had brought Spain to the condition in which the third Philip found it.
The new king thought to have found a remedy in discarding the clerks, and
calling in the aid of dukes. Philip II. was at least a king. The very
first act of Philip III. at his father's death was to abdicate.

It was, however, found necessary to retain some members of the former
Government. Fuentes, the best soldier and accounted the most dangerous
man in the empire, was indeed kept in retirement as governor of Milan,
while Cristoval di Mora, who had enjoyed much of the late king's
confidence, was removed to Portugal as viceroy. But Don John of
Idiaquez, who had really been the most efficient of the old
administration, still remained in the council. Without the subordinate
aid of his experience in the routine of business, it would have been
difficult for the favourite to manage the great machine with his single
hand. But there was no disposition on the part of the ancient minister
to oppose the new order of things. A cautious, caustic, dry old
functionary, talking more with his shoulders than with his tongue,
determined never to commit himself, or to risk shipwreck by venturing
again into deeper waters than those of the harbour in which he now hoped
for repose, Idiaquez knew that his day of action was past. Content to be
confidential clerk to the despot duke, as he had been faithful secretary
to the despot king, he was the despair of courtiers and envoys who came
to pump, after having endeavoured to fill an inexhaustible cistern. Thus
he proved, on the whole, a useful and comfortable man, not to the
country, but to its autocrat.

Of the Count of Chinchon, who at one time was supposed to have court
influence because a dabbler in architecture, much consulted during the
building of the Escorial by Philip II. until the auditing of his accounts
brought him into temporary disgrace, and the Marquises of Velada,