246 



" Les lettres charmantes," says Mr. Stirling, ecrites par sa femme 

 a Madame de Coulanges, durant son sejour a la cour d'Espagne, sont 

 bien connues. Ce sont les esquisses les plus agreables qui aient ete ecrites 

 sur la vie et les moeurs Castillanes, au dix-huitieme siecle, en meme temps 

 qu' elles presentent le recit le jdIus fidele et le plus digne de foi que nous 

 possedions sur latriste vie interieure de la royaute autrichienne expirante 

 en Espagne."^' 



If her statements concerning the interior life of the palace are so 

 trustworthy, surely, on matters connected with her own household and 

 her husband's affairs, they must be considered worthy even of more im- 

 plicit belief. "What account does she give of the recall of the Ambassa- 

 dor, and in what way does it corroborate the above statement, alleged to 

 have been written by the Ambassador himself ? So far from Yiliars 

 having been soliciting his recall for more than twelve months, it is evi- 

 dent that the intelligence of it came upon himself and the Marchioness 

 by surprise. So sudden indeed was it, that so late as the 3rd April, 

 1681, she thought it necessary to explain to her correspondent in Erance 

 why she had not previously mentioned so important a matter, the sim- 

 ple reason being that she had known nothing whatever about it.j In 

 fact the whole court was surprised, and the king himself so astonished, 

 that, on the news reaching Madrid, he asked those about him if it boded 

 a new war with Erance."! The account also which the author of the 

 Arsenal MS. gives of the expenses of the embassy, and the steps taken 

 in connexion therewith, is too loose and inaccurate to have been writ- 

 ten by one who was so much interested in the subject. Madame de 

 Yiliars has a good deal to say upon the matter, as might be expected. 

 On the 29th August, 1680, she writes, De douze mille ecus que le E,oi 

 donne a M. de Villars, ce n'est a Madrid qu' environ 5500 ecus. Notre 

 maison nouscoute neuf mille francs de loyer, voyez ce qui reste pour toutes 

 sortes d'autres depenses." § She says that at this time M. de Yiliars 

 had some idea of sending her back to Erance, in order to diminish his ex- 

 penses; but this step was abandoned, and the financial difficulty removed, 

 by the king's coming to the relief of his ambassador, and by the removal 

 of the embassy to a smaller house. " Le petit secours," says Madame 

 de Yiliars, nearly four months afterwards (12th December, 1680), ''que 

 le Eoi a eu la bonte de donner a M. de Yiliars, nous fait un pen respirer. 

 Nous avons paye et quitte notre grande maison de huit cent pistoles de 

 loyer, et nous sommes presentement dans une autre la moitie moins 

 chere, et mille fois plus commode." || As to the different estimate of 



* Preface to " Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne sur le Regne de Charles II.," p. ix. 

 f "Lettres de Madame de Villars," p. 225. 



j " Si le premier Ministre a fait negocier notre retour en France par I'Ambassadeur 

 d'Espagne qui est a Paris, le Eoi leur Maitre n'en a rien squ ; car le jour qu'on en eut ici 

 la nouvelle, il parut fut etonne quaud on la lui apprit, et demanda aussi-tot si ce n'etoit 

 point une marque qu'on allat rentrer en guerre avec la France." — Lettres de Madame 

 de Villars, p. 227. 



§ " Lettres de Madame de Villars," p. 153. || Ibid, p. 196. 



