of troops to
demand in the name of outraged Spain the immediate dismissal of the
queen's favorite. Mariana's confusion at this juncture of affairs has
been quaintly pictured by Archdeacon Coxe, who wrote an interesting
history of the Bourbon kings of Spain in the early part of the last
century: "In the agony of indignation and despair, the queen threw
herself upon the ground and bewailed her situation. 'Alas, alas!' she
cried; 'what does it avail me to be a Queen and Regent, if I am deprived
of this good man who is my only consolation? The meanest individual is
permitted to chuse (_sic_) a confessor: yet I am the only persecuted
person in the kingdom!'" Tears were unavailing, however, and Nithard had
to leave in disgrace, although Mariana was successful in opposing Don
Juan's claim to a share in the government. But the queen could not rule
alone, and the new favorite, as was quite usual in such cases, owed his
position to feminine wiles. Valenzuela, a gentleman of Granada, had been
one of Nithard's trusted agents, and courted assiduously Dona Eugenia,
one of the ladies in waiting to the queen; and by marrying her he had
brought himself to Mariana's notice, and had so completely gained her
confidence, that she naturally looked to him for support. Either the
queen's virtue was a very fragile thing, or Valenzuela was considered a
gallant most irresistible; for in his first two interviews with Her
Majesty, his wife, Dona Eugenia, was present, "to avoid scandal." It is
probably safe to say that as Valenzuela rose in power this precaution
was thrown to the winds, and on more than one occasion "he made an
ostentatious display of his high favor, affected the airs of a
successful lover, as well as of a prime minister; and it did not escape
notice that his usual device in tournaments was an eagle gazing at the
sun, with the motto _Tengo solo licencia_, 'I alone have permission.'"

This pride had its fall, however, as in 1677 the boy-king Charles, at
the age of fifteen, which had been fixed as his majority, was made to
see that his mother was working against the best interests of his
subjects; and he escaped from the honorable captivity in which he had
been held at the palace, and gave himself up to his half-brother, Don
Juan, who was only too ready to seize this advantage against the hostile
queen. Manana was imprisoned in a convent in Toledo, Valenzuela was
exiled to the Philippines, and Don Juan, as prime minister, prepared to