But all this while there was formed a powerful cabal against both the
Duke of Lerma and Don Roderigo Calderon in a quarter where it might least
have been anticipated. The cardinal-duke, naturally anxious to cement
and perpetuate his authority, had placed his son, the Duke d'Uzeda, in a
post that gave him constant access to the monarch. The prospect of power
made Uzeda eager to seize at once upon all its advantages; and it became
the object of his life to supplant his father. This would have been easy
enough but for the genius and vigilance of Calderon, whom he hated as a
rival, disdained as an upstart, and dreaded as a foe. Philip was soon
aware of the contest between the two factions, but, in the true spirit of
Spanish kingcraft he took care to play one against the other. Nor could
Calderon, powerful as he was, dare openly to seek the ruin of Uzeda;
while Uzeda, more rash, and, perhaps, more ingenuous, entered into a
thousand plots for the downfall of the prime favourite.

The frequent missions, principally into Portugal, in which of late
Calderon had been employed, had allowed Uzeda to encroach more and more
upon the royal confidence; while the very means which Don Roderigo had
adopted to perpetuate his influence, by attaching himself to the prince,
necessarily distracted his attention from the intrigues of his rival.
Perhaps, indeed, the greatness of Calderon's abilities made him too
arrogantly despise the machinations of the duke, who, though not without
some capacities as a courtier, was wholly incompetent to those duties of
a minister on which he had set his ambition and his grasp.

Such was the state of parties in the Court of Philip the Third at the
time in which we commence our narrative in the ante-chamber of Don
Roderigo Calderon.