own, thus bringing to an end the fierce "War of the Succession,"
which had involved most of the powers of Europe for many years.

Philip, by nature weak and yielding, became in time a confirmed
hypochondriac, and on the death of his wife, Maria Louise, in 1714,
abandoned himself to grief, refusing to attend to business of any kind,
shutting himself up in the strictest seclusion, and leaving the affairs of
the kingdom practically in the hands of the Princess Orsini, the governess
of his children, and his chief adviser.

Sorrow-stricken as was the bereaved king, affairs were already in train to
provide him with a new wife, a plan being laid for that purpose at the
very funeral of his queen, as some writers say, between the ambitious
Princess Orsini and a cunning Italian named Alberoni, while they, with a
show of grave decorum, followed Maria Louise to the grave.

The story of Alberoni is an interesting one. This man, destined to become
prime minister of Spain, began life as the son of a gardener in the duchy
of Parma. While a youth he showed such powers of intellect that the
Jesuits took him into their seminary and gave him an education of a
superior character. He assumed holy orders and, by a combination of
knowledge and ability with adulation and buffoonery, made his way until he
received the appointment of interpreter to the Bishop of St. Domino, who
was about to set out on a mission from the Duke of Parma to the Duke of
Vendome, then commander of the French forces in Italy.

The worthy bishop soon grew thoroughly disgusted with Vendome, who, high
as he was in station, displayed a shameless grossness of manner which was
more than the pious churchman could endure. The conduct of the affair was
therefore left to the interpreter, whose delicacy was not disturbed by the
duke's behavior, and who managed to ingratiate himself fully in the good
graces of the French general, becoming so great a favorite that in the end
he left the service of the Duke of Parma for that of Vendome.

Subsequently the duke was appointed to a command in Spain, where he
employed Alberoni in all his negotiations with the court of Madrid. Here
the wily and ambitious Italian won the favor of the Princess Orsini so
fully that when, on Vendome's death, he returned home, the Duke of Parma
sent him as his envoy to Spain.

The princess little dreamed the character of the man whom she had taken
into confidential relations, and who was plotting to overthr