Shortly after his arrival in Madrid, the new King of Spain began to look about him for a wife, and his marriage with the second daughter of M. de Savoie (younger sister of Madame de Bourgogne) was decided upon as an alliance of much honour and importance to M. de Savoie, and, by binding him to her interest, of much utility to France.  An extraordinary ambassador (Homodei, brother of the Cardinal of that name) was sent to Turin to sign the contract of marriage, and bring back the new Queen into Spain.  He was also appointed her Ecuyer, and the Princesse des Ursins was selected as her ‘Camarera Mayor’, a very important office.  The Princesse des Ursins seemed just adapted for it.  A Spanish lady could not have been relied upon:  a lady of our court would not have been fit for the post.  The Princesse des Ursins was, as it were, both French and Spanish—­French by birth, Spanish by marriage.  She had passed the greater part of her life in Rome and Italy, and was a widow without children.  I shall have more hereafter to say of this celebrated woman, who so long and so publicly governed the Court and Crown of Spain, and who has made so much stir in the world by her reign and by her fall; at present let me finish with the new Queen of Spain.

She was married, then, at Turin, on the 11th of September, with but little display, the King being represented by procuration, and set out on the 13th for Nice, where she was to embark on board the Spanish galleys for Barcelona.  The King of Spain, meanwhile, after hearing news that he had been proclaimed with much unanimity and rejoicing in Peru and Mexico, left Madrid on the 5th of September, to journey through Aragon and Catalonia to Barcelona to meet his wife.  He was much welcomed on his route, above all by Saragossa, which received him magnificently.

The new Queen of Spain, brought by the French galleys to Nice, was so fatigued with the sea when she arrived there, that she determined to finish the rest of the journey by land, through Provence and Languedoc.  Her graces, her presence of mind, the aptness and the politeness of her short replies, and her judicious curiosity, remarkable at her age, surprised everybody, and gave great hopes to the Princesse des Ursins.

When within two days’ journey of Barcelona, the Queen was met by a messenger, bearing presents and compliments from the King.  All her household joined her at the same time, being sent on in advance for that purpose, and her Piedmontese attendants were dismissed.  She appeared more affected by this separation than Madame de Bourgogne had been when parting from her attendants.  She wept bitterly, and seemed quite lost in the midst of so many new faces, the most familiar of which (that of Madame des Ursins) was quite fresh to her.  Upon arriving at Figueras, the King, impatient to see her, went on before on horseback.  In this first embarrassment Madame des Ursins, although completely unknown to the King, and but little known to the Queen, was of great service to both.