Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/120

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( 110 )

¬rose even superior to herself, great and power- ful as she ever had been — the combined nations were in themselves nothing — they had indeed brave and numerous armies, but without the sinews of war they were no better than the leaden men which are sold as toys for our children ; — the money of Armata could alone breathe life into them or set them in motion, and it was for her alone to march them from the remotest regions, to end the contest in the Capetian capi- tal; but though the husbandmen, the manu- facturers, the shopkeepers* and miners of Armata, or in other words her People, had bent their bodies, and bathed their foreheads with the sweat of labour to furnish the supplies for this auxiliary force ; they had a still nobler part to perform for the honour of their country — they were before-hand with the legions they had created, and finished at a single blow the mur- ¬

  • The author has only printed the word shopkeepers in italics, because Morven, from some reason or other, raised his voice when he pronounced it. -derous ¬