"Have you not heard?" asked Mr Soans, whose voice was the voice of the dockyard labourers. "I can scarcely say until I know what you refer to," was the plausible reply. "I have found that all communication has been cut during the last few hours." He lightly indicated the instruments against the wall. They all looked towards Cecil Brown, the matter being rather an unpleasant one. "The fact is, the House has been invaded by a tumultuous rabble. They overcame all resistance by the mere force of numbers, and"--he could not think of a less ominous phrase at the moment--"well, simply turned us out.... Quite Cromwellian proceedings. We left them passing very large and comprehensive resolutions," he concluded. "Your people!" said the uncompromising man accusingly. "Scarcely," protested Hampden with a smile. "The ends may be the ends of Esau, but the means----" "Not our people; they couldn't possibly be ours to come and turn on us like that." "Suppose we say, without defining them further," said Sir John, "that they were simply"--he paused for a second to burn the thrust gently home with a little caustic silence--"simply The People." Mr Vossit made a gesture of impatience towards his colleague. "Whether Queen Anne, died of gout or apoplexy isn't very material now," he said with a touch of bitterness. "We are here to conduct the funeral." "I wish to meet you in every possible way I can," interposed Hampden, "but I must point out to you that at so short a notice I am deprived of the counsel of any of my associates. I had hoped that by the time of the meeting to-morrow morning----" "Is that necessary if the Memorandum is accepted by the Government?" "Without discussion?" Mr Vossit shrugged his shoulders. "As far as I am concerned, Sir John. The concession of a word or two, or a phrase here and there, can make no difference. It is our Sedan, and the heavier you make the terms, the more there will be for us to remember it by." "I am content," subscribed Mr Guppling. "We have been surprised and routed, not by the legitimate tactics of party strife, but by methods undistinguishable from those of civil war."