ave nothing of the
kind. A court is like those fashionable churches into which we have
looked at Paris. Those who have received the benediction are instantly
away to the Opera House or the wood of Boulogne. Those who have not
received the benediction are pressing and elbowing each other to get
near the altar. You and my Lord have got your blessing, and are quite
right to take yourselves off with it. I have not been blest, and must
fight my way up as well as I can." Prior's wit was his own. But his
worldly wisdom was common to him with multitudes; and the crowd of
those who wanted to be lords of the bedchamber, rangers of parks, and
lieutenants of counties, neglected Portland and tried to ingratiate
themselves with Albemarle.

By one person, however, Portland was still assiduously courted; and that
person was the King. Nothing was omitted which could soothe an irritated
mind. Sometimes William argued, expostulated and implored during two
hours together. But he found the comrade of his youth an altered man,
unreasonable, obstinate and disrespectful even before the public eye.
The Prussian minister, an observant and impartial witness, declared that
his hair had more than once stood on end to see the rude discourtesy
with which the servant repelled the gracious advances of the master.
Over and over William invited his old friend to take the long accustomed
seat in his royal coach, that seat which Prince George himself had never
been permitted to invade; and the invitation was over and over declined
in a way which would have been thought uncivil even between equals.
A sovereign could not, without a culpable sacrifice of his personal
dignity, persist longer in such a contest. Portland was permitted to
withdraw from the palace. To Heinsius, as to a common friend, William
announced this separation in a letter which shows how deeply his
feelings had been wounded. "I cannot tell you what I have suffered. I
have done on my side every thing that I could do to satisfy him; but it
was decreed that a blind jealousy should make him regardless of every
thing that ought to have been dear to him." To Portland himself the King
wrote in language still more touching. "I hope that you will oblige me
in one thing. Keep your key of office. I shall not consider you as bound
to any attendance. But I beg you to let me see you as often as possible.
That will be a great mitigation of the distress which you have caused
me. For, after all that has pas