drid, where many foreigners had been advanced to high honours and confidential trusts, who had no other recommendation, than a good voice, a dextrous finger, a pleasing countenance, or a handsome leg,

Finding the protestant religion a considerable impediment to his advancement, he publicly abjured the faith in which he had been educated, and was eagerly admitted into the Catholic church.

This change of opinion or of profession, so favorable to his political career, does not appear, to have improved his morals; for in a pecuniary transaction Riperda was accused of imposing on Mr. Doddington; this ill-timed incident lost him Alberoni's favor, and he was soon after dismissed from the lucrative post of superintendant of a royal manufactory to which he had been appointed.

The Dutchman always repelled this degrading accusation with spirit, insisting that the money received, ten thousand pistoles, was no more than a moderate reward for the important diplomatic benefits he had conferred by advice and communication on the infant statesman, that being the appellation he bestowed on Mr. Doddington, alluding I apprehend, rather to

his want of experience than years; he asserted that part of the cash had been actually expended, in obtaining secret intelligence for the Englishman: Who shall decide when statesmen disagree? Sometimes in these collusions, a spark of truth, useful to honest men is struck out.

Riperda observed that on this occasion, he had acted towards the unfledg'd envoy, as a prudent physician would treat an illiberal and parsimonious patient, who insidiously picked out his opinions and advice during accidental conversations, without offering a fee, he had paid himself.

It is not easy now to decide on the positive criminality, or relative equity of this transaction; it must, however, be confessed, that internal evidence, deduced from the subsequent conduct of Riperda, and the lefthanded, characteristic cunning of his countrymen, who generally over-reach themselves, tell rather against him,

But this obliquity of conduct, does not appear to have retarded his political progress; he joined the enemies of Alberoni; and, in the place from which he had been dismissed, having been kindly noticed by the royal family he still retained their favor; was frequently consulted by the principal

principal secretary Grimaldo, and, what in Spain is an object of the first importance, Riperda became a favorite with the king's confessor,

In this advantageous position, he intrigued and caballed against the cardinal; contributed powerfully towards his dismission; and dazzled by the bright prospect which opened before him, confiding in superior abilities, or his personal influence with the king, he was ambitious of succeeding the ex-minister.

But when his appointment was proposed in council, strong representations were made against placing at the head of his majesty's administration an alien and a new convert from heresy, whose integrity was already suspected.

A further discussion was delayed by Philip's abdicating the Spanish throne; but when the royal seceder resumed his crown, Riperda was still his confidential favorite, and ingratiated himself more particularly with the queen, by promoting a marriage between Don Carlos, and an arch-duchess of the House of Austria.

On this occasion he was sent ambassador to the emperor of Germany, and during his mission to Vienna, acquired considerable popularity, as well by the unqualified warmth of his declara,

VOL. IV.

tions in favor of German connections; by the hospitality of his table, the splendour of his retinue, and the punctuality of his payments.

A new system of politics, different views, and, probably, the pecuniary embarras with Mr. Doddington, gradually estranged him from his former attachment to England, and he poured forth a foul stream of virulent invective against this country for hesitating to fulfil her engagements, one of which he positively insisted was an immediate and unqualified cession of the important fortress of Gibraltar.

In reply, it was acknowledged that the subject had been pressed by the Spanish minister, and a promise made to take it into consideration; but when the outrageous statesman was informed that in Great Britain the will of a sovereign, or the wishes of his minister, are impotent and ineffectual without parliamentary concurrence, he burst into passionate, vehement and unbecoming expressions; threatened that he would land twenty thousand men in Scotland, send home the elector of Hanover, and place the lawful sovereign, a legitimate descendant of king James the second on the English throne. Having concluded with the emperor

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emperor a treaty, by which the king and queen of Spain were highly gratified, he hastened to Madrid, where he was received with rapturous acknowledgments; but he treated his friend Grimaldo with ungrateful coldness, and the day after his arrival, was appointed to succeed him as principal secretary of staté; he transacted business at the council-board and with foreign ambassadors, thus enjoy ing 'the uncontrouled authority of Alberoni, without the name of prime minister.

But it was soon found with all his predominating address and eminent talents, that he was unfit for the high office he filled; that he was vain, turbulent, and insolent; without regularity, prudence, moderation, or consistency of conduct; in a word, that he was a character I have often had occasion to delineate and to lament in this collection; possessing great powers and splendid attainments, but wanting prudence and common sense.

