To gain Charles, therefore, was the Prince's first wish.

In the summer of 1683, almost at the moment at which the detection of the Rye House Plot made the discomfiture of the Whigs and the triumph of the King complete, events took place elsewhere which William could not behold without extreme anxiety and alarm.

The Turkish armies advanced to the suburbs of Vienna.
The great Austrian monarchy, on the support of which the Prince had reckoned, seemed to be on the point of destruction.

Bentinck was therefore sent in haste from the Hague to London, was charged to omit nothing which might be necessary to conciliate the English court, and was particularly instructed to express in the strongest terms the horror with which his master regarded the Whig conspiracy.
During the eighteen months which followed, there was some hope that the influence of Halifax would prevail, and that the court of Whitehall would return to the policy of the Triple Alliance.

To that hope William fondly clung.