man in the empire, was indeed kept in retirement as governor of Milan,
while Cristoval di Mora, who had enjoyed much of the late king's
confidence, was removed to Portugal as viceroy. But Don John of Idiaquez,
who had really been the most efficient of the old administration, still
remained in the council. Without the subordinate aid of his experience in
the routine of business, it would have been difficult for the favourite
to manage the great machine with his single hand. But there was no
disposition on the part of the ancient minister to oppose the new order
of things. A cautious, caustic, dry old functionary, talking more with
his shoulders than with his tongue, determined never to commit himself,
or to risk shipwreck by venturing again into deeper waters than those of
the harbour in which he now hoped for repose, Idiaquez knew that his day
of action was past. Content to be confidential clerk to the despot duke,
as he had been faithful secretary to the despot king, he was the despair
of courtiers and envoys who came to pump, after having endeavoured to
fill an inexhaustible cistern. Thus he proved, on the whole, a useful and
comfortable man, not to the country, but to its autocrat.

Of the Count of Chinchon, who at one time was supposed to have court
influence because a dabbler in architecture, much consulted during the
building of the Escorial by Philip II. until the auditing of his accounts
brought him into temporary disgrace, and the Marquises of Velada,
Villalonga, and other ministers, it is not necessary to speak. There was
one man in the council, however, who was of great importance, wielding a
mighty authority in subordination to the duke. This was Don Pietro de
Franqueza. An emancipated slave, as his name indicated, and subsequently
the body-servant of Lerma, he had been created by that minister secretary
of the privy council. He possessed some of the virtues of the slave, such
as docility and attachment to the hand that had fed and scourged him, and
many vices of both slave and freedman. He did much of the work which it
would have been difficult for the duke to accomplish in person, received
his fees, sold and dispensed his interviews, distributed his bribes. In
so doing, as might be supposed, he did not neglect his own interest. It
was a matter of notoriety, no man knowing it better than the king, that
no business, foreign or domestic, could be conducted or even begun at
court without large preliminary fees