ISOLATION OF THE KING OF SPAIN. 265

felt, with jealousy, that the grand airs Madame des Ursinsgave
herself were solely the effect of the protection she had accorded
her. She could not bear to be outstripped in importance by
the woman she herself had elevated. The King, too, was much
vexed with Madame des Ursins; vexed also to see peace
delayed; and to be obliged to speak with authority and menace
to the King of Spain, in order to compel him to give up the
idea of this precious sovereignty. The King of Spain did not
yield until he was threatened with abandonment by France. It
may be imagined what was the rage of Madame des Ursins
upon missing her mark after having, before the eyes of all
Europe, fired at it with so much perseverance, nay with such
unmeasured obstinacy. From this time there was no longer
the same concert between Madame de Maintenon and Madame
•des Ursins that had formerly existed. But the latter had
reached such a point in Spain, that she thought this was of no
consequence.

It has been seen with what art Madame des Ursins had un-
ceasingly isolated the King of Spain; in what manner she had
shut him up with the Queen, and rendered him inaccessible,
not only to his Court but to his grand officers, his ministers >
^ven his valets, so that he was served by only three or four
attendants, all French, and entirely under her thumb. At the
•death of the Queen this solitude continued. Under the pretext
that his grief demanded privacy, she persuaded the King to leave
his palace and to instal himself in a quiet retreat, the Palace
of Medina-Celi, near the Buen-Retiro, at the other end of the
•city. She preferred this because it was infinitely smaller than
the Koyal Palace, and because few people, in consequence,
€ould approach the King. She herself took the Queen's place ;
and in order to have a sort of pretext for being near the King,
in the same solitude, she caused herself to be named governess
of his children. But in order to be always there, and so that
nobody should know when they were together, she had a large
wooden corridor made from the cabinet of the King to the
apartment of his children, in which she lodged. By this means
they could pass from one to the other without being perceived,