roll'd, Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told; And all who told it, added something new, And all who heard it, made Enlargements too, In ev'ry Ear it spread, on ev'ry Tongue it grew.
With these facts was mixed an astounding jumble of rumours, distortions, and plain lies. For instance, an intelligent young Cadet, formerly private secretary to Miliukov and then to Terestchenko, drew us aside and told us all about the taking of the Winter Palace.
“We are revolutionists, comrades, not bandits,” answered the commandant. He turned to us. We explained that rumours were going about that the _yunkers_ were being tortured, and the lives of the Ministers threatened. Could we perhaps see the prisoners, so as to be able to prove to the world--?”
13:7. And when you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, fear ye not. For such things must needs be: but the end is not yet.
Evgenie himself was very likely going abroad also; so were Prince S. and his wife, if affairs allowed of it; the general was to stay at home. They were all at their estate of Colmina now, about twenty miles or so from St. Petersburg. Princess Bielokonski had not returned to Moscow yet, and was apparently staying on for reasons of her own. Lizabetha Prokofievna had insisted that it was quite impossible to remain in Pavlofsk after what had happened. Evgenie had told her of all the rumours current in town about the affair; so that there could be no talk of their going to their house on the Yelagin as yet.
There were rumours current as to Gania, too; but circumstances soon contradicted these. He had fallen seriously ill, and his illness precluded his appearance in society, and even at business, for over a month. As soon as he had recovered, however, he threw up his situation in the public company under General Epanchin's direction, for some unknown reason, and the post was given to another. He never went near the Epanchins' house at all, and was exceedingly irritable and
Little by little, the rumours spread about town became lost in a maze of uncertainty. It was said that some foolish young prince, name unknown, had suddenly come into possession of a gigantic fortune, and had married a French ballet dancer. This was contradicted, and the rumour circulated that it was a young merchant who had come into the enormous fortune and married the great ballet dancer, and that at the wedding the drunken young fool had burned seventy thousand roubles at a candle out of pure
From Europe came rumours of peace at the expense of Russia. (See App. II, Sect. 6)...
However, all these rumours soon died down, to which circumstance certain facts largely contributed. For instance, the whole of the Rogojin troop had departed, with him at their head, for Moscow. This was exactly a week after a dreadful orgy at the Ekaterinhof gardens, where Nastasia Philipovna had been present. It became known that after this orgy Nastasia Philipovna had entirely disappeared, and that she had since been traced to Moscow; so that the exodus of the Rogojin band was found consistent with this report.
"'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what is a common subject for conversation.
There were several rumours afloat, before long, which upset Totski's equanimity a good deal, but we will not now stop to describe them; merely mentioning an instance or two. One was that Nastasia had entered into close and secret relations with the Epanchin girls--a most unlikely rumour; another was that Nastasia had long satisfied herself of the fact that Gania was merely marrying her for money, and that his nature was gloomy and greedy, impatient and selfish, to an extraordinary degree; and that although he had been keen enough in his desire to achieve a conquest before, yet since the two friends had agreed to exploit his passion for their own purposes, it was clear enough that he had begun to consider the whole thing a nuisance and a nightmare.
On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which presented more singular features than that which was associated with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. The events in question occurred in the early days of my association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even more terrible than the truth.
The prince was away for six months, and even those who were most interested in his destiny were able to pick up very little news about him all that while. True, certain rumours did reach his friends, but these were both strange and rare, and each one contradicted the last.
24:6. And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must come to pass: but the end is not yet.
They are printing orders of the traitor Kerensky and creating a panic in the city, spreading the most ridiculous rumours of mythical victories by that renegade....
“The problem of the day is not only to render harmless irresponsible demagogues, but to fight against the counter-revolution.... If rumours are true that certain generals in the provinces are attempting to profit by events in order to march on Petrograd with other designs, it is only one more proof that we must establish a solid base of democratic government. Otherwise, troubles with the Right will follow troubles from the Left....
