left, however, but to give way. The treaty of Utrecht
was signed by Philip V., and unconditionally. The net gain in the
business fell to d'Aubigny; he received for his trouble as a negotiator,
and for his constancy in another way, the manor of Chanteloup, revealed
the motive of its construction--yet an enigma to everybody in France,
says Saint Simon[69]--installed himself therein, and, for the rest, made
himself loved and esteemed there. To Madame des Ursins there only
remained the mortification of having failed, a mortification the greater
that her pretensions had been so lofty and tenacious. It was further
increased, also, by having turned the Court of France against her, and
engendered a coolness towards her on the part of Madame de Maintenon
herself, who up to that juncture had always approved of her manner of
acting and her system of government, but who now, seizing the occasion
of Orry having established some imposts upon the Catalans, did not
hesitate to say very harshly and laconically: "We do not think Orry fit
for his post, for Spain is very badly governed."[70]

[69] Memoires de Saint Simon, tom. xviii., p. 104.

[70] Lettres, tom. iii., p. 448, year 1714.

Those were accents which must have deeply grieved the heart of the
Princess. Next came Berwick, who was by no means, as we have seen, to be
ranked amongst her friends--Berwick, whom Louis XIV. had sent in spite
of her, in spite of what she had said of Tesse, who, by his own account,
had failed the first time before Barcelona only because he had been
prevented from commencing the siege soon enough. Her influence, it was
impossible to longer doubt, had been greatly lessened at Versailles, if
it had not perished altogether.

Trembling for herself, she continued naturally to lean upon the King of
Spain, who was devoted to her. In order that this plank of safety should
not escape her grasp, she permitted only those she liked to have access
to him; she regulated all his proceedings; she kept him from all private
audience; she seemed jealous of it, whilst she was only so as regarded
her own preservation. Scandal, as may be imagined, was again busy with
her name. It was again whispered that she was in hopes that the King,
scarcely yet thirty-two, would not be repelled by the faded charms of a
septuagenarian; that he would marry her, that was certain; and in every
saloon throughout the world of fashion in France, circulated the
following anecdote, which