nd he was
exorcised. The devil declared that the king was possessed.
Subsequently he admitted that this was a falsehood, which surprised
nobody.

The great question, whether the Spanish monarchy should remain united
or should go to pieces, reached a preliminary conclusion on 3rd
October, 1700. Charles appeared to be sinking, when he signed the
last will which Portocarrero and the friends of the French had drawn
up, with some marks of haste. He lived on four weeks longer, but
never had the strength to revoke the act which disinherited his
family. He left Spain, with all dependencies, to the Duke of Anjou,
second son of the Dauphin, and if Anjou ever came to the throne in
France, then he should be succeeded in Spain by his younger brother,
so that the two crowns could never be united. Failing the French
line, the succession was to pass to the archduke; and if the archduke
came to the throne of Austria, then to the Duke of Savoy. There also
the union of the crowns was provided against. The policy of all this
was obvious. The artifice consisted in the omission of the House of
Orleans. For the Duke of Orleans, descending from Anne of Austria,
was nearer than the archduke Charles. At the same time he was farther
removed from the throne of France than the Duke of Anjou, less likely,
therefore, to alarm the Powers. It might be hoped that he would be
near enough to Lewis to secure the preservation of the Spanish empire,
and not near enough to threaten European independence. A time came
when the allies thought of him as a possible substitute, and offered
him a principality between France and Spain. That is, he suggested
himself as a better alternative to Anjou, and they thought of giving
him Navarre and Languedoc. Put forward at a time when the Maritime
Powers were not committed to the archduke, he might have been
accepted. But he was not the candidate of Lewis. The object of the
Spaniards was to make sure that Lewis would break his engagement with
William III, that he would give up the partition and accept the
succession, preferring the risk of war for so great a prize to the
chance of a pacific division of the spoil. This they ensured by the
provision that Spain, if it did not belong to the French line, should
pass to the Austrian; that, failing Anjou and his brother, the
Austrian should take his place.

The will of Charles II shows a distinct animosity against the Maritime
and Protestant Powers; and a rumou