Evgenie called upon the prince the day after that on which the Epanchins left Pavlofsk. He knew of all the current rumours,--in fact, he had probably contributed to them himself. The prince was delighted to see him, and immediately began to speak of the Epanchins;--which simple and straightforward opening quite took Evgenie's fancy, so that he melted at once, and plunged in medias res without ceremony.
Citizens! Don’t believe these false rumours. No power can defeat the People’s Revolution.... Premier Kerensky and his followers await speedy and well-deserved punishment....
Gorky pointed out that both reactionary and Government newspapers were inciting the Bolsheviki to violence. An insurrection, however, would prepare the way for a new Kornilov. He urged the Bolsheviki to deny the rumours. Potressov, in the Menshevik _Dien_ (Day), published a sensational story, accompanied by a map, which professed to reveal the secret Bolshevik plan of campaign.
What would the Bolsheviki do? Rumours ran through the city that there would be an armed “demonstration,” a _vystuplennie_--“coming out” of the workers and soldiers. The bourgeois and reactionary press prophesied insurrection, and urged the Government to arrest the Petrograd Soviet, or at least to prevent the meeting of the Congress. Such sheets as _Novaya Rus_ advocated a general Bolshevik massacre.
The air was full of rumours about Kerensky, who was said to have raised the Front, and to be leading a great army against the capital. _Volia Naroda_ published a _prikaz_ launched by him at Pskov:
Again rumours are spreading around the town of an intended _vystuplennie._ What is the source of these rumours? What organisation authorises these agitators who preach insurrection? The Bolsheviki, to a question addressed to them in the _Tsay-ee-kah,_ denied that they have anything to do with it.... But these rumours themselves carry with them a great danger. It may easily happen that, not taking into consideration the state of mind of the majority of the workers, soldiers and peasants, individual hot-heads will call out part of the workers and soldiers on the streets, inciting them to an uprising.... In this fearful time through which revolutionary Russia is passing, any insurrection can easily turn into civil war, and there can result from it the destruction of all organisations of the proletariat, built up with so much labour.... The counter-revolutionary plotters are planning to take advantage of this insurrection to destroy the Revolution, open the front to Wilhelm, and wreck the Constituent Assembly.... Stick stubbornly to your posts! Do not come out!
“And in these terrible critical days rumours creep about that SOMEWHERE a demonstration is being prepared, that SOME ONE is calling on the soldiers and workers to destroy revolutionary peace and order.... _Rabotchi Put,_ the newspaper of the Bolsheviki, is pouring oil on the flames: it flattering, trying to please the unenlightened people, tempting the worker and soldiers, urging them on against the Government, promising them mountains of good things.... The confiding, ignorant men believe, they do not reason.... And from the other side come also rumours--rumours that the Dark Forces, the friends of the Tsar, the German spies, are rubbing their hands with glee. They are ready to join the Bolsheviki, and with them fan the disorders into civil war.
