nd exercised
his dominion in such acts of arbitrary power as excited a general spirit
of disaffection among his nobility; or, lastly, by the vigorous
measures pursued against the encroaching Jesuits in Paraguay, and their
correspondents in Portugal, had incurred the resentment of that society,
we shall not pretend to determine: perhaps all these motives concurred
in giving birth to a conspiracy against his life, which was actually
executed at this juncture with the most desperate resolution. On the
third day of September, the king, according to custom, going out in
a carriage to take the air, accompanied by one domestic, was, in
the night, at a solitary place near Belem, attacked by three men on
horseback, armed with musquetoons, one of whom fired his piece at the
coachman without effect. The man, however, terrified both on his own
account and that of his sovereign, drove the mules at full speed;
a circumstance which, in some measure, disconcerted the other two
conspirators, who pursued him at full gallop, and having no leisure
to take aim, discharged their pieces at random through the back of the
carriage. The slugs with which they were loaded happened to pass between
the king's right arm and his breast, dilacerating the parts from the
shoulder to the elbow, but without damaging the bone, or penetrating
into the cavity of the body. Finding himself grievously wounded, and
the blood flowing apace, he, with such presence of mind as cannot be
sufficiently admired, instead of proceeding to the palace, which was at
some distance, ordered the coachman to return to Junqueria, where
his principal surgeon resided, and there his wounds were immediately
dressed. By this resolution he not only prevented the irreparable
mischief that might have arisen from an excessive effusion of blood;
but, without all doubt, saved his life from the bands of other
assassins, posted on the road to accomplish the regicide, in case he
should escape alive from the first attack. This instance of the king's
recollection was magnified into a miracle, on a supposition that it must
have been the effect of divine inspiration; and, indeed, among a people
addicted to superstition, might well pass for a favourable interposition
of Providence. The king being thus disabled in his right arm, issued a
decree, investing the queen with the absolute power of government. In
the meantime, no person had access to his presence but herself, the
first minister, the cardinal