Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/285

Rh company with his ducheſs, and attended by two or three ſervants, arrived at Paris in May 1728. He ſent a letter to Mr. Walpole then embaſſador there, to let him know he designed to viſit him. That gentleman returned the duke a civil anſwer, importing, ‘that he ſhould be glad to ſee his grace at his own time, if he intended it a public viſit; if a private one, they would agree upon an hour, that ſhould be moſt convenient.’ The duke declared that he would come publicly, which he did next day, and his diſcourſe with that miniſter was ſuitable to the uſual gaiety of his temper; for though he ſpoke of returning home, it was in ſuch an undetermined way, that Mr. Walpole could not gueſs his real intentions. He received the duke however with his uſual complaiſance, and with a reſpect agreeable to his quality, but was not a little ſurprized, when, at parting, his grace told him, he was going to dine with the biſhop of Rocheſter. Mr. Walpole anſwered, ‘That if he had a deſign of making that prelate a viſit, there was no manner of occaſion for telling him of it.’ Thus they parted, and never again had another interview.

The duke made little ſtay at Paris, but proceeded to Rouen in his way, as ſome imagined, to England; but there he ſtopt, and took up his reſidence, without reflecting in the leaſt on the buſineſs that brought him to France. He was ſo far from making any conceſſion to the government in order to make his peace, that he did not give himſelf the leaſt trouble about his perſonal eſtate, or any other concern in England. The duke had about 600 l. in his poſſeſſion, when he arrived at Rouen, where more of his ſervants joined him from Spain. There he formed his houſhold, and made a calculation, in which there appeared to be but one miſtake, that is, he proportioned his expences, not according to his income, but ;