Man who was so often
out of the Way, &c. &c.--these, to be sure, are the several Marshals
and Generals, who fought, or should have fought, under them the last
Campaign.--The Men in Buckram, continued the President, are the Grofs of
the King of Prussia's Army, who are as stiff a Body of Men as are in the
World:--And Trim's saying they were twelve, and then nineteen, is a Wipe
for the Brussels Gazetteer, who, to my Knowledge, was never two Weeks in
the same Story, about that or any thing else.

As for the rest of the Romance, continued the President, it sufficiently
explains itself,--The Old-cast-Pair-of-Black-Plush-Breeches must be
Saxony, which the Elector, you see, has left of wearing:--And as for the
Great Watch-Coat, which, you know, covers all, it signifies all Europe;
comprehending, at least, so many of its different States and Dominions,
as we have any Concern with in the present War.

I protest, says a Gentleman who sat next but one to the President, and
who, it seems, was the Parson of the Parish, a Member not only of the
Political, but also of a Musical Club in the next Street;--I protest,
says he, if this Explanation is right, which I think it is, That the
whole makes a very fine Symbol.--You have always some Musical Instrument
or other in your Head, I think, says the Alderman.--Musical instrument!
replies the Parson, in Astonishment,--Mr. Alderman, I mean an Allegory;
and I think the greedy Disposition of Trim and his Wife, in ripping the
Great Watch-Coat to Pieces, in order to convert it into a Petticoat for
the one, and a Jerkin for the other, is one of the most beautiful of the
Kind I ever met with; and will shew all the World what have been the
true Views and Intentions of the Houses of Bourbon and Austria in this
abominable Coalition,--I might have called it Whoredom:--Nay, says the
Alderman, 'tis downright Adulterydom, or nothing.

This Hypothesis of the President's explain'd every Thing in the Romance
extreamly well; and, withall, was delivered with so much Readiness and
Air of Certainty, as begot an Opinion in two Thirds of the Club, that
Mr. President was actually the Author of the Romance himself: But a
Gentleman who sat on the opposite Side of the Table, who had come
piping-hot from reading the History of King William's and Queen Anne's
Wars, and who was thought, at the Bottom, to envy the President the
Honour both of the Romance and Explanation too, gave an entire new Turn
to it all. He acquain