No. Not easy. [He knows that too, in a more personal way than he wants to admit just now.] But I have a friend... at home, not here. A man who helped me when things were dark. He told me to fight as hard as I could — to do what I could, as much as I could for the people around me. He had the right of it, so I do.

When we fight, I will lead the North in battle. I may not be in the van — the vanguard — do you still have that? — but I will be in the fight, in the thick of it. We need every living person who can lift a weapon to be out fighting.

Your England — who rules it?