er, as Saint
Simon declares, that that independent sovereignty which she herself felt
was so little beyond her reach offended her pride by making her feel the
distance between their several ranks and births, she opposed the desire
of her old friend, and peace was concluded by the authority of Louis
XIV. But the King had a grudge against the Princess for having driven
him to such extremity. Besides, just then his own dynasty had been
fatally stricken. The Duke of Burgundy and his eldest son, the Duke of
Brittany, had died. The heir to the throne was an infant only three
years old. The Court foresaw the Regency of the Duke of Orleans, a
personal enemy of Madame des Ursins, and it was dangerous, by leaving
her at the head of affairs in Spain, to prepare, probably, for the
future a disastrous rivalry.

The storm thus darkened thickly over the head of this imperious woman,
who, supported against her enemies so long as she had been useful, was
subject to the common law of favourites, and began to totter when she
appeared no longer so. One resource remained to her--to remarry Philip
V. She was anxious to find a consort who could replace in her interests
Marie Louise, and restore her waning influence. Her incertitude was
great: she felt truly that in spite of past services her future fate
depended upon her choice. At length she cast her eyes upon Elizabeth
Farnese, daughter of the last Duke of Parma, and niece of the then
existent Duke, and thought that gratitude for such an extraordinary turn
of fortune would for ever secure the attachment of a princess who,
without her influence, could never have had pretensions to such an
union. But she was anxious to ascertain whether Elizabeth Farnese was
one of those who would submit to be ruled, and she opened her mind upon
the subject to a man then obscure but afterwards celebrated--Alberoni,
who had been sent as consular agent from Parma to Madrid. He had
frequent conversations with the great favourite, and readily succeeded
in insinuating himself into her good graces. He described the Princess
of Parma as simple minded, religious, ignorant of the world from which
she had always lived secluded--in short, perfectly fitting to forward
the design of the Princess. In making such statements he reckoned at the
same time upon pleasing his own Court, and bringing about the fall of
Madame des Ursins; for he knew well that Elizabeth, whose character was
very different from that which he had repr