By _D. Lloyd George_.
... I do not say that the mountains hereabout are not more considerable
than those of our own beloved Wales, but as material to be employed in
perorations they are far inferior. There is not the requisite mist (which
may symbolise ignorance or obstinacy or any temporary disturbance or
opposition), later to be dispelled by the strong beams of the sun
(representing either progress generally or prime-ministerial genius or pure
Coalitionism). Other local features I felt, however, I might find
rhetorically useful, such as THORWALDSEN'S Lion, so noble, so--so leonine,
but doomed ever to adhere to the rock, how symbolic of a strong idealist
unable to translate his ameliorative plans into action! The old bridge too,
uniting the two sides of the city, as one can attempt to link Radicalism
and Coalitionism--how long could it endure? And so on. One's brain was
never idle.
It was while we were at Lucerne that LORD RIDDELL and I had some of our
most significant conversations. I set them down just as they occurred,
extenuating nothing and concealing nothing.
_LORD RIDDELL (with emotion)._ You are in excellent form to-day. Lucerne
now has two lions--one of them free.
_DAVID (surprised)._ I free? (_Sadly_) You forget that GIOLITTI is coming.
_LORD RIDDELL._ But that is nothing to you. Try him with your Italian and
he will soon go.
_DAVID._ You are a true friend. You always hearten me.
_LORD RIDDELL (with more emotion)._ But you are so wonderful, so wonderful!
And now for to-day's amusements. Where shall we go? Up Mount Pilatus or to
WILLIAM TELL'S Chapel?
_DAVID._ There is something irresistible to a Welshman in the word chapel.
Let us go there. And WILLIAM TELL, was he not a patriot? Did he not defy
the tyrant? I am sure that in his modest conventicle I can think of a
thousand eloquent things. Let us go there.
_LORD RIDDELL._ My hero! my dauntless hero!