One of the first resolutions of this little party was to bind one another to secrecy.  Their next was to admit into their confidence Cardinal Portocarrero, a determined enemy to the Queen.  Then they commenced an attack upon the Queen in the council; and being supported by the popular voice, succeeded in driving out of the country Madame Berlips, a German favourite of hers, who was much hated on account of the undue influence she exerted, and the rapacity she displayed.  The next measure was of equal importance.  Madrid and its environs groaned under the weight of a regiment of Germans commanded by the Prince of Darmstadt.  The council decreed that this regiment should be disbanded, and the Prince thanked for his assistance.  These two blows following upon each other so closely, frightened the Queen, isolated her, and put it out of her power to act during the rest of the life of the King.

There was yet one of the preliminary steps to take, without which it was thought that success would not be certain.  This was to dismiss the King’s Confessor, who had been given to him by the Queen, and who was a zealous Austrian.

Cardinal Portocarrero was charged with this duty, and he succeeded so well, that two birds were killed with one stone.  The Confessor was dismissed, and another was put in his place, who could be relied upon to do and say exactly as he was requested.  Thus, the King of Spain was influenced in his conscience, which had over him so much the more power, because he was beginning to look upon the things of this world by the glare of that terrible flambeau that is lighted for the dying.  The Confessor and the Cardinal, after a short time, began unceasingly to attack the King upon the subject of the succession.  The King, enfeebled by illness, and by a lifetime of weak health, had little power of resistance.  Pressed by the many temporal, and affrighted by the many spiritual reasons which were brought forward by the two ecclesiastics, with no friend near whose opinion he could consult, no Austrian at hand to confer with, and no Spaniard who was not opposed to Austria;—­the King fell into a profound perplexity, and in this strait, proposed to consult the Pope, as an authority whose decision would be infallible.  The Cardinal, who felt persuaded that the Pope was sufficiently enlightened and sufficiently impartial to declare in favour of France, assented to this step; and the King of Spain accordingly wrote a long letter to Rome, feeling much relieved by the course he had adopted.

The Pope replied at once and in the most decided manner.  He said he saw clearly that the children of the Dauphin were the next heirs to the Spanish throne, and that the House of Austria had not the smallest right to it.  He recommended therefore the King of Spain to render justice to whom justice was due, and to assign the succession of his monarchy to a son of France.  This reply, and the letter which had given rise to it, were kept so profoundly secret that they were not known in Spain until after the King’s death.