[60] So runs the textual engagement of Queen Anne, taken from the Royal Archives of the Hague, and communicated to M. Geffroy.

[61] Lettres de Madame de Maintenon et de Madame des Ursins, tom. ii., pp. 7, 8.

But that was just what the allies most feared. The faculty given to Madame des Ursins in Philip's deed of gift had made them suspect that intention of a surrender or an exchange, and they were on the watch for everything which might arise to support their suppositions. In such conjuncture, Madame des Ursins was wanting, as it appears to us, in prudence and address. Instead of postponing, until the cession had become an accomplished fact, the question of the exchange, she pursued the two objects simultaneously. To negotiate the second with Torcy, she sent D'Aubigny secretly to France, and the latter, after some overtures, gave her hopes of entire success. Transported with delight, she gave herself up to all the illusions of what the future had in store for her of happiness. She was not, therefore, destined to descend either in rank or honours after quitting the Court of Madrid. Here she had ruled beneath the shadow of a phantom King; there she would command directly and in person. In Spain, she had only been a subordinate; in France she would have no superior, and would be more mistress of herself. All these satisfactions were increased a hundredfold by the proud feeling of returning to her native country as a sovereign princess, in a state so strictly levelled by royalty, wherein no one would have a condition equal to her own, and in which she would display with jesting haughtiness the pomp inseparable from her title before her abashed enemies. She had so much faith in the hopes with which d'Aubigny inspired her, and by which that cunning favourite thought perhaps already to profit, that she instructed him to go into Touraine and to purchase land in the neighbourhood of Amboise whereon to erect a chateau, which should be called the manor of Chanteloup.[62] It was something like selling the skin of the bear before slaying her bruin; but with the formal and written engagement of England, with the support of Holland, which she also had, with Louis XIV., whom she sought to win back through the influence of Madame de Maintenon, and by the calculated nobleness of her intentions, she would overcome the resistance of Austria, and her victory was certain.

[62] Memoires de Saint Simon, tom. xviii., p. 104.

Unfortunately, that which she ought to have anticipated actually came to pass. England first discovered the occult negotiations of d'Aubigny at Versailles, and, unwilling that the Princess des Ursins should bestow anything upon France, she changed her tone, and became almost a defaulter to her. A Valentian gentleman, Clemente Generoso, says Duclos, still copying textually from Fitz-Maurice, blamed Lord Lexington, whose agent and interpreter he had been from the beginning of the war, for having committed the Queen of England so far to Madame des Ursins, and advised him to tear up the convention.[63] By the intervention of that lady, England had obtained all it required, and the written consent of Philip V. rendered the concessions irrevocable; there was no danger, therefore, of want of good faith on the part of Madame des Ursins.

[63] Memoirs of Duclos, tom. i., p. 190.

The towering rage of the latter may be imagined when she heard this news. She made the most earnest entreaties to Queen Anne not to abandon her. All that she could obtain was that that Princess "would use her good offices" to procure her the object of her desires. An elastic and somewhat embarrassing promise of protection was substituted for a formal and signed engagement, which bound Queen Anne to the interests of Madame des Ursins as to those of a contracting power. The English had tricked her; they had surpassed her in cunning. A short time afterwards, if we may believe Fitz-Maurice and his Spanish interlocutors, she made Clemente Generoso pay dearly for his evil counsel. One day when he was returning from London to Madrid, with instructions for Lord Lexington, some Irishmen, in the service of Philip V., attacked him, and, as he was endeavouring to take refuge in a church, they killed him, conformably to the orders which they had received, it is said, from the Princess des Ursins and Orry.

We only give this statement, be it well understood, under reservation, because nowhere else have we found any confirmation or even indication of it. But thus much is certain, that the chances which Madame des Ursins had on the part of the Queen of England were greatly diminished, and that it was necessary to look elsewhere for more reliable aid. She quickly despatched, therefore, her favourite d'Aubigny to Utrecht. "But," says Saint Simon, "c'etait un trop petit Sire; he was not admitted beyond the antechambers." But Saint Simon often falls into error through excessive contempt for those below his own level. By certain documents recently discovered at the Hague and communicated to M. Geffroy, it may be seen that the members of the congress of Utrecht deliberated with d'Aubigny, and that they designated him the plenipotentiary of Madame des Ursins. However that may be, d'Aubigny did not obtain much; in fact, he spoilt everything by offering the Dutch greater advantages than had been accorded to the English. So the latter at least pretended, in order, no doubt, to have a pretext for wholly abandoning Madame des Ursins and for resuming their haughty attitude towards her, after having courted her for awhile. Queen Anne feigned, in fact, to be hurt that the Dutch had been more favoured than her own subjects, and exclaimed, with a readiness that betrayed an inward satisfaction: "Since the Princess des Ursins has recourse to others, I abandon her."[64] D'Aubigny, as the sole result, obtained only vague hopes on the part of the Dutch, who were as inimical as the English as to any exchange with France.

[64] Memoirs of Duclos, tom. i., p. 191.

Without being angry with her "man of business," whom she allowed even to return to Amboise to complete the erections already begun, Madame des Ursins selected, to continue the negotiations, a more important personage—a young nephew of Madame de Noailles, named de Bournonville, Baron de Capres. But he covered himself with ridicule at this game of private intrigue rather than real diplomatic negotiation; and, notwithstanding all the trouble he took, he obtained nothing by it, "the gratitude of Madame des Ursins excepted, who made Philip V. give him the Golden Fleece, the rank of grandee, the Walloon company of the bodyguard—everything, in fact, he could desire."[65]

[65] MS. Letters of the Baron de Capres to Mad. des Ursins, xxxi., xxxii.

The successive check of her two diplomatists was not, however, a sufficient warning to Madame des Ursins. Ever in pursuit of a position, which had become nothing more than a chimera after having served as a lure on the part of the English, she relied for success upon the persistent and obstinate will of Philip V., who made it a question of amour propre for himself as much as a just recompense for Madame des Ursins. It was under these circumstances that this Prince refused to sign the treaty of Utrecht, that treaty which Louis XIV. had signed and sealed with his own royal hand, and engaged to make him accept it, even though the allied powers should not grant him what he desired to bequeath to Madame des Ursins.[66] Such a firm attitude proved plainly enough that there was good reason for reliance upon him.

[66] Memoirs of Duke of Berwick, tom. ii., pp. 164-169.

But this affair "hung up" the peace, to use Saint Simon's phrase—the peace that Louis XIV. could now sign, because it was honourable. His displeasure was extreme. It was all very well for Madame des Ursins to say that she had nothing to do with the matter, that the King of Spain was only following his own inclination, and that after all she despised the malevolent designs of his enemies; still the delay experienced in the conclusion of the general peace was imputed to her. She was accused of occupying herself too exclusively with her own interests, and of placing in the scales the repose of Europe entire: it was said that she abused Philip's good-nature, and that she ought not to have availed herself of her ascendancy over that conscientious prince save to release him from his promise, to free him from all trammel, and incline him towards the wishes of his grandfather.

It was from the French ministry that these complaints came, and Torcy, so greatly humiliated in 1704, at length had his revenge. Madame de Maintenon herself made remarks upon her, based upon the same motives; only that she threw more form into them, contenting herself with giving the Princess to infer that of which the others did not spare her the harshest expression. "You have good reason to let folks chatter;" she wrote, "provided that you have nothing to reproach yourself with.... for, you must know, we here look upon the treaty of Spain with Holland, such as it is, as equally necessary, as you think it shameful at Madrid.... Make up your mind, therefore, Madam, and do not allow it to be said that you are the sole cause of the prolongation of the war. I cannot believe it, and think it very scandalous that others should."[67]

[67] Letters of Madame des Ursins to Madame de Maintenon, tom. ii., 7th Aug., 1713; 3rd Sept., 1713; 16th June, 1714.

But these warnings and exhortations, imparted with such delicate tact, had no more effect at Madrid than the harsh severity of the ministerial reprimands. Louis XIV. then made his solemn voice heard. "Sign," said he, tartly, to his grandson, "or no aid from me. Berwick is on his march for Barcelona—I will recall him; then I will make peace privately with the Dutch and with the Emperor; I will leave Spain at war with those two powers, and I will not mix myself up further in any of your affairs, because I do not choose, for the private interest of Madame des Ursins, to defer securing the repose of my people, and perhaps plunge them into fresh sufferings."[68]

[68] Memoires de Saint Philippe, tom. iii., p. 91, and Duclos, tom. i., p. 100.

When Louis XIV. had thus proffered his last word, Philip V. even yet urged some objections, and the Princess des Ursins on her part, moved her friends into action; but there was no means of converting Louis XIV. to what the Court of Madrid demanded, since not one of the allies was willing either; and, as for the acquisition of those few manors in Luxembourg, in exchange for an equivalent in Touraine, he preferred personally to have nothing upon any frontier, than to gain so little, and owe such feeble legacy to an intrigue, unworthy of his character, unworthy of a great nation, and only fit to serve as a text for the biting irony of foreigners or that of his own subjects.

Madame des Ursins is indeed no longer comprehensible throughout this affair. She, hitherto so noble-minded, so devoted to high-class politics, so prudent, so full of tact. Oh! how far off are we from realising that lofty sentiment of hers:—

"Sans peine je passerais de la dictature a la charrue!"

There was nothing left, however, but to give way. The treaty of Utrecht was signed by Philip V., and unconditionally. The net gain in the business fell to d'Aubigny; he received for his trouble as a negotiator, and for his constancy in another way, the manor of Chanteloup, revealed the motive of its construction—yet an enigma to everybody in France, says Saint Simon[69]—installed himself therein, and, for the rest, made himself loved and esteemed there. To Madame des Ursins there only remained the mortification of having failed, a mortification the greater that her pretensions had been so lofty and tenacious. It was further increased, also, by having turned the Court of France against her, and engendered a coolness towards her on the part of Madame de Maintenon herself, who up to that juncture had always approved of her manner of acting and her system of government, but who now, seizing the occasion of Orry having established some imposts upon the Catalans, did not hesitate to say very harshly and laconically: "We do not think Orry fit for his post, for Spain is very badly governed."[70]

[69] Memoires de Saint Simon, tom. xviii., p. 104.

