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Shelburne was attempting to settle the affairs of Ireland, Choiseul, convinced that as the Bedford party were in the ascendant he had nothing to fear, and not deeming the moment favourable for a rupture, continued to distribute cheap protestations of friendship with even greater profusion than before, and at the same time took the opportunity of causing all naval preparations in the ports and arsenals of France to cease, in order to make economies which he hoped might restore some order in the finances of his country. He resolved at the same time to prosecute his schemes of aggrandisement in the South of Europe, where he had less reason to anticipate resistance than elsewhere.

The expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain and Naples had been followed by their expulsion from Parma. The Pope, roused by the bold step taken by the Sovereign of the latter petty principality, a blood relation of the Kings of France, Spain, and Naples, threatened his dominions with an interdict and his person with excommunication. Benevento was thereupon immediately seized by Naples; Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin by France. Neither in the days when Boniface VIII. was bearded at Anagni by Colonna and Nogaret, nor when Bourbon led his victorious legions to the walls of Rome, had the Papal See suffered such indignities. But the humiliation of the