Produced by David Widger
The Abbe Alberoni, having risen by the means I have described, andacquired power by following in the track of the Princesse des Ursins,governed Spain like a master. He had the most ambitious projects. Oneof his ideas was to drive all strangers, especially the French, out ofthe West Indies; and he hoped to make use of the Dutch to attain thisend. But Holland was too much in the dependence of England.
At home Alberoni proposed many useful reforms, and endeavoured todiminish the expenses of the royal household. He thought, with reason,that a strong navy was the necessary basis of the power of Spain; and tocreate one he endeavoured to economise the public money. He flatteredthe King with the idea that next year he would arm forty vessels toprotect the commerce of the Spanish Indies. He had the address to boastof his disinterestedness, in that whilst working at all manner ofbusiness he had never received any grace from the King, and lived onlyon fifty pistoles, which the Duke of Parma, his master, gave him everymonth; and therefore he made gently some complaints against theingratitude of princes.
Alberoni had persuaded the Queen of Spain to keep her husband shut up,as had the Princesse des Ursins. This was a certain means of governing aprince whose temperament and whose conscience equally attached him to hisspouse. He was soon completely governed once more—under lock and key,as it were, night and day. By this means the Queen was jailoress andprisoner at the same time. As she was constantly with the King nobodycould come to her. Thus Alberoni kept them both shut up, with the key oftheir prison in his pocket.
One of the chief objects of his ambition was the Cardinal's hat. Itwould be too long to relate the schemes he set on foot to attain his end.He was opposed by a violent party at Rome; but at last his inflexiblewill and extreme cunning gained the day. The Pope, no longer able toresist the menaces of the King of Spain, and dreading the vengeance ofthe all-powerful minister, consented to grant the favour that ministerhad so pertinaciously demanded. Alberoni was made Cardinal on the 12thof July, 1717. Not a soul approved this promotion when it was announcedat the consistory. Not a single cardinal uttered a word in praise of thenew confrere, but many openly disapproved his nomination. Alberoni'sgood fortune did not stop here. At the death, some little time after,of the Bishop of Malaga, that rich see, worth thirty thousand ecus ayear, was given to him. He received it as the mere introduction to thegrandest and richest sees of Spain, when they should become vacant.The King of Spain gave him also twenty thousand ducats, to be levied uponproperty confiscated for political reasons. Shortly after, CardinalArias, Archbishop of Seville, having died, Alberoni was named to thisrich archbishopric.
In the middle of his grandeur and good luck he met with an adventure thatmust have strangely disconcerted him.
I have before explained how Madame des Ursins and the deceased Queen hadkept the King of Spain screened from all eyes, inaccessible to all hisCourt, a very palace-hermit. Alberoni, as I have said, followed theirexample. He kept the King even more closely imprisoned than before, andallowed no one, except a few indispensable attendants, to approach him.These attendants were a small number of valets and doctors, two gentlemenof the chamber, one or t