[70] Lettres, tom. iii., p. 448, year 1714.

Those were accents which must have deeply grieved the heart of the Princess. Next came Berwick, who was by no means, as we have seen, to be ranked amongst her friends—Berwick, whom Louis XIV. had sent in spite of her, in spite of what she had said of Tesse, who, by his own account, had failed the first time before Barcelona only because he had been prevented from commencing the siege soon enough. Her influence, it was impossible to longer doubt, had been greatly lessened at Versailles, if it had not perished altogether.

Trembling for herself, she continued naturally to lean upon the King of Spain, who was devoted to her. In order that this plank of safety should not escape her grasp, she permitted only those she liked to have access to him; she regulated all his proceedings; she kept him from all private audience; she seemed jealous of it, whilst she was only so as regarded her own preservation. Scandal, as may be imagined, was again busy with her name. It was again whispered that she was in hopes that the King, scarcely yet thirty-two, would not be repelled by the faded charms of a septuagenarian; that he would marry her, that was certain; and in every saloon throughout the world of fashion in France, circulated the following anecdote, which Saint Simon duly registered in his Memoirs, and in which further figured, to render it more piquante and authentic, the Reverend Father Robinet. The King certainly had one evening withdrawn with his confessor into the embrasure of a window. The latter appearing reserved and mysterious, the curiosity of Philip V. was excited, and the King questioned his confessor as to the meaning of the unwonted mood in which he found him. Upon which Father Robinet replied, that since the King forced him to it, he would confess that nobody either in France or Spain doubted but that he would do Madame des Ursins the honour of espousing her. "I marry her!" hastily rejoined the King. "Oh! as to that, certainly not!" and he turned upon his heel as he uttered the sentence. It was the pendant of "Oh! pour mariee, non!" of the famous letter of the Abbe d'Estrees, related by the same historian. Saint Simon's two pictures are delightful; in either of the two, the priest, whether cunning or malignant, figures conspicuously, attracts attention, and keeps up one's curiosity.

For some time, Philip V. treated these reports as mere inventions and calumnies, "the offspring of envy, hatred, and ambition." All that was said concerning the omnipotence of Madame des Ursins, of her empire over him, of her hopes, her designs, of that same corridor, of their private interviews, left him unmoved and indifferent. The Count de Bergueick, until then a stanch adherent of the Princess des Ursins, himself declared that that omnipotence had become insupportable, and he asked permission to return to Flanders, whence he had been summoned. Philip V. allowed him to depart, and Madame des Ursins lost not one jot of her authority. But the complaints, the murmurs, the idle talk continued, the incessant repetition of which could not fail at last to make an impression upon a weak mind. In the end the King grew wearied, and vexed, especially at the reports relating to such a ridiculous marriage, to a matrimonial project which wounded his self-love as a man as well as his royal dignity, and tormented besides by the exigencies of a temperament, in which the flesh was far too predominant over the spirit—"Find me a wife," said he, one day to Madame des Ursins, "our tete-a-tetes scandalise the people."[71]

[71] Memoire de Duclos, tom, i., p. 230.



CHAPTER IV.

THE PRINCESSES ELIGIBLE TO BECOME PHILIP'S CONSORT.

"FIND me a wife!" The sentence was like a thunderclap in the ears of Madame des Ursins, so long accustomed as she had been to govern and domineer. Where to find one—one like Marie Louise of Savoy, who would consent to retain her in the same functions, and who, like her, with intelligence and firmness of mind, would have a boundless confidence in her camerara mayor, and a docility proof against everything? Louis XIV., being consulted, replied to his grandson that he gave him his choice between a princess of Portugal, a princess of Bavaria, and a princess of Parma. The first was greatly to the taste of the Castilians; they had always had reason to praise their Portuguese queens, and they attached to such choice hopes of renewed political unity for the Spanish peninsula to the profit of Castile, which thus, by marriages, would absorb, on the left, Portugal, as it had appropriated on the right, the kingdom of Arragon. But the Court of the King of Portugal, the brother of that princess, had been the rendezvous and the asylum of aristocratic and Austrian opposition. These antecedents alarmed Madame des Ursins on her own account, and did not appear much more assuring for Philip V. Was it not known, on the other hand, that Portugal—especially since the treaty of Utrecht, since the Bourbons had become, in spite of that nation, the immutable possessors of Spain—dreaded those neighbouring kings, after having previously loved them so much as liberators, and on that account had placed herself under the protection of England, the enemy of all the reigning branches of that powerful and ambitious house?

A marriage with the daughter of the Elector of Bavaria, of a firm ally of Louis XIV. and Philip V., might well be the boon and the bond of an old friendship, but could not procure for Spain any compensation for the sacrifices imposed upon her by the terms of the recent peace.

The Princess of Parma, as a guarantee of security, if not of material advantage, did not at the first glance seem more eligible. "Besides that she was the issue of a double bastardy, of a pope on her father's side, of a natural daughter of Charles V. on her mother's side, she was the daughter of a petty duke of Parma and a thoroughly Austrian mother, who was herself the sister of the dowager-empress, of the dowager-queen of Spain, who was so unpopular that she was exiled; and further of the Queen of Portugal, who had persuaded her husband to receive the Archduke at Lisbon, and to carry the war into Spain."[72] On that account such was not an eligible choice for the King of Spain. It was certain, moreover, although Madame des Ursins was unaware of it, that "she was of a haughty disposition, and that she had been brought up at Parma with the same thoroughly French freedom which reigned at Turin."[73] But by her uncle, the reigning Duke of Parma, who had no children, and was no longer of an age to have any, she was heiress to the duchies of Parma, Plaisance, and Guastalla, and by another uncle, the aged Gaston de Medicis, Duke of Tuscany, she had the expectation of Tuscany itself, and the isle of Elba, a dependance of it. United to Philip V. she might therefore some day, and perhaps shortly, bring Spain into Italy, alongside of its ancient possessions, from which the treaty of Utrecht had driven her. This consideration had much weight with Madame des Ursins, to whom that treaty, as we have seen from a letter of Madame de Maintenon, had appeared disgraceful for Spain, as well as detrimental to herself. Doubtless there was something disquieting in the family alliances of this princess; but it might be thought that the perspective of an union with one of the most illustrious crowned houses of Europe, and moreover the crown of a queen which would bind her brow, would render her favourable to Madame des Ursins, upon whom a marriage so brilliant depended, and which far surpassed Elizabeth's utmost expectations. The former thought to find in the Farnese, brought up in a modest and virtuous court, a simple-minded, timorous girl. Gratitude for such a service appeared to Madame des Ursins a certain security for her future tranquillity; but a skilful intriguer who had but very slightly rendered himself agreeable to the princess—Alberoni, a native of Parma—afterwards celebrated throughout Europe as the Cardinal Alberoni, but then occupying a subordinate position in Spain, conceived at that moment one of those vast plans to which his fertile genius was wont to give birth, and which would have placed him in the foremost rank of great men had a like success equally crowned them all. He concealed, as already said, the real character of the Princess of Parma, who, moreover, could not then have been known to be what she afterwards turned out. The marriage was concluded, the new Queen set out for Spain, and Madame des Ursins went forward to meet her at Xadraque, a small town some few leagues from Madrid.

[72] Memoirs of St. Simon, tom. xx., p. 175.

[73] Histoire Secrete de la Cour de Madrid, annee 1714, p. 315.

A dispensation from the Pope—for the future Queen was a near relative of Gabrielle of Savoy—had been promptly obtained. Already did the favourite indulge herself with the contemplation of the illimitable prospect of domination which the future seemed to open up for her, when she received more truthful information relative to the character of Elizabeth Farnese. Her letters during the latter part of 1714, notwithstanding their great reserve, reveal a manifest uneasiness, and it is with an ill-concealed emotion that she relates, without precisely detailing them, the contradictory reports which reach her relative to the Princess. It seems impossible to doubt that, during the few months which preceded the arrival of the Princess of Parma, the presence of Madame des Ursins had not become a torment to the Spanish King, and that he had not secretly lent his hand to a coup d'etat carried out subsequently with a barbarous determination by his new consort. It was, in fact, by showing to the officers of the guard a plenary power from the King that Elizabeth triumphed over their hesitation, and that she secured their assistance in the execution of a measure which perhaps would have been less cruel if it had been more sanguinary; but if, since the death of Marie Louise of Savoy, the relations of the King of Spain with Madame des Ursins had assumed an obscure character, the active intervention of the latter in the second marriage of that Prince at least excludes the idea that she could have dreamed of a royal position for herself, as her enemies accused her. Granted that the Abbe Alberoni may have transformed the most ambitious princess in Europe into "a jolly Parmesane fattened upon cheese and butter,"[74] and that the habitual circumspection of Madame des Ursins did not protect her against the clumsiness of such a snare may be true, however unlikely; but it is at least doubtful that the camerara mayor could have cherished such illusion when she presented herself for the first time before the new Queen at the interview at Xadraque.

[74] "Questo abbate pur freddamente, e come a mezza voce la nomino, aggiugnendo per altro, ch'ella era una buona Lombarda, impastata da buttero et fromagio picentino, elevata alla casalingua, ed avezza di non sentirsi di altro parlare che di mertelli ricami e tele."—Memorie Istoriche di Poggiali, p. 279.

Whether the indiscretions of others had revealed to her the true character of Elizabeth Farnese, whether she had foreseen the manoeuvres of the Inquisition with the future Queen, whether she had dreaded the anger of Louis XIV., who had not been consulted; whether the triumphant attitude of her enemies had opened her eyes, certain it is, however, that the Princess attempted to break off the match. But it was in vain that she despatched a confidential agent to Parma for that purpose. On his arrival, the messenger was thrown into prison and threatened with death, and so failed in his mission. The marriage by procuration was celebrated on the 16th of August, 1714. That unskilful and tardy opposition released the Princess Farnese from all feelings of gratitude, furnished the enemies of Madame des Ursins with a deadly weapon, by appearing to justify their accusations in a striking manner, and so prepared her ruin.

