As he stood outside the door he
could hear Eric's voice raised in command; Bertie chimed in now and again
with a helpful suggestion.
"That is Louis the Fourteenth," Eric was saying, "that one in
knee-breeches, that Uncle said invented Sunday schools. It isn't a bit
like him, but it'll have to do."
"We'll give him a purple coat from my paintbox by and by," said Bertie.
"Yes, an' red heels. That is Madame de Maintenon, that one he called
Mrs. Hemans. She begs Louis not to go on this expedition, but he turns a
deaf ear. He takes Marshal Saxe with him, and we must pretend that they
have thousands of men with them. The watchword is _Qui vive_? and the
answer is _L'etat c'est moi_--that was one of his favourite remarks, you
know. They land at Manchester in the dead of the night, and a Jacobite
conspirator gives them the keys of the fortress."
Peeping in through the doorway Harvey observed that the municipal dust-
bin had been pierced with holes to accommodate the muzzles of imaginary
cannon, and now represented the principal fortified position in
Manchester; John Stuart Mill had been dipped in red ink, and apparently
stood for Marshal Saxe.
"Louis orders his troops to surround the Young Women's Christian
Association and seize the lot of them.
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