entertained his most distinguished guests, was said to be more
luxurious than that of any prince of the House of Bourbon. For
there the most exquisite cookery of France was set off by a
certain neatness and comfort which then, as now, peculiarly
belonged to England. During the banquet the room was filled with
people of fashion, who went to see the grandees eat and drink.
The expense of all this splendour and hospitality was enormous,
and was exaggerated by report. The cost to the English government
really was fifty thousand pounds in five months. It is probable
that the opulent gentlemen who accompanied the mission as
volunteers laid out nearly as much more from their private
resources.

The malecontents at the coffeehouses of London murmured at this
profusion, and accused William of ostentation. But, as this fault
was never, on any other occasion, imputed to him even by his
detractors, we may not unreasonably attribute to policy what to
superficial or malicious observers seemed to be vanity. He
probably thought it important, at the commencement of a new era
in the relations between the two great kingdoms of the West, to
hold high the dignity of the Crown which he wore. He well knew,
indeed, that the greatness of a prince does not depend on piles
of silver bowls and chargers, trains of gilded coaches, and
multitudes of running footmen in brocade, and led horses in
velvet housings. But he knew also that the subjects of Lewis had,
during the long reign of their magnificent sovereign, been
accustomed to see power constantly associated with pomp, and
would hardly believe that the substance existed unless they were
dazzled by the trappings.