succeeded in obtaining from him a box of doubloons or a bill of
exchange, had embraced him with tears of gratitude and joy. But
those days were past. England would never again send a Preston or
a Skelton to bow down before the majesty of France. France would
never again send a Barillon to dictate to the cabinet of England.
Henceforth the intercourse between the two states would be on
terms of perfect equality.

William thought it necessary that the minister who was to
represent him at the French Court should be a man of the first
consideration, and one on whom entire reliance could be reposed.
Portland was chosen for this important and delicate mission; and
the choice was eminently judicious. He had, in the negotiations
of the preceding year, shown more ability than was to be found in
the whole crowd of formalists who had been exchanging notes and
drawing up protocols at Ryswick. Things which had been kept
secret from the plenipotentiaries who had signed the treaty were
well known to him. The clue of the whole foreign policy of
England and Holland was in his possession. His fidelity and
diligence were beyond all praise. These were strong
recommendations. Yet it seemed strange to many that William
should have been willing to part, for a considerable time, from a
companion with whom he had during a quarter of a century lived on
terms of entire confidence and affection. The truth was that the
confidence was still what it had long been, but that the
affection, though it was not yet extinct, though it had not even
cooled, had become a cause of uneasiness to both parties. Till
very recently, the little knot of personal friends who had
followed William from his native land to his place of splendid
banishment had been firmly united. The aversion which the English