IN the year 1677, there arrived at Manila, on the galleon San Telmo-which made a rather fortunate voyage across the vast Pacific for those days-a celebrated personage consigned as a prisoner of state to the fortress of San Felipe in Cavite. He was Don Fernando de Valenzuela, knight of Santiago, grandee of Spain, Marquis de Villasierra, Count of Pinares, etc., etc., among other things prime minister of Spain. This gentleman had been so favored by fortune that he trusted she would never forsake him, but he had overplayed his hand. Of noble lineage and bearing, he was skilled in his youth in the military service, but abandoned this career for that of the courtier and ambassador. Speaking Latin, French, and Italian, and naturally endowed with tact and diplomacy, he had been introduced to the Queen Mother by Cardinal Nitard, and was soon a favorite at court...
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