George the Third was greatly disturbed.  He had but a few weeks before exulted in his deliverance from the yoke of the great Whig connection.  He had even declared that his honour would not permit him ever again to admit the members of that connection into his service.  He now found that he had only exchanged one set of masters for another set still harsher and more imperious.  In his distress he thought on Pitt.  From Pitt it was possible that better terms might be obtained than either from Grenville, or from the party of which Newcastle was the head.

Grenville, on his return from an excursion into the country, repaired to Buckingham House.  He was astonished to find at the entrance a chair, the shape of which was well known to him, and indeed to all London.  It was distinguished by a large boot, made for the purpose of accommodating the Great Commoner’s gouty leg.  Grenville guessed the whole.  His brother-in-law was closeted with the King.  Bute, provoked by what he considered as the unfriendly and ungrateful conduct of his successors, had himself proposed that Pitt should be summoned to the palace.

Pitt had two audiences on two successive days.  What passed at the first interview led him to expect that the negotiations would be brought to a satisfactory close; but on the morrow he found the King less complying.  The best account, indeed the only trustworthy account of the conference, is that which was taken from Pitt’s own mouth by Lord Hardwicke.  It appears that Pitt strongly represented the importance of conciliating those chiefs of the Whig party who had been so unhappy as to incur the royal displeasure.  They had, he said, been the most constant friends of the House of Hanover.  Their power was great; they had been long versed in public business.  If they were to be under sentence of exclusion, a solid administration could not be formed.  His Majesty could not bear to think of putting himself into the hands of those whom he had recently chased from his Court with the strongest marks of anger.  “I am sorry, Mr. Pitt,” he said, “but I see this will not do.  My honour is concerned.  I must support my honour.”  How his Majesty succeeded in supporting his honour, we shall soon see.

Pitt retired, and the King was reduced to request the ministers, whom he had been on the point of discarding, to remain in office.  During the two years which followed, Grenville, now closely leagued with the Bedfords, was the master of the Court; and a hard master he proved.  He knew that he was kept in place only because there was no choice except between himself and the Whigs.  That under any circumstances the Whigs would be forgiven, he thought impossible.  The late attempt to get rid of him had roused his resentment; the failure of that attempt had liberated him from all fear.  He had never been very courtly.  He now began to hold a language, to which, since the days of Cornet Joyce and President Bradshaw, no English King had been compelled to listen.