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unchecked his beard would have been extremely thick, and would have covered his neck, chin, lips and grown up his cheeks almost to his eyes. Obviously he shaved, twice a day, but for this meeting – a meeting of all senior staff, I need not remind you – his face was blurred with stubble.
    Under normal circumstances council meetings are held in camera, and proceedings are secret. When (for instance) military secrets are at stake such a policy is only common sense but in this matter, directly relating to the welfare of the people, I could not keep silence. I refused to betray the community and I left the meeting determined that the people should know the truth. This was the occasion of my football stadium speech; you may have read it, may even have studied it at school. How little I relish the thought of children being schooled to learn my little speech! There are so many other great figures from history, so much more deserving than myself. Of course, the actual speech was rather different from the version that has come through history; there were many more hesitations, words stumbled over, than the records tell. But the basic thread of the speech was as true then as now: that the people’s freedom is paramount. Such hard-won, such expensively-protected freedoms, cannot ever be subject to the vagary of one man, no matter how eminent that man might be. The occasion was a volatile one, I grant: the two most popular teams on Senaar were coming together to contest the most important football cup. Almost everybody not otherwise engaged was there, and hearts were alive, spirits were thrilled with the excitement of the occasion. I took the micphone because I had organised the originaltournament. And what I said received a great roar, the whole crowd shouting their approval of what I said. Tyrian, also present with me on the stadium balcony reserved for command, was furious. He stood up, and would certainly have tried to grab the micphone from me, made some counter-speech, perhaps announced my arrest. And that might have provoked a civic disturbance, maybe even a riot, so fiery was the people’s spirit in defence of what I was saying. So I made sure to round off my speech by calling the players to position, and starting the match off. With the players rushing around, and the crowd roaring for one team or another, there was nothing Tyrian could do but sit and watch. I was absorbed in the game but even so I could tell that Tyrian’s eye was on me the whole time. It was obvious now that Tyrian regarded me as nothing short of a traitor as if personal loyalty to him outweighed my duty to the people!
    Still, it would have been foolish of me to neglect my personal safety after the speech. It was only the next day that Tyrian’s men came to place me under ship arrest, and my men were waiting. Some histories talk of the battle of the parkland, but it was no battle, if that term be strictly applied (and I have seen some real battles since that time). Men were killed, regrettably, but much was at stake here. Such fighting as there was mostly took place in my quarters and the surrounding alleyways. Anticipating an attack, I had positioned six of my best men on an elevated walkway; two stood by the door, and more waited inside. Tyrian’s people were taken by surprise. Five were killed, five wounded, and the remainder fled over the parkland, where my men pursued them. It is true that a civilian was killed in this secondary encounter but the needle that killed him came from one of Tyrian’s men.
    Once the first blow had been struck, events assumed their own momentum. Tyrian, less and less in touch with reality, publicly denounced me as a traitor; ordered all the people of Senaar to rise up against me. I do believe he would have welcomed the sight of me bound and gagged like an animal at slaughter, carried shoulder-high by a swarming mob. But his actions had undone him; he was clearly no longer mentally fit for the high trust of ship’s