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.