try, repaired to
Buckingham House. He was astonished to find at the entrance a chair, the
shape of which was well known to him, and indeed to all London. It was
distinguished by a large boot, made for the purpose of accommodating the
Great Commoner's gouty leg. Grenville guessed the whole. His
brother-in-law was closeted with the King. Bute, provoked by what he
considered as the unfriendly and ungrateful conduct of his successors,
had himself proposed that Pitt should be summoned to the palace.

Pitt had two audiences on two successive days. What passed at the first
interview led him to expect that the negotiation would be brought to a
satisfactory close; but on the morrow he found the King less complying.
The best account, indeed the only trustworthy account of the conference,
is that which was taken from Pitt's own mouth by Lord Hardwicke. It
appears that Pitt strongly represented the importance of conciliating
those chiefs of the Whig party who had been so unhappy as to incur the
royal displeasure. They had, he said, been the most constant friends of
the House of Hanover. Their power was great; they had been long versed
in public business. If they were to be under sentence of exclusion, a
solid administration could not be formed. His Majesty could not bear to
think of putting himself into the hands of those whom he had recently
chased from his court with the strongest marks of anger. "I am sorry,
Mr. Pitt," he said, "but I see this will not do. My honor is concerned.
I must support my honor." How his Majesty succeeded in supporting his
honor we shall soon see.

Pitt retired, and the King was reduced to request the ministers, whom he
had been on the point of discarding, to remain in office. During the two
years which followed, Grenville, now closely leagued with the Bedfords,
was the master of the court; and a hard master he proved. He knew that
he was kept in place only because there was no choice except between
himself and the Whigs. That under any circumstances the Whigs would be
forgiven, he thought impossible. The late attempt to get rid of him had
roused his resentment; the failure of that attempt had liberated him
from all fear. He had never been very courtly. He now began to hold a
language, to which, since the days of Cornet Joyce and President
Bradshaw, no English King had been compelled to listen.

In one matter, indeed, Grenville, at the expense of justice and liberty,
gratified the passions of the court