Mr. Pitt fainted away before Lord Wellesley left the room. After this he saw his friends only at rare intervals, and contrary to the advice of his physicians. The Bishop of Lincoln, his former preceptor, apprised him of his danger. "How long do you think I have to live?" asked Pitt, turning toward his friend and physician, Sir Walter Farquhar. Sir Walter answered that he was unable to say; that possibly he might yet recover. An incredulous smile passed over the face of the dying man. Then turning to the Bishop, he said, "I fear, I have, like too many other men, neglected prayer too much to allow me to hope that it can be very efficacious now; but," rising in his bed as he spoke, and clasping his hands with the utmost fervor and devotion, he added, emphatically: "I throw myself _entirely_ upon the mercy of God, through the merits of Christ!" Some hours later he breathed his last. Pitt lived and died poor. Parliament paid his debts, which amounted to £40,000; it provided for the support of his three nieces and defrayed the expenses of his funeral. Great consternation seized the entire nation upon hearing of his death. Within three months England had lost both Nelson and Pitt, the hero of heroes, and the great pilot of her political government. In the presence of a growing peril and of an implacable enemy, by the premature death of two men, England found herself weakened and disarmed: she was not, however, to abandon all hope. Mr. Pitt had said, with great modesty, that it did not appertain to any single man to save Europe. Between the day of the death of the great minister and the definitive conclusion of peace, there were yet to be long years of resistance, as persevering and as desperate as the aggression. {415} Chapter XXXIX. George III. And The Emperor Napoleon. (1806-1810.) Lord Grenville succeeded Pitt, as Prime Minister. His alliance with Fox had brought forth fruits; the Cabinet now had the good fortune to contain only eminent men: Fox, Grey, Windham, Lord Sidmouth, Lord Henry Petty, second son of Lord Landsdowne, whose title he was one day to wear, and whose renown he was to sustain. Canning alone was excluded. Fox had charge of foreign affairs. His physical strength already failing, had nevertheless triumphed over the health of his great rival. Years before, Lady Holland, in comparing the two in their early youth, had said to her husband that she had seen at the house of Lady Hester Pitt, the little William who was only eight years old, but was the most extraordinary child that she had ever seen: "he is so well educated," said she, "and has such good manners, that he will be all his life a thorn in the flesh, for Charles. Remember well what I say to you." {416}