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 subjoined to what he had just said an additional observation in a lower voice.

“Oh, in Italy he was as great as any Moses! He was the right thing there, fit to head and organize measures for the regeneration of nations. It puzzles me to this day how the conqueror of Lodi should have condescended to become an emperor, a vulgar, a stupid humbug; and still more how a people, who had once called themselves republicans, should have sunk again to the grade of mere slaves. I despise France! If England had gone as far on the march of civilization as France did, she would hardly have retreated so shamelessly.”

“You don’t mean to say that besotted imperial France is any worse than bloody republican France?” demanded Helstone, fiercely.

“I mean to say nothing, but I can think what I please, you know, Mr. Helstone, both about France and England, and about revolutions, and regicides, and restorations in general; and about the divine right of kings, which you often stickle for in your sermons, and the duty of non-resistance, and the sanity of war, and”

Mr. Moore’s sentence was here cut short by the rapid rolling up of a gig, and its sudden stoppage in the middle of the road; both he and the Rector had been too much occupied with their discourse to notice its approach till it was close upon them.

“Nah, maister, did th’ waggons hit home?” demanded a voice from the vehicle.