ometimes look contrary ways,
this affair might still have remained _sub judice_, had not Sir John
oracularly pronounced that "in spite of the chimneys in England, where
the best man sits, is that end of the table." Sir John, indeed, would
often take the most enlarged view of things; as when the Spanish
ambassador, after hunting with the king at Theobalds, dined with his
majesty in the privy-chamber, his son Don Antonio dined in the
council-chamber with some of the king's attendants. Don Antonio seated
himself on a stool at the end of the table. "One of the gentlemen-ushers
took exception at this, being, he said, irregular and unusual, that
place being ever wont to be reserved _empty for state_!" In a word, no
person in the world was ever to sit on that stool; but Sir John, holding
a conference before he chose to disturb the Spanish grandee, finally
determined that "this was the _superstition_ of a gentleman-usher, and
it was therefore neglected." Thus Sir John could, at a critical moment,
exert a more liberal spirit, and risk an empty stool against a little
ease and quiet; which were no common occurrences with that martyr of
state, a master of ceremonies!

But Sir John,--to me he is so entertaining a personage that I do not
care to get rid of him,--had to overcome difficulties which stretched
his fine genius on tenter-hooks. Once--rarely did the like unlucky
accident happen to the wary master of the ceremonies--did Sir John
exceed the civility of his instructions, or rather his
half-instructions. Being sent to invite the Dutch ambassador and the
States' commissioners, then a young and new government, to the
ceremonies of St. George's day, they inquired whether they should have
the same respect paid to them as other ambassadors? The bland Sir John,
out of the milkiness of his blood, said he doubted it not. As soon,
however, as he returned to the lord chamberlain, he discovered that he
had been sought for up and down, to stop the invitation. The lord
chamberlain said Sir John had exceeded his commission, if he had invited
the Dutchmen "to stand in the closet of the queen's side; because the
Spanish ambassador would never endure them _so near him, where there was
but a thin wainscot board between, and a window which might be opened_!"
Sir John said gently, he had done no otherwise than he had been desired;
which however the lord chamberlain, _in part_, denied, (cautious and
civil!) "and I was not so unmannerly as to contes