That Hideous Strength - Ch 10 - The Conquered City

The D. D. (Withers) asks Mark to an immediate meeting where Fairy Hardcastle appears.  There they inform him the NICE Police found his wallet (which Mark was missing) about five yards from the dead body of Hingest (Bill the Blizzard).  Withers talks about how fortunate the NICE Police made this discovery instead of the regular police, since he views the NICE as one big, happy family.  Mark finds offense at this, since he knows he was nowhere near Hingest, and suspects someone in the NICE not only pilfered his wallet, but planted it near Hingest, so they could hold it over him, and thereby manipulate him (with the implicit threat of taking this to the regular police if he resists.  At first he protests, but then realizes its better to play along and express his gratitude that the NICE Police made this discovery (instead of the regular police).  Mark then discovers their real aim is get him to bring Jane to Belbury to live with him.  He realizes he must warn Jane.

As soon as Mark can leave this meeting, he immediately leaves the NICE.  He encounters Withers outside, but when he strikes a blow, the shape mysteriously vanished.  As he began to leave Belbury, he begins to see signs that tell him refugees flee Edgestow (where the NICE was building its new facilities) because of the terror being established in the town - turned out of their houses, riots, and rule by the NICE Police.

Mark easily found an empty bus to Edgestow (since all the traffic headed out of it).  When he arrived, he found one house of three empty, half the shops boarded up, and large villas taken over with large placards with the NICE symbol in front.  NICE Police were everywhere, along with notices of EMERGENCY REGULATION.  Mark went into his home, but clearly Jane had not been there for quite some time.  He noticed an unmailed letter from Jane to Mrs. Dimble, and Mark figured Jane went to stay with the interfering Dimbles (whom he didn't like).

Mark went to see Prof. Dimble, and demanded to know where Jane was, but Dimble refuses, for Jane's safety.  Mark doesn't understand.  Dimble explains the NICE Police tortured Jane.  Mark still believes the story the NICE Police told him that this didn't happen and is evidence Jane suffers from a nervous breakdown.  Dimble corrects him by informing that a doctor, who dressed the burns, thinks otherwise.

Painting of the Fall of Constantinople,
by Theophilos Hatzimihail (1932)
(A conquered and occupied city)

Mark asks - why didn't Dimble go to the ordinary police about this? Dimble replies there are no ordinary police left over in Edgestow, everything is ruled by the Emergency Commissioner, Lord Feverstone.  Effectively, Edgestow has become a "conquered and occupied city."

While Mark tries to insist on his right to know Jane's whereabouts as her husband, Dimble points out that he is a high ranking NICE official, and for now, the NICE presents a real threat to the safety of Jane.

Dimble offers to rescue Mark from the NICE, but Mark hesitates, delays, and eventually leaves Dimble.  Outside, the ordinary police arrest Mark for the murder of Bill Hingest.

Merlin

Dimble goes back to St. Anne's, and while eating dinner, the Director tells him he must go back out because of the most recent dream of Jane.  She dreamed about a long tunnel with a very gradual ascent with an entrance under a heap of stone that would lead them Merlin (whom she had dreamed about before).  The Director deduces the NICE have not yet found Merlin (whom they are looking for) and this is the one chance they have to find him first.

MacPhee (the resident atheist or agnostic) tries to argue he should go, but the Director decides otherwise.  Only Dimble knows the "Great Tongue," and the Director tells him what he should say, and asks him to repeat it.  As he does, Jane heart leaps, while everything else in the room suddenly quiets.  The narrator tells us this is the language before the Fall and beyond the Moon.

As the others take a break before setting out, the Director asks Jane if she is in obedience to Maleldil (God).  Jane says she doesn't know Meleldil yet, but she places herself in obedience to the Director, to which he replies that is enough for the present.

Ch. 9 - The Saracen's Head

Ch. 11 - Battle Begun

Overview of "That Hideous Strength"

Character List