After this the Czar passed into England, curious to see and learn as much as possible; and, having well fulfilled his views, repaired into Holland.  He wished to visit France, but the King civilly declined to receive him.  He went, therefore, much mortified, to Vienna instead.  Three weeks after his arrival he was informed of a conspiracy that had been formed against him in Moscow.  He hastened there at once, and found that it was headed by his own sister; he put her in prison, and hanged her most guilty accomplices to the bars of his windows, as many each day as the bars would hold.  I have related at once all that regards the Czar for this year, in order not to leap without ceasing from one matter to another; I shall do this, and for the same reason, with that which follows.

The King of England was, as I have before said, at the height of satisfaction at having been recognised by the King (Louis XIV.), and at finding himself secure upon the throne.  But a usurper is never tranquil and content.  William was annoyed by the residence of the legitimate King and his family at Saint Germains.  It was too close to the King (of France), and too near England to leave him without disquietude.  He had tried hard at Ryswick to obtain the dismissal of James II. from the realm, or at least from the Court of France, but without effect.  Afterwards he sent the Duke of St. Albans to our King openly, in order to compliment him upon the marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne, but in reality to obtain the dismissal.

The Duke of St. Albans meeting with no success, the Duke of Portland was sent to succeed him.  The Duke of Portland came over with a numerous and superb suite; he kept up a magnificent table, and had horses, liveries, furniture, and dresses of the most tasteful and costly kind.  He was on his way when a fire destroyed Whitehall, the largest and ugliest palace in Europe, and which has not since been rebuilt; so that the kings are lodged, and very badly, at St. James’s Palace.

Portland had his first audience of the King on the 4th of February, and remained four months in France.  His politeness, his courtly and gallant manners, and the good cheer he gave, charmed everybody, and made him universally popular.  It became the fashion to give fetes in his honour; and the astonishing fact is, that the King, who at heart was more offended than ever with William of Orange, treated this ambassador with the most marked distinction.  One evening he even gave Portland his bedroom candlestick, a favour only accorded to the most considerable persons, and always regarded as a special mark of the King’s bounty.

Notwithstanding all these attentions, Portland was as unsuccessful as his predecessor.  The King had firmly resolved to continue his protection to James II., and nothing could shake this determination.  Portland was warned from the first, that if he attempted to speak to the King upon the point, his labour would be thrown away; he wisely therefore kept silence, and went home again without in any way having fulfilled the mission upon which he had been sent.