sire.

This was a reason for the duke to employ him a second time. This time
Vendome was just going to sit down to table, and Alberoni, instead of
beginning about business, asked if he would taste two dishes of his
cooking, went into the kitchen, and came back, a "soupe au fromage" in
one hand, and macaroni in the other. De Vendome found the soup so good
that he asked Alberoni to take some with him at his own table. At
dessert Alberoni introduced his business, and profiting by the good
humor of Vendome, he twisted him round his finger.

His highness was astonished. The greatest genius he had met with had
never done so much. The next time it was M. de Vendome who asked the
duke of Parma if he had nothing else to negotiate with him. Alberoni
found means of persuading his sovereign that he would be more useful to
him near Vendome than elsewhere, and he persuaded Vendome that he could
not exist without "soupe au fromage" and macaroni.

M. de Vendome attached him to his service, allowed him to interfere in
his most secret affairs, and made him his chief secretary. At this time
Vendome left for Spain. Alberoni put himself in communication with
Madame des Ursins; and when Vendome died, she gave him, near her, the
same post he had occupied near the deceased.

This was another step. The Princesse des Ursins began to get old, an
unpardonable crime in the eyes of Philip V. She resolved to place a
young woman near the king, through whom she might continue to reign over
him. Alberoni proposed the daughter of his old master, whom he
represented as a child, without character, and without will, who would
claim nothing of royalty but the name. The princess was taken by this
promise. The marriage was decided on, and the young princess left Italy
for Spain.

Her first act of authority was to arrest the Princesse des Ursins, who
had come to meet her in a court dress, and to send her back, as she was,
with her neck uncovered, in a bitter frost, in a carriage of which the
guard had broken the window with his elbow, first to Burgos, and then to
France, where she arrived, after having been obliged to borrow fifty
pistoles from her servants. After his first interview with Elizabeth
Farnese, the king announced to Alberoni that he was prime minister. From
that day, thanks to the young queen, who owed him everything, the
ex-ringer of bells exercised an unlimited empire over Philip V.

Now this is what Alberoni pictured to himself, having alw