e king alone had
the power to give such an order. 'Have you not,' she indignantly
exclaimed, 'his majesty's order to obey me without reserve?' On his
reply in the affirmative, she impatiently rejoined: 'Then obey me.' As
he still persisted in requiring a written authority, she called for a
pen and ink and wrote the order on her knee."

Whether this incident as related be true or not, it serves well to
illustrate the imperious nature which she undoubtedly possessed, and
which was seen so many times in the course of the next quarter of a
century. Her will had to be obeyed, and nothing could turn her aside
from her purpose when once it was fixed. But she was as artful as she
was stubborn, and ruled most of the time without seeming to rule,
carefully watching all of her husband's states of mind, and leading him
gradually, and all unconsciously, to her point of view when it differed
from her own. Her interests were largely centred in her attempts to win
some of the smaller Italian principalities for her sons, she was
continually involved in the European wars of her time, and she again
brought Spain into a critical financial condition by her costly and
fruitless warfare. Not until the accession of her stepson, Charles III.,
who came to the throne in 1759, was Spain free from the machinations of
this designing woman, and, in all that time of her authority, no one can
say that she ruled her country wisely or well. She was short-sighted in
her ambition, entirely out of sympathy with the Spanish people, and did
little or nothing to deserve their hearty praise. So when at last her
power was gone, and the new king came to his own, there was but one
feeling among all the people, and that was a feeling of great relief.

For the rest of this eighteenth century in Spain there is no
predominating woman's influence such as there had been for so many years
before, as Amelia, the wife of Charles III., died a few months after his
accession, and for the rest of his life he remained unmarried and with
no feminine influence near him. The morals of Spain did not improve in
this time, however, even if the king gave an example of continence which
no other monarch for many years had shown. Charles was very strict in
such matters, and it is on record that he banished the Dukes of Arcos
and Osuna because of their open and shameless amours with certain
actresses who were popular in Madrid at that time. The women in question
were also sternly punishe