Lowell carried out the plan he had outlined. His friends, Mr. and Mrs. John W. Field, were in Madrid, and he left Mrs. Lowell under their watchful supervision, and went reluctantly to England, reaching London 7 March, 1880. His friends kept him informed daily by telegraph and letter of the condition of the invalid, and it so chanced that she had another relapse shortly after he had left her. He was in despair, and heaped reproaches upon himself for having gone; yet when he reasoned, he saw he had done only what he must do. A more reassuring telegram came on the 9th of March, and on the 14th he was persuaded that Mrs. Lowell had issued from this crisis and come fairly out on the other side. In a week more, he had had his audience with the Queen, and taking brief leave of absence, had set out for Madrid, whence he was now able to remove his wife to England. The life of both of them was brightened during the summer that followed by the coming of Mr. and Mrs. Burnett on a brief visit from America. CHAPTER XV THE ENGLISH MISSION 1880-1885 The two and a half years that Lowell passed at Madrid formed an excellent preparation for the more important post which he was to occupy near the Court of St. James. The etiquette of a high diplomatic position does not differ greatly in the different capitals; if anything, more punctilio would be observed in Madrid than in London. It was something, at any rate, to have become wonted to the function of a minister plenipotentiary. But this was a trifle compared with the advantage which Lowell enjoyed in the possession now of self-confidence. He had tried on the coat and found it fitted him well; he could wear it in London where he would be in a far more conspicuous position. He had practised the diplomatic art in a country where the language was foreign and the race unfamiliar, and if in his short residence he could, with some assurance, analyze the internal political conditions, he might hope more quickly to be able to apprehend nice discriminations in the current politics of a country where he was at home in language, literature, and history.