Note 636 — Chapter VIII

Yet whatever slight Philip may have put upon the lords in this respect, he showed William, in particular, a singular proof of confidence. The prince's cuisine, as I have elsewhere stated, was renowned over the Continent; and Philip requested of him his chef, to take the place of his own, lately deceased. But the king seems to lay less stress on the skill of this functionary than on his trustworthiness,—a point of greater moment with a monarch. This was a compliment—in that suspicious age—to William, which, we imagine, he would have been slow to return by placing his life in the hands of a cook from the royal kitchens of Madrid. See Philip's letter in the Correspondance de Guillaume le Taciturne, tom. II p. 89.