to sway the sceptre

Oh, it's the same old story. Mad scientist meets ape girl; ape girl throws mad scientist into volcano; werewolf bites ape girl; elephant boy marries daughter of vampire!.

In declamatory periods Dr Fordyce spins out Rousseau's eloquence […]

Fejes was thrown facefirst to the snow and remained down for several minutes but walked off the course on his own.