Arcane, Impenetrabili, Profunde,
Son Le Vie Di Chi Die L'Esser Al Niente.
When our southern sky is overloaded with huge, thick, dark masses, and claps
of thunder warn us of the pending storm, then a gale of wind is roaring
in space, doing battle with the bush, cowing down man and beast, sweeping away
all manner of rottenness. This fury spares not, and desolation is the threat
of the thunder.
A kind Providence must be blessed even in the whirlwind. Big, big drops
of rain fight their way through the gale; soon the drops muster in legions,
and the stronger the storm, the stronger those legions. At last they conquer;
then it pours down - that is, the flood is made up of legions of torrents.
Is the end of the world now at hand? Look at the victorious rainbow!
it reminds man of the covenant of our God with Noah, not far from this
southern land. The sun restores confidence that all is right again as before,
and nature, refreshed and bolder, returns again to her work.
Hence, the storm is life.
Not so is the case with fire. Devouring everything, devouring itself,
fire seems to leave off its frenzy, only to devour the sooner any mortal thing
that comes in the way to retard destruction. A few embers, then a handful
of ashes, are the sole evidence of what was once kingly or beggarly.
Fire may destroy, consume, devour, but has no power to reduce to 'nothing.'
Hence the calamity of fire is death.
The handful of ashes lie lifeless until a storm forces them into the living
order of nature, which, when refreshed, has the power to ingraft those
ashes to, and make them prosper with, the grain of mustard seed.
Hence death is life.
Such is the order of Providence. Now, good reader, watch the handful of ashes
of what was once Bentley's Eureka Hotel.
Chapter XVIII.
Pecunia Omnia Vincit.
In the dead of the night after the burning of the Eureka Hotel, three men
had been taken into custody, charged with riot, and subsequently committed
to take their trial in Melbourne.
I think the diggers at this time seriously contemplated to burn down the Camp,
and thus get rid in a blaze of all their grievances.
A committee for the defence of these men, met at the Star Hotel, and sent round
to all the tents on Ballaarat for subscriptions. I contributed my mite,
and then learned that VERN, KENNEDY, and HUMFFRAY were the triumvirate
of said committee.
The following placard was posted throughout the goldfields:-
500 POUNDS REWARD
for the discovery, apprehension and conviction
of the murderer of James Scobie, found dead near
the late Eureka Hotel, etc., etc.
At one and at the same time, also, the following placards were posted
at each prominent gum-tree on the goldfield:-
500 POUNDS REWARD
increased by Government to
1,600 POUNDS!!
for the apprehension and conviction of the robbers
of the Bank of Victoria.
