Rome, having been appointed Inquisitor-General of Spain, had set out on his journey by land with a passport from the Pope, and a promise of security from the Imperial Minister. Nevertheless, he was arrested on his way by the Austrians, and conveyed to the citadel of Milan; while his papers were transmitted to Vienna, with the hope of their affording intelligence as to the designs of the Spanish Cabinet. This insult, after so many other causes of complaint, real or supposed, was the last drop that made the waters of bitterness overflow. Philip and his Queen, highly incensed, would no longer hear of any objections to a war, and overbore the real reluctance of their favourite minister.*

Alberoni had, in fact, sufficient difficulties and dangers on his hands at home. His bold innovations had raised a whole host of enemies; and at this very time a plot was forming against him by one of the most distinguished generals in the Spanish army, and one of the most steady adherents to Philip during the War of the Succession, the Marquis de Villadarias. The confederates of Villadarias were Don Joseph Rodrigo, the President of Castile, and some thirty of his most devoted officers; and his project was a partial rising, to combine the principal cities and the superior courts and councils, for a joint representation to the King, and for the dismissal of the obnoxious minister. The French ambassador, when secretly consulted by Villadarias, thought the enterprise too hazardous,† nor does it seem to have proceeded; at least I find no further account of it; and when Spain had become actually engaged in war, the noble spirit of Villadarias would not refuse to serve his country even in a subaltern capacity, and under the direction of his political enemy; and I shall have to speak of his gallantry as one of the Generals in the second Spanish expedition.

War being once inevitable, Alberoni bent all his energies to its successful prosecution. He did not act like some preceding Spanish ministers, who, in difficult circumstances, had done nothing for themselves, and appeared to rely entirely on their saints, or their allies. He sent his chief secretary and confidant, Don Joseph Patiño, to hasten the preparations at Barcelona, where the soldiers and the ships were collecting. The whole force amounted only to twelve ships of war and 8,600 men; but in a period of profound peace in the south, even these excited considerable alarm, and no less conjecture throughout Europe. Of their aim and object nothing was known, and therefore much was reported. The Emperor trembled

Some high authorities, such as San Phelipe (vol. ii. p. 151), the Mémoires de Noailles (vol. v. p. 74), &c., treat the reluctance of Alberoni as mere affectation, and himself as the sole cause of war. But the contrary is, I think, satisfactorily proved by Coxe (Memoirs of the House of Bourbon, vol. ii. p. 275).

St. Aignan to Louville, June 1, 1717, Mémoires de Louville. Villadarias had previously been to Paris to concert measures with the French statesmen. Louville wrote to St.-Aignan, April 18, 1717, "Villadarias retourne à Madrid. Il est au fait de tous nos secrets. Confiez-vous à lui, mais ne le voyez point en public. Il est de ces vrais Espagnols qui veulent une alliance offensive et defensive avec la France, mais qui la veulent uniquement dans l'intérêt de leur Prince et de leur pays."

for Naples, the Genoese for Savona, and the King of Sicily for that island; in England it was feared that the Spaniards would send over the Pretender; while the Pope piously believed that all these preparations were levelled against the Infidels in the Levant. In fact, one principal reason for this mystery was to impose upon his Holiness, who had not yet consented to bestow upon Alberoni the much desired Roman purple; but that favour having been wrung from the reluctant Pontiff in July, the new Cardinal immediately threw aside the mask. Orders were given for the sailing of the expedition; its command was entrusted to the Marquis de Lede, and on the 20th of August its real object was disclosed by its anchoring in the Bay of Cagliari.

The island of Sardinia, consisting chiefly of marshes or of mountains, has, from the earliest period to the present, been cursed with a noxious air, an ill cultivated soil, and a scanty population. The convulsions produced by its poisonous plants gave rise to the expression of Sardonic smile, which is as old as Homer,* and even at present the civilization of the surrounding continent has never yet extended to its shores. The people are still almost in a savage state; and I do not remember any man of any note or eminence who was ever born amongst them, unless it be the historian of this very expedition.† This barren territory, for centuries a dependency of Spain, had been secured to the Emperor at the same time that Victor Amadeus obtained the far more fruitful island of Sicily. Of late, however, a prospect of exchanging the first for the latter had been held out to the Emperor by the members of the Triple Alliance, in hopes to obtain his accession; and it was partly with the view of baffling this negotiation, and partly as a step to future conquests in Italy, that Alberoni made Sardinia the first object of his

arms.

The Spanish troops experienced no difficulty in landing, nor much in the investment of Cagliari. But they met with a stubborn resistance in its siege, the place being garrisoned chiefly by some Aragonese and Catalans of the Austrian party, who combined on this occasion the common rancour of exiles with the proverbial courage of their countrymen. They defended themselves to the last extremity; and even when they had surrendered, the island was not yet subdued. The Spaniards had to march forty leagues to the northward to form the sieges of Alghero,§ and of Castel Aragonese;||

Odyss. lib. xxv. 302.

