ir. The curious thing is,
that the cardinal, mad as he was, but taken completely by surprise at the
blows, did not defend himself, and thought of nothing but getting clear.
The same evening the marquis was exiled to his estates, without ever
wanting to return from them, until the fall of Alberoni." Alberoni has
sometimes been compared to the great cardinals who had governed France.
To say nothing of the terror with which Richelieu inspired the grandees,
who detested him, the Prince of Coude would not have dared to touch
Cardinal Mazarin with the tip of his cane, even when the latter "kissed
his boots" in the courtyard of the castle at Havre.

Alberoni had persuaded his master that the French were merely awaiting
the signal to rise in his favor; the most odious calumnies were
everywhere circulating against the Regent; he did not generally show that
he was at all disturbed or offended by them; however, when the poem of
the Philippics by La Grange appeared, he desired to see it; the Duke of
St. Simon took it to him. "'Read it to me,' said the Regent. 'That I
will never do, Monseigneur,' said I. He then took it and read it quite
low, standing up in the window of his little winter-closet, where we
were. All at once I saw him change countenance, and turn towards me,
tears in his eyes, and very near fainting. 'All,' said he to me, 'this
is too bad, this horrid thing is too much for me.' He had lit upon the
passage where the scoundrel had represented the Duke of Orleans purposing
to poison the king, and all ready to commit his crime. I have never seen
man so transfixed, so deeply moved, so overwhelmed by a calumny so
enormous and so continuous. I had all the pains in the world to bring
him round a little." King Louis XV., who had no love and scarcely any
remembrance, preserved all his life some affection for the Regent, and
sincere gratitude for the care which the latter had lavished upon him.
The Duke of Orleans had never desired the crown for himself, and the
attentions full of tender respect which he had shown the little king had
made upon the child an impression which was never effaced.

The preparations for war with Spain meanwhile continued; the Prince of
Conti was nominally at the head of the army, Marshal Berwick was
intrusted with the command. He accepted it, in spite of his old
connections with Spain, the benefits which Philip V. had heaped upon
him, and the presence of his eldest son, the Duke of Liria,