The prince had observed that Nastasia knew well enough what Aglaya was to him. He never spoke of it, but he had seen her face when she had caught him starting off for the Epanchins' house on several occasions. When the Epanchins left Pavlofsk, she had beamed with radiance and happiness. Unsuspicious and unobservant as he was, he had feared at that time that Nastasia might have some scheme in her mind for a scene or scandal which would drive Aglaya out of Pavlofsk. She had encouraged the rumours and excitement among the inhabitants of the place as to her marriage with the prince, in order to annoy her rival; and, finding it difficult to meet the Epanchins anywhere, she had, on one occasion, taken him for a drive past their house. He did not observe what was happening until they were almost passing the windows, when it was too late to do anything. He said nothing, but for two days afterwards he was
After these events the French forces disappeared from German eyes for some weeks. D'Aurelle de Paladines, the commander of the "Army of the Loire" (15th and 16th corps), improvised a camp of instruction at Salbris in Sologne, several marches out of reach, and subjected his raw troops to a stern régime of drill and discipline. At the same time an "Army of the West" began to gather on the side of Le Mans. This army was almost imaginary, yet rumours of its existence and numbers led the German commanders into the gravest errors, for they soon came to suspect that the main army lay on that side and not on the Loire, and this mistaken impression governed the German dispositions up to the very eve of the decisive events around Orleans in December. Thus when at last D'Aurelle took the offensive from Tours (whither he had transported his forces, now 100,000 strong) against the position of the I. Bavarian corps near Orleans, he found his task easy. The Bavarians, outnumbered and unsupported, were defeated with heavy losses in the battle of Coulmiers (November 9), and, had it not been for the inexperience, want of combination, and other technical weaknesses of the French, they would have been annihilated. What the results of such a victory as Coulmiers might have been, had it been won by a fully organized, smoothly working army of the same strength, it is difficult to overestimate. As it was, the retirement of the Bavarians rang the alarm bell all along the line of the German positions, and that was all. Entry: V
The _Berliner Neueste Nachrichten_, commenting on this appointment, very aptly characterized the relations of the new chancellor to the emperor, in contrast to the position occupied by Bismarck. "The Germany of William II.," it said, "does not admit a Titan in the position of the highest official of the Empire. A cautious and versatile diplomatist like Bernhard von Bülow appears to be best adapted to the personal and political necessities of the present situation." Count Bülow, indeed, though, like Bismarck, a "realist," utilitarian and opportunist in his policy, made no effort to emulate the masterful independence of the great chancellor. He was accused, indeed, of being little more than the complacent executor of the emperor's will, and defended himself in the Reichstag against the charge. The substance of the relations between the emperor and himself, he declared, rested on mutual good-will, and added: "I must lay it down most emphatically that the prerogative of the emperor's personal initiative must not be curtailed, and will not be curtailed, by any chancellor.... As regards the chancellor, however, I say that no imperial chancellor worthy of the name ... would take up any position which in his conscience he did not regard as justifiable." It is clear that the position of a chancellor holding these views in relation to a ruler so masterful and so impulsive as the emperor William II. could be no easy one; and Bülow's long continuance in office is the best proof of his genius. His first conspicuous act as chancellor was a masterly defence in the Reichstag of German action in China, a defence which was, indeed, rendered easier by the fact that Prince Hohenlohe had--to use his own words--"dug a canal" for the flood of imperial ambition of which warning had been given in the famous "mailed fist" speech. Such incidents as this, however, though they served to exhibit consummate tact and diplomatic skill, give little index to the fundamental character of his work as chancellor. Of this it may be said, in general, that it carried on the best traditions of the Prussian service in whole-hearted devotion to the interests of the state. The accusation that he was an "agrarian" he thought it necessary to rebut in a speech delivered on the 18th of February 1906 to the German Handelstag. He was an agrarian, he declared, in so far as he came of a land-owning family, and was interested in the prosperity of agriculture; but as chancellor, whose function it is to watch over the welfare [v.04 p.0794] of all classes, he was equally concerned with the interests of commerce and industry (_Kölnische Zeitung_, Feb. 20, 1906). Some credit for the immense material expansion of Germany under his chancellorship is certainly due to his zeal and self-devotion. This was generously recognized by the emperor in a letter publicly addressed to the chancellor on the 21st of May 1906, immediately after the passage of the Finance Bill. "I am fully conscious," it ran, "of the conspicuous share in the initiation and realization of this work of reform... which must be ascribed to the statesmanlike skill and self-sacrificing devotion with which you have conducted and promoted those arduous labours." Rumours had from time to time been rife of a "chancellor crisis" and Bülow's dismissal; in the _Berliner Tageblatt_ this letter was compared to the "Never!" with which the emperor William I. had replied to Bismarck's proffered resignation. Entry: BÜLOW
