The state of those roads, however, though contemporaries described it as dangerous beyond all example, did not deter men of rank and fashion from making the joyous pilgrimages to Newmarket.  Half the Dukes in the kingdom were there.  Most of the chief ministers of state swelled the crowd; nor was the opposition unrepresented.  Montague stole two or three days from the Treasury, and Orford from the Admiralty.  Godolphin was there, looking after his horses and his bets, and probably went away a richer man than he came.  But racing was only one of the many amusements of that festive season.  On fine mornings there was hunting.  For those who preferred hawking choice falcons had been brought from Holland.  On rainy days the cockpit was encircled by stars and blue ribands.  On Sundays William went to church in state, and the most eminent divines of the neighbouring University of Cambridge preached before him.  He omitted no opportunity of showing marked civility to Tallard.  The Ambassador informed his Court that his place at table was next to the royal arm chair, and that his health had been most graciously drunk by the King.

All this time, both at Kensington and Newmarket, the Spanish question was the subject of constant and earnest discussion.  To trace all the windings of the negotiation would be tedious.  The general course which it took may easily be described.  The object of William was to place the Electoral Prince of Bavaria on the Spanish throne.  To obtain the consent of Lewis to such an arrangement seemed all but impossible; but William manoeuvred with rare skill.  Though he frankly acknowledged that he preferred the Electoral Prince to any other candidate, he professed. himself desirous to meet, as far as he honourably or safely could, the wishes of the French King.  There were conditions on which England and Holland might perhaps consent, though not without reluctance, that a son of the Dauphin should reign at Madrid, and should be master of the treasures of the New World.  Those conditions were that the Milanese and the Two Sicilies should belong to the Archduke Charles, that the Elector of Bavaria should have the Spanish Netherlands, that Lewis should give up some fortified towns in Artois for the purpose of strengthening the barrier which protected the United Provinces, and that some important places both in the Mediterranean sea and in the Gulf of Mexico should be made over to the English and Dutch for the security of trade.  Minorca and Havanna were mentioned as what might satisfy England.

Against these terms Lewis exclaimed loudly.  Nobody, he said, who knew with how sensitive a jealousy the Spaniards watched every encroachment on their colonial empire would believe that they would ever consent to give up any part of that empire either to England or to Holland.  The demand which was made upon himself was altogether inadmissible.  A barrier was not less necessary to France than to Holland; and he never would break the iron chain of frontier fastnesses which was the defence of his own kingdom, even in order to purchase another kingdom for his grandson.  On that subject he begged that he might hear no more.  The proposition was one which he would not discuss, one to which he would not listen.