† San Phelipe, Coment. vol. ii. p. 158-165. He was present with the Spanish army, and took an active part in the cause of Philip, as he had also done in 1708. (War of the Succession, p. 252.) He is obliged to own of his native island, "Nada perdio el Emperador con Cerdeña; nada gano el vencedor."

The Aragonese were proverbial for their valour amongst the Spaniards. Thus in Don Quixote "ganar fama sobre todos los caballeros Aragoneses que seria ganarla sobre todos los del Mundo." (Part 2, ch. 4, vol. v. p. 79, ed. Paris, 1814.) I remember at Madrid seeing a worthy Castilian very testy at this passage.

Alghero was founded in the twelfth century by the Doria family. The fortifications are still kept in good repair, and there are some fine brass guns with the inscription "Parant hæc fulmina pacem." (Smyth's Sardinia, p. 281.)

This is now called Castel Sardo. "It occupies the summit of a steep rocky pinnacle

they suffered severe loss from the pestilential vapours in the midst of the summer heats, and more than two months elapsed before their conquest was entirely completed; when the Marquis de Lede, leaving 3000 men as a garrison, returned with the rest to Barcelona.

There is no doubt that, instead of returning homewards, the Spanish expedition would at once have proceeded to Sicily, had not England interposed at the first news of its aggression. The King of England was pledged to maintain the neutrality of Italy, and bound besides by a defensive treaty with the Emperor. Above all, the great object of the Triple Alliance had been the preservation of peace in Europe; and the allies were determined to spare no labour nor firmness for that end. Dubois hastened over to London, to hold some confidential interviews with Stanhope. It was determined to make every exertion to mediate between Philip and Charles; and according to the plan laid down, the former was to renounce all claims on the Italian provinces, and the latter on the Spanish monarchy; the Emperor was to be gratified with the acquisition of Sicily in exchange for Sardinia; and the King of Spain with the succession to Parma, and to the whole or nearly the whole of Tuscany, for the Infant Don Carlos. These offers, being a tolerably fair and impartial award for each of the contending parties, were, of course, bitterly opposed by both. It was hoped, however, that, backed by so formidable a confederacy as the Triple Alliance, they would be finally accepted; and, in order to give them greater weight at Madrid, Stanhope despatched his cousin, Colonel William Stanhope (since created Earl of Harrington), as ambassador to Spain. The Regent, soon afterwards, sent thither the Marquis de Nancré in the same character; but the tone both of France and of Holland, in this negotiation, was far less earnest and effectual than that of England, the Regent being withheld by the affinity which had so lately subsisted in politics, and which still subsisted in blood, between the two branches of the House of Bourbon. "I have been shown the instructions for M. de Nancré," writes Lord Stair; "they are certainly drawn in the most guarded and cautious terms that I have ever seen. No man could touch fire with more unwillingness and circumspection than these instructions touch every point that could give the slightest chagrin to Spain. M. de Nancré is to say nothing savouring of threat. . . . Nor has he any orders to insist upon a declaration that the Spaniards will not, in the meanwhile, undertake an invasion of Italy. Yet, in my opinion, there is no way to avoid a war so sure as seeming not to be afraid of it."* "As to the Dutch," observes Stair, in another despatch, "they will gladly accede whenever they find us concur with the Emperor; but their weak and pitiable state of government prevents them from en

immediately over the sea." (Smyth's Sardinia, p. 261.) The place is no favourite with Capt. Smyth; he tells us that, "like the Carse of Gowrie, it may be said to want water all the summer, fire all the winter, and the grace of God all the year through!"

* Lord Stair to Lord Stanhope, Paris, March 6, 1718. (Orig. in French.)

gaging in any thing of vigour, unless they find themselves in good and large company."

*

St.

Nor were there fewer difficulties with the Court of Vienna. Simon assures us, that the Emperor had such strong personal repugnance to resign his claims upon the Spanish monarchy, that his ministers scarcely durst mention the subject before him. I find it stated, however, in the instructions to Colonel Stanhope, "that the Emperor at first had showed no want of readiness to conclude a peace with Spain. He agreed to yield the succession of Parma; but, in spite of the most pressing entreaties from his Majesty and from the Regent, he positively refused the dominions of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Even while the war with the Turks seemed likely to continue, the Emperor and his ministers seemed immovable on this point. But now, when it is evident that the Emperor may at his pleasure conclude a peace, or at least a long truce, with the Turks, the King our master, and the Regent, are apprehensive that the Imperial Court will be still more difficult to deal with than before."

