“Thou saw it pass, eh, Antony?”
“That I did! Why-a! I wouldn’t hev missed Lord Grey’s final speech for anything. He began it at five o’clock and spoke for an hour and a half—which considering his great age and the long night’s strain was an astonishing thing to do. I was feeling a bit tired mysen.”
“But surely the people took its passing very coldly, Antony.”
“The people aren’t going to shout till they are sure they hev something to shout for. Nobody knows what changes the lords may make in it. They may even throw it out again altogether.”
“They dare not! They dare not for their lives try any more such foolishness,” said Josepha Temple with a passion she hardly restrained. “Just let them try it! The people will not allow that step any more! Let them try it! They will quickly see and feel what will come of such folly.”
“Well, Josepha, what will come of it? What can the people do?”
“Iverything they want to do! Iverything they ought to do! One thing is sure—they will send the foreigners back to where they belong. The very kith and kin of the people now demanding their rights founded, not many generations ago, a glorious Republic of their own, and they gave themsens all the rights they wanted and allays put the man of their choice at the head of it. Do you think our people don’t know what their fathers hev done before them? They know it well. They see for themsens that varry common men can outrank noble men when it comes to intellect and courage. What was it that Scotch plowboy said:—
“A king can mak’ a belted knight,
A marquis, duke and a’ that,
But an honest man’s aboon his might—