Her disgrace was prompt, cruel, decisive. The plan had evidently been concerted long beforehand.[75] Confirmed in her design by her interview at Saint Jean de Luz with the Queen Dowager, widow of Charles II. and her relative, and at Pampeluna with Alberoni, Elizabeth held on her way to Madrid. The King advanced to meet her on the road to Burgos, and Madame des Ursins, as has been said, went on before as far as the little town of Xadraque. When the Queen arrived there on the 23rd of December, 1714, Madame des Ursins received her with the customary reverences. Afterwards, having followed her into a cabinet, she perceived her instantly change her tone. By some it is said that Madame des Ursins, being desirous of finding fault with something about the Queen's head-dress, whilst she was at her toilette, the latter treated it as an impertinence, and immediately flew into a rage. Others relate (and these different accounts tally with each other in the main) that Madame des Ursins having protested her devotedness to the new Queen, and assured her Majesty "that She might always reckon upon finding her stand between the King and herself, to keep matters in the state in which they ought to be on her account, and procuring her all the gratifications which she had a right to expect—the Queen, who had listened quietly enough so far, took fire at these last words, and replied that she did not want anyone near the King; that it was an impertinence to make her such an offer, and that it was presuming too much to dare to address her in such a fashion." Thus much is certain, that the Queen, outrageously thrusting Madame des Ursins out of her cabinet,[76] summoned M. d'Amezaga, lieutenant of the bodyguard, who commanded the escort, and ordered him to arrest the Princess, to make her get immediately into a carriage, and have her driven to the French frontiers by the shortest road, and without halting anywhere. As d'Amezaga hesitated, the Queen asked him whether he had not received a special command from the King of Spain to obey her in everything and without reserve—which was quite true. Madame des Ursins was arrested, therefore, and carried off instantaneously, just as she was, in her full dress of ceremony, and hurried across Spain as fast as six horses could drag her. It was mid-winter—no provisions to be found in the inns of Spain; no beds; not a change of clothes—the ground covered with frost and snow; and the Princess was then in her seventy-second year. A lady's maid and two officers of the guard accompanied her in the carriage.

[75] "I only ask one thing of you," wrote Elizabeth Farnese to Philip V.; "that is the dismissal of Madame des Ursins;" and the king had replied—"At least do not spare your blow; for if she only talk to you for a couple of hours, she will enchain you, and hinder us from sleeping together, as happened to the late Queen."—Duclos.

[76] Madame des Ursins, stupified, sought to make excuses. "La Reine alors, redoublant de furie et de menaces, se mit a crier qu'on fit sortir cette folle de sa presence et de son logis, et l'en fit mettre dehors par les epaules."—Saint Simon.

"I know not how I managed to endure all the fatigue of that journey," she wrote Madame de Maintenon, whilst wandering about the French frontiers, eighteen days after the scene at Xadraque. "They compelled me to sleep upon straw, and to breakfast in a very different style to the repast to which I had been accustomed. I have not forgotten in the details which I have taken the liberty to send the King (Louis XIV.) that I ate only two stale eggs daily; it struck me that such a fact would excite him to take pity upon a faithful subject who has not deserved, it seems to me, in any way such contemptuous treatment. I am going to Saint Jean de Luz to take a little repose and learn what it may please the King to do in my behalf."

And from this last-named town—at which she was set at liberty—and up to her arrival at which she had unfalteringly maintained the strength and constancy of her character, neither a tear nor a complaint escaping her—a few days later she wrote again to Madame de Maintenon:

"Here I shall await the King's commands. I am in a small house—the ocean before me, sometimes calm, sometimes agitated: it is an image of what passes in courts. You know what has happened to me; I shall not implore in vain your generous compassion. I agree perfectly with you that stability is only to be found in God. Assuredly it is not to be found in the human breast; for who could be more certain than I was of the King of Spain's heart?"

Everything leads us to infer, in fact, that it was Philip V. who, forgetting the long and faithful services of Madame des Ursins, and wearied of a domination from which he had not the courage to free himself, gave authority to his new consort to take everything upon herself; and the latter, who, like Alberoni, her crafty adviser, belonged to the intrepid race of political gamesters, did not hesitate for a single instant to commence her regal play with the execution of such a master-stroke. Elizabeth of Parma felt herself to be too first-rate a personage to condescend to figure side by side on the same stage with Madame des Ursins.

It was of this same Elizabeth, born for a throne, that Frederick the Great said: "The pride of a Spartan, the obstinacy of a Briton, added to Italian finesse and French vivacity, formed the character of this singular woman. She advanced audaciously to the accomplishment of her designs; nothing astonished her, nothing could stop her." Possessed of such qualities it is not surprising to find that she profited by the smallest opening to sweep the ground clear on her arrival.

Recovering from this stunning downfall, Madame des Ursins, after the first moments of surprise, recovered all her strength, her sang-froid, her wonted equanimity. Not a complaint or unbecoming reproach or weak word escaped her lips. She had formed a just estimate beforehand of all that human instability; she said to herself, on beholding her enemies triumphant and her friends in consternation, that there was no reason to be greatly astonished. That this world was only a stage over which many very poor actors strutted, that she had thereon played her part better than many others perhaps, and that her enemies ought not to have expected to see her so humiliated that she could no longer perform it: "It is in the eye of heaven that I should be humbled," said she, "and I am so."

Every reader of Saint Simon must be deeply impressed with his narrative of that terrible night of December 24th, 1714. Who can fail to picture to himself the rude expulsion of the Princess des Ursins from the Queen's apartment in her full dress of ceremony, suddenly packed off in a carriage, without proper clothing or change of linen, and without money, to be whirled away through a winter's night so severe that her driver lost one of his hands from frost-bite, over mountain passes where the roads had disappeared beneath the snow, towards an unknown destination? Who cannot picture to himself hunger coming to add fresh tortures to those of the prolonged nightmare under which that unfortunate lady must have suffered the keenest pangs of incertitude, of astonishment, and of humiliation? Such, however, was the fate reserved for a woman who had inscribed her name among those of the founders of a dynasty and the liberators of a great kingdom!

For some time previous to the occurrence of that strange event—so unlooked for, so inconceivable—the Princess had not been free from inquietude with respect to the preservation of her prestige and authority, as also on the score of constantly recurring difficulties with the Court of Versailles, wherein she had numerous enemies keeping up an active correspondence with the still more numerous enemies by whom she was surrounded at Madrid; the affairs of the sovereignty, the isolation in which Philip was kept; the marriage of that Prince, determined upon and almost concluded without the consent of his grandfather—all which had deeply angered Louis the Fourteenth.

Though all this tended by turns to inspire the Princess with fear and disgust, still, she could not anticipate an ignominious treatment coming from that quarter. Soon, however, her wonted courage got the uppermost in her bosom; besides, she had hopes both from her justification and from the King of Spain, whose confidence she thought unshakeable, of a return to Court, difficult, nevertheless, after such a shock. Meanwhile, the Queen vouchsafed no replies to her letters; the King announced to her that he was unable to refuse the maintenance of the measure taken at the instance of the Queen, but assured her that pensions would be conferred upon her. Having reached St. Jean de Luz, Madame des Ursins wrote to Versailles, and shortly afterwards despatched thither one of her nephews. The Great Monarch was compelled to be guided by the decision of his grandson; Madame de Maintenon replied by evasive compliments. The Princess could then see that all was at an end, as regarded her resumption of power. She pursued her way through France, and arrived in Paris. The King received her coldly; her stay in France was not prolonged without difficulty. Moreover, she foresaw the approaching decease of Louis the Fourteenth, and a regency under the Duke of Orleans. Their old quarrels, the open hatred which had since existed between them, causing her uneasiness and misgivings, she resolved to quit France. She wished to visit the Low Countries, but was not permitted. She proceeded to Savoy, thence to Genoa, and at last returned to Rome, where she once more fixed her abode. There a suitable existence was secured to her, for Philip kept his promise, and caused her pension to be punctually paid.

Habituated to the stir of courts and the excitement of state affairs, she could not condemn herself, notwithstanding her age, to an absolute repose. Prince James Stuart, called the Pretender, having withdrawn to Rome, Madame des Ursins attached herself to him and his fortunes; she did the honours of his house: and thus she remained until her death, which took place December 5th, 1722, at the age of fourscore and upwards.

It has been sought to divine the real authors of the Princess's disgrace; for it has been considered, not without good reason, that it was very improbable that no other cause save a sudden impulse arising from a feeling of anger, barely justifiable on the Queen's part, had urged her to put in execution a resolution which brought about nothing less than an actual political revolution.



BOOK IV.

CLOSING SCENES.



CHAPTER I.

THE PRINCESS DES URSINS.

THE Princess des Ursins, as it will be seen, shared the fate of Portocarrero, of Medina-Coeli, and of all those whose power she had broken or whose designs she had frustrated; and who, after their decease, were immediately buried in silence and oblivion. Divided into two parts by the death of Marie-Louise of Savoy, her political life in Spain had not always assumed the same character, a like aspect. The first had been marked by useful or glorious actions, and was of real grandeur; the second was more remarkable for its weakness. Side by side with a bold and honourable, although unsuitable enterprise, ridiculous and extravagant pretensions were coupled. Finding herself alone at the right hand of Philip the Fifth, she became puffed up with her exclusive influence, her new rank and title. She exaggerated her personal importance. She was possessed with the secret desire of being in Spain, with a young sovereign, and he too on the eve of marriage, what Madame de Maintenon was in France, with an aged monarch, and for a while she attained that object, as flattering to her feminine vanity as to her ambition.

