Beverley has
pluck and daring--therefore I drink to him. Gentlemen, we need such
true-blue Englishmen as Beverley to keep an eye on old Bony; it is
such men as Beverley who make the damned foreigners shake in their
accursed shoes. So long as we have such men as Beverley amongst us,
England will scorn the foreign yoke and stand forth triumphant,
first in peace, first in war. Gentlemen, I give you Mr. Beverley, as
he is a true Sportsman I honor him, as he is an Englishman he is my
friend. Mr. Beverley, gentlemen!"
Hereupon the mottle-faced gentleman lets go of his shirt-frill, bows
to Barnabas and, tossing off his wine, sits down amid loud
acclamations and a roaring chorus of "Beverley! Beverley!"
accompanied by much clinking of glasses.
And now, in their turn, divers other noble gentlemen rise in their
places and deliver themselves of speeches, more or less eloquent,
flowery, witty and laudatory, but, one and all, full of the name and
excellences of Barnabas Beverley, Esquire; who duly learns that he
is a Maecenas of Fashion, a sportsman through and through, a shining
light, and one of the bulwarks of Old England, b'gad! etc.
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