te-a-tetes_ scandalise the
people," 286;
her difficulties in the choice of a consort for Philip, 287-289;
selects Elizabeth Farnese, 289;
her uneasiness at the contradictory reports of the Princess of
Parma's character, 290;
she attempts too late to break off the match, 291;
that unskilful and tardy opposition prepares her ruin, 291;
her prompt, cruel, and decisive disgrace, 291;
her meeting with Elizabeth Farnese at Xadraque, 292;
the Queen outrageously thrusts Madame des Ursins out of her cabinet,
orders her to be arrested and instantaneously conveyed to the
French frontiers, 293;
her sufferings during the mid-winter journey, 293;
her touching relation to Madame de Maintenon, 293;
in her seventy-second year she sustains the strength and constancy
of her character, 294;
recovers all her strength, sang-froid, and wonted equanimity, 295;
her just estimate of human instability, 295;
St. Simon's impressive narrative of the terrible night of her rude
expulsion (December 24th, 1714), 295;
the hard fate reserved for a woman--the founder of a dynasty and
liberator of a great kingdom, 295;
the active correspondence of her numerous enemies both at Versailles
and Madrid, 296;
her hopes of returning to the Spanish Court frustrated, 296;
the Queen leaves her letters unanswered, 296;
Philip declares himself "unable to refuse the maintenance of the
measure taken at the instance of the Queen," 296;
Louis XIV. is compelled to be guided by the decision of his
grandson, 296;
Madame de Maintenon replies by evasive compliments, 296;
she perceives that all is at an end as regarded her resumption of
power, 296;
arrives in Paris and is coldly received by Louis XIV., 296;
she quits France and once more fixes her abode in Rome, 297;
attaches herself to the fortunes of Prince James Stuart, _the
Pretender_, and does the honours of his house, 297;
her death at fourscore and upwards, 297;
who were the real authors of the Princess's disgrace? 297;
her political life in Spain characterized, 301;
the difference arising from the respective characters of Madame des
Ursins and Madame de Maintenon, 301;
summary of her life and character, 303;
St. Simon's elaborate portrait of the Princess, 304;
his remark--"She reigned in Spain, and her history