his country place.  He even promised Arenberg and his wife that he would go to Italy, in pursuance of a vow made to our lady of Loretto.  Arenberg privately intimated to Stephen Ybarra that there was a certain oil, very apt to be efficacious in similar cases of irritation, which might be applied with prospect of success.  If his father-in-law could only receive some ten thousand florins which he claimed as due to him from Government, this would do more to quiet him than a regiment of soldiers could.  He also suggested that Fuentes should call upon the duke, while Secretary Ybarra should excuse himself by sickness for not having already paid his respects.  This was done.  Fuentes called.  The duke returned the call, and the two conversed amicably about the death of the archduke, but entered into no political discussion.

Arschot then invited the whole council of state, except John Baptist Tassis, to a great dinner.  He had prepared a paper to read to them in which he represented the great dangers likely to ensue from such an appointment as this of Fuentes, but declared that he washed his hands of the consequences, and that he had determined to leave a country where he was of so little account.  He would then close his eyes and ears to everything that might occur, and thus escape the infamy of remaining in a country where so little account was made of him.  He was urged to refrain from reading this paper and to invite Tassis.  After a time he consented to suppress the document, but he manfully refused to bid the objectionable diplomatist to his banquet.

The dinner took place and passed off pleasantly enough.  Arschot did not read his manifesto, but, as he warmed with wine, he talked a great deal of nonsense which, according to Stephen Ybarra, much resembled it, and he vowed that thenceforth he would be blind and dumb to all that might occur.  A few days later, he paid a visit to the new governor-general, and took a peaceful farewell of him.  “Your Majesty knows very well what he is,” wrote Fuentes:  “he is nothing but talk.”  Before leaving the country he sent a bitter complaint to Ybarra, to the effect that the king had entirely forgotten him, and imploring that financier’s influence to procure for him some gratuity from his Majesty.  He was in such necessity, he said, that it was no longer possible for him to maintain his household.

And with this petition the grandee of the obedient provinces shook the dust from his shoes, and left his natal soil for ever.  He died on the 11th December of the same year in Venice.

His son the Prince of Chimay, his brother, and son-inlaw, and the other obedient nobles, soon accommodated themselves to the new administration, much as they had been inclined to bluster at first about their privileges.  The governor soon reported that matters were proceeding very, smoothly.  There was a general return to the former docility now that such a disciplinarian as Fuentes held the reins.