e the approach of
dissolution. His misery was increased by the knowledge that every body
was calculating how long he had to live, and wondering what would become
of his kingdoms when he should be dead. The stately dignitaries of
his household, the physicians who ministered to his diseased body, the
divines whose business was to soothe his not less diseased mind, the
very wife who should have been intent on those gentle offices by which
female tenderness can alleviate even the misery of hopeless decay, were
all thinking of the new world which was to commence with his death,
and would have been perfectly willing to see him in the hands of the
embalmer if they could have been certain that his successor would be
the prince whose interest they espoused. As yet the party of the Emperor
seemed to predominate. Charles had a faint sort of preference for the
House of Austria, which was his own house, and a faint sort of antipathy
to the House of Bourbon, with which he had been quarrelling, he did not
well know why, ever since he could remember. His Queen, whom he did not
love, but of whom he stood greatly in awe, was devoted to the interests
of her kinsman the Emperor; and with her was closely leagued the Count
of Melgar, Hereditary Admiral of Castile and Prime Minister.

Such was the state of the question of the Spanish succession at the time
when Portland had his first public audience at Versailles. The French
ministers were certain that he must be constantly thinking about that
question, and were therefore perplexed by his evident determination to
say nothing about it. They watched his lips in the hope that he would
at least let fall some unguarded word indicating the hopes or fears
entertained by the English and Dutch Governments. But Portland was not
a man out of whom much was to be got in that way. Nature and habit
cooperating had made him the best keeper of secrets in Europe. Lewis
therefore directed Pomponne and Torcy, two ministers of eminent ability,
who had, under himself, the chief direction of foreign affairs, to
introduce the subject which the discreet confidant of William seemed
studiously to avoid. Pomponne and Torcy accordingly repaired to
the English embassy; and there opened one of the most remarkable
negotiations recorded in the annals of European diplomacy.

The two French statesmen professed in their master's name the most
earnest desire, not only that the peace might remain unbroken, but
that there might b