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ANNO DOMINI 2000;
OR,
_WOMAN'S DESTINY_.

BY
SIR JULIUS VOGEL, K.C.M.G.

LONDON:
HUTCHINSON AND CO.,
25, PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
1889.


Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.


Dedicated
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF CARNARVON,
WHO, BY HIS SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS TO CONSOLIDATE
THE CANADIAN DOMINIONS, HAS
GREATLY AIDED THE CAUSE
OF FEDERATION.




CONTENTS.


                                   PAGE
PROLOGUE                              3


CHAPTER I.

THE YEAR 2000--UNITED BRITAIN        27


CHAPTER II.

THE EMPEROR AND HILDA FITZHERBERT    59


CHAPTER III.

LORD REGINALD PARAMATTA              67


CHAPTER IV.

A PARTIAL VICTORY                    83


CHAPTER V.

CABINET NEGOTIATIONS                 99


CHAPTER VI.

BAFFLED REVENGE                     119


CHAPTER VII.

HEROINE WORSHIP                     165


CHAPTER VIII.

AIR-CRUISERS                        177


CHAPTER IX.

TOO STRANGE NOT TO BE TRUE          193


CHAPTER X.

LORD REGINALD AGAIN                 215


CHAPTER XI.

GRATEFUL IRELAND                    233


CHAPTER XII.

THE EMPEROR PLANS A CAMPAIGN        251


CHAPTER XIII.

LOVE AND WAR                        261


CHAPTER XIV.

THE FOURTH OF JULY RETRIEVED        287


CHAPTER XV.

CONCLUSION                          295


EPILOGUE                            309




PROLOGUE.

A.D. 1920.


George Claude Sonsius in his early youth appeared to have before him a
fair, prosperous future. His father and mother were of good family, but
neither of them inherited wealth. When young Sonsius finished his
university career, the small fortune which his father possessed was
swept away by the failure of a large banking company. All that remained
from the wreck was a trifling annuity payable during the lives of his
father and mother, and this they did not live long to enjoy. They died
within a year of each other, but they had been able to obtain for their
son a fairly good position in a large mercantile house as foreign
correspondent. At twenty-five the young man married; and three years
afterwards he unfortunately met with a serious accident, that made him
for two years a helpless invalid and at the end of the time left him
with his right hand incapable of use. Meanwhile his appointment had
lapsed, his wife's small fortune had disappeared, and during several
years his existence had been one continual struggle with ever-increasing
want and penury. The end was approaching. The father and mother and
their one crippled son, twelve years old, dwelt in the miserable attic
of a most dilapidated house in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of
London. The roof over their heads did not even protect them from the
weather. The room was denuded of every article of furniture with the
exception of two worthless wooden cases and a horsehair mattress on
which the unhappy boy stretched his pain-wrung limbs.

Early in life this child suffered only from weakness of the spine, but
his parents could afford no prolonged remedial measures. Not that they
were unkind to him. On the contrary, they devoted to him every minute
they could spare, and lavished on him all the attention that affection
comparatively powerless from want of means could dictate. But the food
they were able to give him was scant instead of, as his condition
demanded, varied and nutritious. At length chronic disease of the spine
set in, and his life became one long misery.

Parochial aid was refused unless they would go into the poor-house, but
the one thing Mrs. Sonsius could not bring herself to endure was the
separation from her son which was demanded of her as a condition of
relief.

For thirty hours they had been without food, when the father, maddened
by the moanings of his wife and child, rushed into the street, and
passing a baker's shop which appeared to be empty, stole from it a loaf
of bread. The proprietor, however, saw the action from an inner room. He
caught Sons