brutal French soldier again. Alberoni was beginning to
rise at this time. He offered to undertake the mission, feeling sure
that not even Vendome could disconcert him. He was intrusted with the
task of renewing the negotiations, and he obtained admission to the
presence of Vendome. Every reader remembers the story in the "Arabian
Nights" of that brother of the talkative barber who threw himself into
the spirit of the rich Barmecide's humor, and by outdoing him in the
practical joke secured forever his favor and his friendship. Alberoni
acted on this principle at his first meeting with Vendome. {159} He
outbuffooned even Vendome's buffoonery. The story will not bear minute
explanation, but Alberoni soon satisfied Vendome that he had to do with
a man after his own heart, what Elizabethan writers would have called a
"mad wag" indeed, and Vendome gave him his confidence.

Alberoni was made prime-minister by Philip in 1716, and cardinal by the
Court of Rome shortly after. The ambition of Alberoni was in the first
instance to recover to Spain her lost Italian provinces, and to raise
Spain once more to the commanding position she had held when Charles
the Fifth abdicated the crown. Alberoni's policy, indeed, was a
mistake as regarded the strength and the prosperity of Spain. Spain's
Italian and Flemish provinces were of no manner of advantage to her.
They were sources of weakness, because they constantly laid Spain open
to an attack from any enemy who had the advantage of being able to
choose his battle-ground for himself so long as Spain had outlying
provinces scattered over the Continent. Indeed, it is made clear, from
the testimony of many observers, that Spain was rapidly recovering her
domestic prosperity from the moment when she lost those provinces, and
when the continual strain to which they exposed her finances was
stopped. At that epoch of Europe's political development, however, the
idea had hardly occurred to any statesman that national greatness could
come about in any other way than by the annexing or the recovery of
territory. Alberoni intrigued against the Regent, and was particularly
anxious to injure the Emperor. He was well inclined to enter into
negotiations, and even into an alliance, with England. He lent his
help when first he took office to bring to a satisfactory conclusion
some arrangements for a commercial treaty between England and Spain.
This treaty gave back to British subjects whate