To meet this pressing danger, which came to his knowledge during the course of the 29th, Moltke sent a confidential staff officer, Colonel v. Verdy du Vernois, to the III. army to impress upon the crown prince the necessity of an immediate advance to distract the enemy's attention from the I. and II. armies; but, like the French generals, the crown prince pleaded that he could not move until his trains were complete. Fortunately for the Germans, the French intelligence service not only failed to inform the staff of this extraordinary opportunity, but it allowed itself to be hypnotized by the most amazing rumours. In imagination they saw armies of 100,000 men behind every forest, and, to guard against these dangers, the French troops were marched and counter-marched along the frontiers in the vain hope of discovering an ideal defensive position which should afford full scope to the power of their new weapons. Entry: V
Edward was duke of Cornwall from his birth, but he was never prince of Wales, and he was only nine when he succeeded his father as king of England and Ireland and supreme head of the church (28th of January 1546/7). His nonage threw power into the hands of Somerset and then of Northumberland, and enabled Gardiner and Bonner to maintain that the royal supremacy over the church was, or should be, in abeyance. Projects for his marriage were hardly even the occasion, but only the excuse, for Somerset's war on Scotland and Northumberland's subsequent alliance with France. All factions sought to control his person, not because of his personality but because of his position; he was like the Great Seal, only more so, an indispensable adjunct to the wielder of authority. The Protector's brother tried to bribe him with pocket-money; Northumberland was more subtle and established a complete dominion over his mind, and then put him forward at the age of fourteen as entitled to all the power of Henry VIII. But he was only Northumberland's mask; of his individual influence on the course of history during his reign there is hardly a trace. A posthumous effort was made to give him the credit of a humane desire to save Joan Bocher from the flames; but he recorded with apparently cold-blooded indifference the execution of both his uncles, and he certainly made no attempt to mitigate the harassing attentions which the council paid his sister Mary. This passed for piety with the zealots, and the persecutions of Mary's reign reflected a halo on that of the Protestant Josiah. So strong was the regret that rumours of his survival persisted, and hare-brained youths were found to personate him throughout Mary's and even far into Elizabeth's reign. Entry: EDWARD
The struggle now seemed to be ended, and the financial question having also been settled, the king, had he been so minded, might have dismissed the Estates. But the still more important question of reform was now raised. On the 17th of September the burgesses introduced a bill proposing a new constitution, which was to include local self-government in the towns, the abolition of serfdom, and the formation of a national army. It fell to the ground for want of adequate support; but another proposition, the fruit of secret discussion between the king and his confederates, which placed all fiefs under the control of the crown as regards taxation, and provided for selling and letting them to the highest bidder, was accepted by the Estate of burgesses. The significance of this ordinance lay in the fact that it shattered the privileged position of the nobility, by abolishing the exclusive right to the possession of fiefs. What happened next is not quite clear. Our sources fail us, and we are at the mercy of doubtful rumours and more or less unreliable anecdotes. We have a vision of intrigues, mysterious conferences, threats and bribery, dimly discernible through a shifting mirage of tradition. Entry: HISTORY
Houchard's offensive died away completely, and he halted his army (45,000 strong excluding detachments) at Gaverelle, half-way between Douai and Arras, hoping thereby to succour Bouchain, Cambrai or Arras, whichever should prove to be Coburg's next objective. After standing still for several days, a prey to all the conflicting rumours that reached his ears, he came to the conclusion that Coburg was about to join the duke of York in a second siege of Dunkirk, and began to close on his left. But his conclusion was entirely wrong. The Allies were closing on _their_ left inland to attack Maubeuge. Coburg drew in Beaulieu, and even persuaded the Dutch to assist, the duke of York undertaking for the moment to watch the whole of the Flanders cordon from the sea to Tournai. But this concentration of force was merely nominal, for each contingent worked in the interests of its own masters, and, above all, the siege that was the object of the concentration was calculated to last four weeks, i.e. gave the French four weeks unimpeded liberty of action. Entry: CAMPAIGNS
