hose to pass
upon, such decrees as he thought proper to issue, were then taken by him
to the king, who signed them with perfect docility. As time went on, this
amount of business grew too onerous for the royal hand, or this amount of
participation by the king in affairs of state came to be esteemed
superfluous and inconvenient by the duke, and his own signature was
accordingly declared to be equivalent to that of the sovereign's
sign-manual. It is doubtful whether such a degradation of the royal
prerogative had ever been heard of before in a Christian monarch.

It may be imagined that this system of government was not of a nature to
expedite business, however swiftly it might fill the duke's coffers. High
officers of state, foreign ambassadors, all men in short charged with
important affairs, were obliged to dance attendance for weeks and months
on the one man whose hands grasped all the business of the kingdom, while
many departed in despair without being able to secure a single audience.
It was entirely a matter of trade. It was necessary to bribe in
succession all the creatures of the duke before getting near enough to
headquarters to bribe the duke himself. Never were such itching palms. To
do business at court required the purse of Fortunatus. There was no
deception in the matter. Everything was frank and above board in that age
of chivalry. Ambassadors wrote to their sovereigns that there was no hope
of making treaties or of accomplishing any negotiation except by
purchasing the favour of the autocrat; and Lerma's price was always high.
At one period the republic of Venice wished to put a stop to the
depredations by Spanish pirates upon Venetian commerce, but the subject
could not even be approached by the envoy until he had expended far more
than could be afforded out of his meagre salary in buying an interview.

When it is remembered that with this foremost power in the world affairs
of greater or less importance were perpetually to be transacted by the
representatives of other nations as well as by native subjects of every
degree; that all these affairs were to pass through the hands of Lerma,
and that those hands had ever to be filled with coin, the stupendous
opulence of the one man can be easily understood. Whether the foremost
power of the world, thus governed, were likely to continue the foremost
power, could hardly seem doubtful to those accustomed to use their reason
in judging of the things of this worl