In this there was only one difference, a difference arising from the respective characters of these two ladies and of those two kings; which was that the ascendant of the one, taking the form of friendship the most discreet, was lasting, whilst the other, exercising a direct, immediate, and too overt domination, was destined, sooner or later, to end in tiring out a monarch infinitely less capable than Louis the Fourteenth, but quite as jealous of sway. The Princess bore, therefore, rather the semblance of an intriguante, as people remarked, than of a serious woman, having large views, of will alike firm and prompt, of enlightened and, in a certain sense, liberal mind, with an entire abnegation of self—seeking the welfare of the State alone, and the interests only of the two great countries. Except those whom she had served, or who had sent her to Spain, few had approved her acts at any period of her favour. The misfortunes and the abuses that marked her possession of power, when it had reached its apogee, confirmed them in their opinion, especially when they saw, in France, the severest censure launched against her even from high places, whence until then praise had descended. Others, to whom her previous conduct was less known, judged her only by what seemed ridiculous or faulty at that period of her life, and the last impression received was that which they retained, which has been transmitted to posterity; which was regarded as that most to be relied upon, and which the almost exclusive perusal of Saint Simon, far from modifying in any way that impression, only served to confirm it. That consummate courtier has well said, in his Memoirs, that "her history deserved to be written," implying the deep interest which would be derivable from it. The narrative, apart from its interest, is valuable for the lesson it conveys of the fruitlessness of the devotion of a most gifted woman's life to the pursuit of politics on the grandest and most elevated scale. During twelve years the Princess des Ursins exercised a power almost absolute. If, however, the beneficent traces of her influence and sway are sought for, the search proves futile; though doubtless, after so many crises and revolutions Spain has experienced since her time, that ungovernable country must have lost all such advantages; but at any rate posterity would have preserved a remembrance of them. We must not, however, accuse Madame des Ursins too severely. One of those vigorous geniuses was needed which but too seldom make their appearance upon the scene of events to resuscitate and sustain the Spanish monarchy amidst circumstances so untoward and difficult. After civil and foreign war which had driven Philip to the brink of a precipice, he had succeeded in reducing to obedience the last city of his kingdom, only a few days before the fall of Madame des Ursins. And then began a peaceful sway, which allowed useful reforms and beneficent ameliorations to be thought of.

The subject of so many accusations, and probably misconceptions, the Princess possessed a large, fine, and cultivated mind, a rare aptitude for business, a force of character little common among persons of her sex. Warm in her affections, she was naturally so in her hatreds; and though but too easily accessible to unjust prejudices, was prompt also to seek out and encourage merit. She has been reproached for her intrigues, but the same weapons with which she was assailed she turned against her enemies, and their number was great. How manifold must have been the animosities excited by the position of a woman who, standing only at the foot of the throne, governed both its possessors and their Court, created and directed its ministers, generals, and ambassadors! Fervent attachment to her sovereigns, eminent services rendered to them and their countries, an astonishing capacity, a profound knowledge of mankind, a rare presence of mind, and an unshakeable firmness in situations the most perilous and misfortunes the most unlooked-for, such attributes cannot be denied without injustice to the Princess des Ursins, and which, however futile the result of her political career, ought to consecrate the memory of her labours and her name.

It was a generous impulse which prompted Madame des Ursins to commence a fresh attack upon the Spanish Inquisition. Can it be said that the war she waged against it remained without any result? Assuredly not. By her active intervention the English Government obtained the privilege that the palace of its ambassador at Madrid should enjoy the right of an asylum against all the proceedings of the Inquisition, and the same privilege was acquired for British vessels in the ports of Spain. A Protestant nation thus opened in the capital of the Catholic King a perpetual refuge against the rigours of the Holy Office. It was a great innovation; it was the first blow dealt by the spirit of modern times against that of those Spanish institutions which represented the most faithfully the blind and almost barbarous religion of the Middle Ages.

It is difficult to decide whether it was a misfortune or an advantage to her to figure in the gallery of the ducal memoir-writer, Saint Simon. That portrait, sketched with a breadth and freedom by which her womanly character has somewhat suffered, depicts her as devoured by a thirst for power, without even allowing the important services which she rendered to the two nations to be so much as suspected. The great master has not given us a bust-portrait of Madame des Ursins, but a full-length likeness, with that lavish excess of colour flung upon the canvas which imparts more life than truth, more of relief than perspective to the majority of his pictures. If in that brilliant delineation the great lady shines with a somewhat theatrical majesty, the national object which she pursued is in no wise indicated—a grave though natural omission on the part of a man in whom a passionate fondness for details almost always blinds him to the collective point of view, and who is not the first of portraitists only because he is the least reliable of historical painters. He, nevertheless, in her case, always manifests the feeling that she is worthy of a careful, special, and patient study, and he points out such study for the edification of posterity. "She reigned in Spain," he remarks, "and her history deserves to be written."

We will now reproduce his elaborate portrait of the Princess. "Rather tall than short of stature, she was a brunette with blue eyes whose expression incessantly responded to everything that pleased her; with a perfect shape, a lovely bosom, and a countenance which, without regularity of feature, was more charming even than the purely symmetrical. Her air was extremely noble, and there was something majestic in her whole demeanour, and a grace so natural and continual in all she did, even in things the most trivial and indifferent, that I have never seen anyone approach to, either in form or mind. Her wit was copious and of all kinds. She was flattering, caressing, insinuating, moderate, desirous to please for pleasing sake, and with charms irresistible when she strove to persuade and win over. Accompanying all this, she possessed a grandeur that encouraged rather than repelled. A delightful tone of conversation, inexhaustible and always most amusing—for she had seen many countries and peoples. A voice and way of speaking extremely agreeable and full of sweetness. She had read much and reflected much. She knew how to choose the best society, how to receive it, and could even have held a Court; was polite and distinguished; and, above all, careful never to take a step in advance without dignity and discretion. She was eminently fitted for intrigue, in which, from taste, she had passed her time at Rome. With much ambition, but of that vast kind far above her sex and the common run of men—a desire to occupy a great position and to govern. An inclination to gallantry and personal vanity were her foibles, and these clung to her until her latest days; consequently she dressed in a way that no longer became her, and as she advanced in life departed further from propriety in this particular. She was an ardent and excellent friend—of a friendship that time and absence never enfeebled; and therefore an implacable enemy, pursuing her hatred even to the infernal regions. Whilst caring little for the means by which she gained her ends, she tried as much as possible to reach them by honest means. Secret, not only for herself, but for her friends, she was yet of a decorous gaiety, and so governed her humours, that at all times and in everything she was mistress of herself."

Such was the Princess des Ursins, as sketched by that painstaking limner, Saint-Simon; throughout whose "Memoirs" many other scattered traits are to be found of this celebrated woman, who so long and so publicly governed the Court and Crown of Spain, and whose fate it was to make so much stir in the world alike by her reign and her fall.



CHAPTER II.

SARAH, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.

THROUGHOUT the political conflicts which agitated the Court of England since the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough had left their native shores, the Duke maintained a steady correspondence with his friends, but expressed a firm refusal to deviate from those principles which had occasioned his exile, or to approve of the Peace of Utrecht, or to abandon his desire for the Hanoverian succession. Distrusting the sincerity of Harley's pretended exertions, he resolutely refused to hold intercourse with a Minister of whose hollowness he had already received many proofs. Nor was the Duchess less determined never to pardon the injuries which she conceived herself and her husband to have sustained from Harley. All offers of his aid, all attempts to lend to him the influence which Marlborough's military and personal character still commanded, were absolutely rejected.

At the Court of Hanover, the Duke and Duchess saw, as it were, reflected the cabals of their native country. Little, indeed, that was reassuring reached them in their foreign retreat, relative to public affairs. The existing policy of Anne's Ministers seemed likely to destroy all that his labours had effected during a long life of toil and danger; and the sacrifice of thousands of lives had gained no advantage which the malice of his enemies could not undo. In short, the friendly relations which were brought about between France and England threatened to change the face of things altogether.

The result of the shrewd Duchess's experience of political life and royal favour was embodied in the sound advice she gave her illustrious husband on his return to England, shortly after the death of Anne, and previous to the arrival of her successor, George I. "I begged of the Duke upon my knees," relates the Duchess, "that he would never accept any employment. I said everybody that liked the Revolution and the security of the law had a great esteem for him, that he had a greater fortune than he wanted, and that a man who had had such success, with such an estate, would be of more use to any court than they could be to him; that I would live civilly with them, if they were so to me, but would never put it into the power of any King to use me ill. He was entirely of this opinion, and determined to quit all, and serve them only when he could act honestly and do his country service at the same time."

Though the Duchess witnessed the triumph of the Whigs on their return to power at the accession of George I., she was very far from possessing the influence she had enjoyed during Anne's reign. Her feverish thirst for political and courtly intrigues had returned upon her, despite so many bitter deceptions and the advance of old age. She scolded incessantly her husband for his indolence, when he had really become incapable of any longer taking an active part in public affairs. He confined himself to the enjoyment of his opulence and his high position. In May, 1716, he experienced a violent attack of paralysis, which for some time deprived him of speech and recollection. His health continued to decline more and more to the close of his life in June, 1722, though the notion of his imbecility appears to have been erroneous.

The Duke of Marlborough was one of the bravest and most kindly-tempered of men. His gentleness and devotion towards his wife and love of his children were not the only proofs which he gave of a kindly nature, and many curious anecdotes are related of the way in which he governed his imperious consort when he had to encounter her tears, sulks, and torrents of passionate reproaches, which were among the favourite and irresistible features of her conjugal eloquence. The fiery Duchess survived her illustrious husband the long period of twenty-two years. Notwithstanding her age, and probably on account of her immense fortune, she was sought in marriage by the Duke of Somerset and Lord Coningsby. The reply she made to the offer of the first-named, an old friend, the "proud Duke," was admirable. She declined a second marriage as unsuitable to her age; but added—"Were I only thirty, and were you able to lay the empire of the world at my feet, I would not allow you to succeed to that heart and hand which has always been devoted wholly to John, Duke of Marlborough." A proof of her good judgment and true dignity! At the same time, it must be owned that, alike through pride and gratitude, she truly owed such a testimony of respect to the memory of a husband who had left behind so great a name, and who was throughout his married life full of amiability, deference, and tenderness towards her, and who had suffered with an exemplary patience all the capriciousness of her imperious character.

The instructive lesson derivable from the extraordinary career and signal disgrace of this remarkable political woman is emphatically given by the Duchess herself, on her retirement, as the results of her own experience of royal favour.

