does your Majesty think of an immense raft?"
"Excellent, my dear doctor! I see but three objections to making one large enough to convey the whole army:—First, that we have no timber to make it of;—secondly, we have no horses to draw it;—and thirdly, the roads are not wide enough to admit it."
"Balloons would do, but we have them not," resumed the doctor, still profoundly cogitating, with his eyes fixed upon the ground, and his hands in his breeches-pookets.
"What think you of packing the soldiers up in bombs, and shooting them out of mortars?" asked Roderick.
"Your Majesty is pleased to jest," observed the doctor, gravely; "but ridicule is not argument."
"Certainly not," replied the King; "and you mistake me greatly if you thought I meant to ridicule your plan. I only wished to remark that I feared it would be rather difficult to put it in execution."
"That which can be accomplished without
