g through the
trees at the friendly reddened windows of the little cottage across the
way with a yearning that passed her understanding. Out of those windows,
to Victoria, shone honesty and truth, and the peace which these alone
may bring.

CHAPTER XIV. THE DESCENDANTS OF HORATIUS

So the twenty honourable members of the State Senate had been dubbed
by the man who had a sense of humour and a smattering of the classics,
because they had been put there to hold the bridge against the Tarquins
who would invade the dominions of the Northeastern. Twenty picked men,
and true they were indeed, but a better name for their body would have
been the 'Life Guard of the Sovereign.' The five hundred far below them
might rage and at times revolt, but the twenty in their shining armour
stood undaunted above the vulnerable ground and smiled grimly at the
mob. The citadel was safe.

The real Horatius of the stirring time of which we write was that old
and tried veteran, the Honourable Brush Bascom; and Spurius Lartius
might be typified by the indomitable warrior, the Honourable Jacob
Botcher, while the Honourable Samuel Doby of Hale, Speaker of the House,
was unquestionably Herminius. How the three held the bridge that year
will be told in as few and as stirring words as possible. A greater than
Porsena confronted them, and well it was for them, and for the Empire,
that the Body Guard of the Twenty stood behind them.

"Lars Porsena of Clusium,
By the Nine Gods he swore."

The morning after the State Tribune had printed that memorable speech on
national affairs--statistics and all, with an editorial which gave every
evidence of Mr. Peter Pardriff's best sparkle--Mr. Crewe appeared on the
floor of the House with a new look in his eye which made discerning men
turn and stare at him. It was the look of the great when they are justly
indignant, when their trust--nobly given--has been betrayed. Washington,
for instance, must have had just such a look on the battlefield of
Trenton. The Honourable Jacob Botcher, pressing forward as fast as his
bulk would permit and with the newspaper in his hand, was met by a calm
and distant manner which discomposed that statesman, and froze his stout
index finger to the editorial which "perhaps Mr. Crewe had not seen."

Mr. Crewe was too big for resentment, but he knew how to meet people who
didn't measure up to his standards. Yes, he had seen the editorial, and
the weather still co