The Mayor took it with trembling hands. "Why, 'tis a duplicity!" he
cried. "A very duplicity! and, what's more, printed in the same
language word for word." He caught the mace from the little man in
black. "Lead the way, Captain!"
CHAPTER IX.
I ENLIST AN ARMY.
"If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet."
_Sir John Falstaff_.
My father turned to me as they descended the stair. "This is all
very well, lad," said he, "but we have yet to find our army.
After the murder of Julius Caesar, now--"
"I did enact Julius Caesar once," quoted Mr. Fett, in parenthesis.
"I was killed i' the capitol; Brutus killed me."
My father frowned. "After the murder of Julius Caesar, when the mob
for two days had Rome at their mercy, I have read somewhere that two
men appeared out of nowhere, and put themselves at the head of the
rioters. None knew them; but so boldly they comported themselves,
heading the charges, marshalling the ranks, here throwing up
barricades, there plucking down doors and gates, breaking open the
prisons and setting fire to private houses, that presently the
whisper spread they were Castor and Pollux; till, at length, falling
into the hands of the aediles, these _dioscuri_ were found to be two
poor lunatics escaped from a house of detention.
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