The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-05-17 00:00:00

FLIGHT OF MARSHAL SERRANO.

" Amusement, pity, and a sense of satisfied Radice
will be excited by the description of the Flieht if
Marshal Serrano given to day in our columns from a
correspondent at Madrid" (remarks The Times in a
leader commenting upon the (seta of the case). "The
Duke de la T. ire, a Grandee of the first class? late
Regent of Spain, and till the other day a Power in the
State that every Government desired to conciliate.
haa been forced by the violence of the people to abscond
from Madrid, to seek snelter at the British Legatiou,
and at last to make his way to the sea coast in a
disguise which had in it enough of the ridiculous to
humiliate • man so highly placed and so long storms.
temed to deference and admiration." The following is
the account as given by The Times' correspondent:
From the Government downwards the desire was
very general to aid and abet their escape. Friendly
doors were open to receive and secrete them when
prudence pointed to their own homes as dangerous
places. riendly voices cheered their solitude and
calmed their fears; friendly hands prepared and ad.
jaded toeir disguise; friendly tact arranged their de-
['Adele ; and, in some came, for better security, as in
the case of the Duke de la Torre, accompanied them
on their journey from Madrid. After being hunted
from house to house by the infuriated and law-
less crowd, his own dwelling, those of his re.
Wives; and more immediate friends being sub-
jected to a rigorous search over and over *gain
repeated, the Duke sought shelter under the
flag which has never yet refused to protect
the weak against the strong. He besought a hiding.
place at the hands of toe English Minister, Mr.
Layael. He came not as a fugitive from justice. No
warrant was out agabet him. He was no forger or
murderer. No tribuual had passed sentence upon him.
Yet his life was in grave peril—peril, not from ordinary
process of law, I it from extraordinary, and, for the
moment, irrepreesible, popular fury. He knocked at
England's door. Could England refuse to open and
admit him? Red Tape might say "Yes," but
humanity and English merit, as represented in Mr.
Larne!, said "No," and so the doors of the British
Legation in the Calls Torija were opened to receive
the ex-Regent and once popular idol, as were the doom
of the American and other Legation', to others
of the fugitives. Fearful of the possibility of •
fresh outbreak or renewal of the violence of the
23rd and 24th of April, and, moreover, impelled by
the supposed existence of • plot to assaminate him,
the friends of the Duke urged his departure from the
country. Even the Government joined in the urgency.
But how to get him away was the difficulty. His
handsome features and manly form were known to
every man, woman, and child in the city. Madrid is
not a seaport, end the only way out of it is by raiL The
railway stations (there are but two) were at one time
taken po'session of by armed Volunteers, and every
carriage searched for obnoxious persons. On the 24th
even the locked waggons which convey merchandise
under Customs seal from one part of the country to
another, and which merely pass through Madrid
in transit, were broken open and searched.
It was felt necessary that all the prominent ex-
Monarchists who were seeking safety in flight should
go disguised. Serrano's disguise was so perfect that
even those who had helped to get it up failed lore
cognise him after he had shaved off his handsome
moustache, put 01 a pair of Wee whiskers (Nature
never gave him any), and attired himself in an old
morning suit of Mr. Layard's, including a felt
hat, or wide-awake. In the preparation of his die-
guise he protested against the whisker., and only
yielded at the last moment. He, however, threw
them off the moment he started from the station.