"After what has passed, I do solemnly protest, that if it were in my power I would not be a favourite, which few will believe; and since I shall never be able to give any demonstration of that truth, I had as good say no more of it. But as fond as people are of power, I fancy that anybody that had been shut up so many tedious hours as I have been with a person that had no conversation, and yet must be treated with respect, would feel something of what I did, and be very glad when their circumstances did not want it, to be freed from such a slavery, which must be uneasy at all times; though I do protest, that upon the account of her loving me, and trusting me so entirely as she did, I had a concern for her, which is more than you will easily believe, and I would have served her with the hazard of my life upon any occasion; but after she put me at liberty by using me ill, I was very easy, and liked better that anybody should have her favour than myself, at the price of flattery without which I believe nobody can be well with a King or Queen, unless the world should come to be less corrupt or they wiser than any I have seen since I was born."

In another place she says: "Women signify nothing unless they are the mistresses of a Prince or a Prime Minister, which I would not be if I were young; and I think there are very few, if any, women that have understanding or impartiality enough to serve well those they really wish to serve."

The wife of the great captain and hero of Queen Anne's time—the most remarkable woman of her own, or perhaps of any epoch—lived to the age of eighty-four.

"So singular was the fate of this extraordinary woman in private life," it has been truly observed, "that scarcely did she possess a tie which was not severed or embittered by worldly or political considerations."

Those who hopelessly covet wealth, honour, and celebrity through the avenues of political strife may contemplate the career of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough with profit, and rise from the study reconciled to a calmer course of life and resigned to a humbler fate.



INDEX.

ALBERONI, Julio Abbe (afterwards cardinal), Prime Minister of Spain, deceives Madame des Ursins as to the character of Elizabeth Farnese, 270-289; his representation of that most ambitious princess as "a jolly Parmesane fattened upon cheese and butter," 291; concerts with the Princess of Parma the ruin of Madame des Ursins, 292; belonged to the intrepid race of political gamesters, 294.

AMELOT, the President, nominated ambassador for Spain by Madame des Ursins, 191.

ANNE of AUSTRIA (mother of Louis XIV.), an example among all queens, and almost among all women, of constancy in adversity, 17; her reception of Mazarin after his exile, 18.

ANNE, Queen of England, her feeling towards the Whigs purely official, and not a genuine sympathy, 206; she secretly leans towards the Tories, as defender of the royal prerogative, 206; indolent and taciturn, she yields without resistance to the ascendency of Sarah Jennings, 215; her unhappy married life, 215; the Queen and Sarah treat each other as equals, writing under assumed names, 215; state of parties on her accession, 218; chooses a ministry combining both Whigs and Tories, 218; entertains the Archduke Charles with truly royal magnificence, 218; the Duchess of Marlborough surrounds the Queen with the chiefs of the Whigs against her will, 222; an endless succession of jars and piques between the Queen and the Duchess, 222; the insolence of the Mistress of the Robes towards the Queen, 226; gives her favour and confidence to Mrs. Masham, 227; Anne cautiously creeps out of her subjection to the Duchess, 230; has some pangs of conscience in ill-treating Marlborough, 232; gives up all regard for the Duchess or gratitude to the Duke, 233; emancipates herself from obligations regardless of the confusion into which she casts the country, 234; intrigues of the bed-chamber, 234; a weak woman domineered over by one attendant and wheedled and flattered by another, 234; gives herself up entirely to Mrs. Masham, 236; dreading the furious violence of the Duchess, Anne leaves London, 237; spares the Duke and Duchess not from compassion but fear, 242; terrified at the Duchess's threat to publish her letters, 242; exonerates the Duchess from the charge of cheating, 243; demands the return of the gold key from the Duchess, 244; divides her Court places between Mrs. Masham and the Duchess of Somerset, 245; writes with her own hand the dismissal of the Duchess, and gives herself up to her enemies, 246; her apathetic remark on hearing that the Duke and Duchess had left England, 248; she never sees again her great general or the woman to whom she was once so strongly attached, 248; her conduct towards Madame des Ursins in the repudiation of Lexington's convention, 281.

AUBIGNY, Louis d', equerry of Madame des Ursins, 178; his character and familiar relations with the Princess, 178; the intercepted letter intimating that they were married, 178; becomes a perfect caballero, 260; sent secretly to France by Madame des Ursins to negotiate with Torcy, 278; despatched to Utrecht to negotiate the principality, 280; obtains only vague hopes on the part of the Dutch, 281.

AUSTRIA, Charles, Archduke of, the reservation, by will of Charles II., to renounce all claim to the empire of Germany, 129; competitor of Philip V. for the crown of Spain, 169; proclaimed Charles III. of Spain by the Emperor, 186; lands at Lisbon and opens the campaign, 187; lands in Catalonia, 191; enters Barcelona as King of Spain, 197; proclaimed in Saragossa and Valentia, 197; his chief reliance the support of England, 207; entertained with truly royal magnificence at Windsor, 208; highly praises the beauty of Englishwomen, 218; his gallantry to the Queen and Duchess of Marlborough, 219; proclaimed at Madrid amidst a chilling silence, 251; awaits in vain the homage and oaths of the grandees, 259; is elevated to the imperial throne by the death of Joseph I., 265.

BARRILLON (the French ambassador), brings about the signature of the treaty of Nimeguen by the help of the Duchess of Portsmouth, 113; carries the message of the dying king's (Charles) mistress to the Duke of York, 117.

BEAUFORT, Francis de Vendome, Duke de, commands the troops of Gaston and weakens the army by his dissensions with Nemours, his brother-in-law, 3; kills Nemours in a duel, 14; satisfied at seeing Madame de Montbazon satisfied, he retires to Anet, 21; submits to the royal authority and obtains command of the fleet, 67; commands the French men-of-war against England and Holland, 67; goes to the aid of the Venetians against the Turks in Candia, and is cut to pieces in a sortie, 67; he carries with him to Candia, disguised as a page, Louise Querouaille, 95.

BERWICK, Duke of (natural son of James II.), does justice to Orry, 177; commands the French corps in Spain, 179; commands an Anglo-Portuguese army in Estramadura, 197; his hatred pursues Louis XIV. on every field of battle, 197; completely defeats the allies near Almanza, 252.

BOLINGBROKE, Henry St. John, Viscount, his remark to Voltaire concerning Marlborough, 212; his career, character, and abilities, 220; possessed the talents and vices which have immortalised as well as disgraced Mirabeau, 221.

BOUILLON, Duke de, advises an immediate attack on Conde at the Faubourg St. Antoine, 8; a first-class politician, but with only one thought—the aggrandisement of his house, 22; a glance at his antecedents, 22; obtains the title of Prince, 23; is cut short in his ambitious career by death, 24.

BOULAY, Marquis de la, prevented from crossing swords with his rival, de Choisy, by Madame de Chatillon seizing a hand of each, 5.

BUCKINGHAM, George Villiers, second Duke of, sent to Paris to inquire into the sudden death of Henrietta of England, 107; he persuades Louise de Querouaille to transfer herself to the service of the Queen of England, 108; seeks to turn her to his own advantage by raising up a rival to the Duchess of Cleveland in the king's affections, 108; offers to escort her to England, but forgets both the lady and his promise, and leaves her at Dieppe, 109.

BUSSY-RABUTIN, Count de, his account of a scene in public between Charles II. and the Duchess of Portsmouth, 113.

CAMBIAC, Abbe, enamoured of the Duchess de Chatillon, 4; retires on finding Conde is his rival, 5.

CAPRES, Bournonville, Baron de, negotiates with the Dutch touching the principality for Madame des Ursins, 281; liberally rewarded by Philip V., 281.

CARIGNAN, Princess de, her projects for governing her niece the Queen of Spain, 155.

CHARLES II. of England, the unbounded power over his mind possessed by his sister Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, 97; falls into the snare laid for him by Louis XIV., and is captivated by Louise Querouaille, 99; the secret negotiation initiated at Dover by the Duchess, 99; the key to his will found in La Querouaille, 100; the main features of the secret negotiation, 101; he is rendered doubly a traitor by his abandonment of the latter condition, 101; indignantly refuses to receive the Duke d'Orleans' letter acquainting him with his sister's death, 106; he pretends to believe the explanations offered him, 106; sends Buckingham to Paris ostensibly to inquire into the catastrophe, but in reality to conclude the treaty, 108; France gives three million of livres for Charles's conversion to Popery, and three for the Dutch war, 108; creates Louise Querouaille Duchess of Portsmouth, 110; creates his son by her Duke of Richmond, 111; Madame de Sevigne's amusing account of Charles's duplicate amours, 111; his fatal seizure, 115; declares his wish to be admitted into the Church of Rome, 117; receives the offices of Father Huddlestone, 118; in his last moments commends the Duchess of Portsmouth to the care of his brother James, 118; the alleged poisoning of Charles II., 119.

CHARLES II., King of SPAIN, secretly consults Pope Innocent XII. on the succession, 128; declares Philip d'Anjou absolute heir to his crown, 129; consults the mortal remains of his father, mother, and wife upon the sacred obligations of the will, and dies, 129.

CHATILLON, Isabelle Angelique de Montmorency-Bouteville, Duchess de, visits Nemours when wounded under various disguises, 4; Conde not the only rival Nemours had to contend with, 4; her condescension towards Cambiac, an intriguing, licentious priest, 4; procures her an enormous legacy from the Princess-Dowager de Conde, 4; Vineuil makes himself very agreeable to her, 5; meeting her after the combat of St. Antoine, Conde shows by his countenance how much he despises her, 12; is unable longer to counterbalance the counsels and influence of Madame de Chevreuse, 14; her shameful league with La Rochefoucauld against Madame de Longueville, 38.

CHEVREUSE, Marie de Rohan, Duchess de. She ultimately becomes resigned to Mazarin, 19; warmly welcomes the return of the cardinal, 20; summary of her political career, 49; her elevated position side by side with Richelieu and Mazarin, 49; her "marriage of conscience" with the Marquis de Laigues, 50; marries her grandson, the Duke de Chevreuse, to Colbert's daughter, 52; survives all whom she had either loved or hated, 52; dies in obscurity at Gagny, 53.

CHOISY, Count de, enamoured of Madame de Chatillon, is bent on fighting a duel about her with the Marquis de la Boulay, 5.

CHURCHILL, Arabella, mistress of the Duke of York, obtains her brother John (afterwards Duke of Marlborough) a pair of colours in the Guards, 208.

