would not renounce his rights over
those provinces of the Spanish empire which the treaty of Utrecht had
given to the emperor.

It was in the hopes of bringing these things about that the regent had
sent Dubois to London, where he was pursuing the treaty of the quadruple
alliance with as much ardor as he had that of La Haye. This treaty would
have neutralized the pretensions of the State not approved by the four
Powers. This was what was feared by Philip V. (or rather the Cardinal
d'Alberoni).

It was not thus with Alberoni; his was one of those extraordinary
fortunes which one sees, always with new astonishment, spring up around
the throne; one of those caprices of destiny which chance raises and
destroys; like a gigantic waterspout, which advances on the ocean,
threatening to annihilate everything, but which is dispersed by a stone
thrown from the hand of a sailor; or an avalanche, which threatens to
swallow towns, and fill up valleys, because a bird in its flight has
detached a flake of snow on the summit of the mountain.

Alberoni was born in a gardener's cottage, and as a child he was the
bell-ringer. When still a young man he exchanged his smock-frock for a
surplice, but was of a merry and jesting disposition. The Duke of Parma
heard him laugh one day so gayly, that the poor duke, who did not laugh
every day, asked who it was that was so merry, and had him called.
Alberoni related to him some grotesque adventure. His highness laughed
heartily; and finding that it was pleasant to laugh sometimes, attached
him to his person. The duke soon found that he had mind, and fancied
that that mind was not incapable of business.

It was at this time that the poor bishop of Parma came back, deeply
mortified at his reception by the generalissimo of the French army. The
susceptibility of this envoy might compromise the grave interests which
his highness had to discuss with France. His highness judged that
Alberoni was the man to be humiliated by nothing, and he sent the abbe
to finish the negotiation which the bishop had left unfinished. M. de
Vendome, who had not put himself out for a bishop, did not do so for an
abbe, and received the second ambassador as he had the first; but,
instead of following the example of his predecessor, he found in M. de
Vendome's own situation so much subject for merry jests and strange
praises, that the affair was finished at once, and he came back to the
duke with everything arranged to his de