t letter which he had received from his father in law since
they had become avowed enemies. Once they had been on good terms and had
written to each other familiarly; nor had they, even when they had begun
to regard each other with suspicion and aversion, banished from their
correspondence those forms of kindness which persons nearly related by
blood and marriage commonly use. The letter which the Commissioners had
brought was drawn up by a secretary in diplomatic form and in the French
language. "I have had many letters from the King," said William,
"but they were all in English, and in his own hand." He spoke with a
sensibility which he was little in the habit of displaying. Perhaps
he thought at that moment how much reproach his enterprise, just,
beneficent, and necessary as it was, must bring on him and on the wife
who was devoted to him. Perhaps he repined at the hard fate which had
placed him in such a situation that he could fulfil his public duties
only by breaking through domestic ties, and envied the happier condition
of those who are not responsible for the welfare of nations and
Churches. But such thoughts, if they rose in his mind, were firmly
suppressed. He requested the Lords and gentlemen whom he had convoked on
this occasion to consult together, unrestrained by his presence, as to
the answer which ought to be returned. To himself, however, he reserved
the power of deciding in the last resort, after hearing their opinion.
He then left them, and retired to Littlecote Hall, a manor house
situated about two miles off, and renowned down to our own times, not
more on account of its venerable architecture and furniture than an
account of a horrible and mysterious crime which was perpetrated there
in the days of the Tudors. [570]

Before he left Hungerford, he was told that Halifax had expressed a
great desire to see Burnet. In this desire there was nothing strange;
for Halifax and Burnet had long been on terms of friendship. No two men,
indeed, could resemble each other less. Burnet was utterly destitute of
delicacy and tact. Halifax's taste was fastidious, and his sense of the
ludicrous morbidly quick. Burnet viewed every act and every character
through a medium distorted and coloured by party spirit. The tendency of
Halifax's mind was always to see the faults of his allies more strongly
than the faults of his opponents. Burnet was, with all his infirmities,
and through all the vicissitudes of a life passed in