At last, on Tuesday, the 16th of November, the King publicly declared himself.  The Spanish ambassador had received intelligence which proved the eagerness of Spain to welcome the Duc d’Anjou as its King.  There seemed to be no doubt of the matter.  The King, immediately after getting up, called the ambassador into his cabinet, where M. le Duc d’Anjou had already arrived.  Then, pointing to the Duke, he told the ambassador he might salute him as King of Spain.  The ambassador threw himself upon his knees after the fashion of his country, and addressed to the Duke a tolerably long compliment in the Spanish language.  Immediately afterwards, the King, contrary to all custom, opened the two folding doors of his cabinet, and commanded everybody to enter.  It was a very full Court that day.  The King, majestically turning his eyes towards the numerous company, and showing them M. le Duc d’Anjou said—­“Gentlemen, behold the King of Spain.  His birth called him to that crown:  the late King also has called him to it by his will; the whole nation wished for him, and has asked me for him eagerly; it is the will of heaven:  I have obeyed it with pleasure.”  And then, turning towards his grandson, he said, “Be a good Spaniard, that is your first duty; but remember that you are a Frenchman born, in order that the union between the two nations may be preserved; it will be the means of rendering both happy, and of preserving the peace of Europe.”  Pointing afterwards with his finger to the Duc d’Anjou, to indicate him to the ambassador, the King added, “If he follows my counsels you will be a grandee, and soon; he cannot do better than follow your advice.”

When the hubbub of the courtiers had subsided, the two other sons of France, brothers of M. d’Anjou, arrived, and all three embraced one another tenderly several times, with tears in their eyes.  The ambassador of the Emperor immediately entered, little suspecting what had taken place, and was confounded when he learned the news.  The King afterwards went to mass, during which at his right hand was the new King of Spain, who during the rest of his stay in France, was publicly treated in every respect as a sovereign, by the King and all the Court.

The joy of Monseigneur at all this was very great.  He seemed beside himself, and continually repeated that no man had ever found himself in a condition to say as he could, “The King my father, and the King my son.”  If he had known the prophecy which from his birth had been said of him, “A King’s son, a King’s father, and never a King,” which everybody had heard repeated a thousand times, I think he would not have so much rejoiced, however vain may be such prophecies.  The King himself was so overcome, that at supper he turned to the Spanish ambassador and said that the whole affair seemed to him like a dream.  In public, as I have observed, the new King of Spain was treated in every respect as a sovereign, but in private he was still the Duc d’Anjou.  He passed his evenings in the apartments of Madame de Maintenon, where he played at all sorts of children’s games, scampering to and fro with Messeigneurs his brothers, with Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, and with the few ladies to whom access was permitted.