Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/72

52 set out for that country on the 3rd of October, "in company with Messieurs de la Borde and de Comeyras. Lord North was for detaining them longer on account of this experiment. Many" said Warner "have been in treaty for the secret." Late in October Warner was at Versailles, writes Selwyn in his mixture of languages, on "the day of the accouchement de la Reine. They are preparing a great fête pour les relevailles and the shops are filled with things à la Dauphine. They talk much there of peace."

On the morning of the 13 November 1781 Selwyn received a visit from Warner. It had taken him exactly a week to pass from Paris to London and he had come in high spirits. Selwyn hoped that he would make no more excursions "for although he is more a cosmopolite than any man I ever knew, yet I think as the Maréchal de Biron once said to me on n'est jamais bien que chez soi."

Selwyn continued to think of Warner's interests. They dined together in the following February with Fawkener, a son of sir Everard Fawkener, the jolly old postmaster-general, at the house of Crespigny and the dinner was pronounced "a very agreeable one indeed." "You will not forget," continues Selwyn in his accustomed jargon, " Warner, I hope, when the opportunity comes à fin qu'il soit dans le cas d'en tirer de sa propre cave." Next month he again expresses his wish to lord Carlisle that he may not leave office before the "occasion will happen to serve poor Warner." Alas, it was too late; the time had slipped away. But the doctor bore his misfortune like a man. "Poor Warner!" writes Selwyn in ten lines of English without a word of French "He is very cheerful and declares with great generosity of mind and justice to you [lord Carlisle] that he shall not complain of his lot; he is persuaded that if you could help him you would, and that there are disappointments which a man must reconcile himself to."