igh state of exultation
commenced his journey back to Spain. Passing down through the Tyrol and
traversing Italy he embarked at Genoa and landed at Barcelona. Here he
boasted loudly of what he had accomplished.

"Spain and the emperor now united," he said, "will give the law to
Europe. The emperor has one hundred and fifty thousand troops under
arms, and in six months can bring as many more into the field. France
shall be pillaged. George I. shall be driven both from his German and
his British territories."

From Barcelona Ripperda traveled rapidly to Madrid, where he was
received with almost regal honors by the queen, who was now in reality
the sovereign. She immediately appointed him Secretary of State, and
transferred to him the reins of government which she had taken from the
unresisting hands of her moping husband. Thus Ripperda became, in all
but title, the King of Spain. He was a weak man, of just those traits of
character which would make him a haughty woman's favorite. He was so
elated with this success, became so insufferably vain, and assumed such
imperious airs as to disgust all parties. He made the most extravagant
promises of the subsidies the emperor was to furnish, and of the powers
which were to combine to trample England and France beneath their feet.
It was soon seen that these promises were merely the vain-glorious
boasts of his own heated brain. Even the imperial ambassador at Madrid
was so repelled by his arrogance, that he avoided as far as possible all
social and even diplomatic intercourse with him. There was a general
combination of the courtiers to crush the favorite. The queen, who, with
all her ambition, had a good share of sagacity, soon saw the mistake she
had made, and in four months after Ripperda's return to Madrid, he was
dismissed in disgrace.

A general storm of contempt and indignation pursued the discarded
minister. His rage was now inflamed as much as his vanity had been.
Fearful of arrest and imprisonment, and burning with that spirit of
revenge which is ever strongest in weakest minds, he took refuge in the
house of the British ambassador, Mr. Stanhope. Hostilities had not yet
commenced. Indeed there had been no declaration of war, and diplomatic
relations still continued undisturbed. Each party was acting secretly,
and watching the movements of the other with a jealous eye.

Ripperda sought protection beneath the flag of England, and with the
characteristic ignominy of dese