Thus in fire and fury began the Session, the leaders on both sides fully equal to their reputation and at their best, and all the dark and slumbering forces that lie behind them as yet an undiscovered country of grim and strange possibilities.
[Sidenote: Lord Randolph.] But the solid and united ranks of the Tories were broken by one figure that was once the most potent among them all.

I had been strangely moved at a theatre, a week or so before, as I looked at Lord Randolph Churchill.

I remembered him twelve years ago--a mere boy in appearance, with clean-shaven face, dapper and slight figure, the alertness and grace of youth, and a face smooth as the cheek of a maiden.

And now--bearded, slightly bowed, with lines deep as the wrinkles of an octogenarian, he sometimes looks like the grandfather of his youthful self.

It is in the deep-set, brilliant eyes that you still see all the fire of his extraordinary political genius, and the embers, that may quickly burst into flame, of all the passion and force of a violently strong character.