The important day being now come, the Lord Bishop of Bristol and the Earl of Strafford, having assumed the character of ambassadors extraordinary,[33] gave a memorial in behalf of the French Protestants to the Maréchal d'Uxelles and his colleague, who were to transmit it to their court; and these delivered to the British ambassadors a declaration in writing, that the Pretender was actually gone out of France. [Footnote 33: To avoid the parade of ceremony, they had hitherto been considered only as _plenipotentiaries_. [N.]] The conditions of peace to be allowed the Emperor and the empire, as adjusted between Britain and France, were now likewise delivered to the Count Zinzendorf. These and some other previous matters of smaller consequence being finished, the treaties of peace and commerce between Her Majesty of Britain and the Most Christian King, were signed at the lord privy seal's house between two and three of the clock in the afternoon. The ministers of the Duke of Savoy signed about an hour after. Then the assembly adjourned to the Earl of Stafford's, where they all went to dinner; and about nine at night the peace was signed by the ministers of Portugal, by those of Prussia at eleven, and when it was near midnight by the States. Thus after all the opposition raised by a strong party in France, and by a virulent faction in Britain; after all the artifices of those who presided at The Hague, and, for their private interest, endeavoured, in conjunction with their friends in England, to prolong the war; after the restless endeavours of the imperial court to render the treaty ineffectual; the firm steady conduct of the Queen, the wisdom and courage of her ministry, and the abilities of those whom she employed in her negotiations abroad, prevailed to have a peace signed in one day by every power concerned, except that of the Emperor and the empire; for his Imperial Majesty liked his situation too well to think of a peace, while the drudgery and expenses of the war lay upon other shoulders, and the advantages were to redound only to himself. During this whole negotiation, the King of Spain, who was not acknowledged by any of the confederates, had consequently no minister at Utrecht; but the differences between Her Majesty and that prince were easily settled by the Lord Lexington at Madrid, and the Marquis of Monteleon here: so that upon the Duke d'Ossuna's arrival at the congress, some days after the peace, he was ready to conclude a treaty between the Queen and his master. Neither is it probable that the Dutch, or any other ally, except the Emperor, will encounter any difficulties of moment, to retard their several treaties with his Catholic Majesty.