Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE DUKEDOM OF PORTLAND 191
of the Stole, First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and a
Privy Councillor. To these offices he united that of
Superintendent of the King's Gardens ; and later, he
obtained a regiment of horse, which did good service at
the Battle of the Boyne and elsewhere in Ireland and in
Flanders, the command of a regiment of Dutch Guards,
and the rank of Lieutenant-General in the English
army. But, while he seems to have been endowed with
high military capacity, his work was for the most part
that of the statesman.
To trace Bentinck's career at any length would be to
enter upon the history of a period that was bristling
with events, and we can only indicate therefore its
salient points. He seems to have been largely instru-
mental in checking the plans of the conspirators who
were working for the restoration of James VII. An
attempt was made to associate him in corrupt dealings
with the chairman of the East India Company, but only
to result in the discovery that he had indignantly rejected
the advances that were made to him in that direction.
From 1694 to 1697 he was engaged in the campaign
against France in Flanders, was instrumental in bringing
about the cessation of hostilities with the French Field-
Marshal, and bore a part in arranging the treaty of
Ryswick, which wound up the sanguinary conflict in
which Great Britain and her allies, the Netherlands and
Spain, sought to put an effectual check upon the power
and overweening ambition of France. In the beginning
of 1698 he was sent as Ambassador to France, where he
made a formal entry to Paris of almost unparalleled
magnificence, where he made an excellent personal
impression, and where he was highly popular both at
Court and with the people. When he returned to
England he was well received by King William, but found
much occasion for jealousy of the Earl of Albemarle,
who had gradually been acquiring the King's goodwill
by personal qualities that were entirely foreign to the
Earl of Portland's harder and drier nature. Notwith-
standing a continuance of the King's munificence, and