an they discover the cause in the government, and march to demand the
head of the vizier; the popular orators had no sooner found leisure to
look round them, than they marshalled their bands, and demanded the
dismissal of all antagonist authority. _I_ was first to be torn down. _I_
stood in the gate, and while I held the keys, there was no entrance for
expectant ambition. _I_ waved the flag in the breach, and until the banner
was swept away, the storm was ineffectual. Yet this turning the whole
weight of party vindictiveness on my head, gave me a new courage, the
courage of passion, the determination which arises from a sense of injury,
and which magnifies with the magnitude of the trial. In other times, I
might have abandoned the struggle; but, with the eyes of a nation thus
brought upon me, and all the ablest men of the opposite benches making my
overthrow the very prize of their victory, I determined "to stand the
hazard of the die."

The eventful night came at last; for days before, every organ of public
opinion was in the most feverish activity; lampoons, pamphlets, and
letters to the leading journals, the whole machinery of the
paragraph-world was in full work round me; and even the Administration
despaired of my being able to resist the uproar--all but one, and that one
the noblest and the most gifted of them all, my friend the chancellor. I
had sat long past midnight with him on the eve of the coming struggle; and
I received his plaudits for my determination. He talked with all his usual
loftiness, but with more than his usual feeling.

"Within the next twenty-four hours," said he, "your fate will be decided.
But, in public life, the event is not the dishonour; it is the countenance
with which we meet it, that makes all the difference between success and
shame. If you fall, you will fall like a man of character. If you triumph,
your success will be unalloyed by any baseness of purchase." I told him
sincerely, that I saw in the vigour and resolution of his conduct a model
for public men. "However the matter may turn out in the debate," said he,
rising and taking his leave, "there shall be no humiliation in the conduct
of government, even if we should be defeated. Persevere to the last. The
world is all chances, and ten to one of them are in favour of the man who
is resolved not to be frightened out of any thing. Farewell."

Still, the crisis was a trying one, and my occupation during the day was
but little calcu