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CHAP. the pretence that his master was indisposed. RipXIV. perda, in real fact, was so, being crippled with 1726. gout, and having the greatest difficulty in descend

ing the ladder of ropes which was lowered from his window. Nor could he afterwards travel but by very short days' journeys. Nevertheless he safely reached the frontier of Portugal, and, proceeding to Oporto, embarked for England under the name of Mendoza. His wife, and some of his children, it appears, still remained in Spain.

On landing in England, Ripperda was received by the government with great attention, but great mystery. They wished to draw full information from him on the treaty of Vienna; they wished to avoid any fresh offence with Spain on his account; they therefore avoided any public interviews with him; but sent an Under Secretary of State to meet him on his way to London, and conduct him privately to the house of Dr. Bland, Head Master of Eton. There he had more than one conference with Townshend, and from thence proceeded with the same secrecy to London. After a little time, however, he flung off the mask, took a large house in Soho Square, and lived with much magnificence. He continued a correspondence with the English ministers, and nourished a chimerical hope to become one of their principal colleagues; but though treated with regard while the differences with Spain were still pending, these were no sooner adjusted than he began to suffer neglect and to show disgust. In 1781, he passed over to Holland, and again

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embraced the Protestant faith, which he had CHAP. forsaken when he attached himself to the Spaniards. But he had not yet reached the end of his vicissitudes. He became acquainted with one Perez, a Spanish renegado, who acted as a Moorish agent at the Hague, and, by his persuasion, was induced to enter the service of Muley Abdallah, Emperor of Marocco. He renounced, or at least dissembled, the Christian religion *, was created a Bashaw, and rose again to the direction of councils. He led an army against the Spaniards and obtained several successes; but being worsted near Ceuta, was compelled to relinquish his command. A civil war in Marocco was, in some degree, decided by his change of party, and at length, retiring to the protection of the Bashaw at Tetuan, he died there at an advanced age in 1737. Thus ended a man whose character will be found far less romantic than his fortunes. Among his mad and unprincipled projects was one which he termed the "Universal Religion," being a compound of the Jewish, Christian, and Mahometan, and intended to reconcile them in one common faith. According to this notable scheme, the Messiah was still to be ex

* There is a letter preserved to his friend M. Troye, in which Ripperda protests that he had not renounced the Christian faith. (See Ortiz, Compendio, vol. vii. p. 389.) But this seems to deserve the less credit, since at the same time he asserts that he never had borne, and never would bear, arms against the Spanish Monarchy. When I was at Tetuan in 1827, I made several inquiries respecting Ripperda, but could find no trace or recollection of him.

CHAP. pected, and Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, to be acknowledged as great prophets!

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1726. In less than a month after Ripperda was disgraced in Spain, France became the scene of another ministerial revolution. The Duke de Bourbon had sunk lower and lower in the public esteem, from his incapacity in business, and his absolute dependence on Madame de Prie and her creature Paris Duverney. There was also gradually growing up by his side the authority destined to overshadow and supplant him-a man more than threescore and ten years old, but of skill and judgment unimpaired, and an ambition the more powerful, because able to restrain itself and to bide its time. This was no other than the Bishop of Frejus, afterwards Cardinal Fleury, the King's preceptor. "If ever," says Voltaire, "there was

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any one happy on earth, it was Fleury. He was "considered one of the most amiable and social "of men till seventy-three, and at that usual age "of retirement, came to be respected as one of "the wisest. From 1726 to 1742 every thing "throve in his hands, and till almost a nonagen"arian, his mind continued clear, discerning, and "fit for business." He had received the bishoprick of Frejus from Louis the Fourteenth, but looked upon it as only a banishment, and even signed a jesting letter to Cardinal Quirini, as " Fleury, Bishop "of Frejus, by divine indignation." His conduct

Siècle de Louis XV. ch. iii.

in his diocese was, however, so benevolent, regular, CHAP. XIV. and exemplary, as to attract universal love and respect; and he was pointed out by public opinion, 1726. as much as by some Court cabals, to the dying monarch, as the preceptor for his infant great grandson and successor. During the regency, Fleury behaved with so much prudence and circumspection, as not to offend either Orleans or Dubois : he never thrust himself into state or Court intrigues, and only zealously discharged the duties of his trust. Gradually he gained an absolute control over the mind of his pupil, and when Bourbon came to the helm, was desired always to assist at the conferences of the monarch and the minister. Nor was his ascendency weakened by his pupil's marriage; for the young Queen, of timid and shrinking temper, and zealous only in her devotions*, took no great part in politics. Fleury would probably have found no difficulty in removing the Duke de Bourbon at an earlier period, but thought it better to let circumstances work for him, and be carried down the propitious current of events. "Time and I against any two others," was a favourite saying of the crafty Mazarin.

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Fleury, therefore, allowed the attack to come from the opposite quarter. Bourbon contrived

"This Queen makes no more of a dozen masses in a morn"ing than Hotspur did of as many Lowland Scotsmen for his "breakfast!" Mr. Robinson to Mr. Delafaye, Sept. 16. 1725. Hardwicke State Papers, vol. ii.

CHAP. to draw the young Queen to his party, and made a XIV. joint application to his Majesty, that he might trans

act business without the intervention of Fleury. On learning this cabal, Fleury, sure of his ground, but affecting great meekness, took leave of the King by letter, and retired to his country house at Issy. There he remained for one day in apparent disgrace. But it was only for one day. Louis, in the utmost concern at his loss, gave positive orders to Bourbon to invite him back to Court, which the Minister did accordingly, with many expressions of friendship and of wonder at his sudden retirement. Yet in June, 1726, he was again combining an attack upon this valued friend, when Fleury discovered and crushed him, and obtained without difficulty, his dismissal from office and banishment to Chantilly. From this period, then, begins the justly famous administration of Fleury, -a new era of peace and prosperity to France. Its monument was every where seen inscribed, not on brass or marble, but on the smiling and happy faces of the people. An accomplished traveller writes from Dijon in 1739, "France is so much "improved, it would not be known to be the "same country we passed through twenty years

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ago. Every thing I see speaks in praise of "Cardinal Fleury. The roads are all mended, "and such good care taken against robbers, that

* Horace Walpole to Lord Townshend, December 24. 1725. and Duclos, Mem. vol. ii. p. 364.

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