CLEVELAND, Barbara Palmer, Duchess of, violently enamoured of the handsome John Churchill, 209; presents him with 5000l. for his daring escape from the window of her apartment, 209; Buckingham raises up a rival to her in the King's affections in Louise Querouaille, 108.

CONDE, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de, his small success in pleasing the fair sex, 4; almost always badly dressed, 4; his party very sensibly weakened by rivalries and gallant intrigues among the political heroines, 5; fixes his head-quarters at St. Cloud, 6; is distracted by different passions and feelings, 6; betrayed on all sides amidst a series of impotent intrigues, 7; his error in having preferred the counsels of his fickle mistress, Madame de Chatillon, to those of his courageous and devoted sister, 7; his talent and courage in the struggle at the Faubourg St. Antoine, 8; is saved from perishing by the noble conduct of Madame de Montpensier, 10; his sore distress at the loss of his slain friends, 11; his mind disabused with regard to Madame de Chatillon, he shows by his countenance how much he despises her, 12; proposes such hard conditions to the Royalists that all accord with him becomes impossible, 13; he retires to the Netherlands, and becomes generalissimo of the Spanish armies, 13; is declared guilty of high treason and a traitor to the State, 14; plunges deeper than ever into the Spanish alliance and the war against France, 14; restored to his honours and power, the Princess de Conde becomes once more the despised, alienated, humiliated wife, 86; he keeps her imprisoned until his death, and recommended that she should be kept so after his decease, 88.

CONDE, Claire Clemence Maille de Breze, Princess de (wife of the Great Conde), married at thirteen to the Duke d'Enghien, who yielded only to compulsion, 80; the unenviable light in which she was held by her husband and relatives, 80; a fair estimate of her qualities, 81; her fidelity to her husband during adversity, 81; her zeal during the Woman's War, 81; her truly deplorable existence from earliest childhood, 82; her hour of fame and distinction, 83; her letters to the Queen and Ministers stamped with nobility and firmness, 83; she escapes from Chantilly on foot with her son and reaches Montrond, 83; she escapes from Montrond under cover of a hunting party, 83; escorted to Bordeaux by the Dukes de Bouillon and de la Rochefoucauld, 84; becomes an amazon and almost a heroine in the insurrection at Bordeaux, 84; scene in the Parliament chamber, 84; her particular talent for speaking in public, 84; works with her own hands at the fortifications of the city, 85; all the conditions by the Princess, save one, conceded, 85; Conde's remark that "whilst he was watering tulips, his wife was making war in the south," 85; her rapturous reception of a tender note from Conde, 85; she again becomes the despised and humiliated wife, 86; a tragic event adds itself to the train of her tribulations, outrages, and troubles, 87; imprisoned by the Prince at Chateauroux until his death, 88; Bossuet in his panegyric of the hero gives not one word of praise to the ill-fated Princess, 89.

CONTI, Armand de Bourbon, Prince de, weakens the party of the Princes by his dissensions with his sister, Madame de Longueville, 3.

DARTMOUTH, Lord, his version of the affair of the gold keys, 244.

ESTREES, Cardinal d', directs the ultra-French political system at Madrid, 169; a formidable adversary of Madame des Ursins, 172; her tool, without knowing it, 173; he demands his recall in accents of rage and despair, 175.

ESTREES, the Abbe d', is laughed at and despised by Madame des Ursins, 176; his letter to Louis XIV. scandalising her intercepted by her, 176; the letter of Louis XIV. recalling him, 180.

FARNESE, Elizabeth, Princess of Parma, afterwards second consort of Philip V. of Spain, her lineage and true character, 294; chosen by Madame des Ursins as consort of Philip V., 289; her outrageous dismissal of the camerara-mayor, 292; her character as sketched by Frederick the Great, 294.

FERTE-SENNETERRE, Marshal de la, brings powerful reinforcements to the royal army from Lorraine, 7.

FIESQUE and FRONTENAC, the Countesses, the adjutant-generals of Madame de Montpensier in "the Women's War," 69.

FORCE, Duke de la (father-in-law of Turenne), made Marshal of France, 24.

FRONDE, the army of the, discouraged and divided (July, 1652); the fight at the Faubourg St. Antoine an act of despair, 7; the defeat of Conde destroys the Fronde, 11; approaching its last agony, it treats with Mazarin for an amnesty, 13; contrasted with the Great Rebellion in England, 29; the revolt of the Fronde belonged especially to high-born Frenchwomen, 35.

GWYNNE, Nell, her rivalry of the Duchess of Portsmouth, 111; difference in character of their respective triumphs, 112.

GUISE, Henri, Duke de, rallies to Mazarin after the Fronde, 28; his violent passion for Mdlle. de Pons, 59; elected by the Neapolitans their leader after Masaniello, 59; defeats the Spanish troops and becomes master of the country, 59; is betrayed through his gallantries and carried prisoner to Madrid, 60; attempts to reconquer Naples but fails, 60; is appointed Grand Chamberlain of France, 60; his duels, his romantic amours, his profusion, and the varied adventures of his life, 60.

HALLAM, Henry (the historian), his remarks: "that the fortunes of Europe would have been changed by nothing more noble than the insolence of one waiting-woman and the cunning of another," 246; that "the House of Bourbon would probably not have reigned beyond the Pyrenees but for Sarah and Abigail at Queen Anne's toilette," 246.

HARCOURT, Duke d', intercedes for the exiled Princess des Ursins, 185.

HARLEY (afterwards Earl of Oxford), his talents and character, 219; uses his relation, the bed-chamber woman, as a political tool, 222; his plan to overthrow the Whigs by degrees, 233.

LEGANEZ, Marquis de, conspires in favour of the Archduke Charles, 191; arrested and imprisoned at Pampeluna, 191.

LEXINGTON, Lord, signs a convention which engages to secure to Madame des Ursins "a sovereignty," 277.

LONGUEVILLE, Anne de Bourbon, Duchess de, no longer guided by La Rochefoucauld, she loses herself in aimless projects and compromises herself in intrigues without result, 3; the most ill-treated of all the political women of the Fronde, 36; a retrospection of her career during the Fronde, 36; though no longer the brilliant Bellona of Stenay, she does not dream of separating her fate from that of Conde, 38; her conversion to be dated from her sojourn in the convent at Moulins, 38; she implores pardon of her husband, 39; she is taken from Moulins to Rouen by her husband, 39; the fair penitent finds a ghostly guide in M. Singlin, 40; who advises her to remain in the outer world, 40; her desire to abstain from political intrigue looked upon incredulously for some years, 41; still placed by Mazarin (in 1659) among the feminine trio "capable of governing or overturning three great kingdoms," 41; results of her long and rigid penitence, 41; protects the Jansenists and earns the designation of "Mother of the Church," 41; acquires great reputation at the Court of Rome, 41; the austerities and self-mortification of her widowhood, 42; the death of her son, Count de St. Paul, the last blow of her earthly troubles, 43; the scene depicted by Madame de Sevigne on the arrival of the fatal tidings, 43; her death at the Carmelites, 44; the funeral oration by the Bishop of Autun, 44; three well-defined periods in her agitated life, 45; Mrs. Jameson's ideas of the mischievous tendencies of political women, as shown in the career of the Duchess, 46; Mrs. Jameson's erroneous estimate of the character of Madame de Longueville, 46-47.

LOUIS XIV., King of France; his triumphant entry into Paris with his mother and Turenne, 15; his attention drawn to the wit and capacity of Madame des Ursins, 134; acts of violence against his Protestant subjects, 136; endeavours to bend Spain to his own designs, 151; recommends to his grandson an implacable war against Spanish Court etiquette, 163; the long train of disasters which brought Louis to the brink of an abyss, 168; the succession of Philip V. threatens to endanger the very existence of the French monarchy, 168; desires to recall Madame des Ursins, but finds his hand arrested, 175; writes to the Abbe d'Estrees touching the complaints against Madame des Ursins, 179; his letters to the King and Queen of Spain, 183; his insuperable objection to a government of Prime Ministers, and still more of women, 187; in his restoration of the Princess des Ursins his sagacity triumphs over his repugnance, 188; represented in Spain by his nephew, the Duke of Orleans, 254; secretly assists the party in Spain of fara da se, 261; his displeasure at Madame des Ursins delaying the signature of the Treaty of Utrecht, 282; his tart letter to his grandson, 283; limits Philip's choice of a consort to three princesses, 287.

LOUVILLE, Marquis de, the duel with Madame des Ursins, 171; his fall: recalled from Madrid, 172; accuses Madame des Ursins of being "hair-brained in her conduct," 177.

MAINTENON, Francoise d'Aubigny, Marquise de, her star rises slowly above the political horizon, 114; the secret of Madame des Ursins' appointment first broached in her cabinet, 143; favours that candidature, 145; the dazzling aspect of her laurels in Madame des Ursins' eyes, 148; her letters reveal the policy of Louis XIV. with regard to Spain, 151; her favourable intervention in behalf of the exiled Madame des Ursins, 185, 186; her motives for supporting the Princess, 186; dwells upon her equanimity, 193; changes the tone of her letters to a cold and sometimes ironic vein, 257; opposes the design of her old friend for a "sovereignty," 269; she divines the concealed project of Madame des Ursins, 277.

MANCINI, Hortensia, Duchess de Mazarin, cuts to the quick Charles II. of England, 114.

