Note 340 — Chapter XLI
Reading edition
From the rank of a simple gentleman of the royal guards, Godoy had, through the Queen's influence, been raised to the highest dignities. "There was no jealousy in the Queen's attachment to this minion; she gave him one of the royal family in marriage, but the private life of the favourite continued to be as infamous as the means whereby he had risen. It is said, that there was no way so certain to obtain promotion, as by pandering to his vices; and that wives, sisters, and daughters were offered him as the price of preferment, in a manner more shameful than had ever before been witnessed in a Christian country."—Southey, History of the Peninsular War, vol. i., p. 79.