He remembered with gusto the
frolic life of the Holy City, and the political excitement in the
Chevalier's court, and sent off a letter to 'His Majesty James III.,'
expressing, like a rusticated Oxonian, his penitence for having been so
naughty the last time, and offering to come and be very good again. It
is to the praise of the Chevalier de St. George that he had worldly
wisdom enough not to trust the gay penitent. He was tired, as everybody
else was, of a man who could stick to nothing, and did not seem to care
about seeing him again. Accordingly, he replied in true kingly style,
blaming him for having taken up arms against their common country, and
telling him in polite language--as a policeman does a riotous
drunkard--that he had better go home. The duke thought so too, was not
at all offended at the letter, and set off, by way of returning towards
his Penates, for Paris, where he arrived in May, 1728.
Horace Walpole--not _the_ Horace--but 'Uncle Horace,' or 'old Horace,'
as he was called, was then ambassador to the court of the Tuileries. Mr.
Walpole was one of the Houghton 'lot,' a brother of the famous minister
Sir Robert, and though less celebrated, almost as able in his line.
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