the woman’s movement.’^91 On 16 September, the colourful breakfast party
celebrations were re-enacted as the released prisoners were conducted to a
carriage decorated with heather and purple and white flowers while fifty
suffragettes, in full uniform, harnessed themselves to the traces. Flora
Drummond then mounted the box, and at her command of ‘Go!’ the women
drew the carriage, preceded by a band playing the ‘Marseillaise’. Emmeline was
amongst the WSPU members who walked behind the carriage and the general
public, which grew as the procession reached the Queen’s Hall where the
breakfast was to be held, fell in at the rear. Presiding at the breakfast party, she
was greeted with a ‘storm of applause’ as she rose to speak. Pocket handker-
chiefs and table-napkins were waved, and ‘For she’s a jolly good fellow’ sung
again and again as the leaders and the four released prisoners rose to address
the large audience.^92 Such webs of love and friendship offered Emmeline a
supportive framework which she, in her turn, helped to sustain and inspire.
The feeling of collectivity that such events fostered, the belief in the common
bond that united all women, the emphasis upon sex solidarity rather than class
interests, formed the backbone of the suffragette movement.
AUTOCRAT OF THE WSPU?