mortal agony, the road to France, in
order to direct his steps by way of Rousillon towards Navarre, thus
giving his enemies a plausible pretext for turning his going out of the
kingdom into a desertion of the crown.

[35] The Duke of Berwick.

Trials not less formidable awaited the young Queen at the hands of
fortune. Excited by the greatness of the danger, but finding a succour
in the _sang-froid_ of Madame des Ursins, which her youth and ardour
denied her, adored by the inhabitants of Madrid, to whom in the hour of
crisis she confided herself with a touching helplessness, the
_Savoiana_, by the spell of her gentle and steady virtues, alone
maintained the royal authority in a country where "it was necessary to
have almost an army in each province."[36]

[36] Despatch of Marshal de Tesse to Chamillard, 4th Feb.,
1706.--_Memoires_ de Noailles, tom. ii., p. 380.

At length the day came when despair reigned everywhere save at the
_Retiro_ Palace. The square d'Alcantara, defended by ten battalions, the
last remains of the Spanish army, had surrendered without fighting.
Whether through folly or treason, Salamanca had also just fallen into
the enemy's hands, and the Anglo-Portuguese troops advanced by forced
marches upon Madrid, in order there to proclaim Charles III. There was
nothing left but flight--but to quit a city of proved devotion and
confide in others of doubtful fidelity. The King had rejoined the French
army; the Queen, accompanied by her _camerara mayor_ and a few female
attendants, was compelled to repair to Burgos, in order there to keep up
at least some shadow of legitimate government. The little party was
without resources, money, almost without victuals. The silver plate
belonging to the palace was hastily flung into the melting-pot; the
sovereign of so many realms, after having borrowed by pawning so many
thousand pistoles, packed up with her own hands those jewels which were
a tribute to her from the new world, the pride and recreation of her
sorrowful youth, previous to pledging them to the Jew brokers. Her
court, lately so numerous, had been dispersed by the wind of adversity,
not with the intent of influencing events, but, shameful to record, only
to await them; and Marie Louise _enceinte_ with the first child of her
marriage, shaped her course towards the land of the Cid, resolved to go
thither and defend the monarchy even among those rugged mountains which
had been its cradle. Destitut