than that Lewis and his emissaries earnestly wished them to
disarm.

Tallard was instructed to gain, if possible, some members of the
House of Commons. Every thing, he was told, was now subjected to
the scrutiny of that assembly; accounts of the public income, of
the public expenditure, of the army, of the navy, were regularly
laid on the table; and it would not be difficult to find persons
who would supply the French legation with copious information on
all these subjects.

The question of the Spanish succession was to be mentioned to
William at a private audience. Tallard was fully informed of all
that had passed in the conferences which the French ministers had
held with Portland; and was furnished with all the arguments that
the ingenuity of publicists could devise in favour of the claim
of the Dauphin.

The French embassy made as magnificent an appearance m England as
the English embassy had made in France. The mansion of the Duke
of Ormond, one of the finest houses in Saint James's Square, was
taken for Tallard. On the day of the public entry, all the
streets from Tower Hill to Pall Mall were crowded with gazers who
admired the painting and gilding of his Excellency's carriages,
the surpassing beauty of his horses, and the multitude of his
running footmen, dressed in gorgeous liveries of scarlet and gold
lace. The Ambassador was graciously received at Kensington, and
was invited to accompany William to Newmarket, where the largest
and most splendid Spring Meeting ever known was about to
assemble. The attraction must be supposed to have been great; for