Though stout and short of breath, Raleigh was strong in the arm, he was "up," and he hit hard. The fellow's face was a "picture," coloured in cardinal. Such an opportunity does not occur twice in a lifetime; Raleigh's genius seized the opportunity, and he became great. Actium was a trifle to it. There were mighty men before Agamemnon, and there are mighty men who do not figure in the papers. Raleigh became at once an anaxandron--a King of Men. The history of his feat spread in ten minutes from one end of midnight London to the other: from the policeman in Waterloo Place to--everywhere. Never was such a stir; the fall of Sebastopol--dear me! I can remember it, look at the flight of time--was nothing to it. They would have chaired him, _fêted_ him, got a band to play him about the place, literally crowned him with laurel. Ave, Cæsar! Evoe! Bacchus! But they could not find him. Raleigh was off with Freddie, who had been in at the death, and was well "blooded." Hansom to Paddington in the small hours; creep, creep, creep, through the raw morning mist, puff, whistle, broad gauge, and they had vanished. Raleigh was a man of his age; he lost not a moment; having got the glory, the next thing was to elude the responsibility; and, in short, he slipped out of sight till the hue-and-cry was over, and the excitement of the campaign had subsided. In case anyone should suppose I approve of midnight battle, I may as well label the account at once: "This is a goak." I do _not_ approve of brawls at the bar, but I have set myself the task to describe a bit of human life exactly as it really is, and I can assure you as a honest fact that Raleigh by that lucky knock became a very great man indeed among people as they really are. People as they really are, are not all Greek scholars. As I don't wish you to look down upon poor Raleigh too much because he smoked a cutty, and hit a fellow twice as big as himself, and lent his money, and made bets, and drank whiskey, and was altogether wicked, I may as well tell you something in his favour: He was a hero to his valet. "No man is a hero to his valet," says the proverb, not even Napoleon, Disraeli, or Solomon. But Raleigh _was_ a hero to his valet.