man, stricken with disease, and who felt himself to be in a dying condition. The suspicions which German and English writers have chosen to attach to the motives which influenced his decision may be dismissed as purely malicious. That any undue partiality could have been entertained by him for the prince who had been harassing and oppressing the papacy during fifty years, it is difficult to imagine. The heirs to the Spanish crown, according to the usual law of inheritance, unquestionably were the descendants of Maria Theresa; and Innocent seems to have been unable to comprehend how the renunciation made by Louis could be considered binding on his posterity. His answer was prompt, and couched in language as strong as Porto-Carrero could desire. The only true and legitimate claimants of the succession, he said, were the children of the Dauphin, and he warned Charles of the danger his soul ran if he permitted himself to be deterred by private sympathies from fulfilling a plain duty. This reply decided the matter. Charles at once signed a will bequeathing the Spanish crown to Philip, Duke of Anjou, the second son of the Dauphin and his heirs, with a remainder to the Archduke Charles. On the first of November, 1700, a month afterwards, he was released from his life of misery.

The news of Charles's death and of the will he had made reached Fontainebleau on the ninth. Louis held that afternoon a council, in which the alternative between accepting the will and adhering to the treaty of partition was discussed during several hours. His Majesty, however, deferred announcing his decision until the following day. The councillors present on the tenth consisted of the Dauphin, the Count of Pontchartrain, Chancellor of France, the Duke of Beauvilliers, President of the Council of Finance, and the Marquis of Torcy, Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Torcy gave his opinion first, and it was for accepting the will. It was true, he admitted, that in doing so his Majesty would violate his engagements with the Powers who had signed the treaty of partition, and that in all probability this violation would entail upon him a war which France in her present condition was ill prepared to sustain. But, on the other hand, should the King decide upon rejecting the will, and adhering to the treaty, a war was still inevitable

And

for obtaining those parts of the Spanish Empire which the treaty assigned to him. The Spanish Government, it was certain, would resist any attempt at dismemberment. what war could be more odious and unjust than one waged against a nation whose supreme desire it was to be ruled by a son of France? Nor was it by any means sure that, in such a case, the King would have the assistance of England and Holland. In both those countries such an outcry had been raised against his acquiring a footing in Italy, that it was not improbable that their fleets would be seen on the side of the Spaniards. It was worth consideration also that, if his Majesty refused to give Spain the king she desired, the legacy of Charles would lapse to the House of Austria; and it was needless to remind him how fatal to France had been the union of the Empire and Spain in the time of Charles V.

Beauvilliers, respected at Court as the pattern of an upright and fearless nobleman, supported a contrary conclusion. He thought it incumbent upon the honour of the King to keep faith with those Powers who had signed the treaty of partition, and predicted that a violation of his engagements with England and Holland would entail upon France a war which would be her ruin.

Pontchartrain summed up with judicial clearness the merits and drawbacks attached to each side of the question. He was too prudent a courtier, however, to commit himself to an opinion of which the wisdom would be judged by the event, and said therefore that his Majesty alone, whose experience surpassed that of his ministers, was capable of deciding which course would be most agreeable to his glory, to the interests of his family, and the good of his subjects.

To the general surprise, the fat and apathetic Dauphin now turned to the King, and spoke with an animation of which he had been thought incapable. He hoped, he said, that his Majesty would not refuse him his lawful inheritance. The kingdom of Spain descended to him from his mother. The renunciation made by his parents at the time of their marriage had not invalidated nor could invalidate his birthright. He was willing to waive his rights in favour of his second son, * Mémoires de Torcy; Mémoires de St. Simon.

Philip, and should prefer to see him reigning at Madrid than to be himself the sovereign of Naples and Sicily.

Louis then announced that his mind was made up to accept the will, but charged his Ministers not to reveal the secret. Six days afterwards he himself made his determination public at Versailles. The folding doors of the cabinet were thrown open, and the King commanded the throng of courtiers waiting in the antechamber to enter. He cast his eyes majestically over the assembly. 'Gentlemen," he said, pointing to the Duke of Anjou, "this is the King of Spain. He has been called to the crown both by his birthright and by the will of the late King. The whole Spanish nation has demanded him of me. It is the decree of Heaven, and I have assented to it with pleasure." Then turning to his grandson, "Be a good Spaniard," he said; "for that is henceforth your first duty. But never forget that you were born a Frenchman, that you may maintain union between the two countries. By that means you will render them happy, and preserve the peace of Europe."

