Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/265

Rh they will understand you. 'Soldiers,' said Napoleon at the Battle of the Pyramids, 'forty ages are looking down upon you!' The worldly-wise conqueror did not indicate what good the 'forty ages' would do for his thirsty, bleeding, butchered men.

The dreamy visions of the immense crowds of excited people still passed before me. Hoarse roars of desperate rebellion rose up from all parts of the abyss. What was the matter? Were the people suffering the pangs of famine? Good God! if so, how were they to be fed? An aide-de-camp galloped up to the side of the carriage, and after saluting the Demon, informed him that a revolution had suddenly broken out; that every working man in the city had struck for the highest amount of wages, in return for the smallest possible quantity of work, and that a general and frightful mutual massacre was impending.

'Then order out the Guards!' replied the Demon hoarsely. ' Call out Hannibal and Caesar with their armies to assail them in front; let Sylla and Marius attack them in the rear; and command Antony and Belisarius to annihilate them on either flank. I cannot stay.'

'Sire,' replied the officer, 'if you do not stay, the city will be destroyed.'

'No matter; let it be destroyed. I am going to build another beside the Great Lake of Tasmania; it's pleasant and cool up there, and we'll have none of these rows. Hold your own till I come back; I will put a stop to their strikes.'

The officer galloped off. Then I saw several individuals in the black throngs around us jump upon casks, or any other things they could stand on, and make impassioned, soul-stirring speeches to those around them, being received with cheers and plaudits of the most encouraging kind. In the midst of their oratory, however, and the bombastic