ariably free
from Human Peccadilloes

CHAPTER IX.
A Prince, an Audience, and a Secret Embassy

CHAPTER X.
Royal Exertions for the Good of the People

CHAPTER XI.
An Interview

Book V.

CHAPTER I.
A Portrait

CHAPTER II.
The Entrance into Petersburg.--A Rencontre with an inquisitive and
mysterious Stranger.--Nothing like Travel

CHAPTER III.
The Czar.--The Czarina.--A Feast at a Russian Nobleman's

CHAPTER IV.
Conversations with the Czar.--If Cromwell was the greatest Man
(Caesar excepted) who ever _rose_ to the Supreme Power, Peter was
the greatest Man ever _born_ to it

CHAPTER V.
Return to Paris.--Interview with Bolingbroke.--A gallant Adventure.
--Affair with Dubois.--Public Life is a Drama, in which private
Vices generally play the Part of the Scene-shifters

CHAPTER VI.
A long Interval of Years.--A Change of Mind and its Causes

Book VI.

CHAPTER I.
The Retreat

CHAPTER II.
The Victory

CHAPTER III.
The Hermit of the Well

CHAPTER IV.
The Solution of many Mysteries.--A dark View of the Life and Nature
of Man

CHAPTER V.
In which the History makes a great Stride towards the final Catastrophe.
--The Return to England, and the Visit to a Devotee

CHAPTER VI.
The Retreat of a celebrated Man, and a Visit to a great Poet

CHAPTER VII.
The Plot approaches its _Denouement_

CHAPTER VIII.
The Catastrophe

CONCLUSION

DEVEREUX.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE HERO'S BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.--NOTHING CAN DIFFER MORE FROM THE END
OF THINGS THAN THEIR BEGINNING.

MY grandfather, Sir Arthur Devereux (peace be with his ashes!) was a
noble old knight and cavalier, possessed of a property sufficiently
large to have maintained in full dignity half a dozen peers,--such as
peers have been since the days of the first James. Nevertheless, my
grandfather loved the equestrian order better than the patrician,
rejected all offers of advancement, and left his posterity no titles but
those to his estate.

Sir Arthur had two children by wedlock,--both sons; at his death, my
father, the younger, bade adieu to the old hall and his only brother,
prayed to the grim portraits of his ancestors to inspire him, and
set out--to join as a volunteer the armies of that Louis, afterwards
surnamed _le grand_. Of him I shall say but little; the life of a
soldier has only two events worth