The peace with Spain, as it opened a door for an embassy to that Court, afforded Mr. Fox a new opportunity of revenge; and as this measure at least he could not waive the honour of having suggested, so did it corroborate the belief of his being the author of the other too.[253] He immediately offered that embassy to Lord Sandwich,[254] who as greedily accepted it. Sandwich, rejected and exploded by all mankind, had been adopted, fostered, patronized in the most kind and intimate manner by the Duke of Cumberland; nor had he the confidence now to consult his Royal Highness, or to venture in person to notify to him his desertion. He wrote. The insult was too glaring, and could not be pardoned to either Fox or Sandwich, both of whom were for ever excluded from the Duke’s presence but at his public levées, and there underwent the most mortifying neglect from him; though Fox often sued in most abject manner to be forgiven. Severity gratified, honours and preferments were amply proffered, and but few rejected. The Duke of Manchester[255] had been named to the Bedchamber the instant Lord Rockingham had quitted it. The Duke of Marlborough[256] and the Earl of Northumberland[257] were made Lords Chamberlains to the King and Queen; the latter of which posts Lord Bristol had refused to accept, from attachment to Mr. Pitt. Lord Egmont was made Postmaster in the room of Lord Besborough. The seals of Secretary of State, with the _feuille de bénéfices_, were once more offered to the Duke of Newcastle; but he replied, it would be time enough to talk of business when the Parliament met. His friend, Lord Ashburnham,[258] resigned: and so did his other friend, Lord Kinnoul,[259] who, though his bosom-confident, dwelling in his very house, had borne his disgrace, and now affected to forget him, and to plead obligations to the Duke of Devonshire, at the same time declaring his reluctance to break with the Court; a reluctance so decisive, that he retired into Scotland, and came no more to London till the year 1770.