For there the most exquisite cookery of France was set off by a certain neatness and comfort which then, as now, peculiarly belonged to England.

During the banquet the room was filled with people of fashion, who went to see the grandees eat and drink.

The expense of all this splendour and hospitality was enormous, and was exaggerated by report.
The cost to the English government really was fifty thousand pounds in five months.

It is probable that the opulent gentlemen who accompanied the mission as volunteers laid out nearly as much more from their private resources.
The malecontents at the coffeehouses of London murmured at this profusion, and accused William of ostentation.

But, as this fault was never, on any other occasion, imputed to him even by his detractors, we may not unreasonably attribute to policy what to superficial or malicious observers seemed to be vanity.