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 passed, I cannot help loving you tenderly.”

Thus Portland retired to enjoy at his ease immense estates scattered over half the shires of England, and a hoard of ready money, such, it was said, as no other private man in Europe possessed.  His fortune still continued to grow.  For, though, after the fashion of his countrymen, he laid out large sums on the interior decoration of his houses, on his gardens, and on his aviaries, his other expenses were regulated with strict frugality.  His repose was, however, during some years not uninterrupted.  He had been trusted with such grave secrets, and employed in such high missions, that his assistance was still frequently necessary to the government; and that assistance was given, not, as formerly, with the ardour of a devoted friend, but with the exactness of a conscientious servant.  He still continued to receive letters from William; letters no longer indeed overflowing with kindness, but always indicative of perfect confidence and esteem.

The chief subject of those letters was the question which had been for a time settled in the previous autumn at Loo, and which had been reopened in the spring by the death of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria.