They were well assured that the subject which he so carefully avoided was never, during two waking hours together, out of his thoughts or out of the thoughts of his master.

Nay, there was not in all Christendom a single politician, from the greatest ministers of state down to the silliest newsmongers of coffeehouses, who really felt that indifference which the prudent Ambassador of England affected.

A momentous event, which had during many years been constantly becoming more and more probable, was now certain and near.

Charles the Second of Spain, the last descendant in the male line of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, would soon die without posterity.

Who would then be the heir to his many kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, lordships, acquired in different ways, held by different titles and subject to different laws?
That was a question about which jurists differed, and which it was not likely that jurists would, even if they were unanimous, be suffered to decide.