y Philip and his court. Madame des Ursins, who reckoned her
chief enemies amongst the monarch's French household, decided that
prince upon the dismissal in mass of all his non-Spanish domestics--an
unexpected resolve which produced an immense sensation on both sides of
the Pyrenees; because, whilst subserving a personal vengeance skilfully
dissimulated, it gave sanction to a policy the harshness of which was
pushed even to ingratitude.

[56] A sort of collar.

To throw Philip V. into the arms of the Spaniards, was to flatter alike
the democracy and the grandees. To the populace Madame des Ursins
presented, amidst the most fervent benediction, the Prince of Asturias;
to the grandees, of whom she had long been the declared enemy, she
caused to be given a striking proof of the royal confidence. The Duke de
Bedmar, appointed to the ministry of war, was charged with the
organization of the new levies, and the direction of the troops in all
parts of the kingdom. To transform the grandson of Louis XIV. into a
peninsula king was to furnish the best argument to the partisans of
peace, already numerous in the British parliament. On the other hand,
that same policy could not very seriously disquiet the cabinet of
Versailles. The King knew that he might count upon every sacrifice from
the respectful attachment of his grandson, save that of the throne; and
although he had adhered officially to the principle of the dispossessing
of Philip V., he could not regret, either as sovereign or as grandsire,
the obstacles which the more resolute attitude of Spain then opposed to
the enemies of the two crowns. Louis XIV. therefore continued,
notwithstanding his diplomatic engagements, to secretly assist in the
Peninsula what might be called the party of _fara da se_. Madame des
Ursins had recovered her influence at Versailles from the moment at
which it was found necessary to depend, in order to prolong the
struggle, rather upon the military resources of Spain than upon those of
France at bay. To impart more gravity to the national movement, to which
she gave the impulse in order to remain the moderatrix, she had required
the recall of Amelot, who had long assumed at Madrid the attitude of a
prime minister rather than that of an ambassador; and Louis XIV.,
deferring to that wish, had replaced that experienced agent by a simple
_charge d'affaires_. Orry was in like manner sacrificed, despite his
invaluable services; but, at the same time t