[Pg vii]

CONTENTS

Introduction

At Birmingham Town Hall

The Proclamation

The Mutual Extermination Club

The Episode of the Baby

The Florentine League

Outside

The Last Men

[Pg viii]

[Pg viii]

[Pg 9]

[Pg 9]

THE LAST GENERATION

INTRODUCTION

I had been awake for I know not how many hours that summer dawn while the sun came over the hills and coloured the beautiful roses in my mother's garden. As I lay drowsily gazing through the window, I thought I had never known a morning so sultry, and yet so pleasant. Outside not a leaf stirred; yet the air was fresh, and the madrigal notes of the birds came to me with a peculiar intensity and clearness. I listened intently to the curious sound of trilling, which drew nearer and nearer, until it seemed to merge into a whirring noise that filled the room and crowded at my [Pg 10] ears. At first I could see nothing, and lay in deadly 

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