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CHAPTER II.
OPEN-AIR ELOQUENCE.
One very cold and windy evening, on which there was every reason why
folks should hasten on their way along the street, a man, who was
walking in Tarrinzeau Field close under the walls of the tavern, stopped
suddenly. It was during the last months of winter between 1704 and 1705.
This man, whose dress indicated a sailor, was of good mien and fine
figure, things imperative to courtiers, and not forbidden to common
folk.
Why did he stop? To listen. What to? To a voice apparently speaking in
the court on the other side of the wall, a voice a little weakened by
age, but so powerful notwithstanding that it reached the passer-by in
the street. At the same time might be heard in the enclosure, from which
the voice came, the hubbub of a crowd.
This voice said,--
"Men and women of London, here I am! I cordially wish you joy of being
English. You are a great people. I say more: you are a great populace.
Your fisticuffs are even better than your sword thrusts. You have an
appetite. You are the nation which eats other nations--a magnificent
function! This suction of the world makes England preeminent. As
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