Armed-heroes vide, military appearances at St. Stephens & at St. Cloud's on [the] day of defiance / [graphic]

"Addington and Napoleon face each other defiantly across a narrow channel. Addington, the nearer, is the larger, and much the taller. He wears regimentals, cocked hat, and shapeless boots; he stands with arms akimbo, sabre in his hand; from each pocket projects a medicine-bottle, one labelled 'Composing Draft', the other 'Stimulating Draft'. He looks at Napoleon with a chop-fallen stare, saying, "who's afraid? damme? - \ O Lord. O Lord - what a Firey Fellow he is! \ - Who's afraid? damme? \ O dear! what will become of ye Roast Beef? \ damme! who's afraid? \ O dear! O dear." (The lines are alternately in large and tiny letters to distinguish between words spoken aloud and to himself.) He straddles across a steaming sirloin on a dish inscribed: 'O the Roast Beef of Old England'. Napoleon, who straddles even more widely, holds the hilt of his sabre; his head is large, his cocked hat grotesquely huge. He glares at the beef, saying, "Ah! ha, sacrè dieu! vat do I see yonder? \ Dat look so invitinly Red & de Vite? - \ Oh by Gar! I see 'tis de Roast Beef of Londres \ Vich I vill chop up, at von letel bite!" (Cf. BMSat 5790.) Behind Addington is the front bench in the House of Commons. Hawkesbury, thin, stooping, and melancholy, his hands on his hips, his arms curiously twisted, says: "Ah who's afraid now of Marching to Paris? ah who's afraid now." Behind Addington's seat stand two dim figures, waving their hats; they say: "who's afraid! Brother Bragg" and "who's afraid Brother Hely" ..."--British Museum online catalogue