eans, nor create a
jealousy in Sir Luke of the King's intending to withdraw his confidence
from him." This was, of course, exactly what Townshend wanted to
do--to {238} induce the King to withdraw his confidence from poor Sir
Luke. The King agreed that it was necessary some one "in whose
fidelity and dexterity he can depend" should set out from England to
Hanover, "and take Paris on his way hither, under pretence of a
curiosity to see that place, and without owning to any one living the
business he is employed in." The person selected for this somewhat
delicate mission was Horace Walpole, Robert Walpole's only surviving
brother.

[Sidenote: 1724--Carteret goes to Ireland]

Horace Walpole acquitted himself very cleverly of the task assigned to
him. He was a man of uncouth manners, but of some shrewd ability and
of varied experience. He had been a soldier with Stanhope before
acting as Under-Secretary of State to Townshend; he had managed to
distinguish himself in Parliament and in diplomacy. He soon contrived
to obtain the ear of the Duke of Orleans, and he found that Sir Luke
Schaub had been deceiving himself and his sovereign about the prospect
of La Vrilliere's dukedom. Philip of Orleans told Horace Walpole
frankly that there never was the slightest idea of giving such a
dukedom, and added that the dignity of France would be compromised if
such a concession were made in order to enable the King of England "to
marry his bastard daughter"--so the Duke put it--into the French
_noblesse_. Sir Luke Schaub's haste and indiscreet zeal had, in fact,
brought his sovereign into discredit, and even compromised the good
understanding between England and France.

Philip of Orleans died almost immediately. His death was sudden, but
he had long run a course which set all laws of health at defiance. He
stuck to his pleasures to the very last--died, one might say, in
harness. His successor in the administration of France, under the
young King Louis the Fifteenth, who had just been declared of age, was
the Duke de Bourbon, Philip's equal, perhaps, in profligacy, but not by
any means his equal in capacity. Horace Walpole won over the new
administrator. The Duke de Bourbon told him that Sir Luke Schaub was
{239} obnoxious to every one in the French Court, and that he was not
fit, by birth, breeding, or capacity, to represent England there.

We need not follow the intrigue through all its turns and twists.
Walpole and To