that this disgrace,
wholly involuntary as it was, should not damage his future fortunes.
Such was the extremity to which a subject had brought the most absolute
prince in Europe. It may thus be seen what extensive roots the woman had
already thrown out in Spain who balanced so nicely the power of the
French King in his grandson's court. It will shortly afterwards be more
clearly apparent; but if the _eclat_ of such a part enhances the
importance of Madame des Ursins, her character remains singularly
compromised by it. However indulgently we may be disposed to look upon
it, we cannot dissever from a system of policy the unworthy hostility
waged by a Frenchwoman against two ambassadors of her sovereign with so
cruel a perseverance. The Cardinal d'Estrees was desirous of carrying
the same measures in Spain as Madame des Ursins; he there represented
their common master with a loftier title and a more legitimate
authority. His errors of conduct, which were numerous, had in some sort
been forced upon him, and if he had the misfortune to fall into
ambushes, to another person must be attributed the fault of preparing
them. In that period of two years, the least honourable of her political
life, the Princess had solely as a stimulant her egotistic and impatient
ambition. In subordinating to her interests those of two monarchies, in
alleging as an excuse for the violence of her attacks the right of her
own superiority, she confirmed in the minds of her adversaries by her
example the truth, that for ardent natures it is less perilous to
exercise than to pursue power.

Philip, reduced by the Queen's absence to his natural indolence, opposed
no resistance to the injunctions of his grandfather. Assailed in her
tenderest affections, wounded in her dignity as a sovereign, and
resenting at fifteen years of age that twofold outrage in as lively a
degree as in the maturity of life, Marie-Louise restricted herself at
first to a disdainful silence which, nevertheless, revealed the hope
either of a terrible vengeance or a speedy retaliation. Madame des
Ursins submitted to the commands of her sovereign with the stately
haughtiness, the expression of which is conveyed in one of her very best
letters to Madame de Noailles. The consciousness of the great services
rendered by her to both monarchies with an inviolable fidelity, the
bitter astonishment at finding her relative, until then so devoted,
"prefer to herself persons who were merely her a