The king by more frequent intercourse soon saw the deficiency of Riperda in these indispensible requisites, and in a short time he ceased to be a favorite.

It is not improbable that the minister became giddy from the height to which he was ele

vated; being hated by the officers of state who were obliged to attend him, and detested by the people, his situation was awkward and perilous; yet at a crowded levee he had the folly or the assurance to exclaim, "I know that the whole kingdom is irritated against me, but their malice I defy; safe under the protection of God, the blessed Virgin, and the goodness of my intentions."

The general aversion every day increasing, and Riperda's imprudence keeping pace with his unpopularity, it was found

necessary to remove him. His dismission, according to the usual court etiquette, being called a resignation, and his temper smoothed by a liberal pension.

But this pacific treatment had no effect in quieting the exaspe rated Dutchman; his angry passions raged with unabated fury, and he vowed eternal vengeance against a country so blind to his merits.

Being possessed of secrets, which the English ministry were anxious to become acquainted with, he opened a clandestine intercourse with the English ambassador, Stanhope; his former friend Doddington having been recalled,

The curses of the people artfully

fully fomented by his enemies, were by this time not only deep but loud; he was fearful of an attack on his person, and he fled to that gentleman's house.

His intrigues with England, and other hostile designs being now discovered, he was dragged from his retreat, taken into custody, and imprisoned in the caftle of Segovia.

Taking advantage of the infirmity or the neglect of his keepers, and assisted by a female domestic, who first pitying had then loved him, he bribed a nocturnal sentinel and by means of a rope ladder effected his escape.

With these companions, and after a long, anxious, and fatiguing journey, he reached Oporto, and embarked without delay for England, where he was received with respect and atten-ˆ tion by the king's ministers.

But when Sir Robert Walpole had gained from the fugitive every necessary information, he was gradually neglected, and, as is the case with all betrayers of their trust, at last despised, even by those who had derived advantage from his treachery.

A man like Riperda who had directed national councils, and been listened to by kings, who abounded in pride, and swelled with indignation, could not but

feel this degraded situation most acutely; after two years passed in the English metropolis, in unavailing impatience, passion and regret, but with undiminished hatred against every thing Spanish, he withdrew to Holland.

In that republic he found an agent from Barbary, who, being acquainted with his story, conceived that his thirst for vengeance might be made productive of important advantages to the sovereign by whom he was employed.

This person was an envoy from that barbarian whom we condescend to call the emperor of Morocco; he assured Riperda, that all his efforts in Europe would be ineffectual, in consequence of the important changes which had recently taken place in continental politics; but that on the borders of his master's territories in Africa, he might annoy his enemies, and gratify

his revenge his revenge most effectually; that he would there possess the advantage of a geographical position, in which to defeat the Spaniards would be to exterminate them, and that he would receive ample rewards from a grateful ally stimulated by the hereditary impulse of eternal hatred and national antipathy. Riperda heard and was conDd 2 vinced

vinced; revenge the most infernal but most seducing of all our crimes, quickening all his measures and smoothing every difficulty, with the two companions of his flight he sailed for Africa, and after a prosperous voyage announced his arrival and the object of his views to the emperor Muly Abdallah, who eagerly accepted his services.

The Dutchman, who like his countrymen, for a productive cargo would have trod on the cross at Japan, embraced the Mahometan faith, adopted the dress, conformed to the manners and gained the esteem of that African chief.

In less than two months, he was advanced to the post of prime minister, and shortly after appointed commander in chief of his forces, with unusual dis

cretionary powers.

The new general animated by the spur of the occasion, lost no time in improving the army placed under his guidance, by every means in his power.

He represented to Abdallah, the inefficiency of the desultory and irregular modes of attack generally practised by the Moors, by which although at their first onset, they sometimes break down all before them, are if they fail, generally productive of

irrecoverable confusion, slaughter, and defeat.

With the emperor's permission, Riperda, for so I continue to call him, although the renegado had assumed another name ; with the emperor's permission he rigidly enforced the severe maxims of European tactics, silent and prompt obedience, irresistible energy, patient and cool dexterity; which at the mouth of a cannon, the mounting a breach, or the springing of a mine, convert an otherwise unmanageable mob, into a compact magic machine various in form, but of tremendous power; a widely spread line, a hollow square, a wedge, a column or a platoon.

Thus improved and thus directed, the Barbarians attacked the Spaniards, and irrecoverably defeated them; their leader was created a bashaw, and died at Tetuan, in extreme old age, some time in the year 1737.