Chapter Thirteen

1880-1

The Final Chapter

'Men with missions do not disappear till they have fulfilled them' (Endymion)

DISRAELI ACCEPTED DEFEAT at the hands of the electorate 'stoically' and perhaps with relief. Berlin had been exhausting: the situations in Africa and India were beset with difficulties; in Parliament the Government's opponents were sharpening their attacks. Disraeli was at the mercy of events, an uncomfortable experience for someone who saw himself as the driver rather than the passenger. Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963, would dryly comment in his premiership on the tendency of events to blow a government off course. As a novelist, however, Disraeli could regain control of the narrative. His last novel, Endymion, published in 1881, was a best-seller.