MARLBOROUGH, Sarah Jennings, Lady Churchill, and subsequently Duchess of, her birth and parentage, 207; peculiar graces of her mind and person, 208; Swift renders homage to her virtue, 208; aspirants to her hand, 208; altogether portionless, wooed and won by the avaricious John Churchill, 208; hard, vindictive, insatiable of wealth and honours, 210; united to the pride of a queen the rage of a fury, 210; brought up in close intimacy with the Princess Anne, her early assumed absolute ascendency, 215; the grounds on which she obtained and held place in Anne's service, 215; intoxicated with her almost unlimited sway, 218; no longer deigns to ask, but commands, 218; her influence well understood by the Continental powers, 218; domination her favourite passion, 221; exercised her absolute sway over the Queen with an imprudent audacity, 222; endless succession of piques, jeers, and misunderstandings between her and the Queen, 222; become a Princess of the Empire, subordinate duties are repugnant to her, 223; her benefactions to Abigail Hill's relatives, 224; perceiving the Queen's confidence in Mrs. Masham, she heaps upon her every species of contempt, sarcasm, and insult, 225; her insulting behaviour to the Queen at St. Paul's, 225; another altercation unduly breaks the links of their friendship, 226; discovers that her empire over the Queen is gone, 228; traces the whole system of deception carried on to her injury, 228; curious predicament between sovereign and subject, 230; her uprightness and singleness of mind, openness, and honesty, 230; long-repressed malice pours forth its vengeance on the disgraced favourite, 234; a fresh outbreak of violence precipitates her final disgrace, 236; her account of her last interview with the Queen at Kensington, 237; terrifies Anne by threatening to publish her letters, 242; her economy in dressing the Queen, 242; the return of the gold key, 244; the resignation accepted with eagerness and joyfulness, 245; the Duchess thinks only of some means or other of revenge, 246; her directions when about to quit the sphere of her palace triumphs, 246; withdraws to her country seat near St. Albans, 246; becomes soured by adversity and disgusted with the Court and the world, 247; disposed to wrangle and dispute on the slightest provocation, 247; a great affliction in the death of a long-tried friend, Lord Godolphin, 247; the Duke and Duchess leave England, 248; the attitude assumed by the Duke and Duchess throughout the political conflicts which agitated the Court during her residence abroad, 307; returns to England shortly after the death of Anne, 308; very far from possessing the influence she had enjoyed during Anne's reign, 308; her feverish thirst for political and courtly intrigues return upon her despite the advance of old age, 308; her shrewd and sound advice to her husband, 308; survives her illustrious husband twenty-two years, 309; her reply to the "proud Duke" of Somerset on the offer of his hand, 309; the testimony of respect she owed to the memory of a husband who left so great a name, 309; the instructive lesson derivable from her extraordinary and signal disgrace, as emphatically given by herself, 309, 310; her death at eighty-four, 310; her singular fate in private life—"that scarcely did she possess a tie which was not severed or embittered by worldly or political considerations," 310.

MARLBOROUGH, John Churchill, afterwards Duke of, son of a poor cavalier knight, he enters the army at sixteen, 208; love, not war, the first-stepping-stone to his high fortunes, 208; obtains a pair of colours in the Guards through the interest of his sister Arabella, 208; known to the French soldiery as "the handsome Englishman," 208; complimented by Turenne on his gallantry and serene intrepidity, 209; Turenne's wager, 209; solicits unsuccessfully the command of a regiment from Louis XIV., 209; declared by Lord Chesterfield "irresistible either by man or woman," 209; rises rapidly at Court, 209; his daring adventure with the Duchess of Cleveland, 210; presented by her with 5000l., with which he buys an annuity, 210; marries Sarah Jennings, 210; testifies the greatest affection for his wife, 210; climbs fast up the ladder of preferment, 211; coldly forsakes his benefactor James II., 211; created Earl and General by William III., 211; Duke and Commander of the British armies by Queen Anne, 211; his deceitful and selfish character, 211; if his soul was mean and sordid, his genius was vast and powerful, 212; his neglected education and consummate oratory, 212; the most powerful personage in England, 214; rules the household, parliament, ministry, and the army, 214; rules the councils of Austria, States-General of Holland, Prussia, and the Princes of the Empire, 214; as potent as Cromwell, and more of a king than William III., 214; writes a stern letter to his wife on her dissensions with the Queen, 229; detained in England by "the quarrel among the women about the Court," 231; Dean Swift's unjust insinuations, 234; his courage called in question, and he is represented as the lowest of mankind, 234; his cold reception on his return from Flanders, 242; his ruling passion—love of money—made him stoop to mean and paltry actions, 243; his motives for retaining command of the army under a Tory Ministry, 245; the mask of envy, hatred, and jealousy, 247; the death of Lord Godolphin determines him to reside abroad, 247; his request to see the Queen before his departure refused, 248; furnished with a passport by his secret friend Lord Bolingbroke, 248; his steady correspondence with his friends, 307; refuses to approve of the Peace of Utrecht, or abandon his desire for the Hanoverian succession, 307; sees the cabals of his native country reflected in the Court of Hanover, 307; returns to England shortly after the death of Queen Anne, 308; witnesses the triumph of the Whigs on their return to power at the accession of George I., 308; reproached by the Duchess for no longer taking an active part in public affairs, 308; attacked with paralysis which deprives him of speech and recollection, 308; his death (in 1722), 308; his gentleness and devotion towards his wife and children, 309; how he governed his imperious consort, 309; the testimony of respect shown to his memory by the Duchess refusing offers of marriage from Lord Coningsby and the Duke of Somerset, 309.

MASHAM, Mrs. (afterwards Lady), her origin, related to the Duchess of Marlborough and Harley, 221; appointed bed-chamber woman to the Queen, 221; married to Masham when Abigail Hill, 221; her lowly, supple, artful character, 222; her servile, humble, gentle and pliant manner towards the Queen, 224; coincides with Anne in political and religious opinions, 224; strives to sap the power and credit of the Whigs and to displace Marlborough, 225; after an altercation with the Duchess, the Queen gives her entire confidence to Mrs. Masham, 226; ever on the watch to turn such disagreements to skilful account, 227; gradually worms herself into the Queen's affections and undermines the Mistress of the Robes, 227; the petty and ungrateful conduct of the bed-chamber woman, 227; mean and paltry instances of treachery to her benefactress, 227; the upstart favourite exhibits all the scorn and insolence of her nature, 229; an instance of Mrs. Masham's stinging impertinence towards the Duchess, 230; the influence of the favourite, 233.

MAZARIN, Cardinal, his exclamation on hearing that Mademoiselle de Montpensier had fired upon the king's troops, 10; quits France once more to facilitate a reconciliation with the Frondeurs, 13; received on his return by the Parisians with demonstrations of delight, 15; his triumph over the Fronde, the result of his prudent line of conduct, 16; his reception at the Louvre by Anne of Austria and the Court, 17; the heads of the two powerful families of Vendome and Bouillon become the firmest supporters of his greatness, 20; his good fortune opens the eyes of every one to his merit, 31; his solemn reception by the King and Queen not an idle pageant or empty ceremony, 32.

MEDINA-COELI, Duke de, head of the purely political Spanish system, 169; his double character, 196; is arrested by Madame des Ursins, and ends his days in prison, 256.

MEILLERAYE, Marshal la, advances against the Princess de Conde at Montrond, 83.

MELGAR, Admiral Count de, plots the downfall of Philip V. and the elevation of the Archduke, 170; traitorously joins the Portuguese and their allies, 170; his death from an insult, 171.

MERCOEUR, Duke de (eldest son of Caesar, Duke de Vendome), married to the amiable and virtuous Laura Mancini, 21; made Governor of Provence, 21.

MONTBAZON, Marie d'Avangour, Duchess de, one of those who made most noise at Anne of Austria's Court, 61; summary of her character, 61; a list of all her lovers, titled and untitled, not to be attempted, 61; very nearly the cause of a duel at the door of the king's apartments, 62; often used as an instrument by Madame de Chevreuse, 62; a dangerous rival to Madame de Guemene, 62; instigates the Count de Soissons to add outrage to desertion of Madame de Guemene, 62; her long exercised influence over Beaufort useful to the Court, 62; wanting in all the better qualities of a political woman, 62; proposes to enter into a treaty of alliance with De Retz, 63; very mercenary both in love and politics, 64; tricked out of 100,000 crowns by Conde and the Princess Palatine, 64; returns to Court after an exile of five years, 65; Madame de Motteville's description of her well-preserved beauty, 65; dies of the measles—three hours only accorded to her to prepare for death, 66; looked back with horror on her past life, 66; little regretted by any one save De Rance, 66; the sight of her sudden death determines De Rance to withdraw from the world, 67; Laroque's version of the catastrophe, 67.

MONTPENSIER, Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, called La Grande Mademoiselle Duchess de, mingles in all the intrigues of the Fronde, 6; adopts unwise means to force herself as a bride upon the young king, 6; by her noble conduct in the struggle at the Faubourg St. Antoine, she saves the live of Conde, 10; her description of Conde's most pitiable condition, 11; characterises the Bourbons as much addicted to trifles, 69; a hint by which, looking at her portrait, her character may readily be read, 69; the commencement of her political and military career, 69; her companions-in-arms, the Countesses Fiesque and Frontenac, 70; she hoped to exchange the helmet of the Fronde for the crown of France, 70; she describes the Civil War as being a very amusing thing for her, 70; her defence of Orleans against the royal troops, 71; thrust through the gap of an old gateway and covered with mud, 71; hastens to arrest the massacre at the Hotel de Ville, 71; driven out of doors by her father—her wanderings, 72; expiates her pranks by four years' exile at St. Fargeau, 72; numerous pretenders to her hand, 72; the masquerades of 1657 carry the day over the political aims of 1652, 73; is reconciled to her cousin, Louis XIV., 73; conflicts of the heart succeed to political storms, 73; destined to extinguish with the wet blanket of vile prose the brilliancy of a long and romantic career, 73; history ought not to treat too harshly the Frondeuse of the blood-royal, 73; the supreme criterion for the appreciation of certain women is the man whom they have loved, 74; Lauzun makes an impression upon her at first sight, 74; her own account of the discovery of her love for him, 75; asks the king's permission to marry the Gascon cadet, 75; after giving permission, Louis XIV. retracts, 75; Mad. de Sevigne's laughable account of Mademoiselle's grief, 76; probability that a clandestine marriage had been accomplished, 76; Anquetil's account of a putative daughter, 76; a secret chamber occupied by Lauzun in the Chateau d'Eu, 76; she obtains Lauzun's release after ten years' captivity, 77; he shows her neither tenderness nor respect, but beats her, 78; they separate and never meet again, 78; her death at the Luxembourg, 78; her creditable position among French writers and her encouragement of literary men, 79

MONTELLANO, Duke de, replaces Archbishop Arias in the presidency of Castile, 172; counterbalances the authority of Porto-Carrero, 172; offended at the attitude of the princess, he resigns, 196.

