Court. William omitted nothing that a brother could have done to
soothe and conciliate a brother. Letters are still extant in
which he, with the utmost solemnity, calls God to witness that
his affection for Bentinck still is what it was in their early
days. At length a compromise was made. Portland, disgusted with
Kensington, was not sorry to go to France as ambassador; and
William with deep emotion consented to a separation longer than
had ever taken place during an intimacy of twenty-five years. A
day or two after the new plenipotentiary had set out on his
mission, he received a touching letter from his master. "The
loss of your society," the King wrote, "has affected me more than
you can imagine. I should be very glad if I could believe that
you felt as much pain at quitting me as I felt at seeing you
depart; for then I might hope that you had ceased to doubt the
truth of what I so solemnly declared to you on my oath. Assure
yourself that I never was more sincere. My feeling towards you is
one which nothing but death can alter." It should seem that the
answer returned to these affectionate assurances was not
perfectly gracious; for, when the King next wrote, he gently
complained of an expression which had wounded him severely.

But, though Portland was an unreasonable and querulous friend, he
was a most faithful and zealous minister. His despatches show how
indefatigably he toiled for the interests, and how punctiliously
he guarded the dignity, of the prince by whom he imagined that he
had been unjustly and unkindly treated.

The embassy was the most magnificent that England had ever sent
to any foreign court. Twelve men of honourable birth and ample
fortune, some of whom afterwards filled high offices in the