I was there when he departed, and I must con-
fess I did not know him though he brushed
past me to enter the carriage prepared for
hinc. His appearance was that of an elderly
English country gentleman, returning from a day's
shooting. In the same train, but at the other end of
it, Nei-at Mutts, also in disguise, accompanied by a
public functionary who shall be nameless. Serrano
was accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Layard, who did
not leave him till they had seen him safe on board a
steamer at Santander boned for San Jean de Luz. As
a measure of extra precaution in case of attack, the
military authorities lent a company of soldiers, who
filled two or three carriages in the centre of the
train. At half-past six p.m. on the night of Wed-
nesday lest the party started. A few mike out of
Madrid the train came to a sudden stop, and
for a moment great alarm related until the cause
was learnt. It was • goods tram, which had run
off the line. After an interval of nearly two hours
the journey was resumed. The stations of Escurial,
Avila, Medina del Campo, and Valladolid were passed,
and Vents de Bseios reached. Here the Duke de la
Torre and his English protectors changed lines for
Santander. At one station some officious Civil Guards
began searching the train, with what object did not
appear, but it was possibly under the orders of some
overzealous Civil Governor, who thought to render
the State • service by arreetiug any Madrid fugitives
who might be in it, quite forgetful of the fart that this,
so far from being authorized by the Government,
would bane embarrassed the Government very much.
When these Civil Guards presented themselves at the
door of the-ninon carriage which therailway company
had placed at the service of Mr. Layard, the latter stood
in front of one door-way, and Mrs. leveed of the other,
at the same time declaring who they were. This acted like
a talisman, and the Civil Guards, who, I meat say, are
ever noted in Spain for the good breeding they display
in executing even the most disagreeable tasks intrusted
to them, retired without searching the carriage. No
further molestation occnrred, and the party arrived at
Santander, "sin noreda.l," at ealf.past three on Thurs.
day afternoon. It bad been nimoureel among the
populace that the English Minister and his wife were
expected to arrive, aid hundreds of people resorted to
the station to have a peep at them. The sight of the
crowd at first was embarrassing, but with great pre-
sence of mind Mrs. Layard took the arm of the Duke,
and in the full belief that the latter was the Mintstro
'stiles, the crowd respectfully opened a way for them
to the carnage of M. Saint Martin, the resident agent
of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, who at the
moment, in the absence of Mr. March, was acting as de-
puty British Vice Consul. The party—i.e., Mrs.
Laysid, the Duke de la Torre, Mr. Layard, and M.
Saint Martin—entered the carriage and drove along
the quay to the house of the latter, situated at the ex-
treme end. They attracted no attentiou from the
public, who little dreamt that one of the occupants
wen the hero if Alcolea and ex-Regent, Marshal
Serrano, bent on a clandestine escape from the
country he had once governed. M. Saint Martin
had chartered a small tug-boat, the Hercules,
and she lay at the wharf opposite his house.
Serrano changed his attire, saying that though
he had escaped from Madrid in disguise, he would
not leave Spain or ecter France in disguise. After •
hasty dinner the party crossed over the wharf,
and the fugitive, having bid adieu to the kind-
hearted estrangeros (M. Saint Martin is a Frenchman)
who bail aided his escape, 'stepped on board. Justrae
the little et-earner began to move off, five or six cares
bineers, the armed 'soldiers of the Spanish Custom-
house, ran up to the wharf and ordered her to stop.
Mr. Layard made known to them that he was the
English Minister and that she was going for him on a
special mission to France with which they had so right
to interfere. They insisted, on the ground that she
might be conveying contraband to some part of the
coast. M. Saint Martin argued with them that such
• thing was impossible, and eventually with much
civility they withdrew, and the tiny craft set on full
speed down the harbour. Mr. and Mrs. Layard
watched her till she had rounded the headlands and
was out of sight.
Marshal Serrano was dreadfully sea sick all the
voyage, but suffered Ito other contretemps. He reached
St. Jean de Luz at ten o'clock the next morning,
where, after a Misty breakfast, he took the train for
Biarritz. By some misunderstanding the poor Duchess
bad driven in to Bayonne, expecting he would land
there. After waiting some time, her heart fall of sad
misgivings, she returned to Biarritz to find the object
of her anxiety safe in the little home they have taken
for themselves on the hospitable sod of k ranee. There
they will not lack company. Biarritz and Bayonne
are full of Spanish emigrants, esthete, Alfonainos, and
Radical'', who are there " waiting to gee what will turn
up."