84. Interludes

An episode about interludes…

The first of these looked like the end of an era, when William Pitt the Younger stepped down as Prime Minister, after seventeen years in power, and still younger than any other British Prime Minister has been on even first taking office. It turns out, though, that seeing it as an end was premature. It was, indeed, an interlude.

The other was the Peace of Amiens. The treaty signed in the northern French city brought an end to fighting between Britain and France, for the first time in nearly a decade. Sadly, however, that wasn’t to be an end either, but merely another interlude.

Illustration: Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth.
Sir William Beechey, oil on canvas, engraved 1803.
National Portrait Gallery 5774

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License