To Albemarle he gave the keys of his closet and private drawers. It was now about seven in the morning. The Bishop knelt down and said the customary prayer: when it was ended, the King was no more. By a codicil to the Royal will, Albemarle came into possession of the lordship of the Breevervoorst and 200,000 guelders.
In June 1702 an heir was born to the house of Keppel, who was named William, after the child’s patron, and Anne, after the reigning sovereign, who stood godmother in person. Shortly after the birth of this son, Lord Albemarle returned to his native country, where he passed the greater part of his time, and took his place as a member of the Assembly of the States-General.
We have not space to do more than glance at his military career. Suffice it to say that he served with distinction successively under four of the greatest commanders of their day,—William III., Marshal Auverquerque, the Duke of Marlborough, and Prince Eugène of Savoy; all of whom in turn bore public testimony to his merits as a soldier.
In 1712 he was, on the recommendation of the Duke of Marlborough, appointed to the command of the Dutch forces, and on the death of Queen Anne he was sent by the States-General to congratulate George I. on his accession to the British throne. The new monarch, accompanied by his son, the Duke of Gloucester (afterwards George II.), was Lord Albemarle’s guest at the Voorst on his first day’s journey towards his new kingdom. In 1717 Albemarle was nominated by the nobles of Holland to compliment Peter the Great on his visit to their country, and he accompanied the Czar in great state to the city, which his Imperial Majesty had first entered as a journeyman carpenter! Arnold Keppel, first Earl of Albemarle, died the following year, and was succeeded by his son, William Anne, Viscount Bury. The portrait of which we are now speaking is a replica of one in the possession of the original’s great-great-grandson, the present bearer of the title. There are several other likenesses in England of this distinguished man, among which may be noted one at Woburn Abbey, that came into the Russell family in consequence of the marriage of Lady Elizabeth Keppel (daughter of the second Earl of Albemarle) with the Marquess of Tavistock in 1764.
A.
No. 6.
WILLIAM LAMB, SECOND VISCOUNT MELBOURNE.
Black coat. Hand resting on a table.
By Sir George Hayter, R.A.