JUNOT, ANDOCHE, DUKE OF ABRABANTES (1771-1813), French general, was born at Bussy-le-Grand (Côte d'Or), on the 23rd of October 1771. He went to school at Chatillon, and was known among his comrades as a blustering but lovable creature, with a pugnacious disposition. He was studying law in Paris at the outbreak of the Revolution and joined a volunteer battalion. He distinguished himself by his valour in the first year of the Revolutionary wars, and came under the special notice of Napoleon Bonaparte during the siege of Toulon, while serving as his secretary. It is related that as he was taking down a despatch, a shell burst hard by and covered the paper with sand, whereupon he exclaimed, "Bien! nous n'avions pas de sable pour sécher l'encre! en voici!" He remained the faithful companion of his chief during the latter's temporary disgrace, and went with him to Italy as aide-de-camp. He distinguished himself so much at the battle of Millesimo that he was selected to carry back the captured colours to Paris; returning to Italy he went through the campaign with honour, but was badly wounded in the head at Lonato. Many rash incidents in his career may be traced to this wound, from which he never completely recovered. During the expedition to Egypt he became a general of brigade. His devotion to Bonaparte involved him in a duel with General Lanusse, in which he was again wounded. He had to be left in Egypt to recover, and in crossing to France was captured by English cruisers. On his return to France he was made commandant of Paris, and afterwards promoted general of division. It was at this time that he married Laure Permon (see JUNOT, LAURE). He next served at Arras in command of the grenadiers of the army destined for the invasion of England, and made some alterations in the equipment of the troops which received the praise of the emperor. It was, however, a bitter mortification that he was not appointed a marshal of France when he received the grand cross of the legion of honour. He was made colonel-general of hussars instead and sent as ambassador to Lisbon, his entry into which city resembled a royal progress. But he was so restless and dissatisfied in the Portuguese capital that he set out, without leave, for the army of Napoleon, with which he took part in the battle of Austerlitz, behaving with his usual courage and zeal. But he soon gave fresh offence. Although his early devotion was never forgotten by the emperor, his uncertain temper and want of self-control made it dangerous to employ him at court or headquarters, and he was sent to Parma to put down an insurrection and to be out of the way. In 1806 he was recalled and became governor of Paris. His extravagance and prodigality shocked the government, and some rumours of an intrigue with a lady of the imperial family--it is said Pauline Bonaparte--made it desirable again to send him away. He was therefore appointed to lead an invading force into Portugal. For the first time Junot had a great task to perform, and only his own resources to fall back upon for its achievement. Early in November 1807 he set out from Salamanca, crossed the mountains of Beira, rallied his wearied forces at Abrantes, and, with 1500 men, dashed upon Lisbon, in order, if possible, to seize the Portuguese fleet, which had, however, just sailed away with the regent and court to Brazil. The whole movement only took a month; it was undoubtedly bold and well-conducted, and Junot was made duke of Abrantes and invested with the governorship of Portugal. But administration was his weak point. He was not a civil governor, but a _sabreur_, brave, truculent, and also dissipated and rapacious, though in the last respect he was far from being the worst offender amongst the French generals in Spain. His hold on Portugal was never supported by a really adequate force, and his own conduct, which resembled that of an eastern monarch, did nothing to consolidate his conquest. After Wellesley encountered him at Vimiera (see Peninsular War) he was obliged to conclude the so-called convention of Cintra, and to withdraw from Portugal with all his forces. Napoleon was furious, but, as he said, was spared the necessity of sending his old friend before a court martial by the fact that the English put their own generals on their trial. Junot was sent back to Spain, where, in 1810-1811, acting under Masséna, he was once more seriously wounded. His last campaign was made in Russia, and he received more than a just share of discredit for it. Napoleon next appointed him to govern Illyria. But Junot's mind had become deranged under the weight of his misfortunes, and on the 29th of July 1813, at Montbard, he threw himself from a window in a fit of insanity. Entry: JUNOT