urity and the Rights of
Labour! Might it not be that with that cry, well cried, he might move
the very world! As he walked the streets of the town he felt a great
love for the borough grow within his bosom. What would he not owe to
the dear place which had first recognised his worth, and had enabled
him thus early in life to seize hold of those ploughshares which it
would be his destiny to hold for all his coming years? He had before
him a career such as had graced the lives of the men whom he had
most loved and admired,--of men who had dared to be independent,
patriotic, and philanthropical, through all the temptations of
political life. Would he be too vain if he thought to rival a Hume
or a Cobden? Conceit, he said to himself, will seek to justify itself.
Who can rise but those who believe their wings strong enough for
soaring? There might be shipwreck of course,--but he believed that he
now saw his way. As to the difficulty of speaking in public,--that
he had altogether overcome. Some further education as to facts,
historical and political, might be necessary. That he acknowledged to
himself;--but he would not spare himself in his efforts to acquire
such education. He went pacing through the damp, muddy, dark streets,
making speeches that were deliciously eloquent to his own ears. That
night he was certainly the happiest man in Percycross, never doubting
his success on the morrow,--not questioning that. Had not the whole
town greeted him with loudest acclamation as their chosen member?
He was deliciously happy;--while poor Sir Thomas was suffering
the double pain of his broken arm and his dissipated hopes, and
Griffenbottom was lying in his bed, with a doctor on one side and a
nurse on the other, hardly able to restrain himself from cursing all
the world in his agony.

At a little after eleven a tall man, buttoned up to his chin in an
old great coat, called at the Percy Standard, and asked after the
health of Mr. Griffenbottom and Sir Thomas. "They ain't neither of
them very well then," replied the waiter. "Will you say that Mr.
Moggs called to inquire, with his compliments," said the tall man.
The respect shown to him was immediately visible. Even the waiter at
the Percy Standard acknowledged that for that day Mr. Moggs must be
treated as a great man in Percycross. After that Moggs walked home
and crept into bed;--but it may be doubted whether he slept a wink
that night.

And then there came the real day,--the d