Notice that Louis had accepted the will was at once transmitted to Madrid. Porto-Carrero, whom the late King had appointed president of the Council of Regency, lost no time in proclaiming Philip V., and the proclamation was received with joy. Scarcely a day passed without the populace giving fresh marks of their hatred of the Germans and of the Queendowager. In Brussels, Milan, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, Philip was also proclaimed without any opposition. Within three weeks after the announcement of Louis, the young monarch took leave of his grandfather and, set out for his kingdom.

And now that Louis had rendered himself master of one-half of civilised Europe he began to evince some anxiety as to the feelings his ambition and treachery would be likely to excite in England and Holland. The day after he announced his decision in the Council, but before it was made public Torcy had an interview with the English ambassador, the Earl of Manchester. His Majesty, Torcy said, had been considering that the object of the partition treaty was to avert a war. seemed, however, very unlikely that the arrangement which had been agreed upon would have the desired effect. The

It

Emperor had not signified his acceptance of it, neither had any of the other Powers to whom it had been communicated promised more than their bare neutrality. It appeared also that the treaty was regarded with much disfavour, both in England and Holland, from apprehensions that the trade to the Levant would suffer if the French were in possession of Naples and Sicily. The will of the late King of Spain now bequeathed the whole monarchy to the Duke of Anjou. What was the King to do under these circumstances? If he declined to accept the bequest, the same courier who brought the will to France had probably orders to proceed to Vienna. The Spanish monarchy would pass to the House of Austria. The King, to obtain that portion of it which the treaty assigned to himself and the Dauphin, would have to conquer the whole. Could the maritime Powers spare a sufficient number of ships to accomplish so vast an enterprise? Would they be willing to submit to the expense it would occasion? His Majesty, in fine, had come to the conclusion that the great consideration of preserving the peace of Europe obliged him to accept the bequest. He wished that events had happened otherwise. The treaty offered France more solid advantages then she was likely to obtain through the will. He trusted, however, that the strength of these reasons would so far prevail with the King of England that there should be no rupture of the good understanding between them.*

In the same spirit in which Torcy had addressed Manchester instructions were written to the King's ambassadors at the various courts. They were told to represent that the case which had actually happened, that the Spanish king would leave his dominions to a French prince, had not been foreseen at the time of making the treaty. The first object of the King of France was to preserve the peace of Europe, and for that end he had been willing to sacrifice the rights of his children. But inasmuch as the Emperor had not thought fit to signify his acceptance of the treaty, it was evident that its provisions could not be executed without a war. The object of the treaty had in consequence failed, and it was therefore only fair to

* The Earl of Manchester to the Earl of Jersey, November 3, 1700, in Tindal's continuation of Rapin.

regard it as virtually cancelled. It was too much to expect that his Majesty would sacrifice the rights of his children, when all that he would get by the sacrifice would be a war with Spain and the Empire.

The ecstasies of pride and delight with which the French people heard that Spain had become a dependency of France rendered them at first careless of the apprehension expressed by a few persons as to the course which would be pursued by other Powers. The Emperor would of course protest, would perhaps make a show of war; but his indignation was of little moment. If the Dutch objected, the King of Spain must try and reduce them to their old obedience; and if England refused to recognise the new monarch, she must be threatened with the guest at St. Germains. The anxiety, however, with which Louis awaited news of William was too plainly visible on his countenance to escape the eye of the English ambassador. His suspense lasted a considerable period. Manchester had duly reported the communication of Torcy; but the only answer returned to him was, that the King desired time for considering the matter. In truth, William had fallen into a state of melancholy, in which the heroic spirit which had animated the defender of Holland and the preserver of the liberties of England seemed to have disappeared. His bodily powers were fast failing. His mind had been overburdened with cares and disappointments. The perpetual obstacles which his Parliament delighted to fling in his path, the hatred and contempt with which he knew himself to be regarded by a strong faction, and the rabid persecution of which his most trusted councillors. and his dearest friends were the objects, had excited in his soul a feeling bordering on despair. It seemed now that the discontent which the English Parliament had expressed for the terms of the treaty was regarded by France as an argument for her setting that treaty aside, and annexing, instead of it, the entire Spanish dominions. If it should now appear to Englishmen that the ambition of the French king was fraught with danger to themselves in common with all Europe, they might thank the imprudence of their Parliament, for doing its best to upset a treaty which would have put some limit upon his ambition. What would be the views of the Parliament, which