those who breathed it; and eventually for his life, when he learned
that kings in Europe were sometimes shot at by passers-by, there
being hardly a monarch there who had not been so imperilled more
than once; that the Queen of England, though accounted the safest of
all, was accustomed to this variety of pistol practice; and that the
autocrat of an empire huge beyond all other European countries,
whose father had been torn asunder in the streets of his capital,
lived surrounded by soldiers who shot down all strangers that
approached him even at his own summons, and was an object of
compassion to the humblest of his servants. Under these
circumstances, the African king was with difficulty induced to stir
out of doors; and he only visited Woolwich Arsenal--the destructive
resources of which were expected to influence his future behavior in
a manner favorable to English supremacy--under compulsion. At last
the Colonial Office, which had charge of him, was at its wit's end
to devise entertainments to keep him in good-humor until the
appointed time for his departure.

On the Tuesday following Mrs. Hoskyn's reception, Lucian Webber
called at his cousin's house in Regent's Park, and said, in the
course of a conversation with the two ladies there,

"The Colonial Office has had an idea. The king, it appears, is
something of an athlete, and is curious to witness what Londoners
can do in that way. So a grand assault-at-arms is to be held for
him."

"What is an assault-at-arms?" said Lydia. "I have never been at one;
and the name suggests nothing but an affray with bayonets."