Wolfe fell in the arms of victory, Clive came home the satrap of sovereigns; but day by day ships sailed in and couriers spurred abroad with the news that a new world and a nascent empire were ours.

Until men's heads reeled and maps failed them, as they asked each morning 'What new land, to-day ?' Until those who had despaired of England awoke and rubbed their eyes--awoke to find three nations at her feet, and the dawn of a new and wider day breaking in the sky.
And what of the minister?
They called him the Great Commoner, the heaven-born statesman; they showered gold boxes upon him; they bore him through the city, the centre of frantic thousands, to the effacement even of the sovereign.

Where he went all heads were bared; while he walked the rooms at Bath and drank the water, all stood; his very sedan, built with a boot to accommodate his gouty foot, was a show followed and watched wherever it moved.

A man he had never seen left him a house and three thousand pounds a year; this one, that one, the other one, legacies.

In a word, for a year or two he was the idol of the nation--the first great People's Minister.
Then, the crisis over, the old system lifted its head again; the mediocrities returned; and, thwarted by envious rivals and a jealous king, Pitt placed the crown alike on his services and his popularity by resigning power when he could no longer dictate the policy which he knew to be right.