About this time, there was an irruption of wolves, which caused great disorders in the Orleannais; the King’s wolf-hunters were sent there, and the people were authorised to take arms and make a number of grand battues.

CHAPTER LXII.

Peace was now all but concluded between France and England.  There was, however, one great obstacle still in its way.  Queen Anne and her Council were stopped by the consideration that the king of Spain would claim to succeed to the Crown of France, if the little Dauphin should die.  Neither England nor any of the other powers at war would consent to see the two principal crowns of Europe upon the same head.  It was necessary, then, above all things to get rid of this difficulty, and so arrange the order of succession to our throne, that the case to be provided against could never happen.  Treaties, renunciations, and oaths, all of which the King had already broken, appeared feeble guarantees in the eyes of Europe.  Something stronger was sought for.  It could not be found; because there is nothing more sacred among men than engagements which they consider binding on each other.  What was wanting then in mere forms it was now thought could be supplied by giving to those forms the greatest possible solemnity.

It was a long time before we could get over the difficulty.  The King would accord nothing except promises in order to guarantee to Europe that the two crowns should never be united upon the same head.  His authority was wounded at the idea of being called upon to admit, as it were, a rival near it.  Absolute without reply, as he had become, he had extinguished and absorbed even the minutest trace, idea, and recollection of all other authority, all other power in France except that which emanated from himself alone.  The English, little accustomed to such maxims, proposed that the States-General should assemble in order to give weight to the renunciations to be made.  They said, and with reason, that it was not enough that the King of Spain should renounce France unless France renounced Spain; and that this formality was necessary in order to break the double bonds which attached Spain to France, as France was attached to Spain.  Accustomed to their parliaments, which are in effect their States-General, they believed ours preserved the same authority, and they thought such authority the greatest to be obtained and the best capable of solidly supporting that of the King.

The effect of this upon the mind of a Prince almost deified in his own eyes, and habituated to the most unlimited despotism, cannot be expressed.  To show him that the authority of his subjects was thought necessary in order to confirm his own, wounded him in his most delicate part.  The English were made to understand the weakness and the uselessness of what they asked; for the powerlessness of our States-General was explained to them, and they saw at once how vain their help would be, even if accorded.