all the
ceremonious _punctilios_, of which he was himself the arbiter; nor to
quote him on grave subjects, which future historians may well do.

This volume contains the rupture of a morning, and the peace-makings of
an evening; sometimes it tells of "a _clash_ between the Savoy and
Florence ambassadors for precedence;"--now of "_questions_ betwixt the
Imperial and Venetian ambassadors, concerning _titles_ and _visits_,"
how they were to address one another, and who was to pay the first
visit!--then "the Frenchman takes _exceptions_ about _placing_." This
historian of the levee now records, "that the French ambassador gets
ground of the Spanish;" but soon after, so eventful were these
drawing-room politics, that a day of festival has passed away in
suspense, while a privy council has been hastily summoned, to inquire
_why_ the French ambassador had "a defluction of rheum in his teeth,
besides a fit of the ague," although he hoped to be present at the same
festival next year! or being invited to a mask, declared "his stomach
would not agree with cold meats:" "thereby pointing" (shrewdly observes
Sir John) "at the invitation and presence of the Spanish ambassador,
who, at the mask _the Christmas before_, had appeared in the first
place."

Sometimes we discover our master of the ceremonies disentangling himself
and the lord chamberlain from the most provoking perplexities by a
clever and civil lie. Thus it happened, when the Muscovite ambassador
would not yield precedence to the French nor Spaniard. On this occasion,
Sir John, at his wits' end, contrived an obscure situation, in which the
Russ imagined he was highly honoured, as there he enjoyed a full sight
of the king's face, though he could see nothing of the entertainment
itself; while the other ambassadors were so kind as "not to take
exception," not caring about the Russian, from the remoteness of his
country, and the little interest that court then had in Europe! But Sir
John displayed even a bolder invention when the Muscovite, at his
reception at Whitehall, complained that only one lord was in waiting at
the stairs'-head, while no one had met him in the court-yard. Sir John
assured him that in England it was considered a greater honour to be
received by one lord than by two!

Sir John discovered all his acumen in the solemn investigation of "Which
was the upper end of the table?" Arguments and inferences were deduced
from precedents quoted; but as precedents s