Note 126 — Chapter XIV · THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS

[Spanish kings had been ruled by favourites before; but Lerma and Olivares, even Valenzuela and Godoy, were men of education and breeding, whilst the secret advisers of Ferdinand were, many of them, coarse, ignorant buffoons. Meeting at night with noisy mirth they settled over the heads of the ministers questions of national policy, and even made and unmade ministers in mere caprice. Ministers were appointed or dismissed arbitrarily by Ferdinand for the most puerile reasons, and were sent into prison or exile at the idle fancy of the king. The members of the camarilla were treated in the same way, being one day in high favour and the next in jail. There were over thirty ministers in the six years from 1814 to 1820, an average of two months’ duration for each. The most prominent member of the camarilla was a low buffoon called “Chamorro,” who had been a water-carrier, another, Ugarte, was a second-hand broker; Tattischeff, the Russian minister, was also a member.c]