Chapter LV: “pal”

Meanwhile, at home, fresh attempts to galvanize the Queen resulted in the promotion of Lord Palmerston (“Pal”) to the Premiership--a rather matey minister who always wore green gloves and sucked a straw and altered the Despatches after the Queen had signed them, so that they became surprises for her. It was not, however, until he conceived and carried through his heartless _Conspiracy to Murder Bill_ that the Good (but now Horrified) Queen dismissed him. After which “Pal” spent his time taking special trains in all directions and galloping to Harrow on a cream-coloured pony, thus endearing himself to the People and becoming an object of terror and admiration to all foreign governments.