If nominally first he would be really first.

Of so much it seemed to him that his honour required him to assure himself.

To be a _faineant_ ruler was in direct antagonism both to his conscience and his predilections.

To call himself by a great name before the world, and then to be something infinitely less than that name, would be to him a degradation.

But though he felt fixed as to that, he was by no means assured as to that other point, which to most men firm in their resolves as he was, and backed up as he had been by the confidence of others, would be cause of small hesitation.