322 ANECDOTES. [1805. 



announced that Lord Castlereagh and Lord Liverpool 

 had called, desiring to see him on important business. 

 " Let them wait in the outer room/' said the great 

 minister, instantly returning to the battle, catching 

 up a cushion and belabouring his attackers, who 

 proved too many for him, and after a prolonged 

 struggle got him down, and began daubing his face- 

 when, with a look of well-assumed confidence in his 

 powers of still resisting, he said : " Stop this won't 

 do : I could easily beat you all, but we must not keep 

 these grandees waiting any longer ;" so they were 

 obliged to get a towel and basin of water to wash 

 him clean before he received the grandees. Being 

 thus made decent, the basin was hid behind the 

 sofa, and the two lords ushered in. Then a sudden 

 change and entirely new phase of manner appeared, 

 to Napier's great surprise and admiration. Lord 

 Liverpool's manner was, as usual, mean-looking, bend- 

 ing, nervous, and altogether pitiful. Lord Castlereagh, 

 Napier said, he had well known from his childhood ; had 

 often been engaged with him in such athletic sports 

 as pitching the stone, bar, and so on ; and he had 

 looked upon him as a model of calm grace combined 

 with great strength. What, then, was his surprise when 

 he saw both him and Lord Liverpool humbly bending 

 as they approached the man who had so recently been 

 maltreated with such an excess of fun! But it was Mr 

 Pitt's sudden change of manner and look which most 

 entirely fixed his attention. His tall, ungainly, bony 

 figure seemed to grow up to the ceiling his head 



