Parma's character, 270; by Alberoni's first move Madame de Ursini's game was lost, 271; she finds herself friendless in Spain, 272; she neglects to conciliate her enemies, 272; suspicious jealousy of domination over Philip V., 273; scandal of the construction of the secret corridor in the palace, 273; her error in not renouncing the idea of the principality, 275; Lord Lexington signs a convention with her in which Queen Anne "_engaged to secure her a sovereignty_," 277; Madame de Maintenon divines her concealed project, 277; sends d'Aubigny secretly to France to negotiate with Torcy, 278; her proud feeling of returning to France as a sovereign princess, 278; her towering rage on hearing of the repudiation of the convention by Queen Anne, 279; she believes herself tricked by the English, 279; despatches d'Aubigny to Utrecht, 280; selects a more important personage to continue the negotiations--the Baron de Capres, 281; the delay in the conclusion of the general peace imputed to her, 282; Madame de Maintenon's letter to her on that subject, 282; hitherto so noble-minded, she is no longer comprehensible throughout this affair, 283; nothing left but to give way; and the Treaty is signed unconditionally, 284; her mortification at the failure of her pretensions, 284; the Court of France is turned against her, 284; she is addressed harshly and laconically by Madame de Maintenon, 284; the Duke of Berwick proves unfriendly, 284; she keeps Philip V. from all private audience, and scandal becomes again busy with her name, 285; an anecdote circulated throughout the French world of fashion--the pendant of "_Oh! pour mariee, non!_" 285; Philip grows wearied of the complaints, murmurs, and idle talk, 286; his exclamation "Find me a wife! our _tete-a-tetes_ scandalise the people," 286; her difficulties in the choice of a consort for Philip, 287-289; selects Elizabeth Farnese, 289; her uneasiness at the contradictory reports of the Princess of Parma's character, 290; she attempts too late to break off the match, 291; that unskilful and tardy opposition prepares her ruin, 291; her prompt, cruel, and decisive disgrace, 291; her meeting with Elizabeth Farnese at Xadraque, 292; the Queen outrageously thrusts Madame des Ursins out of her cabinet, orders her to be arrested and instantaneously conveyed to the French frontiers, 293; her sufferings during the mid-winter journey, 293; her touching relation to Madame de Maintenon, 293; in her seventy-second year she sustains the strength and constancy of her character, 294; recovers all her strength, sang-froid, and wonted equanimity, 295; her just estimate of human instability, 295; St. Simon's impressive narrative of the terrible night of her rude