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 Berwick, whom he was bound to regard as privy to the assassination plot against King William; and he then reminded Boufflers of their conversations in the previous year as to the exclusion of James from France. He boldly repeated both demands to the king himself, but without success, except that Louis requested the members of the court of St. Germain to abstain from coming to Versailles when the English ambassador was expected there. Portland had therefore to fall back upon the power of his government to refuse repayment of the jointure of James's queen. The negotiations which William had really at heart were those concerning the Spanish succession. This subject Portland approached in the first instance by an interview with a retired French diplomatist of the name of Gourville; after which Pomponne and Torcy were instructed by Louis to sound Portland as to William's views. The negotiations which ensued were carried on with the greatest secrecy, Heinsius alone, besides Portland, being entrusted by William with a knowledge of them, though they were soon also carried on between William and the French ambassador Tallard at Kensington. When, in June, Portland returned to England, after having been treated to the last with the utmost distinction by Louis, who had marked out a route home for him through the fortresses of French Flanders, and ordered every attention to be shown him there, the negotiations had already materially advanced. France had virtually ceased to insist upon the occupation of the Spanish throne by a Bourbon prince, and England was prepared to see France compensated by some portion of the Spanish dominions for consenting to the succession of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria. (See, besides and, whose fuller narrative is largely based on , with  and the Mémoires of .)

Portland was well received at Kensington, and it was even rumoured that a crowning mark of the royal favour was about to be bestowed upon him by his being created Duke of Buckingham (, iv. 400). But this title, which from its associations would have been singularly ill-chosen, was not bestowed upon him, though the king showed his old goodwill towards him, and was even said, in a difference between him and Albemarle, to have very strongly taken the part of his earlier friend and companion (ib. 453). The unwillingness of Portland to resume the old friendly relations, however, continued with his jealousy of a rival who by this time probably stood first in the king's affections. Once more he talked of retiring; but he well knew that his aid was indispensable in carrying to an issue the negotiations in which he had engaged. Thus he accompanied William to Holland in July, and on 4 Sept. signed at the Loo with Sir Joseph Williamson, the British minister at the Hague, what was afterwards known as the First Partition Treaty. It had been previously communicated by Portland to secretary Vernon, and by the king to the lord-chancellor Somers, but only when it was virtually an accomplished fact. Before it had long been actually such, in February 1699, the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, whose life was the pivot on which the treaty turned, died, and negotiations had to begin afresh.

Though Portland was once more the agent employed by the king, he otherwise showed no disposition to reciprocate the good-will which, in small things as well as in great, was displayed towards him. While his fortune continued to grow by the royal munificence¾he was stated to have, in January 1699, obtained a grant for the Little Park at Windsor (, iv. 476)—he repelled the king's advances, and even refused to take his accustomed seat in the royal coach. At last the rumours that had long been bruited about came true, and early in May Portland resigned all his places in the royal household. The report spread soon afterwards that he had received back the key proved false; but William is found dining with him a few days after his resignation (, iv. 515, 516), and no actual breach ever occurred between them. The king wrote to Heinsius that he had left nothing in reason untried to divert Portland from his intention, and that he had only with difficulty persuaded him to carry on the negotiations with Tallard (, viii. 343, from ). Portland, in his turn, professed to Count Auersperg his readiness to retire into country life, to which he had been brought up. ‘But during his talking and philosophising,’ wrote the Austrian, ‘he several times involuntarily sighed’ (ib. 344; and see an amusing passage about Portland's retirement in the correspondence of Elizabeth Charlotte, duchess of Orleans, extracted by, Französische Geschichte, v. 372). He followed the king into Holland about June, returning thence in October. The report which arose in the latter month, that he was going as ambassador-extraordinary to Denmark and Sweden to settle the differences about the rebuilding of the forts in Holstein, did not prove true (Luttrell, iv. 570). On the other hand, he is said by Burnet to have still taken an active part in the direction of Scotch affairs, so that the fury aroused in 