CHAPTER XIX.
MERCHESTER PREPARES.
I must not overload these slight pages by chronicling at length how Merchester caught and developed the Pageant fever.

But to Mr Colt must be given his share of the final credit.

He worked like a horse, no doubt of it; spurred constantly on his tender side--his vanity--by the hard riding of Mr.Julius Bamberger, M.P.

He pioneered the movement.

He (pardon this riot of simile and metaphor) cut a way through the brushwood, piled the first faggots, applied the torch, set the heather afire.