On Friday, the 19th of November, the new King of Spain put on mourning.  Two days after, the King did the same.  On Monday, the 22nd, letters were received from the Elector of Bavaria, stating that the King of Spain had been proclaimed at Brussels with much rejoicing and illuminations.  On Sunday, the 28th, M. Vaudemont, governor of the Milanese, sent word that he had been proclaimed in that territory, and with the same demonstrations of joy as at Brussels.

On Saturday, the 4th of December, the King of Spain set out for his dominions.  The King rode with him in his coach as far as Sceaux, surrounded in pomp by many more guards than usual, gendarmes and light horse, all the road covered with coaches and people; and Sceaux, where they arrived a little after midday, full of ladies and courtiers, guarded by two companies of Musketeers.  There was a good deal of leave-taking, and all the family was collected alone in the last room of the apartment; but as the doors were left open, the tears they shed so bitterly could be seen.  In presenting the King of Spain to the Princes of the blood, the King said—­“Behold the Princes of my blood and of yours; the two nations from this time ought to regard themselves as one nation; they ought to have the same interests; therefore I wish these Princes to be attached to you as to me; you cannot have friends more faithful or more certain.”  All this lasted a good hour and a half.  But the time of separation at last came.  The King conducted the King of Spain to the end of the apartment, and embraced him several times, holding him a long while in. his arms.  Monseigneur did the same.  The spectacle was extremely touching.

The King returned into the palace for some time, in order to recover himself.  Monseigneur got into a caleche alone, and went to Meudon; and the King of Spain, with his brother, M. de Noailles, and a large number of courtiers, set out on his journey.  The King gave to his grandson twenty-one purses of a thousand louis each, for pocket-money, and much money besides for presents.  Let us leave them on their journey, and admire the Providence which sports with the thoughts of men and disposes of states.  What would have said Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles V. and Philip II., who so many times attempted to conquer France, and who have been so frequently accused of aspiring to universal monarchy, and Philip IV., even, with all his precautions at the marriage of the King and at the Peace of the Pyrenees,—­what would they have said, to see a son of France become King of Spain, by the will and testament of the last of their blood in Spain, and by the universal wish of all the Spaniards—­ without plot, without intrigue, without a shot being fired on our part, and without the sanction of our King, nay even to his extreme surprise and that of all his ministers, who had only the trouble of making up their minds and of accepting?  What great and wise reflections might be made thereon!  But they would be out of place in these Memoirs.