"Tell me," he commanded.
Sunderland hesitated; it was not easy to tell a great statesman that he had been duped, that his laborious schemes had ended in humiliating failure. It was not easy to tell a dying man that his life-work was all to do again.
"Well?" urged the King imperiously.
"Sire, when the King of Spain died and left his crown to Philippe D'Anjou, Your Majesty was not disturbed?"
"No—because of the Partition Treaties."
Sunderland looked away, and said in a low voice—
"King Louis hath flung over the Partition Treaties, accepted the will, and published a memorial justifying his action."
On hearing that he had been so cheated, deceived, betrayed, that, for the first time in his life, he had made a huge political mistake, a blunder, in trusting France, and that France had been all this time laughing at him, that he had been King Louis' dupe, that he was despised and challenged by the court he had once humbled, William gave a little gasp like a sob, and sat very still.
"Louis," continued Sunderland, "defies you, the Republic, and the Emperor, and thinks of nothing but seating his grandson on the throne of Spain."
William sprang up with the energy of a strong man.