Temporal enemies were not the only ones roused against Alberoni by his conquest of Sardinia. The Pope, swayed by Austrian counsels, and indignant at having been duped by the Spanish Minister, launched forth an angry brief to Philip, threatening him with the "divine vengeance," and assuring him that "not only your reputation, but your soul also is at stake;"‡ and he backed these spiritual remonstrances by a suspension of the INDULTO, or ecclesiastical tax, in the Peninsula. This brief was publicly circulated throughout Spain, but was treated with utter contempt by the Minister; and the Indulto was strictly levied as before. It is remarkable that one of the very few serious differences between the Spanish Court and the Holy See should have occurred with a Cardinal as Prime Minister; and it is still more strange that, in a country so blindly devoted to the Catholic faith as Spain, the Papal indignation should have produced so little effect. Is it that the Spaniards are still more zealous for their country than for their religion, and, even in matters of faith, look rather to Madrid than to Rome? I find it stated that, at this period, even the statues of saints could not please them unless attired in the true Spanish habit!§

The representations of Colonel Stanhope and of M. de Nancré

To Lord Stanhope, March 11, 1718. (Orig. in French.)

† Mem. vol. xv. p. 328, ed. 1829.

See the brief at length in the Historical Register, 1717, p. 357.

See the Travels of Father Labat, who visited Cadiz in 1705, and who says of one of its churches, "Sainte Anne, qui est d'un coté du berceau de l'Enfant Jesus, est habil lée comme une vieille dame d'une grande robe de velours avec des dentelles d'or. Elle est assise sur un carreau à la manière du pays, et tient son chapelet à la main. St. Joseph est a coté de Sainte Anne vêtu à l'Espagnole, les culottes le pourpoint et le man. teau de damas noir, avec la golille, le bas de soie avec la rose de rubans de la même couleur, les cheveux partagés sur le coté de la tête et poudrés, des grandes lunettes sur le nez, le chapeau à forme plate sous le bras gauche, l'épée de longueur, et le poignard avec un très-grand chapelet à la main droite!" (Voyages, vol. i. p. 23.) In the same volume is a curious story of the monks of Cadiz, who, it seems, never attended the midnight mass prescribed by their rules, although the bells for it were still rung every night, as they said, "pour l'edification du peuple!"

were met by Alberoni first with anger, and afterwards with dissimulation. In one of his private letters he inveighs against "certain unprincipled men, who would cut and pare states and kingdoms as though they were so many Dutch cheeses;"* nevertheless, after a vain struggle for the cession of Sardinia, he sullenly consented to open a negotiation on the basis of the proposed preliminaries. But it soon became apparent that his object was only to gain time and to spread divisions. Under his orders, the most active measures were in progress for another armament. Ships of war built in the Spanish ports, or bought in foreign ones;† the founderies of cannon at Pamplona, and the manufactories of arms in Biscay, sent forth the din of preparation; soldiers were enlisted in all quarters; the irregular valour of the Miquelets in Catalonia was raised and improved by discipline; and no less than six regiments were formed from those hardy mountaineers. In order to obtain money for this armament, Alberoni did not, as he boasts himself, lay any tax upon the people; but mortgaged some revenues, enforced the strictest economy, sold some offices at Court, and stinted the Queen's personal expenses, insomuch that her Majesty afterwards complained of not having been allowed "sufficient to provide common necessaries"-words which, from such a quarter, may perhaps mean only jewels and trinkets! In short, there was no doubt that Alberoni persevered in his aspiring hopes, and that the return of summer would be marked by a renewal of his warlike enterprises.

To withstand the confederacy of France, England, and Holland, and to dare at the same time the enmity of the Court of Vienna, might have appalled the boldest Spanish statesman in the proudest days of the monarchy; but, even in its decline and abasement, did not daunt the lofty soul of Alberoni. His active armaments at home were combined with skilful negotiations abroad. He enticed Victor Amadeus by holding out a prospect of the Milanese as an equivalent for Sicily; he encouraged the Turks to continue their war against the Emperor in spite of their defeats; he made overtures to Prince Ragotzky, the exiled Prince of Transylvania, and urged him to attempt the recovery of his dominions. In the north of Europe he adopted the views of Gortz, and had grounds to expect that Charles the Twelfth and the Czar, concluding a peace, and forgetting their old animosities, would combine against George the First for the restoration of the exiled family. The commercial jealousy of the Dutch was stirred anew by the intrigues of Alberoni. The factions in France

To Mr. Bubb. Printed from the Melcombe Papers in the original French in Seward's Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 255, ed. 1804.

"This Court has contracted for the timber and all other necessaries for the building of three ships in Catalonia, and eight in Cantabria, and six, from 60 to 80 guns, they have bought of the Dutch; so that they pretend to have a numerous squadron at sea next year. One Castaneta, a sea officer, and a builder, is gone to Holland to take care of their purchase; these six ships they will certainly have, and, if we allow them, six more."Mr. Bubb to Lord Stanhope, Nov. 14, 1717. Hardwicke Papers, vol. xxxvii.

This was said in 1725. See Mr. Keene's despatch as quoted in Coxe's House of Bourbon, vol. ii. p. 392.