The first of these arches, bearing the inscription _God Save King
William, Defender of our Faith and Liberty_, was erected on the
London road, a dozen paces beyond the Fish and Anchor Inn, Captain
Barker having refused the landlord--who desired to build the arch
right in front of his inn-door--permission to set up any pole or
support against the privet hedge. In fact, he and Captain Runacles
had sworn very heartily to sit indoors, pull down their blinds and
withhold their countenances from the usurper.
Nature, however, which regards neither the majesty of kings nor the
indignation of their subjects, made frustrate this unamiable design.
At twenty minutes past four that afternoon a hiveful of Captain
Barker's bees took it into their heads to swarm.
It was a warm afternoon, and the little man sat in his library
composing a letter to Mr. John Ray, of Cambridge University, whose
forthcoming _Historia Plantarum_ he believed himself to be enriching
with one or two suggestions on hibernation. Narcissus Swiggs was
down at the Fish and Anchor drinking King William's health.
Tristram, who was supposed to be at work clipping the privet hedge
around the apiarium, was engaged in the summer-house, at the far end
of it, upon business of his own.
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