NEMOURS, Charles Amadeus of Savoy, Duke de, wounded in the Fronde war, is visited in various disguises by the Duchess de Chatillon, 4; wounded in several places in the combat at the Faubourg St. Antoine, 9; is killed in a duel with his brother-in-law, Beaufort, 14.

NOIRMOUTIER, Duke de, circulates his sister's annotated letter throughout Paris, 179.

ORLEANS, Gaston, Duke d', but for his daughter, his inaction would have allowed Conde to perish, 10; his interview with Conde after the fight, 12; exiled to Blois, 15; passes there the remainder of his contemptible existence, 25.

ORLEANS, Henrietta of England, daughter of Charles I., Duchess d', admits Louise Querouaille into her household as maid-of-honour, 96; intrusted with the negotiating of detaching England from the interests of Holland, 97; her character and personal attributes at five-and-twenty, 97; her unbounded power over her brother, Charles II., 97; the secret of Louis XIV.'s progress to Flanders, known only to her, 99; embarks from Dunkirk for Dover, with La Querouaille and initiates the secret negotiation with her brother, 99; Charles falls into the snare and Henrietta carries most of the points of that disgraceful treaty, 99; takes her maid-of-honour back to France to incite Charles's desire to retain her in his Court, 100; the Duchess thought more of augmenting the greatness of Charles than of benefiting England, 100; her motives for undertaking all this shameful bargaining, 102; on her return to Paris, a cabal in her household seeks to effect her destruction, 102; the motives originating the plot, 103; she is seized with a mortal illness at St. Cloud, 104; the heartless indifference of all around her, save Madlle. de Montpensier, 105; her dying declaration that she was poisoned, 105; Bossuet consoles her in her last moments, 106; the cause of her death falsely attributed to cholera-morbus, 106; St. Simon's statement of the poison being sent from Italy by the Chevalier de Lorraine, 107; the intrigues which led to the murder present a scene of accumulated horrors and iniquity, 107; the last political act of the Duchess calculated to secure the subjection of the English nation, 107.

ORLEANS, Philip II. (nephew of Louis XIV. and afterwards Regent), Duke d', represents Louis XIV. in Spain, 254; distrusted by, but remains on the best footing with Mad. des Ursins, 254; indulged the hope of being put in the place of Philip V., 255; his suspicious negotiations with the Earl of Stanhope, 255; Mad. des Ursins demands his recall and obtains it, 255; denounced by Mad. des Ursins, and with difficulty escapes a scandalous trial, 256.

ORRY, Jean Louville's accusations against him, 177; Mad. des Ursins' letter with friendly remembrances to d'Aubigny's wife, 183; recalled to France, 187; reinstated by Mad. des Ursins, 190.

PALATINE, Anne de Gonzagua, Princess, if the Fronde could have been saved, her advice would have saved it, 18; is associated with Mazarin's triumph, 19; her political importance dates from the imprisonment of the Princess, 54; uses the feminine factionists as so many wires by which to move the men whom they governed, 54; the opinions of De Retz and Mazarin upon her stability of purpose and capacity to work mischief, 54; appointed superintendent of the young Queen's household, 55; retires from Court, and ends her days in seclusion, 56; her conversion and penitence, 57; Bossuet's funeral oration, 57; her account of her conversion addressed to the celebrated Abbe de Rance, founder of La Trappe, 58; a glance at the singular fortunes of the Duke de Guise, her first lover, 59.

PETERBOROUGH, Lord, tears Barcelona from Philip V., 197.

PHILIP V. (Duke d' Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV.), King of Spain, grave questions raised by his accession, 151; his character, 154; Mad. des Ursins governs him through the Queen, 154; in disguise, meets his bride at Hostalnovo, 157; his mental defects—rather constituted to serve than reign, 166; his first entrance into Spain radiant with youth and hope, 166; Europe forms a coalition to snatch the two peninsulas from the domination of France, 167; compels the recall of Cardinal d'Estrees, 174; takes command of the army on the frontiers of Portugal, 179; baffled at Barcelona, and takes, in mortal agony, the road to France, 198; re-enters Madrid as a liberator, 252; is thoroughly defeated by the Austrians at Saragossa, 257; Louis XIV. advises him to abandon Spain in order to keep Italy, 257; his noble letter in reply, 259; his dismissal in mass of his French household, 260; after the victory of Villaviciosa, sleeps on a couch of standards, 262; in behalf of Mad. des. Ursins, refuses to sign the treaty of Utrecht, 281; he signs the treaty unconditionally, 284; his choice of a wife limited to three princesses by Louis XIV., 287; secretly lends his hand to a coup d'etat against Mad. des Ursins, 291; gives authority to his new consort to take everything upon herself, 294; succeeds in reducing Spain to obedience only a few days before the fall of Mad. des Ursins, 303.

PORTO-CARRERO, Cardinal, exercises a powerful influence on Innocent XI. and Charles II. of Spain, 141; is won over by Mad. des Ursins to favour the pretensions of the Duke d'Anjou, 142; champion of the ultra-French political system, 169; abruptly changes his policy, 172; becomes a formidable adversary of the Princess des Ursins, 172; refuses to act with Cardinal d'Estrees and resigns, 172; the turncoat from every cause, and as a politician is annihilated, 173; his intractable and arrogant temper, 173; his cabal rakes into the private life of the camerara-mayor without success, 173; he quits Madrid with all the French household, 174.

PORTSMOUTH, Louise Penhouet Querouaille, Duchess of, the political errors of Charles II. primarily traced to her, 93; more than any other of his mistresses odious to the English, 93; the acme of splendour and corruption reached by the French court in 1670, 93; the household of his sister-in-law, Henrietta of England, supplies Louis XIV. with a diplomatist in petticoats, 93; the royal family used her as an instrument without caring about her origin, 94; what Mad. de Sevigne says of her antecedents, 94; revelations of the Histoire Secrete, 94; the Duke de Beaufort enamoured of her, 95; carries her off to Candia disguised as a page, 95; on his being cut to pieces, she returns to France, 96; this prank of hers proves the foundation of her fortunes, 96; Henrietta of England, interested in her romantic tale, admits her as one of her maids-of-honour, 96; Louis XIV. finds her an apt and willing instrument in the secret negotiation, 98; the pretext of a progress to Flanders resorted to by Louis XIV. to bring La Querouaille under the notice of Charles II., 98; she embarks with the Duchess at Dunkirk for Dover, where she captivates the king, 99; Louise returns to France with the Duchess of Orleans, 100; the key to the will of Charles II. found in Louise, 100; Louis XIV. promises of handsomely rewarding the compliant maid-of-honour, 102; the Duke of Buckingham seeks to turn her to his own advantage as a rival to the Duchess of Cleveland, 108; an invitation formally worded sent her from the English Court, 109; is left in the lurch at Dieppe by Buckingham, 109; Lord Montague has her conveyed to England in a yacht, 109; she is appointed maid-of-honour to the queen, 109; the intoxication of Charles at "les graces decentes" of Louise, 109; the purpose of her receiving an appointment at the Court of St. James's foretold by Madame de Sevigne, 109; St. Evremond's equivocal advice, 110; created Duchess of Portsmouth, 110; the domain of d'Aubigny conferred upon her by Louis XIV., 111; Charles Lennox, her son by Charles II., created Duke of Richmond, 111; put out of countenance by Nell Gwynne, 112; in conjunction with Barillon obtains an order which suddenly changed the face of Europe, 113; her triumphant sway in political matters, 113: generously sacrifices her political role in the matter of the "bill of exclusion," 114; her correspondence with Madame de Maintenon, 115; Louis XIV. confers upon her the title of Duchess d'Aubigny, 115; her creditable behaviour during the fatal seizure of Charles II., 115; magnificence of her apartments, 116; Barillon finds her in an agony of grief, 116; the message of the mistress to the dying king's brother, 117; her political attitude during the last months of Charles's life, 119; she returns to France with a large treasure of money and jewels, 120; is the object of a rigid surveillance, 120; Louvois, Courtin, and the lettre de cachet, 120; passes in profound obscurity the remainder of her life, 121; so reduced as to solicit a pension, 121; the power she possessed over the mind of Charles II., 122; her beauty not comparable to that of Madame de Montespan, 123.

RANCE, Armand, Jean Le Bouthillier (the reformer of La Trappe), the lover who regretted Madame de Montbazon the most sincerely, 6; the sight of her sudden death determines him to withdraw from the world, 67; the skull of the Duchess said to have been found in his cell at La Trappe, 67.

RETZ, Cardinal de, chills the Duke d'Orleans into inaction during the struggle of Conde with Turenne, 10; imprisoned at Vincennes, 15; obtains the red hat from Louis XIV., 26; entering upon his old intrigues, he is arrested and imprisoned, 26.

ROCHEFOUCAULD, Francis, Duke de la, blinded by a ball through his face in the fight at the Faubourg St. Antoine, 9; retires to his estates, and for a few years buries himself in obscurity, 27; is again received into favour, and obtains a thumping pension, 28.

SAINT-SIMON, Duke de, his explanation of the ascendency of Madame des Ursins, 168; his elaborate portrait of the Princess, 304.

SAVOY, Marie Louise of (daughter of Amadeus II., first wife of Philip V. of Spain), quits Italy with Madame des Ursins for Spain, 153; description of her at fourteen, 153; the camerara-mayor becomes indispensable to her, 154; incidents of the journey to Spain, 156; her first interview with Philip, who is disguised as a king's messenger, 158; the marriage at Figuieras, 158; untoward incident of the supper there, 159; Spanish versus French cookery, 159; her indignation at the conduct of the Spanish ladies, 159; attributes the audacity and rudeness of the Spanish dames to the King, 159; ends by making the amende to Philip V., 169; the arrival at Madrid, 160; the Queen governs Philip V., and Madame des Ursins governs the Queen, 168; her education and mental characteristics, 168; a happy conformity of tastes, views, and dispositions attaches the Queen to Madame des Ursins, 169; maintains the royal authority by the spell of her gentle and steady virtues, 198; her destitution at Burgos, 199; forsaken by her Court, seeks an asylum in old Castile, 200; in childbirth, appeals touchingly to the attachment and courage of Madame des Ursins, 257; dies suddenly at the age of twenty-six, 267.