Stanhope, who had not failed to see the excellence of Staremberg’s advice from the first moment of their dispute, now said insolently, that having executed the orders of his Queen, it was for Staremberg to draw the army out of its embarrassment.  As for himself, he had nothing more to do in the matter!  When ten or twelve days had elapsed, it was resolved to remove from Madrid towards Toledo.  From the former place nothing was taken away, except same of the king’s tapestry; which Stanhope was not ashamed to carry off, but which he did not long keep.  This act of meanness was blamed even by his own countrymen.  Staremberg did not make a long stay at Toledo, but in quitting the town, burnt the superb palace in the Moorish style that Charles Quint had built there, and that, was called the Alcazar.  This was an irreparable damage, which he made believe happened accidentally.

As nothing now hindered the King of Spain from going to see his faithful subjects at Madrid, he entered that city on the 2nd of December, in the midst of an infinite crowd and incredible acclamations.  He descended at the church of Notre Dame d’Atocha, and was three hours in arriving at the palace, so prodigious was the crowd.  The city made a present to him of twenty thousand pistoles.  On the fourth day after his arrival at Madrid, the King left, in order to join M. de Vendeme and his army.

But a little while before, this monarch was a fugitive wanderer, almost entirely destroyed, without troops, without money, and without subsistence.  Now he found himself at the head of ten or fifteen thousand men well armed, well clad, well paid, with provisions, money, and ammunition in abundance; and this magical change was brought about by the sudden universal conspiracy of the unshakable fidelity and attachment—­ without example, of all the orders of his subjects; by their efforts and their industry, as prodigious the one as the other.

Vendome, in the utmost surprise at a change so little to be hoped for, wished to profit by it by joining the army under Bay, which was too weak itself to appear before Staremberg.  Vendome accordingly set about making this junction, which Staremberg thought only how to hinder.  He knew well the Duc de Vendome.  In Savoy he had gained many a march upon him; had passed five rivers in front of him; and in spite of him had led his troops to M. de Savoie.  Staremberg thought only therefore in what manner he could lay a trap for M. de Vendome, in which he, with his army, might fall and break his neck without hope of escape.  With this view he put his army into quarters access to which was easy everywhere, which were near each other, and which could assist each other in case of need.  He then placed all his English and Dutch, Stanhope at their head, in Brighuega, a little fortified town in good condition for defence.  It was at the head of all the quarters of Staremberg’s army, and at the entrance of a plain over which M. de Vendome had to pass to join Bay.