“I look round me at this magnificent gathering and I ask myself if it is imaginable that the young men and young women who have heard the story they have heard to-night will not exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth from this proud tyrant who has dared to question their right to freedom. And as I watch your muscles grow taut, your mouths grimly set and your eyes flash, I know that it is not imaginable. Freedom! Is there any word in this wonderful English language of ours except the word ‘mother’ which can win a comparable response from our hearts? Freedom! Do you remember, some of you, that day in June when a party of us hiked to Runnymede on the anniversary of the signing of Magna Charta? Do you haply recall the few words I had the privilege of addressing to you on that sacred day in the annals of democracy? Did I not urge you then to give up everything, even life itself, rather than surrender one jot, one tittle or one iota of your precious freedom? (Loud and prolonged cheers from the audience, most of whom were chained to office-stools or counters for fifty weeks every year.) I hear in that noble outburst of spontaneous cheering the answer. No, you will not renounce your freedom, any more than your forefathers would renounce it at Runnymede, at the threat of Castile’s dark fleet, at the bidding of James II, or even for the great Duke of Wellington himself.”

This last allusion puzzled the audience, who supposed that the great Duke of Wellington had won a conspicuous victory for freedom by defeating Napoleon at Waterloo. Mr Buckham perceived with the demagogue’s quick instinct that his last allusion had missed its mark and hastily reloaded.