第31章 RALPH BRISCOE(9)

While that nimblefingered prig was making a brilliant appearance at Vauxhall,and emptying the pockets of his intimates,Rann was riding over Hounslow Heath,and flashing his pistol in the eye of the wayfarer.The very year in which Jack danced his last jig at Tyburn,Barrington had astonished London by a fruitless attempt to steal Prince Orloff's miraculous snuffbox.And not even Ellen Roach herself would have dared to assert that Rann was Barrington's equal in sleight of hand.But Rann holds his own against the best of his craft,with an imperishable name,while a host of more distinguished cracksmen are excluded even from the Newgate Calendar.

In truth,there is one quality which has naught to do with artistic supremacy;and in this quality both Rann and Gilderoy were rich beyond their fellows.They knew (none better)how to impose upon the world.Had their deserts been even less than they were,they would still have been bravely notorious.It is a common superstition that the talent for advertisement has but a transitory effect,that time sets all men in their proper places.

Nothing can be more false;for he who has once declared himself among the great ones of the earth,not only holds his position while he lives,but forces an unreasoning admiration upon the future.Though he declines from the lofty throne,whereon his own vanity and love of praise have set him,he still stands above the modest level which contents the genuinely great.Why does Euripides still throw a shadow upon the worthier poets of his time?Because he had the faculty of displacement,because he could compel the world to profess an interest not only in his work but in himself.Why is Michael Angelo a loftier figure in the history of art than Donatello,the supreme sculptor of his time?Because Donatello had not the temper which would bully a hundred popes,and extract a magnificent advertisement from each encounter.Why does Shelley still claim a larger share of the world's admiration than Keats,his indubitable superior?Because Shelley was blessed or cursed with the trick of interesting the world by the accidents of his life.

So by a similar faculty Gilderoy and Jack Rann have kept themselves and their achievements in the light of day.Had they lived in the nineteenth century they might have been the vendors of patent pills,or the chairmen of bubble companies.Whatever trade they had followed,their names would have been on every hoarding,their wares would have been puffed in every journal.

They understood the art of publicity better than any of their contemporaries,and they are remembered not because they were the best thieves of their time,but because they were determined to interest the people in their misdeeds.Gilderoy's brutality,which was always theatrical,ensured a constant remembrance,and the lofty gallows added to his repute;while the brilliant inspiration of the strings,which decorated Rann's breeches,was sufficient to conquer death.How should a hero sink to oblivion who had chosen for himself so splendid a name as SixteenString Jack?