Sentence:  The envoys were not often compelled to forego the toilet for the desk, nor the "beaux secretaires", to give up their lessons on the guitar for the drudgery of copying dispatches. A “protocol” would have scared the gentle state from its propriety; and the arrival of the Morning Post, once a week from London, with the account of <WSD>routs</WSD> in which they had not shared, and the anticipation of dinners and déjeúnés which they were never to enjoy, was the only pain which Diplomacy suffered to raise a ripple on the tranquil surface of its soul. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A fashionable assembly, or large evening party.