““They surrounded him day and night, eliminating every person likely to interfer; slandering, ridiculing and calumniating them in turns, they at last left him nothing in place of his shattered faiths and lost ideals, until Rhodes became as isolated amidst his greatness and his millions as the veriest beggar in his hovel. It was a sad sight to watch the ethical degradation of on eof the most remarkable intelligences among men of his generation; it was heartrending to him fall every day more and more into the power of unsscrupulous people who did nothing else but exploit him for their own benefit.””