QUEEN. Do you propose to summon Parliament?
LORD B. Not Parliament; no, Madam. Your Majesty's Fleet will be sufficient.
(This lights a spark; and the royal mind darts into strategy)
QUEEN. If I had my way, Lord Beaconsfield, my Fleet would be in the Baltic to-morrow; and before another week was over, Petersburg would be under bombardment.
LORD B. (considerately providing this castle in the air with its necessary foundations). And Cronstadt would have fallen.
QUEEN (puzzled for a moment at this naming of a place which had not entered her calculations). Cronstadt? Why Cronstadt?
LORD B. Merely preliminary, Madam. When that fortified suburb has crumbled—the rest will be easy.
QUEEN. Yes! And what a good lesson it will teach them! The Crimea wasn't enough for them, I suppose.
LORD B. The Crimea! Ah, what memories-of heroism—that word evokes!
"Magnificent, but not war!"
QUEEN. Oh! There is one thing, Lord Beaconsfield, on which I want your advice.