THE DYNASTS ACT v
SECOND CITIZEN How may ye make that out, youngster?
BOY
Mr. Pitt made the war, and the war made us want sailors ; and Uncle John went for a walk down Wapping High Street to talk to the pretty ladies one evening ; and there was a press all along the river that night— a regular hot one—and Uncle John was carried on board a man-of-war to fight under Nelson; and nobody minded Uncle John's parrot, and it talked itself to death. So Mr. Pitt killed Uncle John's parrot; see it, sir ?
SECOND CITIZEN
You had better have a care of this boy, friend. His brain is too precious for the common risks of Cheapside. Not but what he might as well have said Boney killed the parrot when he was about it. And as for Nelson—who's now sailing shinier seas than ours, if they've rubbed Her off his slate where he's gone to,—the French papers say that our loss in him is greater than our gain in ships; so that logically the victory is theirs. Gad, sir, it's almost true!
A hurrahing is heard from Cheapside, and the crowd in that direction begins to hustle and show excitement
FIRST CITIZEN
He's coming, he's coming! Here, let me lift you up, my boy.—Why, they have taken out the horses, as I am man alive!
SECOND CITIZEN
Pitt for ever!—Why, here's a blade opening and shutting his mouth like the rest, but never a sound does he raise!
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