The Protestants all over Europe sneered; and Innocent, already unfavourably disposed to the English government, considered the compliment which had been paid him, at so much risk and at so heavy a cost, as little better than an affront.

The salary of the Ambassador was fixed at a hundred pounds a week.

Castelmaine complained that this was too little.

Thrice the sum, he said, would hardly suffice.

For at Rome the ministers of all the great continental powers exerted themselves to surpass one another in splendour, under the eyes of a people whom the habit of seeing magnificent buildings, decorations, and ceremonies had made fastidious.