The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-04-07 00:00:00

ROYAL INFANTS.

A writer in Galignani's Messenger relates how.
when the two daughters of the late King Alphonse—
Mercedes being five years old and Teresa three—were
taken to see their dead father, Mercedes said to her
sister, "Keep quiet, poor papa is sleeping." When
the Queen returned to Madrid, from following her
dead husband's remains, she took her children with
her. Mercedes became impatient of the gloom of the
palace, and one morning wrote to her father: "You
ought to sleep no longer, but come home. Mamma
cries all day long. Everything seems so lonely; she
cannot live without you." The child then filled the
letter with rose leaves and gave it to a courtier, whom
she begged to send it to her father, "without telling
anybody." The letter was given to the Queen, who
summoned up enough strength to tell the little girls
that their father was dead. They cried bitterly when
they heard the news, for he had been their con-
stant companion and even playmate. Alphonso
XII. used often to go to his children and enjoy
a romp with them. For a short time little
Mercedes, Princess of Asturias was conditionally Queen
of Spain, and would have become the real Queen had
Dona Christina given birth to another girl instead of
a boy. Mercedes was bright enough to perceive that
those around her treated her more respectfully than
they did Teresa. One day she came to her mother
with a series of questions. She wanted to know who
she was, why some courtiers had called her Majesty,
and why her sister would become Princess of Asturias.
"I am Princess because I am the elder," she said on
one of these occasions; "Teresa is only an Infanta."
Queen Christina did not like to have her children
flattered and spoilt; so she soon made the nurses and
governesses understand that no distinction should be
made between the Princesses. Sometimes the little
sister § quarrel over the place they ought to occupy,
and as Teresa is the stronger, she generally has her
own way. Once they fought for the seat in the
carriage next to their mother, and since then the
Queen generally drives out with both little girls sitting
beside her.
Young Alphonso XIII. can now walk by holding on
to his mother's or nurse's hand. He is taken care of by his
ama or nurse, his aya or governess, and a host of ser-
vants, and yet the other day he was lost in the
palace! The Regent was with her Ministers while
the royal children were playing alone in a room,when
the Princesses ran off, leaving his Majesty sitting
with his toys on the floor. The Queen was called, and
the palace was in a terrible state of excitement, for
the King was missing. The nurses hurried back to
the play-room, but they could not find Alphonse
XII. The Princesses, who were found in a gallery
close by, could not tell what had become of their
brother. The palacs was searched high and low.
The Queen was distracted, and kept rushing.from
room to room, but still Alfonsito did not turn up. At
last they heard a noise and kicking in a cupboard. It
was quickly:opened, and there sat his Majesty. He must
have crawled in after his sisters had gone, intending
to play at hide-and-seek, when the door closed on him
in some way.